Denuo - denuology.com

The hype around native ads only gets louder. BuzzFeed secured another round of funding on the back of their native focus while everyone from to to Tumblr to Forbes is moving it to the center of their monetization strategy. There are those proclaiming it’s the future of digital advertising and others dismissing it as the latest fad that will disappear as quickly as it got here. So who’s right?

Three things about 2012:

First, this year’s list has way more songs that got heavy airplay than any other list I’ve ever done. By airplay, I don’t just mean radio. I mean YouTube, Pandora, TV shows, commercials, you name it. It felt like the same 10 songs were absolutely everywhere this year. The very good news is that 5 or 6 of those songs were actually good. Can’t remember the last time that was the case (early 90’s?). The bad news is those songs got pummeled into the ground as if nothing else was being released. I tried to be as objective as possible, not penalizing a song for being overplayed while also not rewarding it for merely being stuck in my head from being on repeat.

I think we all gave the same disbelieving headshake the moment we learned that Kim Kardashian pulls in $10K for a promotional tweet (unless you didn’t yet know, in which case you’re doing it now). Increasingly, it appears similar offers may be on their way to you and me (albeit at a drastically reduced rate). More and more companies are willing to give out discounts, merchandise or even cold, hard cash in exchange for you utilizing your social networking tools on their behalf.

If your Facebook News Feed is anything like mine, those baby announcements and vacation photo albums have been increasingly crowded out by political-themed posts. This happened to some degree four years ago but the effect feels exponentially increased this election cycle.  To some, it makes sense to share your political views in the same venue where you share just about everything else. But for others the effect is jarring. One of my friends got almost 30 likes for changing their status to read “This is not a political post”. Lifehacker even explained how to “”.

But the question I’ve been trying to solve is: do these poltical-themed posts actually work?

There are a few things you can count on every time Wes Anderson releases a new film: distinctive typography, stunning art direction and quirkiness galore. Perhaps most importantly, it’s always clear watching his movies that an entire world has been developed that extends beyond what we seen on screen. It’s a storytelling convention that gives the films incredible depth. More of us in marketing need to steal a page from Anderson’s book, even if we don’t have Bill Murray on speed dial.