• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, December 12, 2012

What do media buyers make of “native advertising” -- that controversial form of customized online ad integration? Some 49% plan to incorporate it into their buys next year, according to new data from the native ad specialists at Solve Media.
 
Although spending levels vary, two our of five media buyers surveyed by Solve say they have allocated more than 10% of their 2013 budget to native advertising.
 
Making those transactions possible, nearly 20% of online publishers said they are likely to add a native advertising option to their sites next year, according to Solve.
 
Solve’s flagship product Type-In lets advertisers survey consumers' interactions with ads by measuring how effectively they remember the brand's messages to complete a transaction.
 
This past summer, the start-up debuted a new product that replaced CAPTCHAs with select brand logos, which then asks site visitors to type in a word or phrase that they most closely associate with the featured brand.
 
The combination of the two products put Solve Media “in a position to be one of the most important branding vehicles on the Web,” stated Gene Munster, senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray at the time.
 
According to critics, however, native advertising is difficult to scale, and can conflict with publishers’ ethical standards. "Native monetization" -- as investor Fred Wilson described the model at OMMA Global last September -- refers to ads that are "unique and native to the experience" of a particular publisher.
 
In its defense, Ari Jacoby, CEO of Solve Media, said: “The industry talks about 'serving' ads and in a very real sense, I feel they should 'serve' the consumer.”
 
After surveying 800 media buyers, agency creatives, online publishers, venture capitalists, private equity firms and angel investors, Solve found that nearly 60% of agency media buyers consider native advertising to be “very important” or “extremely important” going into 2013.
 
Buyers based in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco will spend the most on native advertising, Solve found.
 
More than half of the venture capitalists, private equity firms and angel investors that invest in media and ad technology said they are likely to very likely to invest in companies that sell native advertising in 2013.