The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

Author

By Jessica Davies, News Editor

January 6, 2014 | 4 min read

Vice is eyeing opportunities around expanding its content creation into the TV arena in the UK, having successfully entered the US market with its HBO weekly news series.

The youth media brand launched TV show Vice on the US cable network last year, introducing its edgy style of reporting to what it itself has previously described as “insane and uncomfortable” news stories from around the world to the TV screen.

The show was later nominated for an Emmy award, and now it is turning its sights to what opportunities may lie ahead in the UK market, according to its newly appointed UK managing director Matt O’Mara.

He told The Drum that TV will be a big focus for the coming year, adding that in the UK all should “watch this space”.

“The HBO show was all about bringing our content expertise to the TV, not just the web, and got an Emmy nomination for it. Now we have 600 million video views, and around five million subscriptions, but it is the time they are spending engaging with the content that is what’s important.

“Vice is a network, it’s not just about having one media channel, but the verticals we are building out in these spaces – that is the crux of the business,” he said.

As a result it is continuing to expand its verticals, launching a food channel called Munchies to join its music, news and other channels.

“Food is an interesting area – food programmes have traditionally been a bit dull and boring, a bit safe and middle class – mainstream. Munchies has been born out of our food show franchise, millennially targeted programme, that has Vice’s ‘no bullshit’ identity.

O’Mara said mobile-optimised video will also be a core area for expansion, with the network now seeing approximately 30 per cent of all traffic coming via mobile devices.

Meanwhile it is also poised to launch the next phase of its content partnership with Facebook as part of its anthology programme. It paired up with the social network and Budweiser in the US to launch a custom content platform for the drinks brand’s Made for Music campaign, and Vice is now gearing up to reveal the first one to launch in Europe.

O’Mara said programmatic advertising remains a major challenge for publishers, with digital page yields having plummeted since its introduction.

"Programmatic is part of the digital landscape, and is not going to go away, and it is underpinned by some great technology. We want to explore how to fit great content together with what programmatic can do – it’s just another part of the media ecosystem, there is no reason why the two things should be separate from each other. It’s part of how content is created and distributed, and it’s how we reach audiences."

O’Mara was promoted from commercial director to UK managing director at the end of last year, following the departure of Lara Franses who had been in the role four months, as revealed by The Drum.

It has also appointed its first marketing director for the UK in several years - Jo Pocock. Her appointment partly stems from the departure of AdVice Europe’s general manager Dan’l Hewitt, who left the brand on 23 December. The Drum understands he has gone on to launch consultancy and publishing services start-up Voower Networks.