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It’s been a tough Thursday for pubs, NerdWallet undergoes layoffs, BuzzFeed is going to miss targets AND Mashable is sold for $200m less that its last valuation. Ouch.
We’re also on the hunt for an Account Manager, here in NY.
Notable Stories this Week
- Polar maps a trajectory towards a Cost Per Engaged View for branded content.
- The writing was on the wall when BuzzFeed opened up programmatic, sources to WSJ say they’ll miss their revenue targets again. IPO is on ice.
- Are brand co-signs more impactful than artist co-signs, a discussion on the evolution of how brands and artists have shifted from ‘selling out’ to collaborating.
- Walmart’s “Outside The Box” podcast is engaging, but… A good post on what brand podcasts need to do to achieve alignment.
- Facebook to encourage collaboration between brands Facebook pages with ‘highlighted shares’.
- The Trade Desk will roll out ads.txt on Nov 15th. Very good.
- How Nissan weaned itself off the click through rate. Very important for marketers.
- The Guardian is seeking to develop its B2B content business.
- ^ On that note, our B2B Research report is available now.
Deals/M&A
- Ziff Davis acquires Mashable for 1x revenue. Mashable were stuck, unable to obtain funding to cover losses.
Campaign of the Week
- Microsoft & The Telegraph: How advanced digital marketing solutions benefit from cloud technology. A good example of B2B, introducing a new product line to the audience, in this case Ignition AI.
- HP enterprise took a Quartz ad and turned it into a newsbot focused on Cloud Computer.
- Apps are starting to get into branded content, take a look at FanDuel’s partnership with Adam Schefter.
Smartest commentary
- “The old model of sponsorships has been replaced by partnerships creating a much more collaborative and symbiotic relationship… In the late ’90s, we found that artists were very skeptical of a potential relationship with a brand. Many artists were concerned that fans would see them ‘selling out.” – Maurice Bernstein, Founder Giant Step
- ^ This is a good point.
- “It’s gone from being a kind of skunkworks operation to being the core thing that we sell on a daily basis,” he said. “The New York Times ad offering is led by the content studio.” – Sebastian Tomich, SVP of Advertising & innovation, NY Times
Datapoints of note
- Time Inc’s branded content studio The Foundry has produced over 1000 campaigns over the past two years.
- In-game inventory on Football Manager 2018 goes for £1 CPM. Interesting.
And a little reminder, we’re after an Account Manager here in NY.
Ta,
Ben
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