Wall Street Journal, Fox News talk mobile at ad:tech
August 7, 2008
Call Street Journal
CHICAGO -- The Wall Street Journal, the world's preeminent business news publication, isn't looking to place mobile on a pedestal nor is it locked into one delivery format.
The publisher is experimenting with different mobile content delivery formats -- sites tailored to platforms, SMS alerts, downloadable applications and partnerships with Action Engine and Amazon for its Kindle wireless book reader.
"As a media company, we're platform-agnostic," said Richard Trumble, executive director of digital strategy and operations at The Wall Street Journal Digital Network.
Mr. Trumble was participating on an ad:tech Chicago panel focused on mobile case studies, sharing the podium with Scott Margolis, director of digital business development at Fox News Digital; Christopher A. Lihosit, senior sales engineer at Action Engine; Eric Eller, senior vice president of products and marketing at Millennial Media; and Steve Leonard, general manager of off-deck at Motricity. This writer was the moderator.
Explaining the Journal's ad sales philosophy, Mr. Trumble said his company believed in an integrated approach. The Journal has a print newspaper, Web sites, blogs and a mobile presence -- all supported by advertising.
"It's really about multimedia platforms," Mr. Trumble told an estimated 75 interactive marketing executives in the audience. "Mobile usually isn't addressed as a single buy."
Digital specialists at the Journal currently handle ad sales for the mobile products.
As is the case with many publishers of the same girth, the Journal's print and online products attract the lion's share of ad dollars. So the challenge is to "find new and exciting ways to talk mobile," Mr. Trumble said.
The Journal is working with Action Engine on its mobile products. In addition, it managed to bag Microsoft as a sponsor for a downloadable application.
The program with Internet retailer Amazon for downloading copies of the day's Journal is another mobile product, albeit not via a phone.
Such mobile products require smartphones to view, which isn't a problem since many Journal readers have business-friendly BlackBerry phones.
While the ads on the Journal's mobile products typically are banners and some sponsorships, a recent SMS campaign for sports utility vehicle Land Rover was a proud moment for Mr. Trumble.
"It's only 30 to 40 characters" but you can still do a lot with that to get a message across, Mr. Trumble said.
When asked about the demographic differences between the different channels, he said the online Journal readership skewed younger than the print.
"The mobile demographic is a little younger than the online demographic," Mr. Trumble said.
That will change once the younger generation comes of age, since they are already used to heavy consumption of media through mobile. In essence, mobile media will become as mainstream as online has become.
In answer to another question, Mr. Trumble said agencies and clients should be willing to experiment with mobile advertising.
How much budget from the interactive marketing pie should they allocate for an early mobile advertising effort?
"Five percent as a starting point of a digital budget," Mr. Trumble said.
Foxy moxie
Fellow panelist Mr. Margolis approached mobile somewhat differently, given that his employer's content is a television network that shares a common corporate parent with the Journal -- News Corp.
As director of digital business development at Fox News Digital, Mr. Margolis is tasked with leveraging video on mobile or extend the life of Fox News assets.
Fox News Digital launched text alerts a year ago. Taking a look at the shows and content, the challenge was how to interact with Fox News viewers and fans.
One idea that took off was the "No-Spin Mobile Alert" -- a clear link to primetime Fox News talk show host Bill O'Reilly and his no-spin factor positioning.
Those viewers who sign up will receive a No-Spin alert each day via SMS to alert them of what's going on that day on the "The O'Reilly Factor" show.
"Recently we're seeing a lot of interest from our advertisers -- how can we insert advertising into those alerts?" Mr. Margolis said.
Another use of mobile ingenuity was during the political debates in the primaries.
Unlike other networks where anchors and talking heads debriefed each other on the respective candidates' performance, Fox News was keen to know what its audience thought.
So Fox News asked people to text in what they thought of each candidate's performance on the debate just aired.
"The calls to action on the screen -- they can be sponsored," Mr. Margolis said. "The response mechanism can also be sponsored."
During the bigger holidays such as New Year's Eve, Mother's Day or St. Valentine's Day, Fox News encouraged viewers to replace print wit text messages. One such campaign yielded 100,000 text messages.
Fox News doesn't charge anything for these texts, but carrier's standard rates apply.
Fox News uses the Motricity platform for its mobile efforts.
Unlike some sites and brands, Fox News created a new domain for its mobile site for the channel -- http://www.foxnews.mobi. But it also offered sibling business channel Fox Business' mobile site with the http://www.foxbusiness.com.
The company also has a site for the Apple iPhone.
Mr. Margolis said his company is constantly taking into consideration carriers and mobile devices.
When asked if Fox News ran pre-roll ads, Mr. Margolis said "not yet."
Like the Journal's Mr. Trumble, Mr. Margolis was open to working with interactive firms and their clients on crafting mobile ad campaigns. But he offered a word of caution for all to remember.
"Just because we can doesn't mean we should," Mr. Margolis said.