Now that you have all been swayed to re-subscribe to Netflix and binge watch Friends, I want to talk about the background behind this piece without bias.
This project stemmed from my interest in native advertising, which can be traced back to a presentation in the fall of 2014 in my BCOM 329 class: Social Media and the Changing Nature of Business Communication. Stephanie Fleischman, a guest speaker from T Brand Studio, came to tell us what exactly T Brand did for The New York Times: create native advertisements. Though anticlimactic as I mention it now, this was my introduction into the field that would become an obsession.
Stephanie showed us an article about Women Inmates and a YouTube clip of John Oliver. Both are now the benchmark for polarized views of native advertising when I mention the topic.
Always looking for ways to blend my business and writing worlds, I opted to write a senior honors thesis. I knew I wanted to focus my thesis on native advertising, but my official topic was not chosen until much later.
Ultimately, my thesis research led me to understand a world of native advertising far wider than just longform editorial pieces. I spoke to Whitney Smolczyinski, a sales manager at the native advertising company Sharethrough about the different types of native campaigns that they create, and how that affects the process for the both the brand and the ad agency.
For this project though, I knew I wanted to create an homage to the T Brand Studios style stories that attracted me to this genre in the first place.
I called Stephanie Fleischman for an interview, and was able to gain insight into the formation of these articles. I learned that the T Brand Studio team pairs up with a brand to create a concept for the post. For the audience, these posts tend to be targeted by segment on Facebook when promoted.
In terms of creating my own similar piece, I decided to act in place of T Brand and that I would also be working with Netflix as a brand. Inspired by my love of TV shows that happen to take place in New York and my current experiences with friends moving to the city, I decided that my concept would be to create a myth busting article about life in Manhattan. For targeting, my audience has such a specific age group, but is further expanded by their friends, siblings, and parents interested in their well being.
Large portions of my research were made easier because I have watched Friends and How I Met Your Mother all the way through at least 9 times each. However, I searched many specific stats on the actual rents of their apartments, the average salaries of their jobs, and the cost of dining out as frequently as the characters do. This information led to the creation of the Google Map, which was a technology I had never used for anything other than finding directions.
From a realism perspective, I also found census data for New York City about cost of living, average apartment size, and income.
For a more personal effect, I interviewed two 20-something-year-olds living in the city (Brett Burian and Taryn Stansbury). They come from wildly different backgrounds and lead wildly different lives. However, their complete agreement on certain aspects of how daily life in Manhattan as portrayed on television was surprising and creates an authentic air to their commentary.
Lastly, to prepare for this piece I regularly read the stories posted on The New York Times home page under “From Our Advertisers” banner, so that I could understand the tone and formatting of the pieces and transfer some of that into my own project.
If any of you are interested in reading some of these native advertising examples – make sure your Ad Block software is off.
Happy branding!