Innovation Outliers: Successful New Ways to Grow Your Audience

Amy Milner Director, AcquisitionsOctober 2, 2014

The Economist was founded in 1843 to advocate free trade and freedom to the individual

And for 171 years, its mission has remained the same.

The “extreme centre” is The Economist’s historical position

The Economist has supported many different viewpoints on the political spectrum, but at its core it considers itself the enemy of privilege, pomposity and predictability.

Yet, we have always suffered from our somewhat stodgy misnomer

Focus Group Emcee:

“Hi, Economist non-reader, what images come to mind when you think of The Economist?

Our job has been to change this perception, and in doing so convince the consumerto purchase a….. $160 SUBSCRIPTION!!

The challenge: Engaging prospects!

Traditional channels such as Direct Mail, Paid Search, Economist.com, Online Display and Insert Cards are certainly relied upon as our “bread and butter”. Those who know our brand will always use these channels to purchase subscriptions.

However, the market has evolved, and as such – so have we.

So, how are we engaging the unengaged and finding new audiences?

Engaging Prospects through… Video

“Decision Makers” spots where industry leaders such as Eric Schmidt (Executive Chairman of Google), and Jack Ma (Chairman and CEO, Alibaba Group) explain what they get out of reading The Economist.

• Eric Schmidt• Jack Ma

“Man on the street” spots where random people are asked questions such as “Who is Merkel” and “What is Fracking?” These videos were created to explain how The Economist can make you smart in a fun and engaging way.

• Who is Merkel?• What is Fracking?

Ran on both premium publisher sites and newsletters. All video ad units included companion banner ads to communicate a subscription marketing message and CTA.

Programmatic Buying, Targeted to Age, and contextual targeting (interest groups)

Engaging Prospects through… Social Community - reddit

Established in 2005, reddit is an online social news community in which members can submit, and vote up-or-down user generated content – boasting an active and engaged audience who interact on communal forums

reddit enjoys a reputation of authenticity, candor, relevance & accessibility

6% of all adult internet users use reddit*

reddit has monetized their sizeable audience with both advertising and selling reddit Gold, a site specific membership/subscription where among other benefits, users get badges (gold) to award other users

*Source: Pewinternet.org

This is reddit

The Economist on reddit

Home page banner ads

AMA with Tom Easton

reddit Secret Santa

reddit Gold

“What Would You Make” crowdsourcing

Home Page banner ads

AMA with Tom Easton

Tom Easton’s Jan 15th Ask Me Anything was scheduled to correspond with the timing of a second debt ceiling crisis – shockingly, Congress passed a budget and averted crisis.

Though the AMA was less topical than intended, the caliber of audience questions and Tom Easton’s response yielded:

* 338 points* 513 "upvotes“, 175 "downvotes"* 77% of the user audience "liking" it* 196 total comments* Reached #4 on AMA's top discussions of the day

"Thank you for one of the most engaging AMA's I have read in a long time."- redditor, Fatmountain

AMA with Tom Easton

reddit Secret Santa

Used reddit as a retail platform – timed with reddit’s Secret Santa, where reddit community members sign up to send gifts to other community members

reddit Gold

Gold partners offer discounts to reddit community members with a premium (Gold) membership

Placed banners on reddit offering them reddit Gold. Those who signed up were sent a postcard. The records of those who signed up were then able to be used for upsell

reddit Gold – Postcard Creative – sent to 5,000 people

In order to entice the recipient to keep the piece, we created a Calendar for 2014 with quirky notable dates.

“What Would You Make” crowdsourcing

Closing the loop: fulfilling requests

redditors who contributed ideas were private messaged to receive a ‘thanks’ from The Economist.

In most cases, this was a branded coffee mug, in some cases it was the item they suggested.

Reddit response to engagement efforts: the good

The ‘What would you make’ effort resulted in robust wins –engagement, brand evangelism, and quirky ideas on new Economist products.

In total 356 public comments including:

“This is exactly how reddit ads should work; to generate interesting comments & ideas while still getting brand exposure.” redditor, ChimpWithACar

Our account manager congratulated us on “winning reddit.”

This effort was featured in Business Insider, and included in reddit’s ad sales pitch deck.

View Business Insider article:

http://www.businessinsider.com/reddit-ad-sales-pitch-deck-2014-2?op=1

Engaging Prospects through… Agnostic Approach

When we look toward evolving, we are always looking to understand our consumer behavior.

Last fiscal, we rolled out to agnostic choice for all online order pages

Tested implementation across DM order forms this year which (much to our surprise!) tripled response rate, and resulted in an overall shift of product take up rate.• Proven “more choice” did not detract response

Continuously monitoring trends in reading behavior

Pre-Agnostic Order Page

Agnostic Order Page

US Direct Mail Forms

Pre–Agnostic DM Form New Agnostic Control3x response increase!

In summary…

To evolve and grow your audience, it’s important to constantly stay fresh an not be afraid of failure. Exposing your brand to a new audience could be a big win!

Always take calculated risks - 90% of them will most likely not work, but it’s part of the process and should always lead to learning and coming up with ideas for further development and testing.

Test, Test, Test!

THANK YOU