A special THANK YOU to our 2017 Native Advertising Days sponsors and partners in 2017. Having you as part of our conference enhanced the overall experience and content both on stage and in the corridors over the 2+ days of enriching conversations, panel discussions, and presentations. As a lead generation and Native Advertising thought leadership immersion, we hope you found NAI Days an efficient and successful investment of your marketing dollars.

Heading into the new year, we have laid out the highlights of this year's program and hope you'll come back and join us again in 2018 as Native Advertising continues to evolve and develop into THE premium advertising experience for advertising and storytelling. The 2018 conference will be a 2-day conference with multiple tracks plus a full day masterclass loaded with strategic and tactical insights from experts from around the world. And, for those of you who are considering joining us for the first time, please feel free to reach out and begin the conversation for sponsorship while budgets are being planned and opportunities abound.

Thanks again for all of your support and consideration!!

In 2017, the conference was attended by over 400 participants from 30 countries worldwide.

To see a full list of Attending Companies visit:
http://native-advertising-institute.stories.fabl.co/attending-companies

1. Be customer centric Understand the people you want to reach, be customer-centric, remember how you make customers feel, you need empathy for good customer experience.

– Johannes Ceh, journalist, content strategist and consultant @johannesceh

2. Create interest not interruption Successful marketing is telling stories that customers can relate to, we need to stop interrupting what people are interested in and BE what people are interested in.

– Mickael Ferreira, Quantum CEO and co-founder @mickae1ferreira

3. Don't Disrupt Remember with native you’re paying to interest people not interrupt them.

– Alexander Erlmeier, managing director Central Europe of Outbrain @AlexErlmeier

4. Seek an emotional connection A good brand story needs a sticking point, a surprise for the consumer.

– Yvonne Beister, head of Bild Brand Studio Editorial @yvonne_BILDde

5. Targeting needs to combine people, content and environment Content is currency but you need relevant targeting, curate the audience and the offering, and consider, it’s all about the feed.

– Dale Lovell, chief digital officer at Adyoulike @DaleL_NativeAds

6. Good content doesn’t have to be short Long-form content has real value and a place in every content strategy.

– Jason Miller, global content marketing leader at LinkedIn @JasonMillerCA

7. Invest in the whole process from creation to delivery Ad spend is only part of the cost (perhaps less than half) – invest in strategy, project management, design, copywriting and tracking results.

– Joie Healy, senior manager of social media communications at Cisco @JoieHealy

8. Follow the rules Remember the five rules of engagement to make your stories matter – transport the reader, be original, get personal, broaden your audience, join the zeitgeist.

– Annie Granatstein, head of WP BrandStudio at the Washington Post @anniegranat

9. Always consider the Why Understand why branded content works – users prefer content, publisher produced native content performs best, content is more memorable, content drives higher purchase intent and brand favourability.

– Lauren Reddy, director of audience development and insights at the advertising team at The New York Times @MissReddy

10. Remember the importance of truth The acronym for success is TRUTH – timely, reputable, unique, tension, human connection.

– Melanie Deziel, content strategist and founder of The Overlap League @mdeziel

11. Create an action plan What’s your action plan? Listen and understand, know your audience, build great content, adapt it, distribute it to the right place, listen to the feedback, learn and repeat.

– Brandon Keenen, senior digital commercial director at CNN International Commercial (CNNIC) @bkeenen

Industry Thought Leaders, Heads of Agencies, Publishers, Educators, Students, Content Creators, Producers, and Marketers created a dynamic and influential community seeking and sharing knowledge around all things Native. The value for sponsors impactful - generating new connections and conversations for business development.

All sponsors were featured on the ‘Thank You to Our Sponsors’ page in the official program. Gold Sponsors had a 1/2-page advertisement included in the program.

Gold and Silver Sponsors, and Official Native Advertising Institute Partners were offered on-site presence in the break area.

CONFERENCE SITE: Logo featured on the official conference site which consistently had visitors reading our stories and learning about Native Advertising Days (July-November). Visit the event site on http://www.nativeadvertisinginstitute.com/conference

Finally, it’s important for us to stress that the conference communication is still on-going and will be kept alive on our blog in 2018, so our 2017 partners will get the afterglow of the 2017 event. The traffic will be supported by our video concept from the 2017 conference where a majority of speakers and sponsors were interviewed on topics related to native advertising.