As one of the fastest-growing publishers in modern media, BDG (Bustle Digital Group) is home to a portfolio of distinct brands–Bustle, Elite Daily, Input, Inverse, Mic, NYLON, Romper, the Zoe Report, and W Media. BDG takes an “audience-first, personalized approach” that allows its publications to “speak to the many or the few,” by curating stories and deep-diving into issues that reflect the varied interests of 84 million readers and 55 million social followers. Its mix of digital and experiential brands enables BDG to provide a range of content, but the challenge is determining what content connects with its audiences.
BDG has seen success over the last five years, achieving the largest reach and engagement of any Millennial and Gen Z-focused publisher. Since the key to reaching and engaging an audience is understanding that audience, BDG worked with Quantcast to gain audience insights. According to President and Chief Revenue officer, Jason Wagenehim, “our editors and our brand and content teams” are helped immensely by “great insights about how content is resonating and being engaged with, by which audiences, across all of our sites.” These insights allow BDG to work with creators to deliver engaging, authentic, and relevant content for its diverse audiences. As Jason explained, the tools that Quantcast provides “allow our editors and writers to really think differently about future content that they’ll produce based on how audiences respond to them. It’s been super helpful; it’s made us so much better. I don’t know how we could operate, frankly, our business right now, as successfully as we are in a very challenging time, without some of [these] tools.”
BDG has been able to quantify and affirm their level of success in reaching their audience as well. Jason appreciates how the Quantcast Platform “validates and helps us verify that we actually delivered upon the KPIs that advertisers set out for us with any campaign.” He added: “We love you guys at Quantcast. You’ve made us so much smarter about how we operate internally and with the products that we’re able to take to market.”
Looking forward, Jason is optimistic about the future of digital publishing. He considers privacy-focused changes to the industry–from GDPR to third-party cookie deprecation–to be “the right thing” for consumers, who “we should always put first and foremost.” And as long as its published content also remains driven by what consumers want, BDG is well positioned for continued success. Jason affirms, “Context has always been king for us, and I think that it will be booming for premium publishers like us. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Learn More
To learn more about BDG’s partnership with Quantcast, you can read this earlier interview with Jason. And you can watch a short video of Jason, speaking at our Virtual NOVA, below: