As a tribute to the upcoming Belmont Stakes – and the honest-to-God chance we could see the first Triple Crown thoroughbred since Affirmed in 1978 (shine on, California Chrome!) 
- the hardtracking staff is dividing this madcap review into horse racing categories.
Win: NYT Exec Says Native Key to Great Advertising
Apparently we have it backwards here at the Global Worldwide Headquarters of Sneak Adtack. All this time we thought native advertising was corrosive, but New York Times EVP advertising Meredith Kopit Levien says it’s the foundation of an advertising renaissance.
According to MediaPost, Levien dispensed that wisdom at OMMA Native during Internet Week.
Native advertising, she said, exploits the form, factor, discovery mechanism and production values of the surrounding content, taking the shape of the storytelling around it and aspiring to similar engagement.
That aesthetic will be at the center of the rediscovery of great ads for the digital age — something that she said hasn’t exactly happened . . . “I want to argue that in transition to digital advertising much has been gained, but something else, a key element has been lost. Native has power to restore that.”
There’s a lot of SneakSpeak like “your brand is really the subplot” in the MediaPost piece. But it sure sounds like the Grey Lady will be opening the kimono a lot wider in the days to come. (Defenestrated NYT executive editor Jill Abramson, take note.)
Place: The Top 10 Product Placements of the Past 10 Years
Ten years ago author Scott Donaton dubbed the convergence of advertising and entertainment Madison & Vine. Ten years later product placement is a $5.3 billion a year business, with paid plugs appearing in movies, TV shows, video games, music videos and books. Despite that, the category has failed to make significantt progress over the past decade.
From Advertising Age . . .
Read the rest at Sneak Adtack.
