Using Passendo’s Ad Serving Technology, NHST Media Group Extended its Newsletter Product Offering to Clients.
Why NHST Choose Passendo
Organisational
A strong focus on digital transformation was the key reason for change. This, in conjunction with the big picture context of Publisher’s taking back control of data and insights in-house, seeking to build closer relationships with readers within a curated and high intent space beyond the confines of Walled Gardens.
The Human Element
NHST felt that Passendo’s hands-on and down-to-earth approach to service and support during the procurement and onboarding phase was a crucial factor in making a long term commitment to a new technology.
Commercial
NHST saw that Passendo offered commercial flexibility in terms of facilitating sponsorship and volume based delivery models. This allowed for a revamp of the product offering to clients and how they packaged opportunities within the medium.
Technical
Previously the newsletter workflow only allowed for predefined creatives before send, with all users receiving the same content. If errors were made, there was no way to rectify this on the fly. Through extensive and iterative testing, Passendo showcased the possibilities of real time ad serving within newsletters, combined with a straightforward integration path connecting Passendo with their ESP templates and campaign reporting setup in Google Data Studio.
The Steps NHST Took in Benchmarking and Testing Passendo
A key step was to verify the integrity and quality of Passendo’s tag integration with NHST’s ESP’s. Thoroughly verifying the correct merge tags needed to enable the integration, accessible directly through Passendo’s UI.
Verification that NHST retained full control of all data, dual layer hashing of any processed data
in relation to the processing relationship. With the only processed data being the Unique ID that is attributed to user interactions. Checking all the necessary boxes from a GDPR compliance perspective.
An important step being the verification of accurate reporting and tracking of touchpoints with all ads (this being views, clicks and conversions) followed by the verification of how this data interplayed with NHST’s reporting setup.
Meeting between the technical leaders of both sides of the project for a high level alignment on platform performance and how respective technologies would interact with one another.
Creating Commercial Depth for Each Placement
Leaderboard display served by Passendo in combination with the native teaser below – both ads are served in real time and can be updated on the fly.
Native Content Teaser built to align with the newsletter editorial aesthetics, linking to a native article, driving traffic and engagement to the client’s message within an qualitative editorial environment.
Positioning
Sold as a premium channel on a daily and weekly basis on a fixed rate as a qualitative compliment to purchasing exposure on site, enabling an extended offering into a channel with high engagement.
Audience
With newsletters being a high performing, high intent environment (compared to display on web), advertisers are buying exposure within an environment that sees 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 to build increased brand awareness, drive intent and generate leads.
Key Figures
17
Newsletters
7m
Monthly Impressions
2 – 6
Native and Display Units Per Newsletter
75%
Less time spent on Trafficking
Long Term Ambitions
Moving to Volume-Based Sales
As part of the ongoing commercial transformation of NHST’s sites, there has been a shift in moving towards CPM based models for more precise delivery metrics and greater commercial flexibility in running campaigns in a waterfall. Such a setup is ready to go within Passendo as NHST moves towards this – running multiple campaigns competing for inventory space based on eCPMs. Such a development will put their newsletters on par with other channels in terms of client offering.
First Party Data Onboarding
In the post-cookie and data protection focused world, newsletters (being a cookie-less environment) tick all the compliance boxes. With this in mind, there’s the ambition of linking NHST’s DMP with Passendo: enabling NHST to create further opportunities for clients by 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 channel.
Creating Verticals for Direct Inventory Access
NHST are also looking to incorporate 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 enable direct access for the buy side.
Passendo provides sales opportunities we haven’t had before, giving our sales staff the extra edge. The interface is intuitive, quick, easy to learn and use. The Passendo team are extremly service-minded and our onboarding was painless. We are very happy with our choice.
Alex Kurt
Head of Operations Global Division – NHST Media Group
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