Month: May 2022

The media company’s nomination for Most Engaged Community showcases its expertise and diversity. VGTV produces video for VG, the biggest newspaper in Norway, and it had to pivot when it identified a lack of well-produced content for Gen Z audiences. VGTV hired influencer Linnéa Myhre to profile its next big entertainment podcast. Linnéa dove into Norway’s juiciest celebrity stories, offering analysis in an intriguing true-crime style. VGTV then used the podcast’s success to launch a coffee-table book with extra material from the podcast, such as uncut scripts. Then VGTV launched a TV series with Linnéa documenting the enormous influence bloggers can wield. This collaboration helped VGTV connect with a new audience and strengthen awareness of VGTV. 

In addition to VGTV’s podcast work with Linnéa, it also produced a men’s health podcast that earned the video team a nomination for Best Podcast. The ‘How are you, man?’ podcast was launched to encourage men to better communicate with each other about their feelings. Evaluating a lack of content on men’s mental health within the podcast space, VGTV enlisted former professional hockey player Erik Follestad to host the podcast and interview other men about their inner lives while exploring his own. VGTV’s choice of having a nonprofessional man host — rather than a psychologist or therapist — helped listeners relate and connect with the podcast, resulting in over 1.5 million downloads. 

When it came to the Best Ad Tech Platform, Anzu.io was a clear standout. As more companies enter the gaming space, technology such as Anzu has become essential. Anzu’s innovative ad tech platform blends non-intrusive in-game brand ads directly into the gameplay, appearing on 3D in-game objects in places where people would expect to find them in the real world. With such platforms, advertisers can reach 3 billion players in a non-intrusive manner, and developers can monetize titles to enhance the gameplay experience.  

PinkNews was another team to garner several nominations this year, including Publishing Executive of the Year. PinkNews was also a standout for Best Use of Video for its Snapchat Show, ‘The Queer Catch-up.’ As the world’s most-watched and read LGBTQ+ media brand, PinkNews wanted to increase viewership to continue spreading positivity and increase the exposure of positive LGBTQ+ stories on the Snapchat platform. In 2021, PinkNews grew the audience and subscriber base for ‘The Queer Catch-Up’ exponentially, reaching more than 650,000 subscribers. 

On top of this, PinkNews also received a nomination for Editorial Team of the Year for its coverage of World AIDS Day, challenging stereotypes around living with HIV/AIDS while calling for the government to step up its efforts to eradicate transmission. PinkNews also delivered unparalleled coverage of transgender issues, reporting on the first-ever transgender civil rights case to make it to the UK Supreme Court. The media brand’s coverage of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan also shed a unique light on the plight of LGBTQ+ people following the regime change. PinkNews continued to cater to its loyal readers by giving them detailed analysis, accurate reporting, engaging stories and comprehensive coverage of LGBTQ+ issues. 

All in all, 2022 showed that video remains a vital way for companies to connect to and grow their audiences. As more companies dive into what their audiences want to see, they’re seeing growth that’s propelling them into the future.  

See the complete list of finalists below.

Ad Operations Team of the Year
Hearst UK Ad Operations Team
New York Times Advertising
POLITICO Europe – Ad Operations team of the year
The Ozone Project’s Publisher Operations team

Best Ad Tech Platform
Anzu.io – the world’s most advanced in-game advertising solution
Influencity
Nano Interactive & UK Government – Using Intent targeting to assure the British public that the vaccine is safe
Outbrain – Launch of Smartlogic
Teads – The Global Media Platform
Unruly

Best Brand Launch/Event
News Live: The Times CEO Summit
The Economist Group

Best Brand Partnership
Hearst UK’s Cosmopolitan HomeMade x NatWest
International Paralympic Committee & Allianz
Norwegian Directorate of Health & VG-lista 2021 – Finding the future together, this is what the youth have learnt during the pandemic.
Otrium, AMPC and Partnerize: Affiliate Channel Success

Best Branded Content Program
Haymarket Automotive Studio: Audi e-tron & Autocar Electric
Haymarket Automotive Studio: BMW UK & Autocar Motorsport
Hearst UK’s Women’s Health x Under Armour: It Starts with a Bra
News UK & Google: The Funday Times

Best Content Studio
Captify
CNNIC Create
Imagine Studio at Immediate Media Co
POLITICO Studio – POLITICO Europe’s in-house creative agency
TheSoul Publishing

Best Contextual Targeting Offering
Contextual Targeting at Precision and Scale – by Integral Ad Science
News UK: Nucleus Emotional Targeting
Verity: Sophisticated Contextual Targeting

Best Custom Advertising
TOTO – Voetbalzone widget
Havas Media Global
Havas Play
How Tennis Experts’ Influence Proves an Ace for ASICS on the Partnerize Platform
Trekpleister – Greenhouse Group – Stocard

Best Digital Product Innovation
Mediahub UK – Launch of Mediahub ARC
Nova TV & Cobe Osijek – DNEVNIK.hr mobile app
Outbrain’s Smartlogic
rankingCoach FREE & rankingCoach 360
TV news team, VG
Xaxis, Wavemaker & Finecast: Increasing video impact for Hill’s Pet Nutrition

Best First-Party Data Strategy
News UK: Nucleus Data Platform
Unlocking Actionable Insights and Dispelling Legacy Myths via Data Science and Cloud Data Lake: Gerber Life Insurance + DELVE

Best Newsletter
POLITICO Europe
The Telegraph – The Front Page Newsletter

Best Podcast
90min – Football Americana
ITV News
POLITICO Europe
The Economist Group
VGTV, How are you, man? – A different podcast on men’s mental health

Best Publisher Platform
Nova TV & Cobe Osijek – DNEVNIK.hr mobile app
optAd360 AI Engine
Partner Recruitment Capabilities Prove That Partnerize is Changing the Game for Marketers
Publish Lab for Labrador CMS
ShowHeroes Group – ShowHeroes PLAY
The Ozone Project – the platform for premium publishers

Best Revenue Diversification Strategy
House Beautiful, Hearst UK
The Economist Group

Best Site Design
Bustle UK
CNN Create and Samsung
MAIA and DVTK – Launch of MAIA

Best Story
ITV News
POLITICO Europe

Best Subscription or Membership Product
VGTV

Best Use of Social
Havas Play
Social Chain & Amazon Prime Video UK – Just So You Know
TheSoul Publishing – 5 hours of crafts
VGTV, How are you, man? – A different podcast on men’s mental health

Best Use of Video
Captify
Economist Films
M&S Food Romford Boys Charity Single Campaign – Scale and Suitability with TikTok & Zefr
PinkNews – The Queer Catch-up
Samsung & T Brand, the content studio of New York Times Advertising
Social Chain & Amazon Prime Video – Just So You Know
TheSoul Publishing
TV news team, VG

Best Video Campaign
Social Chain & Amazon Prime Video UK – Just So You Know

Editorial Team of the Year
Bustle UK
PinkNews
POLITICO Europe

Journalist of the Year 
Daniel Hewitt, ITV News
Paul Brand, ITV News

Most Engaged Community
Arena Media
VGTV
Will Media

Publisher of the Year
Hearst UK
ITV News
PinkNews

Publishing Executive of the Year
PinkNews – Sarah Watson, Director of Product

Esports.GG launched in mid-February 2021, rapidly growing in prominence due to its international scope, its focus on relatively underserved esports communities such as Hearthstone and Dota and — perhaps most notably — its ownership of the @esports handles across all major social media networks.

“The previous owner basically managed to reach out to the people who held these accounts,” said Esports.GG director of content Lawrence Phillips. “Over the process of a couple of years, he managed to acquire the various ones with the idea that this could be used to create a core company.” 

“With a name like Esports.GG, even though it wasn’t fully established, we were able to get access to things that we weren’t able to get in other publications, just because of that name,” said contributing writer Michael Hassall, who joined the publication a few months after its launch.

The website currently pulls an average of more than 500,000 unique visitors per month, with a peak of 1.5 million page views per month in its first year, according to figures provided by Esports.GG. The site has a dedicated Brazilian vertical, and 60 percent of its traffic comes from outside the United States. 

Benson declined to provide specifics about the financial terms of the deal, but said that it is eFuse’s third acquisition (after buying two collegiate esports companies last year) and “the largest acquisition that we’ve had.” Esports.GG’s previous ownership group, which includes John Benyamine, the Chief Content Officer at ReKTGlobal, and Christian Bishop, a Twitch executive, will not be directly involved in the business in the future, he said.

EFuse plans to keep Esports.GG editorially independent, using its presence in esports media to bring new audiences and brands into the eFuse ecosystem.

“They can be a great funnel for brands to first integrate into the space, and then with the other properties and software solutions that eFuse has,” Benson said.

Esports.GG’s dedicated esports audience represents exactly the type of gamer that eFuse hopes to bring into its network. “For the esports operator, it’s about getting access to the audience who cares about it, and keeping them engaged and retained,” said Michael Metzger, an esports industry expert and partner at investment banking firm Drake Star Partners. “Having those news articles and all the social media handles is a very important part of it.”

As for Esports.GG, acquisition is an ideal outcome for this type of esports media business. Though the site’s strong editorial coverage and ownership of premier social media handles allowed it to rapidly build an audience, its actual revenue streams remain few and far between. It does not run advertisements, and it has one public brand partnership at the moment, an agreement with Women in Games International. Phillips suggested that the acquisition could create potential new revenue streams, such as private coverage of eFuse events.

“When I joined the company, I always knew that the endgame was to get acquired,” said Hassall, a veteran esports writer and alumnus of numerous endemic outlets. “That’s the first question that comes to my head — like, how do you guys make any money? How are you paying for me?” At the moment, Phillips is the only full-time editorial staffer at Esports.GG; the website also employs five part-time writers, as well as a team of 28 freelancers across six continents.

Talks between eFuse and Esports.GG began in November 2021, with acquisition plans heating up in February 2022. The deal was well on its way in March, when the site was embroiled in controversy after posting snippets of livestreamers’ videos to its TikTok account without permission. Following a heated back-and-forth between a video editor and Esports.GG staff, the outlet apologized for reposting creators’ content and put its social media channels on “pause” while continuing to crank out editorial content on the main site. 

The controversy was a source of frustration for Esports.GG’s editorial staff, who felt they were getting flak for social posts that were entirely outside their purview. But the brouhaha ultimately did not jeopardize the acquisition, and though eFuse plans to relaunch Esports.GG’s other social channels, the companies made the joint decision to keep the TikTok account dormant following the acquisition. “I think our website is probably the biggest strength,” Phillips said. “Having the socials is nice, and obviously a huge sell. But I don’t think it was a driving force in what made eFuse acquire Esports.GG.”

Moving forward, Esports.GG plans to consider the perspective of creators more thoroughly for its social posts. In any case, Benson is not concerned that the controversy will be a lasting issue for the relaunched brand. 

“The editorial team has always done a really great job, hence why we wanted to bring them on and have them be a part of it,” he said. “Now it’s about taking it up to that same elite standard that we have on the editorial side, and translating that to socials.”