AWXI New York Panel with Taboola, Mail Online and Zenith Media

At Advertising Week XI in New York, PowerLinks hosted a panel debate – “Native Advertising: A Win-Win for Publishers and Advertisers?”.

Mike Donahue, EVP of Strategic Partnerships from 4A’s led the discussion and was joined by Adam Singolda, Founder and CEO of Taboola, John Nitti, Chief Investment Officer of Zenith Media, Rich Sutton, Chief Revenue Officer of Mail Online and PowerLinks CEO Kevin Flood.

The panelists, when asked for their personal definition of Native, offered up a wealth of insights and opinions, but tended to agree on one fundamental point, summed up by PowerLinks CEO Kevin – “Native to me means that the ad or content delivered to the user feels at home in the environment. It matches the look and feel of the page.”

When discussing the intrinsic value of native and its future potential, Rich Sutton of Mail Online said, “If you look at how successful Native is on mobile, it almost had to come to be. Native works unbelievably well on Mobile.”

The panelists also discussed how native can learn from the mistakes made by ad-tech in the past, and how native improves online advertising by allowing advertisers to tell stories and communicate with their audiences in a positive and engaging way.