Preliminary communication
https://doi.org/10.22572/mi.30.1.6
Characteristics of Native Advertising on the Most Read Croatian Internet Portals
Davor Trbušić
orcid.org/0000-0001-9896-8412
; Fakultet hrvatskih studija Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Odsjek za komunikologiju
Dražen Maleš
orcid.org/0000-0001-6595-6714
; Fakultet hrvatskih studija Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Odsjek za komunikologiju
Luka Šikić
; Hrvatsko katoličko sveučilište, Odjel za komunikologiju
Abstract
Native advertising is becoming an increasingly prevalent tool in the marketing communications of organizations and brands. It involves content designed to resemble
editorial, thus other journalistic forms (primarily news), with the aim of attracting readers with tailored editorial content while simultaneously promoting the advertiser’s brand, its products, and values. This is particularly evident in the contemporary digital environment, where these so-called hybrid forms of media content are most visible, with sponsored content, content marketing, brand journalism, and native advertising being at the core of this work. The aim of the research is to determine the fundamental characteristics of native advertising on selected top-rated internet portals in the Republic of Croatia, where alongside human text processing, machine content analysis was applied to 543 identified articles. The results of the analysis showed that the ICT industry is the most represented industry among advertisers and that native content in the Croatian media space primarily originates within media companies and is signed by specialized marketing teams. The majority of advertisements sampled from Croatian internet portals adhered to the practice of clear identification of advertisers, with the exception of the portal 24sata.hr. The highest number of native ads reached between 10,000 and 20,000 views and between 5,000 and 10,000 readers, despite being considered the most effective form of online advertising in digital media, raising the question of whether the same can be asserted in the Croatian context. In conclusion, native ads on Croatian internet portals predominantly exhibit a subjectively positive sentiment, although variations exist within specific industries. For instance, ads in the ICT and financial industries tend to have a predominantly positive sentiment, while the healthcare industry generally features a subjectively negative sentiment.
Keywords
native advertising, Croatian internet portals, characteristics, sentiment
Hrčak ID:
318225
URI
Publication date:
24.6.2024.
Visits: 654 *