Consumers view native ads 53% more frequently than banner ads, and exposure to native content lifts purchase intent by 18% compared to standard display, according to the Native Advertising Institute research cited by EMARKETER’s native advertising guide. Those numbers help explain why native ad examples now dominate how marketers think about content-driven campaigns, and why examples of native ads across B2B, retail, and entertainment categories are increasingly worth studying.
The reason it works isn’t a mystery. Native advertising earns attention by fitting into the content experience people are already engaged in, rather than interrupting it. Done well, it adds something worth reading, watching, or interacting with. Done poorly, it feels like a product promotion wearing editorial clothes.
These 10 native ad examples show what “done well” actually looks like, and more importantly, why each approach works. Understanding examples of native ads across different formats and categories makes it much easier to see which approaches fit different campaign goals.
Reach audiences with programmatic native formats that fit naturally into the content they already engage with.
What Makes a Native Ad Work?
Before the examples, it’s worth being clear about the goal. Native advertising isn’t about disguising promotional content as editorial. It’s about making paid content genuinely useful or entertaining enough that people engage with it in the same way they’d engage with organic content.
That requires three things in the right combination:
- Platform fit: the format, tone, and style match the environment where the ad appears
- Audience relevance: the content connects to something the specific audience cares about
- Brand purpose: the brand’s presence in the content makes sense and adds something rather than just attaching itself
The examples of native advertising below each demonstrate at least two of these. Most hit all three. Here’s how they compare across format and approach:
| Example | Format | Primary Goal |
| LinkedIn Sponsored Content | In-feed professional post | B2B audience targeting |
| Volkswagen Road Trip Guide | Travel content | Brand association with experiences |
| Dove and ELLE | Editorial feature | Positioning and cultural conversation |
| Birkenstock NYT | Documentary series | Product education and credibility |
| Allbirds NYT | Environmental feature | Brand values communication |
| Fred Hollows Foundation | Interactive experience | Cause awareness and empathy |
| KPMG Forbes BrandVoice | Thought leadership article | B2B authority building |
| Macy’s | Shoppable editorial | Product discovery and conversion |
| Klarna | In-app sponsored carousel | Commerce-adjacent placement |
| Spotify x Netflix | Branded interactive feature | Entertainment and co-promotion |
10 Native Advertising Examples and What Marketers Can Learn
1. LinkedIn Sponsored Content: B2B In-Feed Advertising
LinkedIn’s sponsored posts appear directly in professional feeds alongside organic content from connections and companies. For B2B advertisers, this is one of the clearest examples of native advertising working through context rather than creative magic.
The format works because the audience is already in a professional mindset when they see it. A whitepaper promoted to marketing directors while they’re browsing industry news sits very differently from the same content appearing on a general news site. The platform’s professional context does a significant portion of the relevance work before the creative even loads.
- What to take from this: Native advertising works best when the platform context matches the content’s intended purpose. LinkedIn’s native ads work for B2B not because LinkedIn invented something new, but because the audience’s state of mind is already professional when the content appears.
2. Volkswagen: Road Trip Guide
Volkswagen’s travel guide campaign used destination photography and road trip itineraries to connect the brand with the experience of exploration rather than the mechanics of car ownership. The content was genuinely useful to people planning trips. The Volkswagen connection made sense because a car is central to a road trip.
This is an example of native advertising used for brand positioning rather than direct response. Volkswagen didn’t need to explain what a car is or why someone should buy one. By appearing in a context people actively wanted, the brand accumulated associations with freedom and adventure.
- What to take from this: The most natural native ads connect a product with an experience the audience already wants. The product earns its place in the content by making the experience possible, not by dominating the story.
3. Dove and ELLE: "Life Under the Arm"
Dove’s collaboration with ELLE explored social attitudes toward women’s underarms rather than simply promoting a deodorant product. The content was editorial in tone, using research and cultural commentary to generate genuine discussion. The Dove brand connection made sense because the topic directly related to the product category.
The campaign generated significantly more engagement than a conventional product ad would have, precisely because it wasn’t centered on the product. By leading with a culturally relevant topic, Dove created content that people wanted to read and share rather than an ad they’d scroll past.
- What to take from this: Leading with the audience’s interests rather than the product’s features creates the conditions for real engagement. If the content provides genuine value, the brand association follows naturally.
4. Birkenstock and The New York Times: "Ugly for a Reason"
Birkenstock ran a documentary-style series on The New York Times platform exploring foot health, anatomy, and the design logic behind the brand’s distinctive footwear. Rather than addressing the visual polarization of the brand head-on with defensiveness, it made the science of foot support the story.
This is native advertising as a credibility builder. The NYT’s editorial reputation transferred some of its authority to the content, and the substantive subject matter gave readers a genuine reason to engage. By the end, readers understood the design decisions behind the product in a way that no traditional ad could have communicated.
- What to take from this: Educational storytelling can make product differentiation more credible than any product claim. If there’s a genuine reason why a product is designed the way it is, native advertising is an ideal format for making that argument.
5. Allbirds and The New York Times: "The View From Above"
Allbirds’ partnership with The New York Times connected bird conservation and climate change with the brand’s sustainability positioning. The content explored environmental themes relevant to the brand’s values without turning into a product brochure.
What made this work was specificity. The campaign didn’t broadly claim environmental responsibility. It engaged with a real, specific topic, making the brand’s values feel earned through the content rather than asserted through a tagline.
- What to take from this: Linking a brand to a broader issue is most credible when the connection is specific, and the content is genuinely informative. Vague alignment with popular values reads as marketing. Specific, substantive engagement reads as conviction.
6. The Fred Hollows Foundation: Interactive Vision Experience
The Fred Hollows Foundation used an immersive digital experience to help audiences understand what impaired vision looks like and feels like in daily life. Rather than describing the experience of visual impairment in text, the campaign created an interactive environment where users could directly perceive something of what it means.
Most charitable giving campaigns rely on telling audiences about a problem. This one created a direct experiential connection. The result was higher emotional engagement than static content could have generated, and a more concrete understanding of what donations actually address.
- What to take from this: Interactivity can transform an abstract issue into something felt rather than just understood. For causes or products that are difficult to explain, an experience can communicate more efficiently than descriptive content.
How ad fatigue develops when content fails to create this kind of connection is covered in this analysis of ad blindness and how brands overcome it.
7. KPMG on Forbes BrandVoice: "The Great Rewrite"
KPMG used Forbes’ BrandVoice platform to publish thought-leadership content about digital business change, positioned around the concerns and decisions that business executives face when re-architecting core operations and technology.
The content wasn’t promotional. It addressed real professional problems and offered perspectives that a senior business reader would find useful. That utility is what made the native ad work: KPMG appeared as a credible voice in a conversation the audience was already having, rather than interrupting a different conversation to talk about KPMG.
- What to take from this: For B2B brands, thought leadership on a publisher platform builds credibility by placing the brand within the professional conversations the target audience actually cares about. The key is that the content has to be genuinely useful, not just formatted to look like editorial.
8. Macy's: Interactive Outfit Shopping
Rather than promoting individual products in isolation, Macy’s presented coordinated outfit ideas and editorial-style inspiration that combined multiple items into complete looks. The format combined content discovery with a direct path to shopping.
The native approach addressed a real friction point in product discovery. A customer who doesn’t know which shirt goes with which trousers finds more value in a styled look than in isolated product ads. By making the editorial experience useful, Macy’s made the commercial element feel helpful rather than intrusive.
- What to take from this: Native formats can solve a real customer problem, not just tell them about a product. When the ad format serves the customer’s actual need (how do I put this together?), the commercial intent becomes secondary to the utility.
9. Klarna: Sponsored Deal Carousel
Klarna integrated sponsored deal listings into the existing deal carousel within its app, labeled clearly as sponsored but positioned within the same browsing experience users already understood. The ads appeared where users were already looking for deals.
This is a cleaner version of native advertising than many realize. The format didn’t ask users to change their behavior or engage with something unfamiliar. It placed relevant offers exactly where users were already expecting to find relevant offers, with transparent labeling. The disclosure made the experience honest; the placement made it relevant.
- What to take from this: Native advertising works best when it reinforces the user’s existing intent rather than redirecting it. Sponsored content placed where users already expect to find content like it is far less intrusive than the same content placed somewhere unexpected.
10. Spotify and Netflix: "Stranger Things" Experience
Spotify created character-inspired playlists and a themed listening experience to promote Netflix’s Stranger Things series. Rather than serving a promotional ad, Spotify built an immersive feature that let users experience the show’s tone and era through music.
The collaboration worked because it made sense for both platforms. Music is central to the show’s aesthetic. Spotify is a music platform. The partnership created something users actively sought out and spent time with, rather than something they were exposed to. The promotional nature of the content was obvious and fully disclosed, but users engaged with it anyway because it was genuinely worth engaging with.
- What to take from this: When native advertising is entertaining or interactive enough, the promotional disclosure doesn’t diminish engagement. People will choose to spend time with branded content if the content is actually good.
What These Native Advertising Examples Have in Common
Different categories, different budgets, different objectives. But the principles that made each one effective are consistent.
These native advertising examples span B2B thought leadership, consumer brand storytelling, cause marketing, in-app placements, and entertainment partnerships. Yet the patterns are consistent. The most effective native ads share these qualities:
- The content provides genuine value: information, entertainment, or an experience the audience wanted
- The brand’s presence in the content is logical rather than forced
- The format matches the platform rather than fighting against it
- Sponsorship is clearly disclosed, which tends to reinforce rather than undermine trust when the content is strong
The Klarna example shows how transparent disclosure can coexist with high relevance. The Fred Hollows example shows how interactivity amplifies impact. The Birkenstock example shows how educational depth builds credibility. None of them worked by hiding the commercial intent. They worked by making the content worth engaging with on its own terms.
Native Advertising Works Because It Earns Attention Rather Than Demanding It
The goal of native advertising isn’t to make an ad look like content. It’s to make content that genuinely serves the audience while clearly connecting to a brand’s purpose.
The examples above work because they started with what the audience finds valuable rather than what the brand wants to say. That sequence matters. An audience that encounters useful, well-placed content will associate those qualities with the brand behind it. An audience that encounters branded content dressed up to look editorial learns to distrust both.
Native advertising done well is also transparent about what it is. Audiences largely accept sponsored content when it’s labeled clearly and the content holds up. That’s the standard the examples of native ads in this article set, and the standard any effective native campaign should aim for.
How programmatic native advertising works at scale, and how it fits within the wider ecosystem of automated buying, is explained in this guide to the types of programmatic advertising.
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FAQ
Yes, in almost every jurisdiction. The FTC in the US and equivalent regulators in other markets require that paid content be clearly identifiable as advertising. The label "sponsored," "paid promotion," or "partner content" must be visible enough that a reasonable reader can identify the content as advertising before engaging with it. Clear disclosure is also good practice regardless of regulatory requirements: the Klarna and Spotify examples both demonstrate that transparency doesn't reduce engagement when the content is relevant and well-made.
Often, especially so. Products with complex value propositions, long purchase cycles, or significant category unfamiliarity benefit from the space and format that native advertising provides. A technical product that can't communicate its value in a banner can tell its story in a sponsored article or video. The Birkenstock campaign worked precisely because the product requires explanation that traditional advertising formats couldn't accommodate.
Clear and prominent disclosure is the primary safeguard. Beyond legal compliance, brands should ensure that the transition from content to commerce is transparent rather than disguised. The content should be genuinely valuable independent of the product connection. And the brand connection should make logical sense rather than appearing arbitrarily attached to content it doesn't belong in.
Yes. Programmatic native allows brands to buy native ad placements at scale through the same RTB infrastructure used for display and video. The native ad examples in this article from LinkedIn and Klarna both involve programmatic or semi-automated buying. Ad content is typically assembled dynamically from components (headline, image, body text, call to action) matched to each publisher's format requirements. Programmatic native has grown significantly as brands look to scale native placements beyond one-off publisher partnerships.
Run controlled comparison tests with matched audiences, equivalent budgets, and equivalent measurement windows. The examples of native advertising and display advertising most useful for comparison are campaigns targeting the same audience segment with the same goal. Track:
- Engagement metrics: time spent, scroll depth, completion rate
- Commercial metrics: conversion rate, cost per acquisition, return on ad spend
- Brand metrics: aided recall, sentiment, consideration lift
Native and display typically serve different functions. Native often performs better on brand metrics and consideration, while display can be more efficient for direct response at scale. The right comparison depends on which objective the test is measuring.
