Sponsored Content offers advertisers a subtler alternative to the hard sell – a chance to tell the story of their brand or product in a way that appeals to a sophisticated modern audience.
The laboratory sciences aren’t short on innovation. That’s a large part of what has motivated governments in recent years to invest heavily in the sector, believing they will prove an enabler for wider economic growth. But the challenge for manufacturers of any product or service is two-fold: first, create it; second, bring it to market.
Traditionally, media offered a binary choice for achieving the latter. You paid for advertising or you secured editorial coverage. Both, of course, work well but with certain limitations. Competition for editorial space is intense and the requirement for objectivity presents an obstacle for those looking for a vehicle to market an individual product.
Likewise, traditional advertising can be highly effective but gives little opportunity for more substantial messaging or the chance to build a brand’s relationship with customers and cultivate valuable return business.
Pippa Lain-Smith, founder and managing director of Plain Speaking PR, a well-established, specialist PR agency working with a range of business to business clients including the lab sector, summarises the dilemma: “A news story or article is a very powerful way to tell your stakeholders about the work you are doing and the knowledge you have, but you can’t guarantee what a journalist will write and your story may not get picked up at all. Whilst paying for an advert guarantees you space, it’s clearly an advert.”
In many cases then, the ideal solution lies somewhere between the two. It’s no accident that the recent decades shaped by online and social media have seen the growth in development of that third way: sponsored content.
“Having worked in PR and marketing for almost 30 years, I’ve seen a definite shift in the relationship between above the line and below the line communications. Traditionally, PR professionals would stick to their lane, pitching articles and news stories, and it would be the advertising team or media buying agency that dealt with ‘paid’ content,” comments Lain-Smith.
The shift, she says, reflected the influence of the PESO model devised in 2014 b y marketing guru Gini Dietrich; allocating different areas of communication/marketing into four categories: paid, earned, shared and owned – each with individual benefits.
While mainstream advertising explicitly disrupts what marketeers dub the user experience, Sponsored Content delivered in editorial-style format is focused on informing or entertaining to reinforce its brand message, adapting to individual platforms whether print, digital, online, email or the various strands of social media.
The format allows businesses to tell their brand story in a way that’s more subtle and engaging, avoiding a hard sell. It provides room to demonstrate your values and personality as a brand, allowing potential customers and other stakeholders to get to know what you stand for
Pippa Lain-Smith, founder and managing director of Plain Speaking PR
Standout benefits of Sponsored Content can include greater audience engagement, a higher return on investment, measurable online results and credibility through association with the chosen platform. There’s also the opportunity for a potentially greater and more lasting visibility.
“Sponsored Content is a great mid-ground. The format allows businesses to tell their brand story in a way that’s more subtle and engaging, avoiding a hard sell. It provides room to demonstrate your values and personality as a brand, allowing potential customers and other stakeholders to get to know what you stand for,” explains Lain-Smith.
Along with credibility and reach, there is also a clear ethical standard applied. Thus, in the case of Laboratory News, Sponsored Content features are clearly delineated from editorial content – a practice aligned with Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) guidelines requiring clear disclosure of sponsored partnerships.
- Find out more about Sponsored Content across our Laboratory News platforms. These feature the digital and print magazine, website, newsletter, email and social media platforms including Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, X and more, with engagement details available.
