Digital Media Strategies For Special Interest Brands Vince Errico, Chief Digital Officer

Transcription

1 Digital Media Strategies For Special Interest Brands Vince Errico, Chief Digital Officer

2 TRUSTED MEDIA BRANDS IN BRIEF US-based company founded in 1922 Company name changed 2 years ago from Reader s Digest Association Several publishing companies joined together early this century Books division Publish approximately 12 magazine titles, of which, 4 largest are: Taste of Home Reader s Digest The Family Handyman Birds & Blooms

3 TRUSTED MEDIA BRANDS IN BRIEF 50+ countries In the U.S. Top 50 ComScore Property 50+ Million Monthly Unique Visitors 40+ Million Monthly Print Readership In Canada Reader s Digest & Sélection #1 read magazine in Canada Sélection.ca reaches 15% of all French Canadian adults

4 1. UPDATE & DEFINE YOUR BRAND FOR THE DIGITAL, MULTI-MEDIA ENVIRONMENT Competitors, near competitors, substitutes Areas of competitive advantage & differentiation Audience Characteristics Segments Differences from print and other media Your Brand Here Revenue sources: Magazine subscriptions Books sales Advertising Other?

5 BRAND ATTRIBUTE MAKE A PERCEPTUAL MAP OF YOUR BRAND USING YOUR MOST IMPORTANT BRAND ATTRIBUTES Competitor BRAND ATTRIBUTE Your Brand Here Competitor Competitor Blogs Competitor Competitor Blogs Blogs Competitor Competitor OPPOSITE BRAND ATTRIBUTE OPPOSITE BRAND ATTRIBUTE

6 2. Know the medium deeply & add more people on your team who do Know the strengths and weaknesses of the various media Most digital media is inherently interactive and people expect to do more than just read Not always easy to make the transition from print to interactive Digital ecosystem is inherently more complex than print Digital employees have to have a broader set of skills Editors who are strong analysts and/or process oriented Ad sales people who also understand technology to drive larger deals with better margins Designers who code and/or understand Information Architecture

7 LEAPFROG AHEAD Leapfrog ahead Avoid the analog replication trap, don t replicate what you re doing offline Carriage Horseless Carriage Automobile

8 YOU WILL LIKELY HAVE MORE EXPOSURE FOR YOUR CONTENT ON OTHER SITES THAN YOUR OWN Highly likely that more people will encounter your brand and your content in another environment or on another site than on your own site Requires a shift in industry thinking from publishing to distributed audience aggregation and engagement through content

9 3. KNOW THE COSTS & REVENUES OF YOUR TRAFFIC DRIVING EFFORTS Videos, articles, slideshows, listicles, audio, infographics, UGC, photos, etc. Assign a manager for each traffic driving channel Have a channel P&L for each Hint: Search is probably your highest margin channel SEARCH NEWSLETTERS SOCIAL PARTNERS PAID TRAFFIC TasteOfHome.com FamilyHandyman.com ReadersDigest.com BirdsAndBlooms.com TasteOfHome.com FamilyHandyman.com ReadersDigest.com BirdsAndBlooms.com Facebook Pinterest Instagram MSN AOL DailyMotion AccuWeather

10 4. MANAGE THE DISINTERMEDIATION OF AD TECHNOLOGY VENDORS AND PARTNERS Don t go NASCAR

11 4. MANAGE THE DISINTERMEDIATION OF AD TECHNOLOGY VENDORS AND PARTNERS Don t go NASCAR Beware: it s just a little java script Fewer well-managed partners drives faster page load times and more revenue Assign a manager for each vendor partner Develop a vendor partner P&L Drive to overall yield management (of revenue and/or margins as appropriate) from all revenue sources

12 5. DEVELOP VERY CLEAR PLANS AND COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE You will always have more projects than resources Determine priorities based on goals Revenue (or Margin or both) Dependencies Align resources to parallel track where possible Identify skills and resources gaps early and start recruiting or licensing tools Tell everyone who might need to know Tell everyone again When they act surprised, patiently, tell them again Measure and report often

13 6. FINALLY, TACKLE CULTURAL CHANGES HEAD-ON The print publishing business is narrative driven; digital multimedia business is data driven Don t pretend there won t be any cultural changes or that they don t exist process changes are cultural too! Be prepared by understanding how transformation happens and what you need to do to support it Don t be surprised if it leads you to different or totally new businesses

14 Vince Errico Chief Digital Officer Trusted Media Brands