Campaign toolkit

Advertorial

Suitable for:

Medium – large organisations

What is it?

An advertorial is an advertisement written in the form of an objective article, and presented in a printed publication, usually designed to look like a legitimate and independent news story. A major difference between regular editorial and advertorial is that clients usually have content approval of advertorials, a luxury usually not provided with regular editorial.

Benefits

  • People are generally likely to believe something more if they read it in an article. By not being too upfront (i.e. by ‘advertising’), people will assume this is an opinion coming from a publication they respect.
  • In order to keep this appearance of impartiality you should avoid at all costs submitting an article that clearly reads like an advert.

Limitations

  • An advertorial is a form of advert which means you have to pay for it.
  • Readers could be sceptical of the content if they notice that it is an advertorial.
  • The cost depends on the publication you book.

Formats

Advertorials can be:

  • Printed and presented as an entire newspaper section
  • Inserted the same way within a newspaper as store fliers and other non-editorial content.

Putting the advertorial together

  • Target publications that are specialised and that are key to your target audience.
  • Invest in your writer. Make sure you have an excellent writer in-house who is used to writing for publications, or subcontract your article to a freelance journalist.

Publishing the advertorial

  • When selecting the issue you would like to have your article inserted in, take into account the time of year and the likelihood that your target audience will read the article.
  • It is most effective when people don’t realise it is a paid advertisement. To avoid unpleasant surprises, check with the publication how they will signal this is not an article they have written. Having “advertisement” written in big letters on your article is not going to be helpful for you, so negotiate this in advance.