“You live and die by the audience you drive”

As media companies are paying increasing attention to the audience revenue, they are eager to explore strategies to drive traffic as well as building the infrastructure and make the best use of data and AI.

At a panel session focusing on the building blocks of AI-driven product and audience development future at the 8^th Data & AI for Media Conference in London, Mads Holmen, CEO of BIbblio, says content recommendation ads provide audiences with related content that drive engagement on the pages, and drives advertising revenue for publishers from the related content. The Danish company based in London, reworks the recommendation ad model to include AI-driven content related to what readers are currently reading on the publishers’ page. Holmen stresses the importance of not treating data as static tool but dynamic information as “the same people is not always the same personas”.

Alan Segal, VP at Audience Development & Analytics of CNN Digital, United States says CNN.com is advertising-driven business, with over 100 million unique visitors per month. It is the job of the data and insights team to ensure the audience numbers are stable and growing. “You live and die by the audience you drive. if you don’t ensure that the experience on your site is not engaging, you will fail,” Segal says, adding that the team ensures they are not relying on only social media and breaking news for traffic.

Marko Velic, Head of Data Science at Styria Media based in Croatia says their award-winning data department has produced a variety of AI-driven, revenue-making products, including their classified marketplace. The operation includes AI features such as the seller’s side object recognition for ad placement, and visual search for buyers, as well as a recommendation engine and personalisation based on NLP for news portals. He also stresses the importance of teamwork between the technical department with commercial side and how important it is to communicate with the clients in a language they would understand.

These speakers are participating at a panel discussion at the 8th Data & AI for Media Conference. The conference is for media and data practitioners who are seeking to earn revenue and expand audiences by leveraging data and artificial intelligence. The 2-day event features a powerful format of general sessions with top-notch speakers, plus interactive, small-group breakout sessions called “huddles.”