One Way We're Approaching Native Advertising
In case you haven't noticed, most ads on the Internet suck. Like really suck. We here at Digg don't like to do things that suck. Shocking, I know, but let me explain.
Recently Showtime came to us to help get the word out about their new show HAPPYish, starring Steve Coogan, Kathryn Hahn, Bradley Whitford and Ellen Barkin. Bubbles from The Wire is also in it. While many sites would have proposed running banner ads and full-page takeovers to promote the show, we felt that we had a better and more impactful idea that would serve both the network and our readers.
Partnering directly with the good people at Showtime, we came up with a concept that would attempt to translate and extend recurring themes from HAPPYish — including the importance of family, the question of work in modern society, and the role of technology in our daily lives — while creating interesting and informative content for our readers and the general Internet audience alike. We called it Anti Social Media Week (yes that sounds like Social Media Week), addressing people's increasing desire for time to unplug.
Under this umbrella, we built a microsite centering around articles, tapestries, vines and illustrations that delved into the concept of happiness — what makes us happy, how can we be happy, etc., — and that featured relevant parts of the TV show.
We also created a fun little campaign in which we encouraged people to #LetTheBatteryDie (sorry, a post about advertising is now legally required to have at least one hashtag in it), meaning they not use or touch their mobile devices for an entire weekend, instead focusing on family, friends and other f-words.
By creating compelling original content with Showtime, we were able to deliver on the level of quality Digg readers have come to expect from us while also promoting HAPPYish in a smart and unique way. Each piece of content could have stood on its own as a Digg original, but combined with several others, it gave the campaign a cohesion that garnered attention and readers from across the web.
AntiSocialMediaWeek.com (you can still go) featured trailers and, a week before the show's premiere, a special sneak preview of the first episode of HAPPYish. Placing good reads next to an episode of a good show was a no-brainer, and the pilot seemed like a natural chaser to each piece of content we created.
These are the types of sponsored content deals that we tend to love around here. By working with a forward-thinking brand, we were able to hire good writers/illustrators to create great work that people actually wanted to engage with. And of course it's these smart consumers who are Showtime's target demo fro HAPPYish, making it a win-win-win.
So, please keep a lookout for more projects like this. We promise they won't suck.
