Time Inc. acquires HelloGiggles to better target millennial women
Time Inc. has acquired the digital media brand HelloGiggles, which is deeply integrated with social media and mobile traffic, bringing the publication further into video and television.
The HelloGiggles media brand is highly focused on serving millennial women engaging content and a community through social media and mobile platforms, with over 75 percent of traffic through smartphone and tablets. The partnership is hoping to evolve the brand into a full media content creator, leveraging its social and mobile significance.
"The purpose of the HelloGiggles, providing a positive community for women, aligns well with a topic which is often a subject of focus on social media," said Shuli Lowy, marketing director at Ping Mobile. "Social media is a conglomerate of individuals expressing their view, often about women.
"At times the comments are positive and at others they are negative," she said. "Social media is a place where HelloGiggles? mission statement is extremely pertinent."
Millennials love mobile
The HelloGiggles publication focuses on providing an encouraging, positive and safe space for women and girls to get inspiration and entertainment, and in doing so has motivated a more supportive social media space, which can sometimes be known as an emotionally damaging platform. The partnership will be expanding on this using new verticals, and leveraging the popularity of mobile video.
"HelloGiggles is a Web site that is a safe and positive community for and by millennials and we communicate through social first," said Sophia Rossi, CEO of HelloGiggles.
The purchase is a part of Time Inc.?s continued efforts to target the millennial demographic following People?s launch of a Snapchat Discover channel and Entertainment Weekly supported VidCon?s Creator Track Interview Stage which featured numerous big names on YouTube.
HelloGiggles is supported by a network of more than 1,000 contributing writers, who support the brand?s ideals and views. The publication was formed in 2011 through a collaborative effort with friend Ms. Deschannel, Ms. Rossi and Molly McAleer.
The millennial-focused publication sees more than 17 million unique monthly visitors, 75 percent of which derive from mobile according to Google Analytics. The Time Inc. acquisition follows a partnership with People since the beginning of this year.
Time Inc. has also shut down All You, its discount-focused publication, which alludes to the HelloGiggles buy as a reflection that Time may be having internal difficulty with mobile and socially internally and needed to make the acquisition to obtain the tools to gain an advantage in this area.
Time Inc. has also shut down All You, its discount-focused publication, which alludes to the HelloGiggles buy as a reflection that Time may be having internal difficulty with mobile and socially internally and needed to make the acquisition to obtain the tools to gain an advantage in this area.
Time Inc. endeavors
Time Inc. also acquired FanSided, a sports, entertainment and lifestyle digital content network of more than 300 Web sites with 15 million unique visitors per month, which consolidated the media company?s two-year-old partnership with the network ahead of the personalization and customization of the traditional media company's Sports Illustrated magazine (see more).
Also, People StyleWatch matched shoppers with their celebrity fashion twins in an interactive mobile shopping experience (see more).
"HelloGiggles has amassed an impressive social following, posting content that resonates well with their audience," Ms. Lowy said. "With time, the brand will learn to further fine tune its content and particularly optimize it for mobile devices.
"For example, many of its' Facebook videos are several minutes long," she said. "Vidoes posted on Facebook are usually watched on a mobile phone and therefore perform better when they are under 1 minute.
"In fact, the HelloGiggles videos which are under a minute have received substantially more engagement."
Final take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Marketer