• by Tobi Elkin , Staff Writer @tobielkin, November 23, 2016

Last week, the best and brightest minds in native advertising/branded content/brand journalism gathered in Berlin for the Native Advertising Institute’s (NAI) Native Advertising Days conference. The Copenhagen-based NAI hosts the global gathering to discuss best practices, case studies, how-tos, trends, and to honor excellence in native advertising.

The NAI also honored native campaigns and strategies from around the world via its Native Advertising Awards. This year, among those clinching top honors was Politico Focus, Politico’s native advertising arm, which won a Gold award for Native Ad Agency/Studio of the Year under 20. Politico Focus also won a Silver for Best Native Advertising Strategy for its campaign called “Hacker Avenue” for client Leidos. 

In the Native Ad Agency/Studio of the Year over 20 category, The New York Times’ T Brand Studio landed the Gold, while Atlantic’s Re:think unit earned Silver, and Partner Studio by AOL clinched a Bronze.

David Beebe, VP, Global Creative + Content Marketing, Marriott International, won Native Advertising Marketer of the Year for his leadership of the Marriott Creative Agency and Content Studio, and M Live, in-house real-time marketing studios and brand newsrooms.

Netflix took top honors for Brand of the Year.

Native Advertising Platform of the Year honors went to Strossle (Gold), Bidtellect  (Silver), and MGID (Bronze).

The winning publishers, brands, and agencies were selected by a panel of judges from across the industry based on their work covering the most important aspects of native advertising such as strategy, organization, formats, and channels.

Notably, no work made NAI’s short list in the Programmatic and Mobile categories, so those are two opportunities for publishers and advertisers to work harder on. The same for best use of Instagram and Twitter.

Award submissions came from a variety of countries including the U.S., Norway, Croatia, Belgium, and the Philippines.

"Generally speaking, we've found it noteworthy that the entries came from so many different countries and types of publishers, brands and agencies--from Norway to the Philippines. It shows that native advertising have really caught on and will continue to grow. The winning publishers, brands and agencies are all characterized by a deep understanding of how to combine the purpose of the campaigns with the needs of the users in order to entertain, enlighten and engage them," Jesper Laursen, NAI Founder told Native Insider via email.

For a complete list of winners, go the NAI site.