mashable case-study - media & advertising for the connected generation

Media & Advertising For The Connected Generation

Presented  by  @AdamOstrow  Chief  Strategy  Officer,  Mashable   M

Our humble beginnings:

2005: The Dawn of Social Media M

MySpace Was The Dominant Social Network M

There Was No iPhone M

The Most Viral Moment in Pop Culture M

Mashable and Adam in 2005 M

The declining cost of creating and distributing content allowed Mashable to

punch above its weight

Our Bootstrapped Approach M

Our bootstrapped approach: •  No outside capital

•  No office space

•  24x7 from the start

•  Outsourced sales •  Laser focus on analytics

•  Investing every dollar in audience growth

Our Approach to Content M

We took technology and social media coverage to the mainstream consumer by creating content that was: •  Useful

•  Inspiring

•  Entertaining

•  Accessible

•  Outside the bubble

We quickly discovered that our most powerful marketing vehicle was to create

content that people wanted to share

Our Audience Loves to Share M

Social Since the Beginning M

Early and Aggressive to New Social Platforms M

2005   2014  

Mashable content is now shared 3x per second!

In 2014, digital culture is mainstream culture.

The Digital World in 2014 M

•  More than half of mobile users own smartphones

•  Facebook: More than 1 billion users

•  Twitter: 400 million Tweets posted every day

•  YouTube: 100 hours of video uploaded every minute

•  Size of online ad market has tripled ($42B US, 2013)

We’ve grown with social media and technology. In 2014: •  35MM Monthly Uniques

•  15MM Social Followers

•  50% Access on Mobile

•  50% Arrive via Social

Mobile and social are now redefining the way media is created, distributed and monetized

Mobile Is the Primary Way People Connect M

24 billion connected devices by 2020

Understanding Mobile Devices M

Mobile is inherently different: •  Smaller screen sizes

•  Native functions like camera, GPS and accelerometer

•  Different ways to interact with devices (touch, voice, NFC)

•  Its own social graph (the address book)

•  Extends targeting to previously “dumb” platforms

•  Article page is the new homepage

“Accessing social media is the #1 mobile activity today … [and] is users primary way

of accessing social media.” 2013  Adobe  Mobile  Consumer  Survey  

Social Networks Are Now Primarily Mobile M

Everyone Is a Creator M

Mobile social media users are creating a staggering amount of content every day: •  WhatsApp: 500 million photos

•  Snapchat: 400 million Snaps

•  Facebook: 350 million photos

•  Instagram: 55 million photos

Mobile Social Media Users Are Redefining Journalism M

Smartphones are making “the feed” the standard way to consume media and

advertising

The Feed M

Mashable Is Optimized For the Feed M

Advertising Is Moving to the Feed Too M

The feed is dictating content strategy

On Twitter M

Photos and videos drive the biggest increase in retweets

On Facebook M

Mashable Is Becoming More Visual M

And Creating More Video M

Proprietary data helps us win in the feed and scale our business model

Making Sense of Infinite Data Sources M

Mashable Velocity M

Velocity Powers Social Distribution M

Leveraging Velocity in our social distribution strategy has lead to: •  Mashable’s traffic via

Facebook is up 250% yoy

•  Mashable’s traffic via Facebook mobile up 475% yoy

•  2x growth in new subscribers/followers across platforms

And Created New Job Titles M

Mashable now employs: •  Data Scientists

•  Artificial Intelligence experts

•  Real-time News Editors

•  Dedicated SnapChat storyteller

The feed represents the biggest opportunity in digital advertising

Mobile Advertising Is Quickly Catching Up M

Native Will Be a $5 Billion Industry by 2017 M

Why Native? M

Mashable’s business model is to help brands succeed in the feed

Aligning Brands With Relevant Themes M

Female Founders Series Small Business Solutions Tails and Rails

What’s Inside Styldby Global Innovation Series

Photo Challenge Future of Travel Emerging Tech Hubs

Emirates Boston to Dubai Route M

Capital One America’s Most Social Small Business M

Intel Building the Future Today M

We’re only at the beginning of the mobile + social transformation of media.

The Rate of Change Will Continue to Accelerate M

Consider these stats:

•  38% of 2-year-old use mobile devices

•  Average age for first cell phone is now 13

•  YouTube reaches more 18-34 year olds than any TV network

But Connectivity Is More Than Just Phones and Tablets M

Screens Will Get Even Smaller M

Smartwatches Speed reading?

New Ways to Track Consumers Will Emerge M

“Pay per gaze” TV That Watches You

Media Is Flattening M

“Formerly separate industries are colliding on the Internet. It’s newspaper vs. magazine vs. broadcast TV vs. cable TV vs. wire service. Now they all compete.” - Marc Andreessen

And Giving Rise to New Power Players M

Some key strategic questions to consider:

How to Survive and Thrive in the Mobile + Social Age M

•  Are we in the feed, or in the

periphery? •  Is our site optimized for the

screens of today and tomorrow?

•  What unique data can we leverage to gain a competitive edge?

•  How do we speak to our brand’s values instead of its products?

•  What visual assets can help tell our brand’s story?

Thank You!