
Most recently, controversy has arisen as to whether content marketing is a form of native marketing, or if they are inherently separate ideologies and styles, with native market strategists claiming that they utilize content marketing techniques, and some content market strategists claiming not to be a form of native marketing.

The most traditionally influenced form of native marketing manifests as the placement of sponsor-funded content alongside editorial content, or showing "other content you might be interested in" which is sponsored by a marketer alongside editorial recommendations. Popular examples include, Twitter's promoted Tweets, Facebook's promoted stories, and Tumblr's promoted posts. Alternative examples of modern technique include search advertising, when ads appear alongside search results that qualify as native to the search experience. A majority of these methods for delivering the native strategy have been relegated to an online presence, where it is most commonly employed as publisher-produced brand content, a similar concept to the traditional advertorial. Ĭontemporary formats for native advertising now include promoted videos, images, articles, commentary, music, and other various forms of media. 2 Sponsored content (content marketing)ĭespite the ambiguity surrounding native advertising's invention, many experts consider the Hallmark Hall of Fame, a series which first aired in 1951 and still running today, as among the earliest instances of the technique.The former places the product within the content, whereas in native marketing, which is legally permissible in the US to the extent that there is sufficient disclosure, the product and content are merged. Product placement (embedded marketing) is a precursor to native advertising. Readers may have difficulty immediately identifying them as advertisements due to their ambiguous nature, especially when deceptive labels such as "From around the web" are used.

These ads reduce a consumers' ad recognition by blending the ad into the native content of the platform, even if it is labeled as "sponsored" or "branded" content. The word native refers to this coherence of the content with the other media that appear on the platform.

In many cases it functions like an advertorial, and manifests as a video, article or editorial. Native advertising, also called sponsored content, is a type of advertising that matches the form and function of the platform upon which it appears.
