This time last year, Mashable unveiled its proprietary Velocity Technology Suite software, which uses predictive analysis to inform content creation. Since then it’s gone from “a couple hundred million video views” monthly to 1.5 billion, according to Chief Revenue Officer Ed Wise.
Using Velocity, Mashable tries to identify “who’s influenced, who can influence on a certain topic and who’s influenceable,” Wise says in this interview with Beet.TV at the Digital Content NewFronts. This is done by staffers examining users’ behavioral habits like sharing, engaging on the web, liking, commenting and other activity.
Snapchat in particular has been a boon, as Mashable is the platform’s exclusive tech partner for its Discover network of media outlets. “That’s led to significant growth. For us it’s a game changer,” says Wise.
At this year’s NewFronts, the company launched a new vertical video product called Mashable Reels. Reels are arranged as slideshows that can be easily scrolled through on both desktop and mobile devices. The slides also change automatically after the individual videos they contain finish running, as Tubefilter reports.
Sprint and McDonald’s are two launch partners for Mashable Reels, according to Wise.
He says the “secret sauce” for Mashable inside of video and in addition to sponsorships is branded content, again fueled by predictive analytics. “I think when you look at the advertising community they’re not really quite sure what to create,” Wise notes. “They have a gut.”
He cites the example of an automobile manufacturer that says it wants to target 18- 34-year-olds who are in the market. Since that doesn’t really differentiate the auto brand from its competitors, Mashable seeks additional targeting data that might consist of, say, coffee, shoe and travel preferences. Then it tries to figure out what content those targets are consuming right now.
“The brand might think it’s entertainment but we’re saying it’s technology,” specifically technology related to music, so Mashable does a deeper data dive. “Inside of that thread we’re going to see that the insight is fearless thinking” so content related to fearless thinking is produced and distributed.
“It’s creating the right piece of content that you may not have thought was the kind that you should create,” Wise says. “If we’ve done that right we then should prove out that it actually works that we’ve moved the needle on your business. I think we’re getting pretty close to being able to do that.”
This video is part of Beet.TV’s coverage of the IAB’s Digital Content NewFronts 2017. The series is sponsored by the IAB. For more videos from the #NewFronts, please visit this page.
