Brief:

• TripleLift, a native advertising platform, introduced a service called ContentDial for scalable, branded programmatic content. The service lets brand advertisers work with publishing partners on websites and social platforms to develop data-based content strategies in real time, per a statement. Native ads have the look and feel of surrounding content on a website.

• Jason Kleinman, general manager of branded content at TripleLift, said the new service lets marketers run branded content campaigns programmatically, while giving publishers a new revenue stream.

• Fintech company Stash ran a test of ContentDial to target milliennial audiences on The Daily Dot and Thought Catalog webzines. The campaign drove more than 5% readers to register for a new Stash account and make a deposit, boosted Stash’s brand awareness by 8% and led consumers to post branded content 10x more often to their social media feeds.

Insight:

TripleLift’s ContentDial service seeks to make branded content campaigns more accessible to a wider group of marketers that don’t have big budgets. Stash, which is part of a new generation of fintech companies that seek to simplify investing for millennials who are comfortable with mobile-based financial services, had previously avoided publisher direct content marketing. Dale Sterling, CMO of Stash, cited high minimum spends and production headaches that conclude with a lack of visibility into reach, scale and overall success measurement as reasons why the marketer had avoided such campaigns.

Branded content is an important focus for some marketers because it can breakthrough and grab the attention of consumers who quickly bypass traditional ads, which is why this segment is expected to grow over the next few years. To date, much of content marketing has involved publishers and marketers working together directly on individual projects. However, more third-party solutions that could potentially offer greater scale and efficiency for marketers are becoming evident. TripleLift's ContentDial is one such solution. Accenture's recent acquisition of publisher Meredith's MXM content marketing agency is another. 

The dominance of social platforms like Facebook and Twitter, early champions of native content, has helped drive growth for content marketing. However, Facebook earlier this year made it harder for publishers and content creators to make money from posting content they didn't create. This development is one reason Facebook-driven content platforms like Cooking Panda have recently gone under. Content marketing is likely to continue to evolve given the strong interest in the space from some big players in marketing.