Articles by: "Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN"

Who’s really cutting the cord? The answer in 7 charts

October 26, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

The pay-TV industry contracted in the third quarter at a faster pace than a year earlier, signaling that “cord cutting” may well be on the rise, as more consumers drop cable and satellite-TV connections. According to MoffettNathanson, LLC, the pay-TV industry lost about 179,000 TV customers, a steeper loss from the decline of 83,000 in the year-earlier quarter. Already, more homes and businesses have dropped pay-TV service in the first three quarters of this year than in the whole of last year, according to MoffettNathanson estimates.

Experian Marketing Services estimates that there are 13.8 million adults—or 5.6 million households—that are prime to be among the next wave of cord-cutters, which means the cord-cutter population has the potential to almost double.

Looking more closely at these individuals, many already have one foot out the door when it comes to losing their cable subscription as they are 74% more likely than average to say they watch less traditional TV. Experian predicts that cable will be even less popular among Millennials than it already is, as half of these potential cord-cutters hail from this generation.

Parks Associates consumer research finds the majority (58%) of broadband households in the U.S. use at least one OTT video service on a monthly basis, while more than a quarter of households use two or more services.

Blacks are at the leading edge of new viewing technologies, according to Horowitz Research FOCUS African America report, with 36% of Black viewers saying new technologies are enabling them to watch more TV than previously. The research also finds that Black viewers report spending 23% of their TV viewing time streaming content. In contrast, White viewers report spending 18% of their TV time streaming. Black multichannel subscribers are twice as likely as Whites to report being likely to cancel their TV service in the next six months (20% vs. 10%). Findings suggest that a greater reliance on new video technologies, rather than a lack of interest in TV, may be a contributing factor.

Horowitz Research’s FOCUS Latino report finds that Hispanics are very likely to have made streaming an integral part of their video viewing lifestyle. Half (51%) of Hispanic TV viewers in the study report spending 20% or more of their time watching over-the-top (OTT) content, compared to 43% of total urban TV content viewers. Among Hispanics, OTT viewing is being driven by bilingual and English-oriented Hispanics. More than half of bilingual (54%) and English-oriented (56%) Hispanics report spending more than 20% of their viewing time streaming, compared to 35% of Spanish-dominant Hispanics.

Not surprising, video consumption preferences vary by generation. Younger generations “go to services” include streaming video on demand and YouTube, where older generations do rely on YouTube, but favor Linear TV or VOD. according to an Ericsson presentation.

Not surprisingly, age is a factor: The more young-adults in the household, the higher percentage of cord cutting, according to Experian research.

Innovation | Video

Great Big Story: CNN-backed, newsworthy content that’s not news

October 20, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Big media companies are investing in content that attracts younger audiences, as evidenced by Time Inc.’s purchase of Hello Giggles this week and NBCUniversal’s recent investment in Vox and Buzzfeed. Now Turner-owned CNN has announce its own bid for this massive and attractive segment with the launch of Great Big Story, an independent video network, focused on “unparalleled and optimistic storytelling.” According to co-founder Chris Berend, CNN’s Vice president for video development, “our internal mantra is ‘humans are capable of incredible things.’”

And that, according to Berend, includes the Great Big Story (GBS) team, who he has tasked with “showing me something I’ve never seen before in terms of the stories themselves and the way the stories are told.” At launch, this will take the form of three to five videos of varying lengths each day (with a short film due out in November). Subjects include: The Untold Story of the Kool-Aid Man, Perfect is Hard, Featuring Misty Copeland, and What it’s Like to Fly Into a Hurricane (On Purpose), and a profile of Lisa Frank, the reclusive creative mind behind iconic rainbow and unicorn-centric designs featured on a slew of familiar products.

GBS launches with a staff of about 30, including recruits from BuzzFeed, Vox, VICE, MTV, ABC, NowThis, Amazon, and Yahoo!. The unit will operate as an independent company inside CNN. Yet, while GBS’s funding comes from CNN, Berend says that they are very clear with themselves and others that they’re not a news brand, though he points out that the type of stories they plan to tell function as news for this audience in many ways.

Berend believes that there is a vast audience that has been given short shrift in terms of appealing and appropriate content: “We have been seeing a huge underserved audience that traditional media is not resonating with and that wants more than the silliness and cynicism that is out there.” Their target audience is 25-35-year-olds who are well-educated, live in cities and, by nature of the way they operate in the world, are globally-savvy. They live on mobile and social and have an affinity for civically-minded, lifestyle, socially-conscious and, yes, entertaining content.

Given this demographic’s content consumption habits, GBS focuses its distribution strategy on mobile and social channels. While the brand debuts with a website—and iOS and Android apps—the primary distribution focus is social so they can find audiences where they are already consuming content. This includes Facebook and plans for YouTube, Apple News, Snapchat and more in starting in November. Connected TVs are also on the near-term roadmap.

GBS launches with a multi-year investment from CNN and a focus on branded content as the primary revenue stream. Eschewing traditional pre-roll advertising, the plan is “to collaborate with brands to figure out what kinds of stories they have to tell.” According to Berend, initial sales calls have been very positive because “we are hitting a very desirable audience,” but also because brands increasingly understand that content helps them forge more meaningful connections with consumers.

For CNN, which green-lit the project in February after quietly testing the concept through its social channels, Berend says this offers a way to engage an audience that “is growing fast and moving quickly.” In turn, CNN offers the GBS team “a lot of advantages that any startup would kill for” including deep video acumen, amplification and traffic driven from its owned and operated properties as well as its strong social presence. The relationship with established parent, CNN, also opens doors, according to Berend. We are able to get people to talk to us because they know we’re affiliated with CNN, which is legitimate and reliable.”

“We have a giant brand that does news, but also an audience that is starving for content in their social feed and on their phones.” And GBS will be there to feed that need with content that is “enjoyable, entertaining, and helps them learn something.” Because that’s what they read and, perhaps even more importantly, “that’s what they share.”

Perspectives

Paper products and digital content: Georgia-Pacific taps Meredith for content marketing on a grand scale

October 16, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Georgia-Pacific has gone all in on content, joining forces with Meredith Corporation to create 1,400 pieces of custom content to promote six of its brands—Angel Soft, Brawny, Dixie, Sparkle, Quilted Northern, and Vanity Fair—across Meredith’s digital properties. It marks not only one of the largest content-based advertising initiatives to date, but also offers a roadmap for any undertaking of this type.

The year-long campaign kicked off in January with a meeting between Georgia Pacific’s CMO, Douwe Bergsma, key members of the company’s creative agency ZenithOptimedia, and content creators from Meredith Xcelerated Marketing, according to Marc Rothschild, SVP at Meredith Digital. He credits Bergsma with not only having being ahead of the curve on content as a marketing tool, but also with fostering a collaborative process that laid a solid foundation for success. “Most organizations would have trouble bringing together the right people around the table to provision something like this,” says Rothschild noting the complexity of such a large-scale undertaking—in terms of content and the number of Georgia-Pacific and Meredith brands involved. “Douwe had the foresight to get the right stakeholders into the room working together from the start—really collaborating. That was a smart move.”

Before they began creating content, which will continue to roll out throughout the year, the team worked together to establish content pillars such as whether or not content should be evergreen or seasonal and to establish success metrics. According to Rothschild each brand has its own challenges and things they are trying to accomplish— awareness, unaided awareness, purchase intent — and they crafted metrics with these specific goals in mind. “The overall view, though, is that content is one of the best methods of engaging consumers and breaking through the clutter to reach them.”

An essential component of this content marketing initiative was creating content with distribution channels in mind. “In today’s landscape, this is a rare thing,” says Rothschild, pointing out that it is still common for television, digital, print, and other advertising to be handled by different parties. “What’s powerful and very important in our partnership with General Pacific is that we’re able to provide an end-to-end solution that starts with content and carries through to distribution and amplification.”

Each piece of content was designed to engage consumers across Meredith’s core verticals: home, food, lifestyle, parenting and family. The custom content developed for Georgia-Pacific was crafted to engage audiences on Georgia-Pacific’s brand sites and social media channels as well as across Meredith Digital’s network of websites, which include Allrecipes, Better Homes and Gardens, Rachael Ray Every Day, Martha Stewart Living, and Parents. Content types include video, articles, listicles, infographics, slideshows and more.

Because brands are already part of the natural conversation for many of Meredith’s publications and digital properties, the inclusion of native content is a natural fit. However, Rothschild emphasizes that, like all Meredith content, they aspire for branded content to be interesting and helpful to readers so that they can “weave in brands in a way that is additive to readers’ experience.” As an example, Meredith is running a series of parenting moments sponsored by the Angel Soft brand, whose tagline is “Be soft. Be strong.” that illustrate those times when a mom needs to be be soft, and others when she’s got to be strong. Interestingly, Rothschild says there were times when editorial fed off of the marketing content, such as the Angel Soft ad that celebrated single moms on Father’s Day.

Ultimately, “the content has to feel right” for both the brand advertised and the digital property where it is distributed and while Rothschild notes that consumer packaged goods are a very clear, endemic fit, he points out that Meredith readers’ interests go well beyond how to safely keep toys clean (with Georgia-Pacific brand Brawny). There are many other opportunities to use branded content to extend meaningful experiences to women “in ways that aren’t commonly thought of as ‘female’ such as financial services,” he said, since clearly women are highly interested and involved in financial planning.

Working on innovative advertising initiatives such as this large-scale content collaboration with Georgia-Pacific “forces you to think about the consumer first with your advertising.” And, as Rothschild says, “with all that’s going on in the industry in terms of consumer sentiment about digital advertising, that just makes sense.”

Industry-Research | Innovation | Perspectives

Exploring the Internet of Things in 5 charts

October 13, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

According to Forbes, a new rule for the future is going to be, “anything that can be connected, will be connected.” Given the widespread availability of broadband internet, ever more devices are being created with built in Wi-Fi and sensors. Today, just about anything with a power switch can be connected to the internet—with all of the context, content and data that comes along with it.

Here’s a look at this “Internet of Things” (IoT) in 5 charts:

According to analysis from Business Insider Intelligence, more than 18 billion devices will be connected to the Web by 2018.

The IoT has a total potential economic impact of $3.9 trillion to $11.1 trillion a year by 2025 according to McKinsey&Company.

The IoT opens a range of new business opportunities for a variety of players according to strategy&, the consulting team at PwC. These opportunities tend to fall into three broad strategic categories, each reflecting a different type of enterprise: Enablers, Engages, and Enhancers.

According to Gartner, security and identity issues represent major IoT roadblocks. Managing identities and access is critical to the success of the IoT. However, traditional techniques cannot provide the scale or manage the complexity that the IoT requires from the enterprise.

The IoT is among the top marketer priority areas, according to Millward Brown Research conducted on behalf of Kentico Software.

Innovation

With the aid of a Knight Foundation grant, the AP invests in the future of data journalism

October 7, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a good data visualization must be pretty valuable indeed. The Associated Press (AP) certainly thinks that data journalism is worth supporting. And now, having secured a $400,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, they plan to invest in building data sets, analysis and presentation tools, and the development of best practices, which will be included in the AP Style Guide, to support the growth of data journalism.

“We’re dealing with more data, data sets we didn’t have before—a deluge of data,” says AP Editor for Interactive Newsroom Technology Troy Thibodeaux. “There’s a hunger across all news organizations for data but no news organization has enough hands.” This is particularly true when it comes to the heavy lifting required to combine and reconcile disparate data sets and to best present data to consumers.

With the funding, AP will add additional data journalists to its team and increase its distribution of data sets that include localized information to thousands of news organizations. This expansion is intended to lead to more collaborative projects with newsrooms across the country. Thibodeaux noted the increasing need and desire for data and related tools and that the AP is uniquely positioned to help.

“Data journalism is a means to an end. The end is still journalism, storytelling, watchdog journalism, the same sorts of things we’ve always done. But data is the how,” says Thibodeaux. And, given that consumers are flooded with content, data can make a big difference. “In a media climate where people are overwhelmed, they are looking for news stories with a harder edge and data can give stories that edge.” Consumers today are also trying to evaluate which sources are trustworthy and Thibodeaux points out that with greater transparency “by showing our work” we can help build that trust.

In addition to offering a substantive way to support the validity of a story and demonstrate the thought and research process that went into it, data can also be part of the visual component that brings a story to life for readers. Data visualization, as Thibodeaux points out, “has a whiz bang factor, and is immersive and exploratory, all of which help draw an audience in.” However, neither data analysis nor interactive and compelling data visualizations are an easy task.

With the funding from Knight, Thibodeaux’s team will focus on building an “ecosystem for doing this sort of work,” which will include a platform for data sharing and analysis. Over the past year and a half, AP has undertaken a 50-state data initiative, which combines data sets from across the nation in a way that allows them to be readily mined to create local data-driven news stories. Given that the AP has already undertaken the laborious process of getting the data right: checking for missing data and errors, documenting the fields in the data, interviewing the data source to understand the limitations and idiosyncrasies of the data set and working with agencies to fix problems in the data.

The AP also hosts a conference call during which reporters and editors can ask questions about the data, about the national and state level stories AP is writing and about the methodology for working with the data. And they frequently include an interactive data visualization as part of the package. “In essence we’re able to help members skip the least interesting—but absolutely vital—stages of the data project, which means that news organizations who are stretched thin and may not have a reporter on staff with the tools to wrangle large data sets can make better use of their reporters’ skills and time,” he said.

To date, the AP has distributed data packages about a wide range of topics, which include community flood insurance rates, commuting times in U.S. metro areas and oil and gas drilling on tribal land.

Thibodeaux calls this effort a solid proof of concept that they will build upon by creating a platform that supports both data analysis and what he calls the news application side—tools that help bring the data to life for readers. Among the objectives are to provide additional support for mobile and social data applications as well. “We are thinking about how to make it easier for our members to know that there’s data available and make it easy to get and apply that data to storytelling.”

While Thibodeaux admits that the AP may well be conservative about its ethics and journalism, he also points out its long history of innovation. “We’re having our 170^th birthday next year, but if you look at the history of the AP around photo delivery, video and different ways of covering stories, we have a proven track record.” And its increased emphasis on the support of data journalism—and using technology to do some of the heavy lifting as well as enhance the data delivery experience—is simply an extension of this compelling story.

Advertising | Perspectives

Who’s winning at sports content?

October 2, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

It is generally recognized that good storytelling is not the exclusive domain of media professionals. Today, great stories come as readily from consumers and brands. At Advertising Week, Digital Content Next CEO Jason Kint led a panel of diverse—and talented—sports storytellers: Morgan Flatley CMO of Gatorade & Propel, PepsiCo; Jaymee Messler, President of The Players’ Tribune; Adrienne Lofton SVP, Global Brand Marketing of Under Armour; and Lisa Baird CMO of the US Olympic Committee. What emerged was a picture of brand-audience relationships and a marketers’ desire to create distinct content experiences that are brand, channel and—above all–consumer-centric.

Baird said her content strategy starts with the objective of getting the next generation of young people interested in the Olympics. “We don’t try to recreate Olympic sport,” she said, “NBC does a phenomenal job at that.” Instead, her content strategy revolves around telling the story of hometown Olympic spirit which helps young people see themselves in the stories and forges a personal connection between them and the Olympics.

For brands like Gatorade and Under Armour, the objective might seem more straightforward: selling product. However, brands like these are clearly using content to deepen engagement and tell a story that brings their brand values to life. Lofton said that one of her objectives is to take the brand from the playing field to all aspects of the athlete’s life. The trick, of course, is competing with the thousands of messages that inundate consumers on a daily basis. And while television is part of Lofton’s marketing strategy – particularly for reach and driving awareness – Under Armour’s content initiatives also live on a wide range of digital channels. “We drive people to Instagram or Snapchat to give them a peek behind the curtain to the athletes we have great relationships with.” These social media endeavors might be solo, or with a trusted media partner such as ESPN.

Gatorade’s Flatley said that they take a similar approach, using a lot of television because of its broad audience. “But we are also hyper-aware of where the teen athlete is going: how the use different media channels and how engage with on them,” she said. They also experiment with emerging tools, such as virtual reality: The Gatorade Bryce Harper Virtual Reality experience literally took fans inside Harper’s head as he faced the pitcher with the game on the line. Flatley noted that the VR experiment didn’t reach a mass audience, but offered a great opportunity “to experiment with new technology that allows us to go deeper.”

The Players’ Tribune, founded a year ago by Derek Jeter, is an experiment in letting athletes tell their own stories, according to Messler. As with Gatorade and Under Armour, The Players’ Tribune recognizes fans desire to get inside athletes’ minds. Her first objective for the new site was to establish the brand, so she relied heavily on the social influence of the players themselves. However, as the site matures, Messler said they are beginning to take a more scientific approach to develop their content distribution strategy. In both content development and analysis, Messler believes in “A nice combination of the intelligent and emotional.”

Certainly—whether a brand, organization, or media outlet—all content creators are focused on evaluating the effectiveness of their strategy and investment. Baird said it can be easy to focus on retweets and other social numbers, but given her more complex objectives—such as inspiring young athletes to not only develop an affinity for the Olympics, maybe even to join a sport and dream of becoming future Olympians—measurement is a tricky subject. She is optimistic that she’ll be able to track a link between her content and membership in the Olympic National Governing Bodies such as USA Wrestling or USA Volleyball.

The stakes are high and rivalry is fierce: as Morgan from Gatorade pointed out “There’s a high bar for all of us.” Certainly this is true, whether the storyteller is a brand, media company or organization of any type, as all compete for a share of consumer’s finite attention.

Advertising | Innovation | Perspectives

ONE by AOL: Simplifying digital ad complexity to improve creativity—and results

September 21, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Like the Jetson’s robot maid, Rosie, technology was supposed to make our lives easier. But we could use a little more Rosie and a little less complexity in the digital media and marketing industry as brands scramble to create content and advertising experiences that are optimized across an ever-expending proliferation of devices, screen-sizes, and formats. There are those, however, who believe that automation is an answer to some of this complexity: AOL, for one, continues to build more automation into its ONE by AOL platform in an effort to “allow the machines to do what the machines do best and allow the humans to do what they do best,” according to David Miller, the Company’s VP of Ad Product Management.

Marketers’ biggest concern, says Miller, is keeping their creative relevant and figuring out what is working (and what’s not). “We are trying to let the machines do that so marketers can focus on being more creative and strategic.”

To that end, AOL has expanded the company’s ONE by AOL open automation platform to allow marketers to simplify the creation of multi-variate premium cross-screen advertising. This means that marketers can create content once and—using AOL’s flexible HTML-based templating—easily deploy that content across mobile, video and desktop. While creative assets are core, the system can also incorporate many other elements such as product information, social feeds, SKU information, local retail locations, and any number of other things that brands want to get in front of consumers. “Historically, advertisers have to build five, 10, even 15 different combinations of assets for each different format—desktop, mobile, pre-roll—we want to drastically simplify that,” says Miller.

The ONE by AOL platform also connects with AOL’s audience platform, which incorporates first-party, third-party, and advertiser data. This allows marketers to target specific audiences with customized experiences. Perhaps even more importantly, ONE by AOL provides marketers with a way to clearly evaluate the performance of any given combination of assets against specific demographic segments. “We want to leverage all of the data to allow marketers to look at each individual combination of assets shown to a specific group and be able to compare the ROI of this combination aimed at this group to this other combination aimed at another demographic, then be able to easily change things up to improve results.”

This is achieved through a combination of technological integration and transparency. ONE by AOL provides insights that go beyond impressions and clicks to include insights on the impact of specific pieces of creative on ROI. The goal, says Miller, is to allow marketers to create increasingly relevant, useful advertising. “We need to see the convergence of the right brand experience with the appropriate consumer experience, which revolves around relevance and utility,” he says.

Miller points out that premium brands have long since moved away from “the big ‘click here’ button…the kind of bad ads that cause more ad blockers to be installed.” The rise of ad blocking, according to Miller, can be directly correlated to bad ads and poor consumer experiences.

Miller notes that, as an industry, we need to increase our focus on creating great experiences. “At AOL, we’re trying to figure out how to help move the industry forward overall and simplify life for our marketing partners so that they can focus on the next big cool thing.”

Innovation

Interactivity, social and utility mix well at The Daily Meal

September 18, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

When Jim Spanfeller was asked what niche he was targeting with The Daily Meal when he launched it in 2011, he replied: “The biggest one out there: the middle.” While many sites cater to the recipe hunter, and others offer elite restaurant-world insider snarking, Spanfeller—CEO of Spanfeller Media Group—saw a big opportunity to create a site for the mainstream food enthusiasts who “lead hectic lives and look forward to a nice moment to bring family and friends together around a great meal,” says Spanfeller. This meal might be home-cooked, or at a local pizzeria or French fine dining.

Food, for this crowd, is neither utilitarian nor aspirational but rather central to a lifestyle that The Daily Meal strives to support, offering everything from recipes, cooking tips, and wine and drink pairings to the best local eateries and destination dining experiences. They also recently added comprehensive restaurant and bar profile pages that include a wealth of information including directions, hours of operation, contact information, and menus in addition to editorial rankings like “101 Best Restaurants in the U.S.,” “101 Best Burgers in America,” “Best BBQ Chains,” and “Best Food Trucks.”

In addition to these rankings and reviews written by The Daily Meal team, the new restaurant venue pages also link to reviews from other trusted sources such as The New York Times and Chicago Tribune, consumer reviews, and helpful tips from Foursquare users, as well as providing the ability to make a reservation via Open Table.

Restaurant pages also feature an interactive browsable map that includes commonly visited “next stop” locations—such as spot to grab a drink or dessert—and other nearby restaurants and bars so that users can not only find where to eat, but can plan an evening of fun. Users can also opt to toggle on layers such as Facebook reviews so they can see what their friends suggest in a given area.

The Daily Meal developed the back-end technology that unifies all of this information, commentary, and utility so that its users “don’t have to hunt around the web.” It also serves to keep them on the site and engaged with the content.

As Spanfeller describes it, “Yes, we provide the information our readers are looking for. But we take into account all the wonders of the internet. Like a good Sherpa, we go out and pull it all together for users.”

Perspectives

Three social media distribution takeaways from Digital Media Strategies USA

September 14, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

As of January 2014, 74% of online adults were using social networking sites. And it has been well-documented that people discover and consume a vast quantity of news and other types of information through social platforms. However, media brands have long had a conflicted relationship with social networks. While they amass huge, content-hungry audiences, monetization has not necessarily followed.

At the Digital Media Strategies USA conference held September 9 and 10 in New York, social distribution was a recurring theme. Speakers from a wide range of media organizations made it clear that, trepidation or no, social platforms are an essential component of a distribution strategy. And the good news for publishers it that it is becoming increasingly apparent that quality content is what fuels social media platforms—which should pave the way to a more favorable revenue proposition for premium content creators.

In the words of some of the events speakers, here are three social distribution takeaways from Digital Media Strategies:

1. Their audiences are huge, and you need to be in front of them.

We don’t see it as a loss of control, we see it as a way to reach even bigger audiences, everywhere… Core to how we think about the businesses: reaching quality scaled audiences on whatever platform.

—Marty Moe, President, Vox Media (@mtmoe1)

Social deals bring tremendous distribution.

—Troy Young, President, Hearst Digital Media (@troyyoung)

Don’t see platforms as cannibalization. You’ll just lose an opportunity to show your content to more people.

—Dorth Raphaely, General Manager, Bleacher Report (@mr_dorth)

We need to get to a place where we are truly meeting them where they are: on new platforms, devices and channels.

—Alex Wellen, Chief Product Officer, CNN (@alexwellen)

2. Tell a great story, and tell it the right way for the platform

We have editors for Snapchat, editors for Facebook… We focus our resources to ensure we are presenting not just the right content, but in the right way for the platform.

—Marty Moe, President, Vox Media (@mtmoe1)

Your phone is a reflection of yourself and you open Facebook to see a reflection of your world. It is all about fitting into that experience.

—Chris Altchek, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, Mic (caltchek)

With Snapchat Discover, which we recently started participating in, you are no longer thinking about what people will share. We see it as a creative canvas and just want to create great stuff.

—Pete Cashmore, CEO Founder, Mashable (@petecashmore)

A distinctive visual vocabulary is very important in how we think about being a distributed media company so that the brand travels well.

—Troy Young, President, Hearst Digital Media (@troyyoung)

3. Social media platforms need great content.

Social is such a crowded space so we’re seeing a return to the importance of quality content. The people not creating quality content will be drowned-out.

—Dorth Raphaely, General Manager, Bleacher Report (@mr_dorth)

All the platforms want quality content that people want to read.

—Pete Cashmore, CEO Founder, Mashable (@petecashmore)

The platforms will need to compete for the best content.

—Marty Moe, President, Vox Media (@mtmoe1)

Innovation

Updated Love My Shape App Should Inspire Some Creative Marketing Exercises

August 28, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Just this week, new research from The CMO Council and IBM found that advertising budgets are rising—but so are marketers’ expectations. According to the research, marketers recognize the ability of digital to align with every stage of the buyer’s journey and plan to invest accordingly. They are also increasingly experimental, exploring a wide range of channels and tactics to connect with buyers. This doesn’t surprise John Balen, Shape’s Associate Publisher, Marketing who has watched this trend develop over the past several years: Marketers want new and exciting ways to engage potential buyers.

So while Shape, like its fellow Meredith publications, has a subscription-based digital replica app that updates with each issue, the brand also has a very different app: Love My Shape. Originally launched about a year ago as a way to leverage mobile to seamlessly bridge print and digital experiences, Balen notes that they’ve learned a lot about what marketers and consumers want over that year and have incorporated the knowledge into an upgraded version, launching with the September issue of the magazine.

It is significant to note that the development of the Love My Shape app was driven by marketer demand for innovative cross-media experiences. Initially, Balen says that marketers were conducting a lot of one-off experiments with scan-the-page-for-more offerings. Demand for interactive, cross-platform programs continued to climb, however, and the editorial side of the house grew increasingly excited about creating cross-platform experiences that better serve its readers (and drive traffic to the website). With the new edition of the app, Balen says that internal processes have been streamlined and that interactive elements are no longer conceived of as one-offs, rather they are built into the ad sales and editorial mindset and workflow.

The Shape editorial team has been enthusiastic about being able to drive readers off the pages and Balen points to Shape editor Elizabeth Goodman Artis’ letter in the September issue as proof. In it, Artis is practically giddy as she describes the ease of moving from discovering a great item in an issue to getting one delivered to your doorstep. She also raves about the opportunity to take fitness coverage off the page and bring it to life it with video content in the app.

All of this excitement doesn’t overwhelm Meredith’s continued stance on the separation of church and state. Shape does not currently offer any of its own ecommerce initiatives nor does it participate in a revenue share in its click-to-buy editorial offers. Rather, the editorial team views these as a way to ease the path for readers who are as enthusiastic about fitness gear as they are the stories about how to use it. The integrations, according to Balen, “always have to be on-brand, something that has the DNA of the brand, makes sense for our readers and that the editors support.”

The app provides the ability to activate many mobile-enhanced content and promotional features from issues of the magazine and signage at Shape events. This includes sweepstakes, exclusive videos, behind-the-scenes content, and instructional fitness, beauty and fashion demos. The updated app also incorporates geo-location; image recognition; augmented reality; and contextual content—all of which can be leveraged for editorial or marketer-driven content.

“Today’s marketers want wow,” says Balen. “They are looking for high impact units whether it is fun fold out covers or interacting with digital. Marketers want people to experience their ads and say ‘This is so much fun, I love it!’” Ultimately, he says, his team must work closely with marketers to build integrated ad experiences that not only capture consumers’ attention, but provide experiences and information they find useful and entertaining. And with the updated Love My Shape app, Balen says that everyone on the Shape team is going to have fun creating print-to-digital experiences that jump off the page and engage.

Innovation

Edmunds.com: Content Company or Tech Platform?

August 24, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Can a content company be a tech company? Edmunds.com thinks so.

It is unlikely that most consumers today, steeped in the facility of web-based research, realize that Edmunds.com, Inc. debuted as a paperback newsstand publication in the 1960s. Even then, the company was focused on consolidating automotive specifications to help car shoppers make buying decisions. Thirty years later—after early forays into CD-ROM publishing—the company launched its website, Edmunds.com, embracing the promise of the web to deliver timely content.

Edmunds.com also understood the ways that web technology could be used to drive consumers all the way from consideration to a dealership near them. The trick, according to Edmunds.com President Seth Berkowitz was to develop relationships with all of the players in the value chain, and then figure out the best way to leverage technology to meet the needs of their core customers.

“We’re clear that our customers are U.S. consumers and those are the people we need to satisfy. But we realized early on that the only way to do that was by working with auto retailers and manufacturers.” The most obvious expression of this is in Edmunds.com ability to quickly ingest and display information about vehicles on the market. In order to support the endless need for the most up-to-date information, the company has continuously invested in developing tools that take automotive information—along with expert-created editorial content and buyer opinions—and deliver utility to consumers through tools like True Market Value (TMV), the TMV New Vehicle Calculator, and TMV Used Vehicle Appraiser.

This month, the company launched the Edmunds Express tool that helps dealers validate pricing with shoppers. Designed with direct input from dealers, it fits seamlessly into the sales process and helps them build trust with customers and close deals faster. This move might raise concerns that Edmunds has shifted its allegiances from the consumer to car dealers however Berkowitz says it simply fills a gap between customers’ online research and what they experienced once they got to dealerships. Rather than replacing online research, Berkowitz says Edmunds.com’s new microsites allow dealers to quickly access information on specific vehicles and look at them with customers, all under the halo of the Edumunds.com brand, which was ranked as one of the most trustworthy ratings sites online.

Berkowitz believes that keeping a close eye on the overall car-buying experience and consumers’ evolving expectations, helps Edmunds.com continue to create tech-enabled experiences that serve their needs. At the same time, the company keeps a close eye on technological innovations to stay ahead of the curve perhaps most notably in their “Hackamotive,” an annual event launched three years ago that brings together teams of innovators and entrepreneurs in the technology, automotive, retail, and entertainment industries to compete for cash prizes for creatively re-imagining the future of car shopping.

And the Hackathon opportunity goes beyond a one-time payday: Last year, Edmunds.com launched its Fastlane Accelerator, a three month program where a small group of startups work have the opportunity to work closely with Edmunds.com, tapping into the company’s product development and technology resources. The companies, which are chosen from Hackathon winners, are also provided with mentorship to help them develop a successful strategy and avoid classic pitfalls.

This process has proved fruitful for the participants and Edmunds.com, which made its first-ever acquisition of an inaugural participant in the Fastlane Accelerator, Cardcode SMS, last October. Since then, 4,000 dealerships have signed on to use the mobile service, which allows car shoppers to engage in one-on-one text messaging with dealers. “Carcode is a win/win for both consumers and dealers because it lets them communicate in a mode and a manner people prefer,” said Berkowitz, noting that while the team at Edmunds.com recognized that texting was critical for consumer interaction, he doubts that “given our publisher roots and focus on features and pricing” that they would have developed a platform for it.

The Hackamotive and Fastlane Accelerator programs do more than expose the Edmunds.com team to new creative approaches to problems, they also expose inspire and entrepreneurial spirit across the organization.

Berkowitz says Edmunds.com has evolved over time, “from conceiving of ourselves as publishers to thinking of ourselves as a platform provider for better buying experiences.” And it appears to be working, given that the company is on pace to reach a record 20 million consumers this month. He recognizes that quality content “is the critical thing that people come for now because no amount of technology can replace the classic editorial and consumer opinions and real-world advice.” Edmunds.com believes that to deliver on what these consumers need, it must continue to invest in its technology platform to “harness the incredible power of that content.”

Innovation

New Runner’s World Utility App Shows-Off Rodale’s Invigorated Innovation Strategy

August 17, 2015 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Who knows runners better than Runner’s World? In publication since the 60s, the magazine boasts 18 global editions and reaches millions of people worldwide—from beginners to hardcore marathoners. The brand, like many others in the Rodale stable, takes great pride in the sense of community it builds around interests, which in turn feeds its understanding of the content its readers crave. With the debut of Rodale’s first utility app, Runner’s World GO, the company is also betting it knows what its readers need.

In fact, that’s what Rodale’s SVP of Digital Operations and Strategy Beth Buehler believes sets it apart from existing running apps on the market. “We’re able to take our expert editorial content and complement it with useful technology to deliver a running app that people will find really useful.” Rather than simply track performance, Runner’s World GO is built on a foundation of content that supports a runner’s needs, objectives, and overall healthy lifestyle—including pre-and post-run nutrition, recipes, motivation, stretching and more.

The app includes a number of utilities such as run tracking, training plans, a dashboard that provides a view of what the user has planned for the day, and real-time weather updates, powered by AccuWeather. The weather feature also supports a “What to Wear” functionality that helps runners figure out the best gear for that day’s run. Buehler said that identifying the right weather partner was essential for the usefulness of this app because weather is a really critical decision-making data point for runners, not just impacting what they wear but also when and where to run. “AccuWeather has been a terrific partner with great data that we are incorporating into our digital platform and use across a number of brands.”

In fact, that points to a larger strategy of continual building, testing, and iterating. Buehler points to Rodale’s significant investment in unifying its content platform and code base over the past few years, which forms a solid foundation for this strategy. Buehler describes it as an “ideal combination of organic tech and third party tech,” which allows them to be more nimble and plug into third party offerings such as AccuWeather’s.

The Runner’s World Go app is the first in an anticipated series of new utility apps – the next one is planned for year’s end. Buehler says that the team doesn’t want to allow their excitement to dictate the strategy. As with editorial products, customer reaction to the new app will be closely monitored and user feedback will be incorporated into this and future projects.

That said, Beuhler anticipates incorporating features like the ability to tag articles and categories of interest along with other personalization aspects. She says they are also carefully considering how the app might best work with the Apple Watch, though at launch it will integrate with a number of other tracking technologies on the market. The company is also testing a freemium model — free download for much of the feature set — however, it also features a $2.99 monthly subscription that provides additional content and functionality such as training plans and custom workouts. Add-free at launch, the app will eventually include sponsorships based on user data and geo-targeting, as well as video ads.

Describing the Runner’s World audience as very local and very vocal, Buehler emphasizes that they are looking forward to a lot of useful feedback on the app. “Fitness apps, particularly in the running space, are really taking off,” she says. And, given its editorial expertise and engaged reader base, Runner’s World believes it is in a unique position to lead the pack with the right combination of content and utility.