It's something we've had to consider long and hard as we've been gearing up for the launch of Bloomberg Business Europe. (), our first regional digital property.
It's now live, led by my impressive colleague, Nate Lanxon, the former-editor of Wired.co.uk. Here are my thoughts on some of things we’ve learnt so far.
We all know that if a media business is going to be the best, then it needs to be able to serve its content to the audience wherever and whenever they want it. Being a specialist in just one channel is not enough and real influence comes through delivery across a multi-platform media business model.
While Bloomberg’s heritage may be in financial information, our unique proposition at Bloomberg Media is the combination of television, print, digital and live events which are all fuelled by the power of the data and analysis stemming from the Bloomberg terminal.
With more than 2,500 reporters, analysts and economists at Bloomberg globally, feeding stories, data and analysis directly into all our multiplatform brands, it helps the international business audience make smarter, faster decisions.
Digital is absolutely central to the proposition and this is where our latest launch comes into its own.
While having global scale is vital, it is just as important to be able to talk directly to local audiences with tailored local content.
This is as crucial for advertisers as it is for publishers, as it provides our commercial partners with a deeper level of engagement with specific audiences.
It's working too. Since its launch at the end of April 2015, early statistics from Bloomberg Business Europe show users are now more engaged than they were at launch.
This data also enables us to see which formats are performing particularly well. The digital video section, for example, experienced a 50% increase in traffic during the first week of May as compared to the first week in April.
Delving a bit further into these audience insights also brings up some interesting points. One of the reasons we launched Bloomberg Business Europe was because we knew there was a gap in the market for a media outlet that could serve the new age of business leaders with relevant and timely business updates and, in the process, kick-start a revolution in the world of business news.
While a wave of new digital-first brands are creating progressive content and business models, they do not have the credibility associated with more established media brands.
On the other hand, many traditional media owners are not progressive enough in the way they are publishing content, allowing Bloomberg to bring together both influence and the forward-thinking entrepreneurial attitude of a start-up.
Being a technology company, technology is of course at the forefront of our minds, with the new launch being built on a unique platform for content and advertising to co-exist.
Offering clients a blend of standard and bespoke formats for display and video, as well as more sophisticated targeted platforms such as SmartMatch – a semantic product that delivers relevant ad copy based on the editorial content being displayed – has been at the heart of our commercial success since launch.
This has allowed us to attract a mix of advertisers from across the finance, business and luxury categories, widening our range of commercial partners and solutions.
This, together with a data driven custom content proposition, which uses data directly from the Bloomberg terminal to produce key insights and infographics, is very much part of our future focus. It is something our new Head of Solutions Penny Bartram will be championing, as well as something I talked about at Media360 earlier this month.
Finally, when it comes to knowing your audience, it’s important to understand its full scale. For us, it's no longer just about the financial markets' audiences – they are still hugely important of course, but we are in a position to attract a much wider group of consumers, including entrepreneurs and digital natives.
This is reflected in the wider range of Bloomberg Business Europe advertisers, with brands being able to engage with 6.8 million consumers across the EMEA region, of which 1.2 million are in the UK.
Building significant influence with a priority audience group, whoever that may be, is a complex process, especially as our industry continues to change and adapt.
We must continue to evolve to ensure we are meeting the demands of our consumers over time – don’t be afraid to experiment, as that entrepreneurial attitude is key. If you get it right, then continued success should follow.
Matt Teeman is commercial director of Bloomberg Media, EMEA