Book excerpt: An industry insider reveals the next generation of marketing—and provides the insight you need to use it to beat the competition One of the hottest forms of advertising, native advertising is an extremely effective way to reach customers. Produced by marketers and featured alongside the main content, native advertising breaks down the traditional barrier between advertising and editorial. Industry insider and Hearst ad executive Mike Smith believes that native is not only here to stay, but is the future of marketing. The Native Advertising Advantage reveals why native advertising is an effective tool in any company’s digital marketing strategy—and how to use it to build new revenue streams. Smith explains how native ads are blending in with their surrounding content to blur the traditional “church/state” divide of editorial versus advertising. He shows how publications as diverse as BuzzFeed, Forbes, Cosmopolitan, and The New York Times are attracting readers who are just as interested in the content of these native ads as they are of journalist-written editorial content Gleaned from dozens of interviews with advertisers, marketers, software developers, journalists, and publishers, the book reveals how native advertising fits into the marketing strategies and advertising budgets of successful companies such as GE, Intel, HP, Red Bull, ConAgra Foods, Pepsi, and others.