UK websites of Condé Net on YouTube
Online presence and digital strategy
In its 12 years of online experience, CondéNet UK has experimented with many different digital marketing initiatives to promote the company’s 12 websites. In recent years it has focused the majority of its digital marketing spend on search, as well as a number of content partnerships that have helped expose the publisher’s varied and high quality content as well as to drive additional traffic.
With bespoke and regularly updated content produced for online and mobile platforms, CondéNet is also focusing on creating its own video content. As a result, it has been looking for interesting and innovative ways to promote this content to an even broader audience.
Goals
Interested in promoting its digital brands and showcasing examples of its online content, the launch of
CondéNet initial four YouTube channels was first and foremost a branding exercise. Secondly, it was intended to drive click throughs and increase usage of the publisher’s official sites. The channels were expected to expand the CondéNet brand to a new and broader demographic, as well as promote a positive industry perception.
Getting started, and why YouTube
With its global community of millions, and as the premier destination to view and share original content, YouTube was the perfect platform for the leading glossy monthly magazine brands of VOGUE, GLAMOUR, GQ, CONDÉ NAST BRIDES and EASY LIVING. Building the channels was easy and the set up took less than half a day with the aid of the design team producing banners and buttons to order.
Content
Red carpet and fashion party coverage on the VOGUE channel, interviews with celebrities and behind the scenes access on GLAMOUR, or how to achieve perfect wedding hair from BRIDES are just a few samples of CondéNet’s YouTube offering. CondéNet was also the first British magazine publisher to create cookery content especially for YouTube for the EASY LIVING channel.
As with all YouTube channels, CondéNet channels are also designed to showcase UGC – short clips produced by the YouTube community as video responses or competition entries, such as a competition for short wedding video clips to include on the BRIDES channel.
And with more channels planned for the future, it doesn’t stop here.
Community response
“It has been really interesting to see which videos appealed most to the YouTube audience. The celebrity interviews on GLAMOUR and the catwalk shows for VOGUE have all done brilliantly. We were also delighted to see that the excellent and very professional footage made by BRIDES magazine has done well on YouTube” comments Josa Young, Executive Editor, CondéNet UK. “There is a hunger for practical stuff, also demonstrated by the response to our new and easy to follow recipes for the EASY LIVING channel. Ratings have been impressive and YouTube proved to be a great indicator of what consumers are looking for and what inspires them – a global survey of hundreds of thousands”.
Results
“With over 100,000 video views in the first three weeks for VOGUE, the popularity and reach of CondeNet’s YouTube channels exceeded our expectations. In addition, the users’ migration from YouTube to our official websites was much higher than anticipated, reaching as high as 73% for GLAMOUR. ” says Serena Privett, Commercial Director, CondéNet UK.
With more than 460 subscribers across all channels, CondéNet decided in August to launch an additional channel - EASY LIVING - dedicated to cookery content. Additional channels are also planned.
Josa Young adds “Early results show that the initiative has already proven itself as an effective driver of traffic to our websites. Delighted with our first YouTube channels, we have gone on to launch further new ones with more in the pipeline.”
“The increased online audience has significantly raised the brand awareness
and, with
CondéNet being the first British magazine publisher to launch
channels on YouTube, it offered numerous PR and marketing opportunities”
comments Nicky Eaton, Head of Press & PR.
With the help from YouTube, the publisher was also able to launch multimedia solutions for its own websites – something that has stimulated its multimedia strategy as a whole, inspiring the team to find new ways of expressing their brands in the online environment.
“The YouTube audience is a great indicator of the current zeitgeist, and their apparent approval of CondéNet channels as shown by the viewing figures and the impressive click through rate, is a reassuring confirmation that the range of content available on the site appeals to a discerning and ever-expanding market. It also helps identify new trends and opportunities, and we are planning to incorporate the YouTube viewing figures and responses into our overall content and digital strategy,” concludes Josa Young.
CondéNet’s YouTube channels:
GQ - www.youtube.com/gqmagazine