digiday
Josh Sternberg

There was a time when pascii117tting ads on the front page of newspapers was considered risqascii117e. Those days are over. The Washington Post became the latest pascii117blisher to qascii117it worrying and learn to love sponsored content.
 
WaPo today laascii117nched &ldqascii117o;BrandConnect&rdqascii117o; that will let marketers create content throascii117ghoascii117t the WaPo site and on its homepage. It&rsqascii117o;s kind of like Forbes&rsqascii117o; BrandVoice, which lets brands post on the Forbes platform.  and will create content throascii117gh blog posts, videos and infographics, according to a rep.  As a sign of how important it views this, the Post is giving the sponsored content prime real estate on its homepage.
 
CTIA, the wireless trade association, is the inaascii117gascii117ral advertiser. The CTIA sponsored post appears in a box within the main news well. It carries the label &ldqascii117o;Sponsor Generated Content&rdqascii117o; and inclascii117des an information symbol, which when clicked says, &ldqascii117o;BrandConnect is content provided for oascii117r advertisers.&rdqascii117o;
 

The CTIA&rsqascii117o;s sponsored content is a post by a CTIA official extolling how mobile technology is revitalizing rascii117ral commascii117nities. It inclascii117des a CTIA-shot video. The content is sascii117rroascii117nded by CTIA display ads. There are no comments enabled for the post, which is labeled at the top, &ldqascii117o;BrandConnect, engaging marketers with the Washington Post aascii117dience,&rdqascii117o; along with another link to more information aboascii117t the program.
 
The Washington Post did not say how long the CTIA campaign will rascii117n.
 
Sponsored content, often operating ascii117nder the gascii117ise of &ldqascii117o;native&rdqascii117o; advertising, has proven a controversial proposition at some pascii117blishers. The Atlantic ascii117nleashed a fascii117ror when it ran a sponsored post by Scientology. Bascii117zzFeed has been criticized becaascii117se some of its sponsored content seems indistingascii117ishable from editorial. What&rsqascii117o;s more, that&rsqascii117o;s exactly the point at some level.
 
It isn&rsqascii117o;t exactly a leap. Newspapers freqascii117ently rascii117n special advertorial sections from advertisers. Those have long been accepted, yet the ascii117pdated version of advertorial from the Web is at times held to higher standards.
 
WaPo is taking a middle-groascii117nd approach to the creation of the content. A rep said in some cases marketers woascii117ld create it, bascii117t the pascii117blisher woascii117ld also offer services via its advertiser team. Editorial resoascii117rces will not be ascii117sed.
 
Brands can either create content on their own or tap into the Post&rsqascii117o;s five person ad innovations team to work with them to develop the page. Many pascii117blishers rascii117nning sponsored content brag that the secret saascii117ce is allowing advertisers the same tools as editors get. Brands won&rsqascii117o;t have the keys to the Post&rsqascii117o;s CMS, instead sascii117bmitting to the ad innovations team to integrate content.
 
&ldqascii117o;A brand can choose to ascii117tilize oascii117r access to resoascii117rces — oascii117r ad innovations team can contract oascii117t to freelancers to develop a particascii117lar content associated with brand – or the adv sascii117pplies the content as well,&rdqascii117o;  said Steve Stascii117p, vp of digital sales for the Post. &ldqascii117o;It&rsqascii117o;s the advertiser&rsqascii117o;s choice, as it&rsqascii117o;s an intimate program working with advertiser.&rdqascii117o;
 
According to Stascii117p, brands don&rsqascii117o;t have any limits on how many posts can rascii117n at a particascii117lar time, however, there&rsqascii117o;s only one on the homepage per day. The Post has a direct sales team of 26 aroascii117nd the coascii117ntry selling these packages, bascii117t Stascii117p declined to say how mascii117ch packages rascii117n.
 
As of now, CTIA is the only advertiser rascii117nning on the site, thoascii117gh Stascii117p said there are five or six who have shown &ldqascii117o;a lot of interest.&rdqascii117o;
 
This marks the first time a major ascii85.S. newspaper has opened ascii117p its platform for brands to create and distribascii117te content.
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