Do Native Ads Work?

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/do-native-ads-work-144990

First, there seems to be a lot of confusion around the buzz term “native advertising”. Is it simply an advertorial (i.e. ads disguised as content)? Or is it just another way to communicate with a captive audience?  Personally, I get very distracted when I’m watching a TV show, for example, and a blatant ad within the show becomes apparent. For example, I recall watching an episode of “Heroes” years ago where Dad gave Claire Bear to keys to a new Nissan Rogue and the Bear responded with something like “Wow, Dad, you’ve giving me the keys to the Rogue”. And that eye-rolling moment transported me from a world of super-humans to a world of sponsor dollars.

A Harris Interactive poll surveyed peeps about 3 native ad formats—Twitter’s Promoted Tweets, Sponsored Stories on Facebook and video ads that appear to be content—and the large overall impression was negative feelings toward the brand. In fact around 50% found Promoted Tweets and Sponsored Stories misleading – which may give Twitter and the ‘Book cause for pause as they desperately try to monetize their user bases.