Publishers Talk About Using FB Instant Articles; Vice's Cable Channel Will Have Native Ads

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Wanted: Instant Sponsor Posts

Lucia Moses of Digiday rounds up guinea pig publishers’ experiences with Facebook Instant Articles before the platform’s upcoming public rollout. The publishers, who have experimented with Instant Articles to varying degrees, have seen better audience engagement due to faster load times and richer article formats. But many struggle with a lack of support for branded content and native ads. “With 60-plus percent of our digital revenue tied to sponsor content, it is important that we have similar capabilities to publish and promote natively in the format,” said Kimberly Lau, VP and digital GM of The Atlantic. More.

Native On TV

Speaking of sponsor content, Vice’s new Viceland cable channel will incorporate a native ad sensibility drawn from its digital business, Jason Lynch writes for Adweek. “Vice has always been more successful when it’s done native advertising and interesting custom partnerships with brands, and then you extend that idea to this TV network also,” said the channel’s GM, Guy Slattery. Sponsor packages will span digital and television.

Not My Problem

Ad blocking? Shrug. That’s Mondelez’s overall feeling, according MediaWeek. The issue poses a dilemma for the industry at large, but it won’t affect the CPG giant. “It might not be a very popular view, but we’d probably welcome a bit of ad-blocking if the content we are creating then rises up to the surface and all that horrible stuff stays lower, so we get bigger share of voice or face,” said Mondelez analytics manager Matt Stockbridge. More.

API, Improving

Twitter made some upgrades to its ads API and added a few new partners, including stalwart Facebook marketing partner Nanigans. It says the new API has better analytics, plus support for test ads in a sandbox environment. Blog post. Twitter says hundreds of partners now build into its API.

But Wait, There’s More!