Month: May 2018

The New York Times has lofty subscription goals, aiming to get to 10 million globally, but with some of its newsletters, it’s going small.

The Times on May 24 is set to launch its latest newsletter, Summer in the City. It’ll come out every week through Labor Day and offer ideas on things to do in the city each weekend. Another, Offsides, starting around June 9, will be a biweekly newsletter that delivers arguments and opinions on the social, political and economic issues around the World Cup. Two other recent temporary newsletters are Internetting with Amanda Hess, on offbeat internet culture; and Caliphate, which is an extension of the Times’ new podcast series by the same name.

The Times decided to do more pop-up newsletters after seeing its “Game of Thrones” newsletter take off last year. Some 80,000 people subscribed to the eight-time newsletter, and the email had a 60 percent unique open rate.

These short-run newsletters are a small part of the 55 Times newsletters that as of May 2017 reached 13 million subscribers. (The Times said the subscriber count has grown since then, but wouldn’t provide an updated figure.) But the Times sees pop-up newsletters as a good way to introduce people to the publication’s breadth of coverage and help the Times reach specific audiences. Summer in the City was created with young people in mind, an audience the Times wants more of, for example.

“We really want to make sure we become a habit for readers,” said Elisabeth Goodridge, the Times’ editorial director of email and messaging. She wouldn’t break out figures for short-run newsletters specifically, but the Times has said newsletter subscribers are twice as likely as regular Times readers to become subscribers. In the case of the pop-up newsletters, the Times actively markets other newsletters to their subscribers. People who sign up for the World Cup newsletter will be prompted to sign up for Opinion Today or sports newsletters, for example.

“It’s all about building the brand,” Goodridge said. “But we’ve noticed open rates and KPIs are extra powerful, so it’s also about building up the relationship. People like signing up for them because it’s a short-term commitment, and it’s something they’re passionate about right now.”

With these recent pop-up newsletters, Goodridge leaned on lessons from the “Game of Thrones” one: A limited run makes them appealing; they tap into a subject people are fervent about; they’re written by experts and give people something they can’t find elsewhere.

Summer in the City, for example, will be written by two young staffers and have a distinct format. (Each newsletter will have two neighborhood itineraries, one tailored for a date night or an outing with friends, and the other to entertain parents and other out-of-town guests.)

Offsides is catering to soccer fans, but will focus on off-field action. “It’s niche and aimed at fans of the sport, but will resonate with people who are interested in the opinion section,” said Alexandra March, newsletter editor for opinion, a new role at the Times.

At 55 newsletters, the Times might seem to be at peak newsletter. But Goodridge, who oversees a staff of more than 15 and growing, said she hasn’t seen evidence that the newsletters are cannibalizing existing ones. She’s also considering newsletters that are for subscribers only, something The Washington Post has done.

“I feel like we could still launch more,” she said.

The post Why The New York Times likes short-run newsletters appeared first on Digiday.

AMAs, or “Ask Me Anything” threads, on Reddit have featured entrepreneur Elon Musk, conservationist Jane Goodall and regular people just putting themselves out there. As Reddit grows its advertising business, the platform will host a new branded AMA this week with a familiar guest: an Audi car.

On May 24, Audi is relaunching “Think Faster,” where celebrities participate in a live video AMA filmed inside a moving car and streamed to Reddit via YouTube. For the third installment of the series, celebrity chef David Chang and YouTube personality Liza Koshy will answer Reddit users’ questions from a 2018 Audi RS 5 Coupe.

“’Think Faster’ is a good example of, ‘Let’s not just create another 30-second TV commercial or filling in already existing social media feeds that need to be filled with stuff,’” said John Matejczyk, executive creative director for MTZHF, Audi’s agency for the campaign. “Audi doesn’t want to just feed the beast of online content. Our hope is that [Chang and Koshy] have enough traction and interest among their communities, and they’ll get to see a new side of these people.”

The first episode of the series last September featured actors Elizabeth Banks and Adam Scott close to hurling while Banks shared her “general feeling on onions” and Scott, his five-year plan. This time around, Audi lowered the driving speed, but will still ask Reddit users for questions as long as they abide by the guidelines. 

Some brands have been shy to experiment with Reddit, but for Audi, it’s been a deep investment, and the continuation of its series lends credibility to Reddit as an ad platform.

“It’s a very intelligent conversation on Reddit. I don’t want to say that across the board, but if you compare the chatter on Reddit to other platforms, you’ll find more thought-leader mentality there,” Matejczyk said.

“What really attracted us to Reddit was the authenticity,” said Kenneth Bracht, director of brand marketing at Audi. “People are used to asking interesting questions, and we knew we had a built-in audience there. The Reddit community has always had a nice balance — everyone from a Hollywood celebrity to a person who’s been in office. There’s always the fun and then more serious questions.”

Audi’s first two episodes garnered 35.7 impressions across press and social and 1.33 million views per episode. The next two episodes increased to 50.3 million impressions and 2 million views.

Neal Hubman, West Coast director of sales at Reddit, said his team expected Audi’s viewership to increase due to Reddit’s new native mobile ads that let users comment within the app, which could increase overall impressions.

The fifth and sixth episodes are the first big engagement-based campaign developed for Reddit’s recent redesign. The redesign and the new ads have sparked some concerns from users that an onslaught of advertising is coming. Zubair Jandali, Reddit’s vp of sales, said companies like Audi embracing an AMA should be seen as a “nod to the community” rather than an annoyance.

“AMAs were birthed on our platform,” Jandali said. “There’s the fact that [Audi has] done this not once, but twice, but three times with a highly passionate audience.”

Mobile has been a big push for Reddit. A Reddit spokesperson said 41 percent of time spent on Reddit is within the company’s official mobile apps. Logged-in app users spend 30 percent more time per day than logged-in desktop users. The audience is also unique; 80 percent of Reddit app users do not use the desktop site.

“Our brand strategy overall, something we think about a lot, is [providing] experiences users couldn’t get otherwise, like McDonald’s bringing Szechuan sauce back,” Hubman said. “It’s something they couldn’t appreciate unless Audi got involved.”

The post ‘A nice balance’: Audi launches Reddit campaign ‘Think Faster’ to drive conversation appeared first on Digiday.

Adobe said Monday it will buy the ecommerce platform Magento for $1.68 billion. Magento’s 2017 revenue was $150 million, and the deal is expected to close by the end of August. Ecommerce has been a big hole in Adobe’s tech, and competitors have spent heavily to own Magento’s competitors. Two years ago, Salesforce bought Demandware… Continue reading »

The post Adobe Will Buy Ecom Platform Magento For $1.68B appeared first on AdExchanger.

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