Buzzfeed to Offer Native Advertising Training to Agencies

Buzzfeed has launched a Social Storytelling Creator Program which aims to train agencies on the art of creating native advertising. Agencies that participate will receive official accreditation from Buzzfeed along with a badge they can place on their website and the ability to post stories to Buzzfeed. The program will be free to agencies that agree to spend a set minimum with Buzzfeed.

Gary Vaynerchuk's VaynerMedia, which has worked with Buzzfeed on several brands including Hasbro and GE, will be the first agency to participate in the program. Of the agency's participation, Buzzfeed COO Jon Steinberg said, "They've really leaned in to do social storytelling and native advertising. They're very agile, like us."

Hopefully the program will teach agencies to do more than just write witty copy. The whole point of native advertising (and any advertising for that matter) is to generate leads and sales. In March, I wrote an article for HubSpot in which I outline what's wrong with native advertising and how to fix it. Give it a read. You'll thank me later.