Tag: publishing

How Condé Nast Is Leveraging Attribution Data To Improve Branded Content

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Condé Nast is adopting a data-driven strategy to improve its branded content and appeal to its ad clients. The leading publisher has created a new unit named Condé Nast Spire, which focuses on connecting its first-party behavioral data with insights from 1010data to establish links between readers’ content consumption and their purchasing activities. Condé Nast will then leverage those attribution findings to create “micro-segments” that advertisers can target with certain types of content. For example, the company cites that humor, design, and political videos work well on potential computer buyers, whereas “big beauty spenders” over age 25 are more engaged with culture and celebrity content. Armed with those insights, the company will work with advertisers to create branded content that caters to the “micro-segments” of their choosing.

What Brands Need To Do
With more and more advertisers trying their hands at branded content, partly as a response to the rise of ad avoidance, it is important for brands to work with publishers and content creators to figure out what types of content work best for their intended audiences. This initiative from Condé Nast should be helpful for brands in that regard as it helps make branded content more targeted and accountable.

To learn more about the effectiveness of branded content, especially branded videos and how they stack up around the world, click here to read the report from our joint study with Google.

 

Source: AdWeek

Snapchat Revamps App To Draw More Eyeballs For Publishers And Brands

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Snapchat rolled out a revamped app design on Tuesday, aiming to get more users to check out the Discover content created by its publisher partners and give its ad business a boost. True to the initial report of the revamp surfaced over two weeks ago, this redesign is focused on making the Discover channels more visible and accessible. The publishing portals are transformed from the dull circles of media company logos into dynamic tiles that serve as covers teasing the content inside. The Live Stories section in the app now includes a carousel of Discover channels at the top, and Snapchat also added a subscribe button to the Discover channels to allow users to follow the publishers they like in their Stories feeds.

What Brands Need To Do
With a new look designed to draw more eyeballs to its publishing channels and the ads they carry, it is clear that Snapchat’s decision to bring its publishing hub into the spotlight is fueled by its chase for more ad revenue. The popular messaging app has been making strides in gaining new users and building out its ad products, recently enlisting comScore to track Discover traffic and launching a shoppable ad format. Therefore, brands wishing to connect with the younger generations should consider adding Snapchat to their media buying plans.

 

Source: Variety

Facebook To Allow More Ads In Instant Articles

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
On Wednesday Facebook announced that it will soon allow publishers to include more ads in the articles published with Instant Articles. The announcement came a month after some well-known publishers challenged Facebook over the ad restrictions it imposed in Instant Articles, which limited the revenue generated from content they posted. The social network first introduced Instant Articles in May, and now sees more than 100 publishers publishing stories with this feature on a daily basis.

Market Impact
Facebook bending to publishers and loosening its restriction in Instant Articles illustrated the ongoing push-and-pull between content creators and platforms. For brands, increased ad spots in Instant Articles spell more opportunities to reach mobile Facebook users by offering them a quick access.

Source: AdWeek

Why Facebook Is Chasing After Online Publishers

Posted on by Lab Team

Read original story on: Wall Street Journal

In order to attract and retain more users, Facebook has been quite ambitious in terms of building its social network into a content platform. According to a recent Pew Research Center study, 48% of respondents said they recently read news about politics and government on Facebook. So it came as little surprise when Facebook announce a new initiative, dubbed Instant Articles, earlier today to increase its appeal to digital publishers.

As part of the content initiative, Facebook is offering to let publishers keep all the revenue from certain ads, which is clearly aimed to lure them into distributing content through its social network. Although concerns over access to reader data and user experience control have already been voiced, Facebook is reportedly finalizing the details with its launch partners, which includes BuzzFeed, The New York Times, National Geographic and other major publishers.

 

 

Vimeo Debuts New VOD Network For Web Publishers

Posted on by Lab Team

Read the original on: WSJ Blog

Vimeo is rolling out a new Vimeo On Demand Publisher Network, a collection of websites that will use Vimeo’s technology to build custom video-on-demand libraries for online publishers. Early partners include The Atlantic, CBS Interactive, and TEN: The Enthusiast Network, who will also employ Vimeo’s payment system, which enable video rental or purchase.

Why Publishers Are Trying Out “Yo”

Posted on by Lab Team

Publishers like WSJ and Buzzfeed are dipping their toes into the notorious “Yo” app to tap into its sizable audience. With its newly added functions of embedded links and hashtags, Yo has become more marketer-friendly, and publishers are among the first to take advantage of it. The one-word-only messaging app attracted a considerable amount of users with its simple, gimmicky concept early on, and marketers always follow where the audience goes.

Scribd Debuts eBook Subscription Service

Posted on by Lab Team

Scribd officially launched its new ebook subscription service in conjunction with HarperCollins. It’s an all-you-can-read subscription for $8.99 per month, and now competes with eBook service Oyster, which launched just over a month ago. Scribd has, apparently, secured the bulk of HarperCollins’ catalog, and claims to have books from over 30 other publishers, including “thousands” of bestsellers. HarperCollins apparently chose Scribd because it already has the ability to reach large markets and build audiences at scale, rather than starting from the ground up, like Oyster. Scribd is offering the first month free as a promotion at the time of writing. 

Estée Lauder Partners With Hearst For Flipboard Content

Posted on by Lab Team

Brands are always on the lookout for ways to increase content, and with the rise of digital publications that search has expanded widely. So widely, in fact, that some brands, like Estée Lauder, are looking to professional publishers for content, in this case for its digital magazine on the Flipboard app. Hearst worked to bring original and recycled beauty and lifestyle content from Elle, Marie Claire, and harper’s Bazaar in order to create the magazine. In total there are 20 pieces of content that will fill the magazine until October, and the rest of the content is links to articles from Hearst properties and other sites. Though it’s not the most built out magazine, it points to the importance brands are placing on digital content, and what lengths they are willing to go to ensure that they maintain their digital image. 

Are Curators The New Publishers? Flipboard Thinks So.

Posted on by Lab Team

Flipboard has updated their social magazine that lets users create their own custom magazines, curating articles from other publishers, customizing covers and more. Users can also follow an individual’s magazine as well and purchase products via Etsy. Interestingly enough, the update lets anyone from an individual to a brand become a publisher with the eventual possibility of even sharing ad revenue if they get enough traction.   

Marco Arment and Subscriptions vs Sharing

Posted on by Lab Team

The battle of the paid vs shared web has been raging on for years, and still no content provider seems to have struck a balance between the two.  Marco Arment’s iPad publication “The Magazine” is one such content provider, and it recently announced a change from a subscription-only policy to a metered paywall, more like the one the New York Times uses.  This struggle calls into question where the line should be drawn between free and paid content, how sharing should be treated, and how advertising plays a role in internet media.  Traditional advertising continues to decline in value, and for the first time, subscription revenue exceeds advertising revenue for the New York Times and the Financial Times.  For smaller providers like “The Magazine,” is there a way to balance free content with paid content?