Nikki Cockcroft

As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let us down, probably will. You'll have your heart broken and you'll break others' hearts. You'll fight with your best friend or maybe even fall in love with them, and you'll cry because time is flying by. So take too many pictures, laugh too much, forgive freely, and love like you've never been hurt. Life comes with no guarantees, no time outs, no second chances. you just have to live life to the fullest, tell someone what they mean to you and tell someone off, speak out, dance in the pouring rain, hold someone's hand, comfort a friend, fall asleep watching the sun come up, stay up late, be a flirt, and smile until your face hurts. Don't be afraid to take chances or fall in love and most of all, live in the moment because every second you spend angry or upset is a second of happiness you can never get back.

- Unknown

Online Publishing: To pay or not to pay?

This may seem to be the hot topic of the moment, but it is deeper than that.  It is the constant battle for online publishers to find alternative ways to pay for our newsrooms made up of journalists and technical infrastructure.  Our costs do not quite reach the levels of print, but then we don’t have readers paying for our content either and so the debate begins, should we put up paywalls around our content?

As an online publisher for 10 years now, we have proved that online publishing companies can survive and make small profits off advertising revenue alone and without the backing of traditional mediums.  But... the growth in the number of publishers competing for the advertising spend (which is also growing but in a slower proportion) is forcing us to look deeper into our revenue models.

Paywalls make sense in literal terms.  The publisher creates content - users pay to read it.  It seems like an age-old barter agreement between 2 parties, a simple exchange where both parties benefit.  Unfortunately it’s not that simple as we have competition providing the content for free.  Readers will go to competitor sites if they can consume the same content and even a few extras at no cost.  This is the case for most South African news portals – we all receive the same content, we add some original pieces, a few columnists and some user interaction.  And then we ask the same question.  Does each of our uniqueness qualify us to charge for our content? This comes down to the level of originality and the quality of the journalism.  Will the margins on paywalls substantiate the investment into the original content? In my simple maths mind and with a very good understanding of how advertising revenue drops straight to the bottom line, I fail to see how paywalls can make up the difference and lead to greater profits.

Not to say that we don’t pay for online “content” already.  I know very few people who still by full music albums at the CD store.  No we simply hear a song we like, go online, pay the 50 US cents and download the song without even hesitating.  It’s no longer foreign for us to buy music, clothes, books, groceries online so it shouldn’t seem so “unheard of” to pay for content.  The difference is we know what we’re getting when we choose that song or buy the book.  We can listen to a preview or read the bio, we can see how others have rated it and even ask others before making the purchase.  In my opinion paywalls for online content can work in this way.  If, as I mentioned above, the content is original, well written and in demand by consumers we can get them to pay for articles or snippets of content through micro-payments which can include subscription models.  Again, this is not going to break the bank but single articles and series of content will attract a paying audience but blocking off news content and average daily content will send your users flocking elsewhere.

Very often we fear that our Jerry Maguire moment will result in us landing “outside the circle of trust” amongst agencies and publishers but I believe that an alternative solution lies in the advertising and looking to evolve the way we measure our sites and sell online advertising.

Currently, we rank websites according to their UB (Unique Browsers) and PI (Page Impressions).  We then sell advertising based on these impressions in either volumes of impressions or occasionally “clicks” on the advertising.  This forms the basis of our industry and makes up the majority of the online advertising spend in South Africa.  We talk search, social, reputation management but in reality the majority of the advertising spend goes into display on leading (usually the larger) SA websites.

We need to investigate ways to convert advertisers into spending their budgets online and for those already spending online we need to make them pay real value for their return.  This will only happen when we give them the ROI that differentiates online from the other mediums, we need to go back to basics and as much we understand that content is king, it is only useful if it meets the consumer’s needs.  It’s the same with advertising; it will only work (i.e. convert) if the consumer is in line with the target audience set out in the objectives of the campaign.  If it comes down to the consumer, then we need to understand the consumer’s behaviour on our sites and understand their movements, their level of engagement and what content is relevant to them.  This is measurable and we have been talking about behavioural targeting for years now but I have yet to see it in practice (properly anyway).  We need to start measuring the time that users spend on our sites, where they’re going, and how they engage with the advertising. 

I still find myself telling new online publishers to focus on all ways possible to increase site impressions as this means more advertising delivery and therefore more money.  But does this really add value to the advertiser?  For example, galleries have on average 5 frames before the page is refreshed.  Why? This adds to your user numbers and means more ads can be served.  If we measured the time users spent on the galleries instead and rotated advertising according to this rather than a refreshed page then surely we would be offering our users a better experience and our advertiser’s better return.

We have the tools to measure engagement, but it’s a huge call to get advertisers to understand an already confusing, jargon-filled medium.  It comes down to the publisher, we debate paywalls and micro-payments which may lead to marginal increases in the bottom line but here we can adjust and grow the advertising revenue which we all know drops straight down with far greater margins.

We need to explore and evolve these advertising revenue options as we have the minds and talent to understand the technical platforms and delivery options, we just need to sell it in to the advertisers and change the way we measure our sites with a focus on engagement. “Cost per engagement” in combination with our existing models of CPM and CPC will lead to more advertisers trusting the medium and shifting spend.

Integrated Media Plan

The emergence of online as a viable and increasingly key player in the media landscape shook up the media planning industry and introduced a tsunami- like shift in media consumption.

Today consumers are selecting to spend more time online, but this has not negated their need for other mediums. Consumers still choose to read print, listen to the radio and watch TV for example. The medium of choice ultimately depends on what suits the consumer at any given time or location. 

Due to the combined effects of a general lack of understanding and education of the online medium, mainstream media strategists and planners did not initially embrace online. Numerous failed executions didn’t help matters either. As a result, online media developed a kind of separatist evangelical following, and a myriad of independent digital agencies, both creative and strategic, were spawned.

Today, even though digital media has become an increasingly popular choice (latest OPA/ Nielsen Online stats indicate 7.5 million South Africans accessed the web in the final quarter of 2009), digital advertising agencies still operate in isolation. 

Specialist digital planning agencies are most often bought in towards the end of the strategic process and allocated a set budget by the traditional media planners, or furnished with a separate brief and budget from the advertiser directly.

This isolationist approach does not benefit the client, or the campaign objective.

Separatist planning is like operating with a proverbial broken telephone, it produces an end result which is incomprehensible to the message intended at the outset..

Traditional strategists are briefed on the campaign objective and then allocate budgets between the various mediums. The digital brief is then typically outsourced to a digital planning agency who are told what the budget is, and who receive the brief second hand.

The result of this separatist approach is that the essence of the campaign objective is often lost. This in turn affects the entire process and ultimately the campaign results.  The digital creative concept and message if often not seamless with the rest of the campaign, the brand identity is often lost and mixed messages are sent to the consumer. Most importantly the results do not reflect the actual performance of the campaign.

In most cases the success of an online campaign is measured on the Click Through Rate (CTR).  This measurement tool distorts campaign results. How can the CTR of a brand awareness campaign be compared with that of an acquisition campaign?

 If all parties understand the campaign objectives and the message then the appropriate measurement tool can be used to determine the overall campaign success measured against the predefined goals.

A better approach is to integrate all mediums onto a single media plan. In other words, strategists, both traditional and digital, should be encouraged to identify the best combination of mediums upfront in order to deliver on the objectives of the campaign. Budget should then be set accordingly. An integrated planning process should ensure that the right platform is used to deliver a response to the advertising injected into that medium.  The focus must not be on the number of eyes and ears that can be reached; instead the focus must be on the advertising medium best positioned to make the conversion.

As the digital medium further establishes itself as a respected and viable medium, well-positioned digital agencies are offering end-to-end solutions for advertisers including strategy, creative concept and execution as well as media planning and buying.

Should we reach the point of an integrated media plan, the true benefits of all digital mediums will be realised.  A single message will be delivered to the consumer and the overall results of the campaign will be measured on actual conversions, the real measurement of the clients ROI.  In doing this, we will be changing the way the advertising is bought and sold, and the way it is measured and delivered.  Effective advertising combined with the right medium based on what the CONSUMER wants will deliver the greatest conversion.

Nikki Cockcroft

iafrica.com, South Africa's most established online brand, has recently experienced a substantial increase in daily unique users and page impressions.

According to CEO of Primedia Online Nikki Cockcroft, the increase in daily unique browsers is testament to two factors: Firstly the efforts of recently appointed Portal Manager, Bridget Pringle, and secondly, the continuing importance of a slick and rewarding user experience.

"South African internet browsers are becoming increasingly sophisticated. They demand that their online destinations deliver a polished and professional offering which is up to date and well informed. The fact that iafrica.com continues to attract substantially more users is simply because it is considered a worthwhile destination in terms of content and usability," says Cockcroft.

Pringle has concentrated on getting the right news up, fast. She highlights the importance of using social networking sites such as Twitter in order to ensure iafrica is first with the latest news.

"Great examples that spring to mind include Julius Malema kicking out the BBC correspondent from a press conference, which we picked up from Twitter; and the South African music sensation, Die Antwoord, which went viral. Our first story on the group is iafrica's biggest entertainment story of the year so far," says Pringle.

iafrica.com's March figures were the highest monthly figures in more than a year, and figures from the first weeks in April are equally as outstanding. Pringle concedes that the April figures are partly attributable to the Malema and Terre Blanche stories, ‘However the last couple of weeks in April have continued to show really good figures, so we can presume that this growth is part of a solid pattern. Our readers know we'll be reporting on the country's strongest and most interesting stories and therefore they continue to return'.

Cockcroft believes that it is iafrica's original, in-depth content and peerless usability that will set the site apart from its competitors going forward.

"As the South African online environment matures, sites will have to work increasingly harder to ensure readers are kept satisfied, and importantly, return. A great product will ensure readers return time again, and it's this loyalty which is priceless."