Bauer Media's group managing director of advertising talks transparency in content and judging The Drum Content Awards

Carvosso has an impressive two decades of experience working with Bauer Media. Starting in 1997, for the then EMAP ’s launch of Red Magazine, she has held a variety of roles with the company. In 2005, she became the launch publisher of Grazia and since then, she has published various magazines, leading their magazine and digital sales teams.

In 2011, Carvosso became the group managing director in Bauer Media’s London magazine business, responsible for influential magazine brands such as heat, Empire, Grazia and Mojo. In this role she launched The Debrief, Bauer’s first digital-only brand.

What has been the most innovative thing you have seen from the industry this year?

Digital audio is booming, both from an audience growth perspective and an innovation perspective. This allows us to grow the audiences of our influential radio brands, but also the audiences of our non-radio brands as they extend out to mediums such as playlist and podcasts. A great example of this is The Debrief, which has just launched its podcast – it’s a real opportunity for commercial partners to create content that makes a genuine cultural difference.

What do you think are the key trends right now?

Trust and transparency. You cannot, and should not, avoid the ongoing and important conversation around trust and transparency in media. As an industry, we need to come together to ensure this is tackled, before clients, and then consumers, lose faith. Premium media owners can be confident in their brand safety credentials and awards such as these are a perfect opportunity to celebrate those producing work that builds trust rather than damaging it.

What is your perspective of the content industry?

I think we are at a crucial time in the industry. There is a great opportunity for premium content experts to lead the way - we need to demonstrate the value of trusted, professional, edited and created content in highly contextual environments. It is delivered seamlessly across platforms, leading to highly engaged customer connections and delivers impact for consumers and advertisers alike.

What is Bauer Media’s content strategy?

We are experts in storytelling and that is what we do 24/7 across our 107 brands. We do this by combining insights from our audiences (this could be from big audience insight projects or first party data) with instinctive understanding from our editorial and content experts who are deeply connected with their communities. That combination delivers highly engaging content that inspires, informs and entertains. We use exactly the same formula for our commercial work as we do for our editorial work.

Adventure is the home of all our creative commercial work – its ethos is to ‘stop interrupting what people are interested in and become what people are interested in’, bringing a fresh approach to all our creative thinking. Our mission is for the consumer to see as much value in commercial content as editorial content so we work collaboratively on campaigns with both commercial and editorial teams.

Has this changed over the years?

Premium media owners have always been experts in content creation, be that for editorial or commercial purposes.

What has changed and is changing is the format that content takes – we are now working with clients on branded content for everything from podcasts to live experiences

What do you want to see from The Drum Content Awards entries this year?

I want to see deep understanding of audiences, as well as the needs of the client or brand, and evidence of editorial craft, innovation and storytelling that delivers on business objectives.

Why did you become involved with the awards?

AC: For me, it’s really important to recognise, value and celebrate the industry’s best work - awards are a great place to find inspiration and learn from standout examples of content, as well as putting the spotlight on the stars in our industry.

How important do you think these awards are regarding the content industry?

AC: Anything that celebrates outstanding content has to be highly regarded as it is at the heart of what we do.

Carvosso is a judge for The Drum Content Awards 2017. Entries for the awards close on Friday 28 July. Get in touch with Emma Mercer at emma.mercer@thedrum.com for more information on this deadline.

Sponsors for the awards include: The BCMA, The Drum Network, The Drum RAR and TINT.