The rise in online consumption has shaped the media and publishing industry we experience today. Consumers demand high-quality, free content at the click of a button.
This expectation — contrasted with rampant ad-blocking, declining print circulations, citizen journalism, and content on social channels — means the pressure is building for the industry to skill-up. And as consumer trends evolve, traditional business models limber and lose out on new digital revenue streams.
So, how should publishers adapt to the ever-changing landscape?
Here we’ll look at three publishers who are leveraging a fully-fledged zero-party data strategy to deliver engaging, interactive, and relevant experiences to connect with readers and deliver hyper-personalized marketing initiatives.
Motor Trend
Following last year’s success, the Alfa Romeo Drive to COTA sweepstakes was back and bigger than ever. Motor Trend and Alfa Romeo encouraged consumers to take a test drive at their local Alfa Romeo dealership in return for a unique code that could be used to win an exciting VIP experience.
After receiving their dealer code, participants could submit the code to the sweepstakes form online. To fuel future marketing activities and email promotions, participants could then complete their personal details to confirm their entry and could choose to opt-in to stay in-the-know with Alfa Romeo news updates, exclusive events, and much more.
To help build a profile of consumers and better understand purchase intentions, Alfa Romeo also asked participants to select how soon they were planning on purchasing or leasing their next new vehicle, and which vehicle they took out for a test drive. This zero-party data could be used to deliver hyper-personalized and targeted marketing communications based on preferences and intentions actively selected by users.
The Gin Kin
To support the growth of the new online gin community, The Gin Kin, DC Thomson Media launched a series of weekly sweepstakes campaigns to encourage newsletter signups and foster commercial partnerships. The ability to drive engagement and boost marketing opt-ins was invaluable for The Gin Kin in driving first-party data capture for its several commercial clients.
To get involved, participants were required to answer one simple question, often surrounding the prize on offer, and could complete their entry by submitting their personal details to the form provided. To capture valuable audience data that can be reused in future marketing communications, participants also had the option to opt-in to review the latest news and exclusive offers from The Gin Kin.
Results:
- Drove newsletter signups from 0 to 7k in 6 months
- On average, 1/3 of participants opted-in to receive The Gin Kin’s marketing emails
- Played a significant role in increasing site traffic to hit 200k page views
- The campaign supported The Gin Kin’s efforts in increasing Facebook reach, engagement, and following
Bauer Media
Bauer Media enabled marketing emails to be triggered upon campaign entry in real-time. This data was used to improve segmentation within its CRM, DMP, and enabled Bauer Media to understand which campaign types worked best for its audience.
All data captured with Marigold Grow was then fed into Bauer’s Single Customer View, where Bauer provided dashboards overlaying Marigold Grow data with web analytics, DMP, commercial revenue, registration, and third-party data from multiple sources, helping to also grow its audience and business.
Results:
- 5M zero-party data records and marketing opt-ins collected with Marigold Grow
- 4K experiences launched in 2 years
