• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, March 27, 2015

Studio One Networks President and Founder Andrew Susman opened the panel he was moderating at the Content Marketing Insider Summit in Scottsdale, Az., on an emotional note. Segueing from preceding keynoter Expedia’s Jason Rubenstein’s emotionally-charged presentation, Susman noted, “Everybody has been talking empathy [at the summit], but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone crying at a trade conference.”

Later, he made a more sober point, noting that when he started in the online marketing business 17 years ago, the average banner click rate was 27%.  Then he said the Interactive Advertising Bureau and a number of digital marketers got involved in standardizing advertising formats online, adding, “They standardized themselves to the point where they lost all their relevance, because people knew what to avoid and where to avoid it.”

Susman suggested that native formats, when used properly -- and transparently -- can break through that clutter and stand out.

That said, one of his panelists shared data noting that two thirds of consumers clicking on actual editorial content stay on it 15-seconds or longer, but only a third of users clicking on native content stick around that long.