Month: September 2018

WorldStarHipHop will debut a Snapchat Discover channel, or “Publisher Story” in Snapchat’s parlance, on Sept. 10 as the hip-hop culture publisher steps up its shift to original content producer from content aggregator.

Founded in 2005 by Lee “Q” O’Denat who died in January 2017, WorldStar began as a site for people to download hip-hop mixtapes and evolved into a video aggregator that’s perhaps best known for crowd-sourced videos of people fighting. WorldStar has also become a hub for up-and-coming hip-hop artists to grow their fan bases by publishing their music videos and interviewing them on camera, helping to grow WorldStar’s audience.

WorldStar’s site received 4.7 million unique visitors in the U.S. in July, a 66 percent increase year over year, according to comScore. In July, the publication’s videos received 2.7 billion views across Instagram, YouTube and Facebook, with 2 billion views coming from Instagram and 645 million on YouTube, according to Tubular Labs.

Over the past few years, WorldStar — which is represented by Hollywood talent agency WME’s Jad Dayeh — has been building up its original content business, producing a TV show for MTV2, a movie for Netflix and a documentary series for Starz. Last year it signed a deal with digital entertainment company Studio71 to produce more original content online.

“Our partnership with Studio71 bridges the gap between content aggregation and content creation, which we couldn’t be more excited about,” said WorldStar CEO Ed Dwyer.

As part of that deal, WorldStar’s YouTube channel is part of Studio71’s network of YouTube channels for which Studio71 sells ads, strikes branded-content deals with advertisers and advises WorldStar how to grow its audience on the video platform. Then there’s the original content production piece, which includes WorldStar’s new Snapchat Discover channel, which will be ad-supported with WorldStar and Studio71 splitting the revenue. “This opportunity with Snap is the first thing we’re doing in that vein of creating more content together,” said Studio71 CEO Reza Izad.

Studio71 has a production team of seven working on WorldStar’s Snapchat Discover channel. The channel will publish weekdays, and its content will span newsy videos related to hip-hop culture, memes as well as host-driven shows and interviews. The channel will have a lot more hosted content than on other platforms, said Izad. Because of Snapchat’s vertical video format, most of the content will be produced specifically for the Discover channel, even if versions of it may appear elsewhere. For example, WorldStar will adapt its YouTube show “Relationship Advice” — in which hip-hop artists counsel couples — for Snapchat by filming vertical versions of episodes. WorldStar and Studio71 will also produce original content exclusively for Snapchat.

The Discover channel could be an opportunity for WorldStar to test out the type of original vertical video content that could do well on Instagram’s IGTV, given that the publication already has 19.9 million followers on Instagram but has not created an IGTV channel. Izad said WorldStar and Studio71 are not looking at the Snapchat Discover channel as a testbed for original content that could be adapted for IGTV or even traditional TV, though. “We don’t view this as a cheap pilot deal,” he said of the Discover channel.

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With sports-news subscription sites like The Athletic blossoming across the U.S., some newspapers are carving out sports-only digital subs of their own.

Newspaper chain McClatchy has introduced these offers in three of its 12 newspaper markets: Kansas City, Miami and Raleigh, N.C. The price for unlimited digital sports access is usually $30 for the first year before going up to $50, compared to the whole news bundle, which runs $130 in Miami and Raleigh, and $96 in Kansas City.

A.H. Belo-owned The Dallas Morning News has been selling all-access to its sports coverage SportsDay, starting at $1.49 a week, which works out to $78 a year. (Its most popular offer for full digital access is $117).

The papers are marketing the offers ahead of the fall football season, with a heavy focus on football, of course, but also touting all the other sports they cover. Dallas is making its pitch to fans of the Cowboys, Mavericks and other local teams who live outside the market as well as locals.

“We know in our market there’s a very rabid sports base,” said Dan Sherlock, head of digital audience for the Morning News. “Sports is a big part of the culture. So it made sense to develop a vertical.”

These markets have franchise teams, which also has drawn startup The Athletic, armed with $30 million in funding, to set up shop with $48-a-year local market sports news offerings. The Athletic now has a 300-person editorial operation and operations in 48 markets. (The Morning News said its sports-only offer preceded The Athletic’s arrival.)

“You can’t put your head in the sand when you’ve got The Athletic, being assertive going into this market, there’s no advertising, it’s a cool user experience,” said Gwen Vargo, director of reader revenue for the American Press Institute.

The newspaper industry has been struggling to find a sustainable path forward online and as such is looking for ways to have as many paid relationships with readers as possible. Sports is low-hanging fruit for newspapers looking for ways to reap revenue from readers because it tends to attract fervent fans. American Press Institute recently surveyed more than 4,100 recent newspaper subscribers to 90 local newspapers across the country about why they subscribe. Twenty-three percent are people who subscribe because they’re highly interested in a specific topic, and sports was the third most-followed subject (26 percent), behind politics (53 percent) and national politics (33 percent), and college or high school sports (26 percent).

Grant Belaire, head of digital audience at McClatchy, said the idea for sports-only subscriptions came about because there’s only so many ways to get people to subscribe, and the readership was there.

“The sports-only cohort is pretty large and they engage at a pretty high rate. But they weren’t ready to commit to the full subscription,” Belaire said. “We’ve got built-in relationships. And it’s cut, paste, repeat in many of these markets.”

The Athletic didn’t directly address the newspapers’ offerings but stood by the superiority of its product.

“Everything we do at The Athletic is focused on providing the best value to our subscribers,” said Alex Mather, co-founder of the company “The Athletic’s comprehensive bundle — deep local coverage, national stories from some of the biggest names in sports, soccer coverage from all over the world, and depth on verticals like fantasy, WNBA, and more — is different from any other publisher. Further, we’ve put the reader experience first, removed ads, and provide a community where subscribers can interact with each other, our writers, and even players and coaches. Our subscribers realize they can’t get this offering anywhere else.”

It’s too early to tell if readers will want these new offerings in meaningful numbers, but most digital news subscribers are happy to pay a flat rate for “all-you-can-eat” digital news, said Jim Friedlich, executive director of The Lenfest Institute for Journalism, which advises publishers on digital news practices. “That said, it’s not unusual that digital subscribers spend much of their time on a single major topic of interest like sports, food, politics, or Op-Ed,” he said. “In this context, some have asked if they could subscribe solely for that purpose.”

Sherlock wouldn’t break out the Morning News’ sports subscription numbers but said they’ve continued to grow even after The Athletic entered the market. “There’s plenty to go around and there’s certainly a place for The Athletic. Anytime there’s more entrants, that’s good for everyone.”

McClatchy wouldn’t share specific results of its sports-only offer, which is only a few weeks old. But he said there’s been some incremental growth — enough to keep the company motivated to keep rolling the offerings out. As for next steps, McClatchy is looking at expanding the offering to other markets it operates in such as Lexington, Ky., and Dallas-Fort Worth, which have big sports teams.

One factor to watch will be whether sports-only subscriptions cannibalize or add to overall subscriptions, and how well sports-only subscribers retain. To that end, the newspaper companies are emphasizing all the sports coverage they offer, their deep reporting history and other perks, like in Dallas’ case, exclusive newsletters and other features.

The sheer numbers for sports subscribers may not be huge, but one advantage of sports as a paid vertical is that the interest often goes beyond the local area. Belaire looks for markets where 65 percent or more of the sports readers come from outside the area, because that suggests the opportunity isn’t limited by geography.

“We’re looking for thousands,” Belaire said of the opportunity for sports-only subscribers. “We believe they’re the folks who have a burning desire for this. There are also people who are fans from across the country. There’s a dude in Hungary who still subscribes to his local paper because he still wants to stay in tune with what’s going on there.”

The post With an eye on The Athletic’s growth, newspapers roll out sports-only subscriptions appeared first on Digiday.

Le Pain Quotidien is embarking on a digital makeover with a refurbished loyalty program featuring personalized rewards based on customer data, pre-ordering a la Starbucks and in-app payments.

The upgrades will go live at the company’s 96 U.S. stores by the end of the year, scaling to its global branches in 2019.

“We did an assessment of what we have today — while we have these [digital] components, what you have is a very disjointed experience for our guests,” said Massimo Mallozzi, global IT lead at Le Pain Quotidien. “We want to have a unified premium experience, regardless of channel.”

Le Pain Quotidien began to rethink its digital strategy last year; it had digital tools like a mobile app, online ordering and pre-ordering capabilities for years, but they lacked a unified front-end interface and they didn’t offer the company a 360-degree view of the customer from a data perspective. For example, though the loyalty platform had the capability to track purchases and spending activity, it couldn’t track the types of purchases customers were making. To rectify this, the company hired Austin-based digital agency T3 to improve the app experience and loyalty program, which allows it to include an in-app loyalty platform that will zero in on the types of purchases the customer is making, and based on that data, it will suggest products to customers, and offer rewards that are relevant to the customer’s purchase behavior.

“For example, we may have offered you a beverage or pastry as a standard reward, but in the new program, we’ll know if you purchase coffee or pastries; if you don’t due to allergies or dietary restrictions, we’ll offer you something you have a tendency to purchase, and we’ll also be able to evolve our loyalty program to referring friends and gifting,” Mallozzi said.

A quick payment experience is also a core part of the digital upgrade. While customers can currently pay for purchases with the mobile app in stores, they need a staff member to finalize the transaction; the upgraded app will let customers bypass the checkout function by being able to see their checks in the app and settle up on the spot.

According to a recent report from consulting firm Technomic, Le Pain Quotidien’s global sales were valued at $367 million in 2017. Le Pain Quotidien is responding to a wave of competitors that have invested heavily in digital efforts. Major players like Starbucks, Panera and Dunkin Donuts have focused on mobile pre-ordering, loyalty programs other digital efforts; Mallozzi acknowledges Le Pain Quotidien is playing catch up. The challenge, for Le Pain Quotidien, is maintaining its distinctiveness  — “owning the experience” — yet adding digital features that are now seen as industry must-haves.

The company emphasizes that a loyalty program itself isn’t what makes customers loyal, it’s the personalization, ease of experience and choice that will ultimately keep customers coming back.

“Loyalty programs can change behavior but they don’t drive loyalty,” said T3 president Ben Gaddis. “It’s [about] a great experience in the restaurant. Let’s make it easy for people to order and tie that to a great experience in-store; if we create a loyalty program that’s flexible and uses the data to offer them relevant rewards, those will be the incentives to come back.”

Digital enhancements are expected offerings, but aren’t ultimately what will distinguish the brand when other fast-casual restaurants are adopting similar tools. Mallozzi said Le Pain Quotidien is considering how to maintain that differentation; for example, Le Pain Quotidien currently has tie-ups with third-party delivery companies, including GrubHub, but over the long-term, he said, outsourcing the experience to third parties may not necessarily be the best way to maintain control of it.

“The tech is a survival piece, but they’re going to have to stay true to their brand of what makes them successful — I look at them differently from Panera or Starbucks,” said digital marketing consultant Judge Graham. “They need to continue to stay true to their vision and their niche of loyal customers and do things that are unique.”

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For the first time in a campaign, American Express is prioritizing custom content with publishers over mass-reach channels.

On Sept. 10, the credit card company is launching its biggest custom content campaign yet. The campaign is running with BuzzFeed, Vox Media and Bustle and is meant to promote the company’s year-old Pay It Plan It feature.

In the past, American Express primarily used mass-reach channels like TV, social and digital, said Terryn Lance, vice-president of global media at American Express.

This time, most of the spend is going toward custom content, in the form of content sponsorship, ads appearing alongside content and explainer-style articles and videos.

American Express chose the outlets for their millennial reach, since that cohort makes up around half of the customers that use Pay It Plan It, Lance said. The editorial content focuses on the four main passion areas of American Express card members: travel, entertainment, home and tech.

“This campaign really flips our approach from a media perspective on its head,” said Lance. “We’ve realized that we can’t continue to shout at our customers with mass-reaching media vehicles and expect them to have some meaningful impact or relationship with us.”

Lance said showing, and not telling, is a better fit to advertise Pay It Plan It, since the feature offers various options, such as designating times to pay off purchases and splitting up payments. Custom content gives the company the time and space need to do so, said Lance. American Express worked with the content teams at each outlet and with ad agency Digitas. The marketer didn’t say how much it’s spending on this campaign or how it compares to previous campaigns.

With BuzzFeed, American Express will be the exclusive launch partner of BuzzFeed Reviews, a product review section launched in August. Along with that, American Express will be the first sponsor of a new show from BuzzFeed’s Tasty called “Friend in Town,” which follows a host to different cities where they visit friends and go on culinary experiences. The show’s host will use the Pay It Plan It feature to plan trips.

On Vox.com, American Express on Sept. 10 is sponsoring a new shopping section on Vox.com called The Goods by Vox. American Express also is working with Vox Creative to make 12 explainer videos on spending money that will appear from October until the end of the year. The Goods by Vox will also issue a newsletter twice each week. American Express will also be the first sponsor of Vox’s Eater’s Kitchen Gadget Test Show, which lays out which kitchen essentials are worth their price.

The Bustle partnership will start in October and consist of custom illustrated articles with advice on making better financial decisions on top of digital banner ads on the site.

American Express said it plans to continue to make custom content a focus in future campaigns because advertisers have to continue to develop new ways to reach consumers and stand out. “Everyone in the media space is facing the same challenges,” she said. “There’s a lot more consumer options and a lot less consumer time.”

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