Contests are huge. But first-party data is even bigger.
The Local Media Association’s latest Innovation Report looks at the popularity of contesting and how media companies are utilizing them to gather first-party data and then create new products and additional revenue streams.
For this report, LMA went deep with Second Street and one of their biggest client success stories, GateHouse Media. The report looks at best practices for acquiring email addresses, what new products media companies are creating and how they are using first-party data to drive revenue for those products.
Here are a few things you will learn:
1. The acquisition of emails is absolutely critical. Second Street shared an easy-to-remember acronym: ABCD, which means Always Be Collecting Data. This means do the obvious like have good sign-up options on your website, but also use contests to acquire emails and sign ups for other products.
2. New products can be developed. In the report, a mini case study example is provided that shows how a newspaper took its voting form for its Athlete of the Week contest and promoted a new high school sports newsletter on it. Very quickly, they had hundreds of sign ups for that newsletter.
3. Use data to improve the traditional sale: Data like zip codes or birth dates can lead to new products like birthday email campaigns or can help advertisers target a specific demographic.