The new department, headed by NI Commercial’s ex-Head of Technology Mark Peters, will focus on audience analysis and segmentation using big data technologies and also on developing new digital advertising formats and brand collaborations. The new unit will work collaboratively with brands and agencies in order to provide new insight into NI’s digital consumers and also to experiment with new digital advertising approaches.
The unit’s first project will be to leverage the recently-launched Times seven-day app to create new advertising opportunities for brands. The project will focus on deeply integrated, frictionless advertising, enabling brands to connect directly with consumers via branded content. Additionally, data from News Corporation’s big data programmes will be combined with existing behavioural targeting technologies within NI to enable granular targeting for advertising across News International’s digital editorial properties.
The launch of the unit is the latest significant investment in innovation by News International, following the launch earlier this year of its News 3.0 ‘future of news’ initiative.
Mark Peters, Digital Commercial Products Director, News International Commercial, said: “Tablets are obviously central to NI’s digital strategy and that’s where we’re initially going to focus the majority of our work. We need to understand our audience better and we then need to work out the best ways of giving brands the opportunity to reach them most effectively.
“This isn’t something we can do in isolation. We’re signing up the most innovative and forward-looking brands and agencies to work with us in helping to define the future of digital newspaper advertising.”
Abba Newbery, Director of Advertising Strategy, News International Commercial, said: “Innovation is constant in the digital space, but it’s not something that we can just let happen elsewhere. It’s incumbent on us as the UK’s largest newspaper publisher to ensure that we’re leading the market in identifying and developing new ways in which brands can leverage value from our editorial properties.
“News 3.0 was the first step in putting a world-class innovation infrastructure in place, with a brief to ‘think the unthinkable’ about the future of news. The new Digital Products department takes the next step, looking at the practicalities of implementing these future technologies in a real-world environment.”
