Consumers’ digital usage continues to increase its concentration in mobile. According to comScore’s 2015 Mobile App Report, mobile phones now account for two out of every three digital minutes or 62% of time spent online, up from 51% in 2013. In contrast desktop usage only accounts for 38% of digital time, down from 49% two years ago. Further, mobile users spend more than 44% of their digital time using smartphone apps.
Mobile App usage is the key driving force in the overall growth of digital media. In fact, nine in 10 minutes spent on mobile are spent on a mobile app. Smartphones apps have a slightly higher share of total minute at 88% versus table apps at 83%.
It’s not surprising that Facebook and Google own eight of the 10 most-visited mobile apps among unique visitor, age 18+. Facebook leads with nearly 126 million unique visitors and close to half have installed the app.
Interestingly, millennials’ mobile usage time is dominated by social, video, music and communications. They spend on average almost 26 hours a month on Facebook, 7 hours on Instagram, 6 hours on Snapchat and Tumblr each and 3.5 hours are spent on Twitter.
The millennial audience is the most engaged digital audience spending an average of two hours a day on social and entertainment apps, more than any other demo. In fact, half of all time spent on smartphone apps is spent on the person’s most used app and approximately 60% usage for tablets’ most popular app.
ComScore also reports mobile ads to be quite effective with 2-3x greater point lifts with regards to aided awareness, favorability, likelihood to recommend and purchase intent. Mobile ad effectiveness can be attributed to mobile ads placement in a less ad clutter environment and also the immediacy to a point of purchase.
Mobile offers publishers a unique opportunity to expand their brand across platforms. It’s also a key opportunity to attract millennials as long term and engaged users.
Given today’s information and sensory overload, capturing someone’s attention is a high commodity. Researchers at Telefonica Research in Barcelona, Spain recognized that peoples’ attention are available when they are bored. And most often, when people are bored, they turn to their cell phones. This is why the researchers developed a machine-based learning model that detects when mobile phone users are bored and pushes content to them.
The researchers identified usage patterns that were indicative of boredom and confirmed the specific behaviors patterns were related. This data was then used to predict patterns of boredom; the predictions were correct 83% of the time. Interestingly, they also noticed the more bored the participants, the more likely time had passed between the participants sending and receiving phone calls, SMS, or notifications. Importantly, users were significantly more likely to open and engage with content pushed to them on their mobile phones when the model predicted them to be bored.
These findings have major implications for future applications in being able to predict when a user is bored couple and knowing a user’s location could provide content in relation to specific context. New apps are already being developed along these lines. As well boredom detection could be a great way for publishers and marketers to know when to push content or messaging for it to be most receptive.
A new report from Adroit Digital compares Millennials’ shopping behaviors and advertising preferences with those of their older counterparts. While Adroit points out that a great deal of research closely examines generational behaviors and attributes, this report focuses on behaviors, particularly how Millennials shop, consume content and respond to advertising as compared with older shoppers. Adroit Digital conducted a study to ask Millennials and those 35 and older about their shopping and content consumption habits. The study was fielded from April 24, 2015, through May 24, 2015 and targeted a random sample of 1,000 US and Canadian consumers who self-identified as 18–34 years of age and who owned both a smartphone and a personal computer, and 500 US and Canadian consumers who self-identified as age 35 and older and owned both a smartphone and a personal computer.
Key findings include:
Both Millennials and those 35 and older do the majority of retail browsing in-store—57% and 61%, respectively.
When it comes to which online social medium affects retail purchases the most, both Millennials and those 35+ chose online review sites, 55% and 54%, respectively.
The majority of respondents are also more likely to click on a mobile ad over a desktop ad—55% of those 18–34 and 52% of those 35+.
The majority of survey respondents replied that online and/or mobile advertising does affect what they purchase—75% of those 18–34 and 73% of those 35+.
Millennials are slightly more likely to click on a native ad than a banner ad—81% compared with 75% of those 35+.
Millennials are slightly more bothered by advertisers’ remarketing efforts—83% of those 18–34 vs. 77% of those 35+.
When it comes to noticing ads between devices, the majority of both age groups surveyed report that ads on their mobile devices grab their attention more than ads on PCs.
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.
According to this research, Millennial African Americans and Hispanics are connected online at similar rates to the general adult population. In fact, technology ownership is high with 7 in 10 of African Americans and Hispanics, respectively, owning a smartphone. Further, 85% of African Americans and 78% of Hispanics use their smartphone to access news information.
Overall, Americans use four different devices or platforms to get news in a given week including televisions, radio, print, computers, cell phones, tablets, e-readers or smart internet connected televisions. Device ownership by ethnic group is quite similar; African Americans own 4.3 devices, non-Hispanic whites own 3.9, and Hispanics own 3.5.
Interestingly, when asked their preferred method for discovering news, 6 in 10 Millennial African Americans (66%), whites (61%) and Hispanics (60%) reported their preference as getting news directly from news organization rather than a technology that curates it and delivers it to them such as social media or an aggregator.
One important distinction is that Hispanic (38% and 30% once a day, respectively) and African American Millennials (33% and 45%, respectively) are more likely to use YouTube and Instagram for news than white Millennials (20% and 19%, respectively) overall, although all groups are heavy users of Facebook.
In terms of news report believability, Millennial non-Hispanic whites (42% “very much”) are more likely to trust the information they get from newspapers versus African Americans (30%). And Hispanics are more likely to trust the information they get from national network news (60%” very much or completely”) than whites (45%).
Importantly, the report testifies to mobile technology closing the digital divide in technology use for news consumption, offering Millennial users more control over the sources they use and the information they consume.
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.
Media Shift’s Collab/Space is a different kind of conference. While a couple of keynote speakers punctuated the day, this event is all about solving problems—and a little bit of improv. The July 15, 2015 Collab/Space New York event—sponsored by the Reynolds Journalism Institute—took place at the Ford Foundation in Manhattan, and focused on “Intrapreneurial Innovation.” People working to get new projects off the ground or effect change at organizations as diverse as Mother Jones, UNHCR, and BBC.com International came out to talk about their projects and get feedback from the industry veterans in the audience. It was clear by the end of the day that media companies of all shapes and sizes are struggling with many of the same problems. In other words, “You’re not alone.”
Cory Haik, executive producer and senior editor, digital news, The Washington Post
Post-Print Strategy Cory Haik, executive producer and senior editor, digital news, at The Washington Post was the morning keynote, and represented an interesting crossroads in the media industry. The Washington Post—bought by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos about two years ago—is a legacy media organization known for its top-notch journalism. And now it is in the somewhat enviable position of being owned by someone who not only “gets” digital, but is willing to put resources behind it.
Haik was given a relatively straight-forward task: build a tablet app. But she got one other instruction that not many newspapers—forever protective of their legacy models—would have given to a development team. Haik had to build an app that would have readers reaching for the tablet instead of the print product when given a choice.
The app, which comes pre-installed on Amazon’s Fire tablets, but also available for other devices, is free to Fire users for the first six months, meaning The Post app was also responsible for reaching an entirely new audience. Her team started with this idea: “Digital browsing isn’t easy…but it could be.” They worked to figuring out what worked in the print experience—after all Haik says, “From a product perspective, it’s 130 years old, it’s perfected.”—and move it to the tablet.
Browsability became the key to making a better tablet experience, and The Post opted for a two column experience—keeping the interface simple while still allowing users to scroll through the columns to browse content. It also publishes in two editions at 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. This keeps the content fresh, while also staying in line with what The Post knows about its app users, which is that they read in the morning and in the evening.
One of the other things that sets The Washington Post app apart is just how much effort goes into it by actual humans. Instead of being driven by feeds, each story is designed by a person, who makes sure each image and video appears in the right place. Haik is happy with how the app has turned out. With a team of 21 people on the editorial side alone, though, the next step is figuring out how to integrate more closely with the production process so that the content is ready to be delivered across platforms without quite so much human intervention.
Problem Solving
With that success story in mind, “intrapreneurs” from eight different companies gave short presentations on the particular challenges of their projects, before attendees broke up into groups to help presenters come up with possible solutions to the problems.
For instance, I participated in the Climate Desk group, which is an off-shoot of Mother Jones and brings together climate change-related journalism from eight partners—including The Guardian, Slate, and The Atlantic—and creates original content. All content is shared among the partners. At the end of Climate Desk editor James West’s presentation three challenges were identified:
providing valued added to it partners beyond content-sharing
using technology to add to its offerings
defining a mission beyond simple content aggregation and creation
There were seven other groups, several of which focused on helping media outlets tackle homepage redesign challenges. While many of the issues at the heart of each presenter’s challenge were universal to all publishers—think engagement, multi-platform implementation, and even simple adoption challenges—each one took its own unique shape. After an hour or so of brainstorming, the groups came back together for another keynote speech from Sree Sreenivasan’s, chief digital officer at the metropolitan Museum of Art, and finally presented the solutions each group had defined.
Whether presenters went home with concrete solutions that they can implement in the weeks and months to come is hard to say. However, it was clear that the creative juices were flowing, and audience participants got as much from helping other publishers tackle their problems as the presenters got from having a free team of industry professionals brainstorm to solve the kinds of challenges that are all to familiar to many of us.
Theresa Cramer is the editor of EContentmagazine and Intranets newsletter. She is a 10 year veteran of the publishing industry with a background in both newspaper and book publishing. Follow her on Twitter @Cramerstrasse.
In our latest study on kids’ preferences in viewing TV content across devices and platforms, we find that in a majority of family households with tablets and smartphones, TV is no longer the first choice for entertainment, with 57% of parents saying their child prefers a device other than the TV to watch video content. Mobile devices offer versatility, simple user interface and a ‘personal’ viewing experience.
As such, in households where tablets and smartphones are accessible, they’ve now taken the lead with kids as the preferred way to enjoy, explore and discover video content. In fact, 58% of kids in households with tablets have their own, making it even easier for them to watch the video content they want to watch, whenever and wherever they want.
TV as Punishment? TV has become the ‘second’ or even third screen of choice for many of these kids – so much so that nearly 50% of parents say that when their kids misbehave, to punish them, they take away their tablet and make them just ‘watch TV instead’– creating a generation of kids for whom ‘TV is punishment.’
Additionally, when given the choice between dessert or more time on their tablet, 41% of parents say their child would choose the tablet over dessert, compared to just 33% choosing dessert over the tablet.
More Please… And, in true ‘more is better’ fashion, kids are not limiting themselves to just one screen at a time – 56% of parents say it’s not unusual for their children to be watching different content on different devices at the same time – and 39% are, at times, watching the same content on different devices simultaneously.
This trend in media and platform preferences has implications for TV networks, cable and satellite companies, streaming services and content creators as they market and develop entertainment for the next generation.
Self-Directed Viewing is Here to Stay’ |As TV content providers watch their audiences rapidly shift from traditional viewing to streamed and digital, this study shines a light on kids as the ‘canary in the coal mine,’ showing a need to redefine audience reach expectations, programming and creative development, as well as measurement and monetization strategies sooner rather than later.
In effect, streamed content services are now eating into linear TV audience share, just as a large percentage of audience share shifted from broadcast to cable only a couple of decades ago – but at a more rapid pace and without a solution in place to measure viewing on new and preferred platforms.
In a meeting with a major network client the other day, I was earnestly asked – ‘Don’t you think that when they grow up, they’ll want to watch live TV just the way we do – or just turn the set on and channel surf?’ my response was ‘when they grow up, you’ll want to provide them with access to your content however they want to access it – on any platform or device, at any time and on their own terms – and the time to figure out how you’re going to do this is now.’
Robert Miner is the CEO and Founder of Miner & Co. Studio, an audience insights based strategic consultancy with a focus on trends, innovation, show concept development and brand positioning serving major television networks, content creators and digital video providers.
*Study included in-home ethnographies and a survey fielded among 800 moms and dads of kids ages 2 to 12 who live in the United States and watch at least some video content on a tablet and/or smartphone.
For most of its life, Apple was about hardware: computers, then iPods, iPhones, iPads and the Watch. But along the way, Apple also delved into software but mainly tried to be a platform for content (think iTunes). Now it’s moving in a new direction, putting more emphasis on news curation with its coming News app and offering up mobile ad-blocking in Safari—two moves that have publishers scratching their heads.
The News app, similar to Flipboard, operates as a reader where users can choose from more than 50 publishers they’d like to follow (including the New York Times, Conde Nast and Bloomberg, with more coming). Plus, people can receive customized content that will become more personalized with time as the app gets to know their preferences. The News app will replace Newsstand, the original news app on iOS where news unfortunately ended up, well, dying. But the News app won’t just be an aggregation via algorithm–Apple will also depend on old-fashioned human editors.
The positive buzz surrounding News has less to do with originality and more to do with Apple’s gargantuan reach, as the app is bound to make a splash when it debuts on hundreds of millions of devices this fall. It may come as a pleasant surprise for consumers who aren’t already tapped into some kind of newsfeed–but the reality is that a growing number of young people get their news via social media and not specialized apps.
Losing Control? However, it’s not easy to tell what the News app and other updates with the new iOS might mean for publishers–both in terms of advertising and editorial control.
The Wall Street Journal calls the News app an addition to the “distribution shift” for publishers with offerings such as Facebook’s Instant Articles or Snapchat’s Discover, both of which offer streams of content within their platforms. Individual news apps aren’t the primary contact with news anymore; they feed into these broader platforms.
“In partnering with outside parties, publishers tap into huge audiences, but also inherently relinquish some control,” the Journal’s Lukas Alpert and Jeffrey Trachtenberg wrote.
Editorial control is one thing, but financial control is another, and not just on the apps-as-readers. Apple has said that publishers can keep 100 percent of the revenue from the ads they sell themselves, and 70 percent of the revenue Apple’s iAd advertising platform generates. That mirrors exactly the deal that Facebook is offering with Instant Articles.
Ad Blocking Coming But when it comes to ads outside of the News app, an update that wasn’t announced publicly but only revealed in Apple’s developer documentation is perhaps more important to publishers right now: “AdBlocking is coming to the iPhone with iOS 9.”
Blocking the annoying little ads that pop up on browsers has almost become routine among users, and if that trend picks up on mobile, it doesn’t fare well for publishers. They already don’t generate a lot of revenue on mobile–take the New York Times, which earns only 10 percent of its digital advertising revenue on mobile. So the pressure is on for those numbers to become higher if mobile continues to become the preferred entry point for content consumption. As Joshua Benton wrote in Nieman Lab, “If iOS users–the majority of mobile web users in the U.S., and disproportionately appealing demographically–can suddenly block all your ads with a simple free download, where is the growth going to come from?”
One idea, from TechCrunch’s Danny Crichton, is for publishers to copy a model not too different from cable channels, and “get together and create a basic subscription package that would offer a completely ad-free and tracker-free viewing experience.” Another way, he argues, is to “radically rethink” how to do advertising on the Internet, perhaps with a more simple ad model.
No easy answer exists, obviously. Letting go of editorial control is one thing, but not having financial control is a whole other battle. Most of all, it sounds as if Apple would like to get on the “friend or foe?” list for publishers alongside so many other social platforms.
The U.S. country-specific data (2,295 news consumers) identifies Online—which includes social media—as the main news source (43%) compared to TV (40%), Social (11%) and Newspaper (5%).
Among Reuters’ key findings:
In terms of accuracy, TV is still viewed as best (36%) source for accuracy versus Online (30%).
Overall, U.S. news consumers are still skeptical of the news media at large – 32% trust in general and 56% trust my sources.
The paradigm for access shows Smartphones as essential for news consumption – at 41% from 31% in 2014.
In fact 26% of U.S. news consumers claim their smartphone to be their main device for accessing news. In contrast, tablet usage at 21% only grew 2% from 2014 and only one in 10 cite as their main device to access news.
Growth in mobile news alerts doubled, 13% in 2015 from 6% in 2014.
14% of news lovers, the heaviest user group, access news content 5+ times per day.
Interestingly, video news consumption is flat at 30% compared to last year.
Top barriers to video notes “I find reading more convenient (39%)”, “I would like to watch on a bigger screen and Pre-roll ads tend to put me off (23%, respectively).”
The minority of news consumers (11%) pay for digital news access, averaging $10 (median) per month. It is important to note that just over than two-thirds (67%) report that they “would not pay whatever the price.”
Not surprisingly, social media plays an important role on how news consumers find news (35%) from 30% in 2014. In fact, 35% use social media as their starting point for news.
News consumers feel plagued by digital advertising resulting in almost half (47%) regularly using ad-blocking. As digital news try new creative ad models such as native and sponsored ads, there is concern among users of blurring the lines between editorial content with brands.
Download the full report for greater depth, a range of country-specific data and access to a great essay (page 101), “Attitudes to Sponsored and Branded Content.”
Drawing from its SMoX Study, the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has released a new Guidance Report entitled, ‘Location Audience Targeting’. From the report:
Mobile has changed the way we think about digital audiences. Before the advent of the ubiquitous mobile phone, traditional marketing and advertisement strategies that were “location based” had a very different meaning than “location based marketing” does today. Options for location-based mobile audiences have expanded far beyond the simple geo-fence campaign, and offer both sophisticated targeting options and insights on reaching the consumer on their mobile device with the right message at the right time.
No longer just a tool for “in the moment” targeting, major brands are now leveraging the rich contextual information that location provides to create highly-targeted audience segments, enabling them to strategically target consumers at specific points in their day, not just when they’re within close proximity of a brand’s store or restaurant. For many major brands, the use of audience targeting is still a fairly new tactic, yet one that is predicted to explode in popularity in the coming years due to its ability to yield an incredibly high lift in store visitation (SVL), particularly when used in combination with more common proximity targeting tactics such as geo-fencing.
Detailing how brands like Denny’s, Goodwill and Walmart are using audience targeting to increase store visitation, the report builds on an earlier MMA white paper released in February. The Report provides key insights and takeaways on:
How to create location based audiences
Leveraging the data behind location-based audience.
Incorporating non-location data to enrich profiles
Guidance on optimal ad formats and creative
5 case studies detailing how brands are using audience targeting
There are few of life’s milestones as exciting—or as nerve-wracking—as pregnancy. Everyday Health has long helped its audience optimize their heath, manage issues, and prepare for pregnancy and parenthood. It is no surprise that among its most popular franchises is What to Expect, which was built upon what many women call “the pregnancy bible,” Heidi Murkoff’s guide for expectant mothers that has spent more than 690 weeks on the New York Times’ Bestseller List.
The company’s latest move leverages the incredible popularity of What to Expect through a strategic partnership with Wildflower Health, which produces mobile health programs that help families tap into the healthcare system and make more informed health decisions. Their partnership and the resulting updated What to Expect app puts important information in the hands of expectant mothers, integrating Wildflower Health’s enterprise mobile application platform, a HIPAA-compliant architecture for both iOS and Android operating systems. Wildflower combines mobile analytics with outcomes from the healthcare system to create a data model for predicting and managing health risks. Its customers include health plans, self-insured employers and Medicaid clients.
When Miki Kapoor joined Everyday Health in September last year as President of the newly-formed Healthcare Solutions division, his goal was to execute Everyday Health’s growth strategy across the broader healthcare landscape, which includes payors, providers, employers and risk-bearing entities in the healthcare ecosystem. He says Wildflower Health stood out as a potential partner because of its digital acumen and the two companies’ shared both product and philosophical goals.
Both reach women in the very early stages of pregnancy, which is essential for affecting healthy pregnancy outcome, as well as for risk-identification for issues such as premature birth. This also helps to solve a challenge for insurers as they often do not have an opportunity to impact women’s pregnancies until claims are processed. As Kapoor points out, about 11% of U.S. babies are born prematurely, and these high risk pregnancies can cost up to 20 times more than full-term births. However he is quick to point out that healthcare costs aren’t the only ones that need to be accounted for. “We can impact healthcare costs, yes. But we can also help make a pretty incredible impact on outcomes for mom and baby,” says Kapoor.
For What to Expect fans, the experience within the app will not markedly change. However it now allows users to provide insurer information and choose whether or not to allow Everyday Health to share their information with that insurer. Kapoor emphasizes that this has been accomplished with customer trust top of mind. “All of this is done in a HIPAA compliant platform…We have built a relationship with consumers and think about how not to breach their trust in every move we make.” As the integration was being developed, Kapoor says that there were a number of points at which they opted to “pull back to stay clear of potential issues of concern.”
Ultimately, though, he feels that this partnership serves Everyday Health’s objectives to grow revenue by expanding its customer base within the digital healthcare industry and improving its relationship with physicians. And even more importantly, he believes that this integration improves the value of the What’s Expecting app for its core audience by helping to prevent pre-term birth through information, education and early risk assessment. The partnership not only helps mothers identify their level of risk, but also provides a great deal of information about programs and services (many of which are free) offered by their healthcare providers. For example, many plans offer on-call nurses who can allay a mother’s fears about a midnight pain or, if necessary, tell her to call her doctor in the morning or to head to the emergency room.
The value of this last feature is one Kapoor, a father of two healthy children, can personally attest to:
“My wife’s water broke early. It was her first pregnancy and she was uncertain how much time she had and put in a call to the doctor immediately. Two hours later, when they spoke, the doctor told her how potentially serious this was, given the early gestation age of the baby, and told her to get to the hospital.” Given that the What to Expect reaches about 75% of pregnant women in the United States, Kapoor thinks that they can make a significant impact in identifying risky pregnancies and helping reduce the number of pre-term births.
“We believe in taking healthcare to the consumer. When they first question a condition, they turn to us. We keep these people at the center.” And with partnerships like this one, Everyday Health builds upon its strategy to generate new revenue opportunities across a broader set of healthcare constituents, while continuing to arm women with the tools and information that lead to healthier pregnancies, babies and, perhaps, even healthcare system.
