CHICAGO — “Native” advertising gathered a head of steam in 2014 but, with as many definitions as there are people trying the technology, what do some leading ad tech execs think makes the concept tick?

“There are a lot of different definitions of ‘native’ advertising,” according to outstream ads technology vendor Teads’ US GM Jim Daily. “The type of outstream units that you might see in the marketplace can be considered ‘native’ in their application because of the contextual relevancy.”

In a Beet.TV panel, Daily gave an example of a financial services provider which had deployed a two-minute video about home refinancing: “Making sure we’re putting a video in the correct contextual environment adds value to the consumer.”

Havas programmatic director Stephanie Mustari agrees, saying Havas does not feel the need to re-invent the kinds of ads it is making for the new outstream formats.
“The way that we are approaching outstream is not so much, ‘Do we need to evolve our creative?’,” she says. “As long as you’re being addressable and in the right context, it’s an audience-driven message.”
They were interviewed by Elaine Boxer, director of industry initiatives at the IAB, at the Beet.TV video summit about video advertising outside of the pre-roll.  The event was presented by Teads.