Group Nine Media made one of centerpieces of its second Digital Content NewFronts an artificial intelligence offering called GIA, for front-end optimization of advertisers’ campaign creative and distribution. It stands for Group Nine Insights Analyst, which takes “machine learning and artificial intelligence and applies it to how we are able to work with our brands today,” says Group Nine President Christa Carone.
The announcement comes less than two years after the launch of Group Nine, whose four vertical brands are NowThis (news), Thrillist (food, drink and travel), the Dodo (animal lovers) and Seeker (science and tech).
Following its NewFronts presentation, Carone tells Beet.TV about the company’s mantra—a “maniacal” focus on its audiences—and the progress it’s making with brands across various product and service categories.
“How we prioritize our people, platforms and purpose in all of our storytelling. That was the through line to our whole presentation today,” says Carone.
Group Nine’s audience-first approach is backed by scale of reach the four brands achieve and the resulting insights. “So when we take a look at an aggregation of all of the content that we produce on a daily basis, we’re able to draw some fascinating insights on what interests our audience.”
Beyond reach, “we have some of the leading engagement metrics across digital media,” Carone adds.
Group Nine is flexible in how brands engage with its content and audiences. “We also have the ability to work with our advertisers’ own advertising assets and contextualize those assets so they’re in the tone of voice, they’re in the format that our audience is used to seeing.”
Carone says the company is “definitely building a lot of momentum in the entertainment business, a lot more momentum in the CPG business, which I’m so thrilled about, a fair amount in auto.”
Group Nine also used its NewFronts presence to highlight work it has done with Samsung. Last year, it created about two dozen 360-degree videos on Facebook for the VR headset Samsung Gear 360, generating 161 million views in five months and becoming the most popular brand campaign on Facebook in 2017, as AdExchanger reports.
“With Seeker, we’re working a lot more with BtoB companies in the technology space who are interested in being part of those conversations that are all about harnessing the curiosity that we have today,” Carone says.
This video is part of Beet.TV’s coverage of the Digital Content NewFronts 2018. The series a co-presentation of Beet.TV and the IAB. Please see additional videos from the series on this page.
