The new format, launched with an advertising campaign for BP, allows clients to create high-quality, multimedia content designed to deliver strong audience engagement. The content is informed by the FT’s own audience consumption data, ensuring it is both topical and compelling, says the FT.
The dynamic Paid Posts are distinguished by a new look and feel, which will work seamlessly across devices. The pages have been built to appear across the full width of the screen – a first for a Paid Post destination page – where animated graphs and videos complement new commissioned client-voiced articles. Paid Posts will continue to be clearly marked as paid content, say the publishers.
The new offering is supported by data analytics which, beyond simply informing the content, allows the FT’s commercial team to assess the performance of, and engagement with, each piece of content, across devices. With continued evaluation, the team can adjust campaigns in real time to ensure the most effective performance – an approach the FT says has increased active engagement time by 123% and click-through rate by 30% since the launch of Paid Posts in October 2015.
Alexis Jarman, Content Activation Director at the FT said: “This evolution of our Paid Posts offering helps to reinforce our position as producers of high quality content for a C-Suite and high-net-worth audience. The integration of data and analytics capabilities throughout the campaign allows better targeting and a positive experience for the reader.”
Mark Rose, UK & Group brand manager, BP added: “As we reach peak content, simply producing and posting well-written and relevant features is no longer enough to engage audiences. The way the content is presented is becoming just as important. The new paid post feature from the FT allows us to achieve both.”
