Dive Brief: 

• According to mission-driven viral publishers Upworthy, its four-month-old native ad program regularly outperforms its editorial posts. 
• Its sponsored posts are purchased by brands like Unilever, Skype, and CoverGirl, and they typically get three times the shares and 3 1/2 times the amount of pageviews as editorial posts. 
• Upworthy is hoping it can be the go-to place for brands looking for native advertising on serious subjects — sort of an alternative to another go-to native ad spot, BuzzFeed. 

Dive Insight: 

Upworthy's main mission,  to share important content that makes viewers feels something, is helping propel its native ads forward just like its editorial. For Upworthy, it's really more of a content curator than a publisher, so the native ads created for the site might stick out to viewers more than other posts. Regardless, advertisers could take note that creating native content that makes people care works.