PUBLISHER CASE STUDY

See how IDG SE grew their newsletter revenue

Using Passendo’s Ad Serving Technology, IDG Sweden Repositioned their Newsletters and Quadrupled its Revenue.

By Oliver Dam Somers
Head of Customer Growth
Published March 14, 2020 / Last updated May 26, 2020

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IDG Sweden are part of International Data Group (IDG) the world’s largest Tech Media Company.

IDG Sweden are, from a publisher perspective, present both within the B2B and B2C segments, aiming to provide cutting edge insights into the Tech and IT sectors.
As a digitally mature organisation, IDG Sweden already had an active newsletter setup in place, yet they were aware that it was a commercially and technologically limited product compared to other mediums. Hence they were on the lookout for new commercial tools to open up the product to the market in a more effective manner.
By incorporating Passendo’s Ad Server and Exchange across their respective brands, IDG Sweden were able to optimise revenue attributed to the newsletter product and develop new native formats. This enabled them to scale the commercial offering to media buyers whilst opening up their inventory to Passendo’s Ad Exchange for newsletters, driving incremental revenue through previously unsold inventory. All in all this created a newsletter product with greater commercial depth and value.

Why IDG Sweden Chose Passendo

Organisational

IDG Sweden have had a significant focus on digital transformation and in exploring new revenue streams for their digital products. They saw their newsletter channel as a high performing, but underutilised one that did not get the same tools and attention as other products. The organisation was open to exploring new technologies with the intention of bringing newsletters back above the fold.

The Human Element

Passendo’s personal approach proved key in building trust in not only in the technology but also the relationship between the teams, with a focus on transparency and speed of service.

Technical

Previously, the newsletter workflow only allowed for pre-defined creatives before send, with all users receiving the same content. If errors were made, there was no way to rectify on the fly. Through extensive testing in a trial period, technical fit was ascertained, with Passendo being on a technical level that could integrate with their ESP and serve content in real time within the previously static newsletter environment.

Commercial

Passendo offered commercial flexibility in terms of facilitating volume based delivery models. AThis allowed for a revamp of the product offering to clients, in packaging the medium, and also created greater value for advertisers with new incremental revenue opportunities that come with Passendo’s Exchange.

Creating Commercial Depth for each Placement

Direct Sold Campaigns by IDG

These are campaigns sold at a premium rate by IDG’s own sales teams, being finely attuned to their brands – they’re able to charge a higher price point (CPM/CPC).

Passendo Ad Exchange

Passendo’s Ad exchange is comprised of Passendo’s direct sold efforts from its in-house ad sales team – these campaigns are sold at a Run of Network or Vertical basis per market Beyond these IO’s, a number of regionally dominant DSPs and thereafter native demand partners, are given the option to bid on said inventory in a backfill capacity to bring in incremental revenue on the otherwise unsold inventory.

Fallback

If no bids are made from either IDG or Passendo, the placement reverts to either an in-house offer (generating traffic) or a 1×1 fallback that collapses the unit within the email template.

Multiple Demand Sources for each Placement

Within each ad placement, Passendo’s tag enables IDG Sweden to run multiple campaign bookings, whilst also being connected to Passendo’s Exchange, allowing for multiple demand sources to bid
in on said inventory within each placement’s “waterfall”.

Campaign delivery in this context comes down to several controllable factors; such as pacing settings, view and click frequencies, geolocation targeting and what the effective cost per mille (eCPM) is that it generates.

This allows IDG Sweden to run ad placements with a theoretically unlimited amount of campaigns competing for its inventory, keeping content fresh and allowing for a more dynamic commercial model in terms of running volume based campaigns.

Native Content in a Newsletter - all in Real Time

Passendo Ad Exchange

The “framework” of the native unit is built in Passendo’s UI and rendered in real time – allowing for active split testing and iterations to content during the campaign’s duration (previously this was all hard coded before the newsletter was sent). All campaigns booked on this specific placement and within the aforementioned waterfall, adhere to the native framework.

Passendo’s Native’s are rendered as an image and are comprised of three elements:

Image

Headline text

Main text

Passendo’s Native Engine builds these to match the native specs of the specific ad placement – creating a render.

How IDG are Positioning Their Revamped Product to Clients

Low ad density B2B:

IDG Express Evening
Techworld Security Update
Computer Sweden Weekly
Computer Sweden Daily
IDG Jobb

Consumer & SMB:

M3 Express
PC för Alla Express
MacWorld Express

Volume-Based Sales

Sold as a premium product on a impression or click basis across verticals, enabling accurate delivery of campaigns and several
campaigns competing for said inventory.

A Highly Engaged Audience

With newsletters being a high performing, high intent environment (compared to display on web). Advertiser’s are buying exposure within an environment that see high levels of engagement.

Native & Display Products

Allowing for the delivery of both display and native units, enabling a one-two punch branding effort within the editorial newsletter space. With native/sponsored units being available as teasers to landing page articles within the respective site.

Key Figures

454 %

1

0.35 %

2 mio.

(use ‘up arrow’ here) Direct Sold Revenue

New Revenue Stream

Average CTR

Un-sold
Impressions now used

Long Term Ambitions

Adform PMP

IDG are exploring the option of setting up a PMP in Adform as facilitated by Passendo, enabling buyers to directly access its inventory as part of a premium offering. Accessing a totally unique inventory through programmatic means will create new opportunities for both IDG and its clients.

First Party Data Onboarding

In the post-cookie and data protection focused world, newsletters – with their cookie-less environment – tick all the compliance boxes. With this in mind, there’s the ambition of linking IDG’s DMP with Passendo. This will enable IDG to create further opportunities for clients,opening options for first party data targeting within a newsletter context, whilst enabling a potentially more personalised experience for the subscriber and more effective messaging by the advertiser within a high performing medium.

Creating Verticals for Direct Inventory Access

IDG are also exploring Passendo’s Demand Side Technology to open up it’s newsletter inventory within a self service capacity to its own media buyers. This will optimise the deal process and enabling direct access for the buy side in terms of bespoke deals, within newsletter specific channels (with set price floors, specs and minimum buy ins). Automating the campaign creation process and creating the grounds for smoother transactions within the newsletter space.

Passendo made it possible for us to monetise our newsletters as a new revenue source and we’re able to sell, deliver and report our direct-sold campaigns much more efficiently, with more control and in an effective manner. Big praise goes out to the entire Passendo team that have been incredibly professional in everything from implementation, managing the customer relationship, and in day-to-day support.

Markus Ekberg,
Chief Revenue Officer – 3rd Party & Programmatic IDG Sweden

Unlock the power of in-email advertising now

Book a demo to see how you can maximise your revenue and optimise workflows.

PUBLISHER CASE STUDY

See how IDG SE grew their newsletter revenue

Using Passendo’s Ad Serving Technology, IDG Sweden Repositioned their Newsletters and Quadrupled its Revenue.

By Oliver Dam Somers
Head of Customer Growth
Published March 14, 2020 / Last updated May 26, 2020

IDG Sweden are part of International Data Group (IDG) the world’s largest Tech Media Company.

IDG Sweden are, from a publisher perspective, present both within the B2B and B2C segments, aiming to provide cutting edge insights into the Tech and IT sectors.
As a digitally mature organisation, IDG Sweden already had an active newsletter setup in place, yet they were aware that it was a commercially and technologically limited product compared to other mediums. Hence they were on the lookout for new commercial tools to open up the product to the market in a more effective manner.
By incorporating Passendo’s Ad Server and Exchange across their respective brands, IDG Sweden were able to optimise revenue attributed to the newsletter product and develop new native formats. This enabled them to scale the commercial offering to media buyers whilst opening up their inventory to Passendo’s Ad Exchange for newsletters, driving incremental revenue through previously unsold inventory. All in all this created a newsletter product with greater commercial depth and value.

Why IDG Sweden Chose Passendo

Organisational

IDG Sweden have had a significant focus on digital transformation and in exploring new revenue streams for their digital products. They saw their newsletter channel as a high performing, but underutilised one that did not get the same tools and attention as other products. The organisation was open to exploring new technologies with the intention of bringing newsletters back above the fold.

The Human Element

Passendo’s personal approach proved key in building trust in not only in the technology but also the relationship between the teams, with a focus on transparency and speed of service.

Technical

Previously, the newsletter workflow only allowed for pre-defined creatives before send, with all users receiving the same content. If errors were made, there was no way to rectify on the fly. Through extensive testing in a trial period, technical fit was ascertained, with Passendo being on a technical level that could integrate with their ESP and serve content in real time within the previously static newsletter environment.

Commercial

Passendo offered commercial flexibility in terms of facilitating volume based delivery models. AThis allowed for a revamp of the product offering to clients, in packaging the medium, and also created greater value for advertisers with new incremental revenue opportunities that come with Passendo’s Exchange.

Creating Commercial Depth for each Placement

Direct Sold Campaigns by IDG

These are campaigns sold at a premium rate by IDG’s own sales teams, being finely attuned to their brands – they’re able to charge a higher price point (CPM/CPC).

Passendo Ad Exchange

Passendo’s Ad exchange is comprised of Passendo’s direct sold efforts from its in-house ad sales team – these campaigns are sold at a Run of Network or Vertical basis per market Beyond these IO’s, a number of regionally dominant DSPs and thereafter native demand partners, are given the option to bid on said inventory in a backfill capacity to bring in incremental revenue on the otherwise unsold inventory.

Fallback

If no bids are made from either IDG or Passendo, the placement reverts to either an in-house offer (generating traffic) or a 1×1 fallback that collapses the unit within the email template.

Multiple Demand Sources for each Placement

Within each ad placement, Passendo’s tag enables IDG Sweden to run multiple campaign bookings, whilst also being connected to Passendo’s Exchange, allowing for multiple demand sources to bid
in on said inventory within each placement’s “waterfall”.

Campaign delivery in this context comes down to several controllable factors; such as pacing settings, view and click frequencies, geolocation targeting and what the effective cost per mille (eCPM) is that it generates.

This allows IDG Sweden to run ad placements with a theoretically unlimited amount of campaigns competing for its inventory, keeping content fresh and allowing for a more dynamic commercial model in terms of running volume based campaigns.

Native Content in a Newsletter - all in Real Time

Passendo Ad Exchange

The “framework” of the native unit is built in Passendo’s UI and rendered in real time – allowing for active split testing and iterations to content during the campaign’s duration (previously this was all hard coded before the newsletter was sent). All campaigns booked on this specific placement and within the aforementioned waterfall, adhere to the native framework.

Passendo’s Native’s are rendered as an image and are comprised of three elements:

Image

Headline text

Main text

Passendo’s Native Engine builds these to match the native specs of the specific ad placement – creating a render.

How IDG are Positioning Their Revamped Product to Clients

Low ad density B2B:

IDG Express Evening
Techworld Security Update
Computer Sweden Weekly
Computer Sweden Daily
IDG Jobb

Consumer & SMB:

M3 Express
PC för Alla Express
MacWorld Express

Volume-Based Sales

Sold as a premium product on a impression or click basis across verticals, enabling accurate delivery of campaigns and several
campaigns competing for said inventory.

A Highly Engaged Audience

With newsletters being a high performing, high intent environment (compared to display on web). Advertiser’s are buying exposure within an environment that see high levels of engagement.

Native & Display Products

Allowing for the delivery of both display and native units, enabling a one-two punch branding effort within the editorial newsletter space. With native/sponsored units being available as teasers to landing page articles within the respective site.

Key Figures

Long Term Ambitions

Adform PMP

IDG are exploring the option of setting up a PMP in Adform as facilitated by Passendo, enabling buyers to directly access its inventory as part of a premium offering. Accessing a totally unique inventory through programmatic means will create new opportunities for both IDG and its clients.

First Party Data Onboarding

In the post-cookie and data protection focused world, newsletters – with their cookie-less environment – tick all the compliance boxes. With this in mind, there’s the ambition of linking IDG’s DMP with Passendo. This will enable IDG to create further opportunities for clients,opening options for first party data targeting within a newsletter context, whilst enabling a potentially more personalised experience for the subscriber and more effective messaging by the advertiser within a high performing medium.

Creating Verticals for Direct Inventory Access

IDG are also exploring Passendo’s Demand Side Technology to open up it’s newsletter inventory within a self service capacity to its own media buyers. This will optimise the deal process and enabling direct access for the buy side in terms of bespoke deals, within newsletter specific channels (with set price floors, specs and minimum buy ins). Automating the campaign creation process and creating the grounds for smoother transactions within the newsletter space.

Passendo made it possible for us to monetise our newsletters as a new revenue source and we’re able to sell, deliver and report our direct-sold campaigns much more efficiently, with more control and in an effective manner. Big praise goes out to the entire Passendo team that have been incredibly professional in everything from implementation, managing the customer relationship, and in day-to-day support.

Markus Ekberg,
Chief Revenue Officer – 3rd Party & Programmatic IDG Sweden

Unlock the power of in-email advertising now

Book a demo to see how you can maximise your revenue and optimise workflows.

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PUBLISHER CASE STUDY

See how IDG SE grew their newsletter revenue

Subscribe to the blog

IDG Sweden are, from a publisher perspective, present both within the B2B and B2C segments, aiming to provide cutting edge insights into the Tech and IT sectors.

Why IDG Sweden Chose Passendo

Creating Commercial Depth for each Placement

Multiple Demand Sources for each Placement

Native Content in a Newsletter - all in Real Time

Passendo’s Native’s are rendered as an image and are comprised of three elements:

How IDG are Positioning Their Revamped Product to Clients

Key Figures

Long Term Ambitions

Unlock the power of in-email advertising now

PUBLISHER CASE STUDY

See how IDG SE grew their newsletter revenue

IDG Sweden are, from a publisher perspective, present both within the B2B and B2C segments, aiming to provide cutting edge insights into the Tech and IT sectors.

Why IDG Sweden Chose Passendo

Creating Commercial Depth for each Placement

Multiple Demand Sources for each Placement

Native Content in a Newsletter - all in Real Time

Passendo’s Native’s are rendered as an image and are comprised of three elements:

How IDG are Positioning Their Revamped Product to Clients

Key Figures

Long Term Ambitions

Unlock the power of in-email advertising now