Dive Brief:
- According to comScore, publications across the UK’s Trinity Mirror group received 25.3 million unique visitors in December, with 18 million only reaching those publications via mobile devices.
- Trinity Mirror’s Strategy Director Piers North told Digiday it is focused on social distribution and investment in mobile products with the goal of having mobile make up for losses in print revenue.
- Trinity Mirror currently has 14 apps across its publications, including the Daily Mirror.
Dive Insight:
North told Digiday that one focus in on in-app advertising because app readers are more loyal than mobile web visitors. In response to that, Trinity Mirror is creating mobile products such as news aggregator Perspecs and creating in-app ad formats embedded in the editorial content.
As North explained, “Native in-feed ads are generally more accepted by consumers, too, which helps with ad blocking on the rise.”
The publishing group is still serving mobile banner ads even though there is some industry concern about the format’s efficacy, but to improve mobile ads overall Trinity Mirror is looking into making location a major aspect of serving relevant mobile ads. Per North, they see location as an opportunity to help drive up CPMs, among other benefits.
The conversation around location data and mobile advertising has been bubbling recently, and applying location-based advertising has become more attractive given that so many people carry around smartphones almost constantly. Tony Longo, co-founder and CEO of Ground Signal, told Marketing Dive in February that what's key to location-based marketing is for advertisers to really understand the type of data they are using and laying out what they want to get out of it.
"Right now, marketers have an X and a Y axis, but no Z axis, so it lacks dimension," Longo said. "By leveraging location, we provide more insight – and dimension – into why a specific audience might say, act or respond to a brand in a certain way, while also being able to reach them in a more personalized and meaningful way. That’s a powerful tool for any marketer."