These days, nearly everyone knows how to click past or block banner ads and pop-ups. Meantime, consumers are spending more time online, especially on social-media sites. As a result, these two trends are dramatically changing the way our clients connect with their target audiences.

In one word: content.

From blog posts, white papers, webinars, podcasts, slide shows, and videos, the key is that it engage customers and spur them to share it with others. Creating content for your own website, though, is only part of the content play. With millions of users each, social media’s Big 8 (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn, Google+, and YouTube)  present exponential opportunities to acquire and engage audiences. But you can’t do it via banners, coupons, and other traditional approaches. Instead, at birdsong gregory, our Charlotte ad agency is helping our clients engage in something the jargon class has labeled “native advertising.”

Native advertising is simply advertising that follows the format, style, and voice of whatever platform it appears in. The goal is for someone browsing a site to see the advertising as something integral to, rather than an intrusion on, his or her overall experience of the site. And it seems to be working.

On Facebook, for example, the average click-through rate for “sponsored story” ads in the second quarter of 2012 was 53 percent greater than that of display ads, according to TBG Digital. And online publishers such as The Atlantic and Gawker Media are offering more opportunities for sponsored posts and videos tailored to the interests of their readers. Making the shift to content will not be easy. Unlike old mthods of marketing, in which brands could keep campaigns going for months at a time, social media requires constant refreshing.

To learn more about our Charlotte ad agency’s content marketing strategy and in-house content creation assets, please give us a call.