Magazines, advertisers, and production houses driving toward unified goal with online video distribution
Quality content built for repurposing: Check. Multiplatform tactics like free downloadables, a blog, and live events: Check. A relentless social regimen: Check. You’ve crossed off all of these items as you grow into a formidable niche media company, but there’s always another milestone on the horizon. These days, the task at hand is online video distribution.
We came across five recent articles in Adweek that take a snapshot – or “screen capture,” if you will – of the current business environment for publishers and other industry players when it comes to monetizing video content.
BuzzFeed’s Digital Video Strategy, Distilled
Adweek‘s Michelle Castillo recently interviewed BuzzFeed Chief Revenue Officer Lee Brown about the viral giant’s online video distribution secrets.
“Video is a significant opportunity. We have a dedicated team from the sales and operations sides that are producing five-and-a-half times more releases than last year, and we’ve grown our investment into the teams 340 percent. International is another one. As we open up and grow with our editorial departments, the opportunity for us to come in and monetize the traffic and the audience is something we are going to be focused on. Lastly would be research. We’ve doubled the size of our research team here to help us quantify the impact that our opportunities have had,” Brown told AdWeek.
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“We categorize why people share video in three major buckets. One, identity (‘This is so me!’); two, emotional gift (‘This made me LOL and I want to share it’); and three, information. We think about each division as an R&D lab. We’re taking what our video producers are seeing as they gather data from the 50-plus videos they’re making each week. We then apply those learnings for brands to create compelling, shareable videos.”
Snapchat Continues Its Appeal to Publishers and Brands
With the recent launch of Snapchat Discover, the social media upstart showed publishers that it can serve as a vehicle for audience development. Now, its showing off its potential as an ad platform with 10-second ads that cost two cents per view, Adweek reports. The feature represents another opportunity for publishers to generate revenue via Snapchat. To with, the Daily Mail, along with acquisition Elite Daily, is offering its services as an ad producer for companies looking to gain a foothold.
Production House Defy Media’s Rapid Ascent Impresses Industry
Defy Media is still a small startup in some ways, but online video distribution is not one of them, Adweek says – and publishers might want to consider partnering with this production house if at all possible.
“Last year, Defy Media averaged 500 million video views per month on its in-house content,” Castillo writes. “It also drew 22 million app installs and 1.2 billion visits to its mobile and Web portals. The digital production company also has 52 million YouTube subscribers and 30 million social media followers. That’s in addition to the 175 pieces of branded content it made in 2015.”
Is Vice Media About to Grow Even More With New Channel?
Vice is a case study in conquering online video distribution, and now it’s moving beyond that model as rumblings about a partnership with A&E on a TV network continue to grow in volume. A&E had purchased a 10% stake in Vice last August.
Time Inc. Digital Set to Double Video Production
As we relayed recently, Time Inc. is not tiptoeing around online video distribution. The company is building a massive studio in Manhattan, and live video series are set to multiply in 2015, Adweek reports. Meanwhile, distro partners will include Amazon, Gannett, CBS Local Digital Media, Cumulus, Nexstar Broadcasting and Vessel Video Service, Emma Bazilian writes.
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To read more about online video distribution for publishers, visit AdWeek.
