Q&A with Taboola: Reflections on Digiday Awards Europe

What do you think can strengthen the relationship between publishers and advertisers? Did any particular award winner stand out to you the most?

Publishers and advertisers are typically fighting the same battle — the battle for both time and attention of customers. At Taboola, we’ve seen that the most effective campaigns are often native, typically non-disruptive, and engaging experiences. The Chateau de Stylist event with Shortlist Media and Chambord stood out as one that went above and beyond. Bringing in readers to interact with the publication and Chambord was a unique way to drive awareness for a brand, gain feedback from users on experiences that will resonate, and inspire the publisher to continue to produce content that truly holds value for the reader.

The Best Native Advertising Campaign category recognizes the best campaign run by a publisher on behalf of a brand that both furthered the advertiser’s objectives and proved valuable and engaging to visitors. What benchmarks did this year’s winner achieve to make it so successful?

Native advertising is an incredibly effective way to engage with customers on numerous platforms, and it’s no surprise that it’s growing. Brands want to bring awareness to their products and services in inventive ways beyond traditional tactics. I think the benchmarks of a good campaign answer the question, ‘does a brand know its audience?’ ‘Does it add value to their daily lives?’ ‘Does it inspire action?’

This year’s winner, Radox, hit the nail on the head. Their audience is broad which makes specific targeting more of a challenge. By tapping a game like Angry Birds — which also reaches a broad audience — they could effectively engage with customers through gamification. The clever collaboration was unexpected, as well as really quite fun and addictive.

This year, we saw an uptick in influencer marketing. Why is this an effective strategy for brands?

Influencer marketing is incredibly effective in helping marketers tell a story in a manner that is authentic, and can also be quite affordable. It builds consumer trust while offering brands an unprecedented way to target audiences accurately. There were several campaigns among our winners this year that soared by using influencers. For example, both Benefit Cosmetics and Iceland tapped ChannelMum for campaigns and saw truly great results.