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How the Metro is using its ‘Instant Ads’ to get its print slots in view of the more digital-driven advertisers

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By Seb Joseph, News editor

November 20, 2015 | 5 min read

The adage that print is dead is a commonly held one across many media owners, but for the Metro the medium just needs to evolve into a proposition that takes inspiration from what’s happening elsewhere in digital to provide the dynamic content advertisers now crave.

While the media business recently enjoyed its fourth consecutive quarter of revenue growth, the danger is that advertisers are running the same ads with it that they do with all the other national newspapers. It leaves little room to make any meaningful margins, pushing the newspaper to explore how to elevate print in the eyes of marketers who are more likely to spread their budgets across Google and Facebook than they are a traditional media buy.

Enter Instant Ads; an ad format created to provide a more dynamic option to brands that can be turned around quickly to link to topical events and internet memes. For example, when sprinter Usain Bolt was knocked over by a photographer as he celebrated his latest gold medal at the World Athletics earlier this year, Specsavers asked if a story was being run around the news and within ten minutes the ad was agreed. Brands have been running reactive print ads like this for years but what the Metro is promising is a setup that’s geared for quick turnarounds and won’t cost as much as a full page.

“It’s basically for the brands that are really into social, are quick to react [to events] and can sign things off fairly quickly,” said the Metro’s creative director Sophie Robinson. “It’s not a huge money maker for us yet, but it’s a great way to keep us relevant and on the media schedules of the brands that have gone social.”

Robinson’s air of caution over the future of Instant Ads is reflected in her bid to get the option in front of as many buyers as possible. There’s a lot of flexibility around the ad buy, with brands having their pick of running an idea that’s big and impactful as well as something that’s built over a period of weeks or months.

Despite the trepidation, which is expected with any new format, the Metro’s top marketer has big hopes for it, and teases that its part of a wider transition that is introducing more sophisticated native ads in print alongside exploring the potential for its inventory to use virtual reality.

But any successful commercial transition needs data to secure buy-in from the market and so the newspaper is working with Mail Online to understand millennials. “Lots of the briefs we get are desperate for millennials and they [advertisers] go to Buzzfeed and actually if you combine The Metro and Mail Online you get seven times the amount of millennials,” claimed Robinson.

“We’ve always talked about our audience as being urbanites and the word millennials came along and we’ve had to focus on understanding what’s the difference and what are the similarities – are they actually the same people, just ten years younger?”

The newspaper’s more progressive attitude to monetising its content stems from the arrival of editor of Ted Young in 2014, following which the product has undergone some significant changes. Design and product refreshes have combined with a tighter focus on balancing serious news with quirkier stories capable of satisfying different needs.

Much of the output flows from Story, the newspaper’s in-house branded content agency, headed up by Robinson. It works with media agencies to create bespoke solutions, with the standout campaign this year being one for Heinken’s ‘Open Your City’ campaign. It’s an approach that’s admittedly blurred the line between advertising and editorial, particularly with the development of co-created posts and brand partnerships, however Robinson assured that the newspaper is committed to ensuring there’s a big enough gap between the ‘church and state’.

“All these brands want to be media owners but it’s not that long ago that we learnt how to be a media owner ourselves,” said Robinson. “So instead of seeing this as competition and advertiser fighting us for our content, we can help all these brands act like media owners.”

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