Now the user is surrounded
With Surround Sessions, NYT.com offers advertisers the opportunity to book reach
NYT.com offers advertisers the opportunity to book coverage with Surround SessionsBy Clemens Hörler NYT.com, the website of the New York Times (NYT), has launched a new online advertising service, Surround Sessions. It is designed to guarantee a high level of attention, exclusivity of the advertising message and precise targeting. And to meet the needs of traditional media planners.
The currency of page and ad impressions may make sense from the point of view of the Internet industry, but many traditional media planners cannot do much with this figure. Above all, they want to know what percentage of their target group they reach and how often in a certain period of time.
The New York Times, which has been at the forefront of online advertising since the beginning of the Internet era, is courting traditional marketers and advertisers with an offer in which bookings are no longer made on the basis of ad impressions, but on the basis of user sessions. According to Martin Nisenholtz, CEO of New York Times Digital, this should make it easier for planners to handle the variables of reach, duration and frequency.
An alternative currency to ad impressions
The so-called surround sessions are not only beneficial to the traditional media people in terms of planning. They guarantee a high level of attention, exclusivity and a relatively precise target group approach. A high level of attention because a company's advertising message is placed in several places on the website so that it is always visible even when scrolling. The visitor's field of vision is encircled with full banners, but also with large advertising formats such as skyscrapers. In contrast to pop-ups, these forms are relatively accepted by users.
To ensure that the consumer does not overlook the advertising message, it is placed on five consecutive pages, exclusively, i.e. without advertising messages from other companies. This even allows the client to tell a little story across five pages. If an Internet user cancels their visit before accessing the fifth page, the advertising client does not have to pay for the session that has already started. In order to guarantee a precise target group approach, the Surround Sessions are only offered to registered users. In the case of NYT.com, this is ten million users, as a large part of the website is only accessible with a password.
Scott Meyer, Vice President and General Manager of New York Times Digital: "To get online advertising moving, publishers in particular need to take the initiative and inspire advertisers and creative agencies with new ideas." NYT.com's first advertising clients for Surround Sessions are Nexium, Porsche and E-Trade-Center.
NYT also goes on the offensive with pay content
According to Meyer, NYT.com still generates 60 percent of its revenue from advertising. 30 percent comes from classified ads and only 10 percent from paid content. However, this revenue area is growing the fastest.
Archive use has been available for a fee for some time now. The crossword puzzles are so popular at NYT.com that 35,000 users pay an annual fee of 20 dollars for this brain teaser. At the end of October, an offer for baseball fans was also launched: "Glory Days: Baseball in New York 1947-1957" is intended to make the hearts of old baseball fans beat faster with photos, film recordings and newspaper articles for 9.95 dollars a year. As Meyer explained at the Content Summit 2001 in Zurich, more such themed archives are planned.
He is convinced that it is easier to get internet users to pay for content if they are already familiar with it or know exactly what to expect. Instead of just speculating with paid broadband offers for the future, online publishers looking for new sources of income should try to put together a mix for a paid offer from their content arsenal now. All the more so as broadband offers are very expensive, especially for pure print companies.
When introducing paid content, you always run the risk of losing visitors. For this reason, The New York Times on the Web is introducing its paid content extremely cautiously and through the back door. After all, as many people as possible should visit NYT.com, as this keeps the platform and its registered users attractive for the advertising industry. Moreover, the platform should not be underestimated as a marketing tool. Between January and the end of September, 100,000 new print subscribers were generated via the website!
NYT Digital profitable for the first time
The currency of page and ad impressions may make sense from the point of view of the Internet industry, but many traditional media planners cannot do much with this figure. Above all, they want to know what percentage of their target group they reach and how often in a certain period of time.
The New York Times, which has been at the forefront of online advertising since the beginning of the Internet era, is courting traditional marketers and advertisers with an offer in which bookings are no longer made on the basis of ad impressions, but on the basis of user sessions. According to Martin Nisenholtz, CEO of New York Times Digital, this should make it easier for planners to handle the variables of reach, duration and frequency.
An alternative currency to ad impressions
The so-called surround sessions are not only beneficial to the traditional media people in terms of planning. They guarantee a high level of attention, exclusivity and a relatively precise target group approach. A high level of attention because a company's advertising message is placed in several places on the website so that it is always visible even when scrolling. The visitor's field of vision is encircled with full banners, but also with large advertising formats such as skyscrapers. In contrast to pop-ups, these forms are relatively accepted by users.
To ensure that the consumer does not overlook the advertising message, it is placed on five consecutive pages, exclusively, i.e. without advertising messages from other companies. This even allows the client to tell a little story across five pages. If an Internet user cancels their visit before accessing the fifth page, the advertising client does not have to pay for the session that has already started. In order to guarantee a precise target group approach, the Surround Sessions are only offered to registered users. In the case of NYT.com, this is ten million users, as a large part of the website is only accessible with a password.
Scott Meyer, Vice President and General Manager of New York Times Digital: "To get online advertising moving, publishers in particular need to take the initiative and inspire advertisers and creative agencies with new ideas." NYT.com's first advertising clients for Surround Sessions are Nexium, Porsche and E-Trade-Center.
NYT also goes on the offensive with pay content
According to Meyer, NYT.com still generates 60 percent of its revenue from advertising. 30 percent comes from classified ads and only 10 percent from paid content. However, this revenue area is growing the fastest.
Archive use has been available for a fee for some time now. The crossword puzzles are so popular at NYT.com that 35,000 users pay an annual fee of 20 dollars for this brain teaser. At the end of October, an offer for baseball fans was also launched: "Glory Days: Baseball in New York 1947-1957" is intended to make the hearts of old baseball fans beat faster with photos, film recordings and newspaper articles for 9.95 dollars a year. As Meyer explained at the Content Summit 2001 in Zurich, more such themed archives are planned.
He is convinced that it is easier to get internet users to pay for content if they are already familiar with it or know exactly what to expect. Instead of just speculating with paid broadband offers for the future, online publishers looking for new sources of income should try to put together a mix for a paid offer from their content arsenal now. All the more so as broadband offers are very expensive, especially for pure print companies.
When introducing paid content, you always run the risk of losing visitors. For this reason, The New York Times on the Web is introducing its paid content extremely cautiously and through the back door. After all, as many people as possible should visit NYT.com, as this keeps the platform and its registered users attractive for the advertising industry. Moreover, the platform should not be underestimated as a marketing tool. Between January and the end of September, 100,000 new print subscribers were generated via the website!
NYT Digital profitable for the first time
NYT Digital, which comprises all online activities of the NYT publishing house, reported an operating profit of 0.8 million dollars for the first time in the third quarter of 2001. The turnover of 14.4 million dollars accounts for about 2 percent of the group's total turnover (697 million dollars). The NYT Group's websites were responsible for around 4.5 million dollars, or around one percent of total advertising revenue in the third quarter. 94 percent of advertising revenue comes from the print business, the rest from the broadcast group.
