The New York Times sells premium ads based on how an article makes you feel
The New York Times sells premium ads based on how an article
makes you feel
A year
ago, without ceremony, The New York Times piloted ad placements based on the
emotions certain articles evoke. “Project Feels” has now generated 50
campaigns, more than 30 million impressions and strong revenue results (the
Times declines to specify how much).
So it’s a hit, and the sort of
advertising innovation based on data science, artificial intelligence and
algorithm that the Times expects to scale up — and that other news
organizations are exploring.
To take an example of what the Times
more formally is calling “perspective targeting,” an interview/profile of
Cher was determined to put the reader into an inspired, amused and adventurous
mood. Should those feelings be a fit to an advertiser’s pitch, a placement
automatically drops into the digital edition of the story.
Unlike those ads that stalk you
across the internet based on what you have read and looked at, the connection
will typically be invisible to the reader.
Here is how the futuristic-sounding
product was developed and how it works:
- The Times began by asking a volunteer
group of readers to choose from a list of 18 emotions that they felt as
they read a sample of Times stories.
- With 150,000 data points, an analysis team could identify articles with strong emotional
resonance. The resulting algorithm then instantly finds which combination
of emotions is evoked as the story is posted.
- The Times and its advertisers can track
with some precision whether the ad outperforms a more random placement.
Some have generated as much as 80 percent more impressions than
regular behavioral targeting. The average lift is 40 percent. That success
supports a premium charge.
- The offering also includes “neutrality
targeting”: that is, isolating upsetting stories that could decrease
receptivity to ad messages — placements to be avoided.
At a glance this may sound a bit
manipulative and “Brave New World”-like to consumers of news.
Journalists and other news purists
may also wonder whether the Times newsroom is now being tasked with producing
lots of emotional stories.
Neither is the case, Allison Murphy,
senior vice president of advertising innovation, told me in an interview.
The newsroom turned out plenty of emotionally charged stories, anyhow. So
it has done nothing different. The ad sales initiative “doesn’t influence
what is covered” and editorial integrity is not compromised.
And the “Project Feels” ads are actually less intrusive,
she argues, since they do not depend on the sort of information about you and
your preferences that cookies harvest.
Together, Murphy said, the two kinds
of “Feels” targeting are a match to rising privacy concerns. They also
provide “an original type of brand safety” at a time when advertisers need to
worry about landing next to objectionable content on platforms like YouTube or
Facebook.
To date, the most popular advertiser
categories have been entertainment and corporate social responsibility
messages. The first of the Feels sales was to a story evoking “adventurous” and
aligned with a client’s launch of a new science fiction series.
“Self-confident” was paired with a message centered on
women’s empowerment. Ads to date have also appeared across 10 other
categories.
Of the 18 available emotions, 14 are
positive. But even negatives like sadness or indignation, Murphy said,
could support a given cause or candidate. “Boredom” isn’t and won’t be
much of a seller.
Here’s the list:
- Optimistic
- Inspired
- Self-Confident
- Amused
- Adventurous
- In the mood to
spend
- Love
- Sadness
- Boredom
- Interest
- Fear
- Hate
- Hope
- Happiness
- Nostalgic
- Indulgent
- Competitive
- Informed
I asked whether Project Feels might
be exported as a franchised service to other news organizations.
“Generally no,” Murphy replied. “The
whole model is based on Times content, and it requires maintenance. … We are
very fortunate to have the resources to invest in this sort of innovation.”
That includes both “the breadth of our content,” she added, and the
sophistication to do a rigorous measure of what works and how well.
However, other organizations are
already playing in the same sandbox and more will follow. A Digiday story on Project Feels last summer noted that ESPN can target
ads depending on whether a given fan’s team is winning or losing. USA Today has
a version called Lens Targeting with stories graded on the mood likely to be
evoked.
As Murphy’s job title suggests,
perspective targeting is not a one-off but part of a series of innovation
projects. She was involved in the development of Flex Frames, a premium
full-screen display that works on any device. Next she is planning a variant of
Feels to get at motivation.
More broadly, the industry has been
seeing data analysis generating models that can match story choices to a target
audience’s greatest “passion topics” or can guide strategy for digital
subscription paywalls and pricing.
I am not saying emotional targeting
and its algorithmic cousins are the Holy Grail of a new business model — but
they can’t hurt.
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