Organic monthly uniques pass 10 million; total monthly audience nears 20 million
Advertisers in Q4 2014 pilot program saw up to 5X engagement over other media
Web and mobile takeovers of The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, Slate and The Daily Beast run with robust programmatic buy during June
Becomes first publisher to support a daily news email with ads for its Presidential Daily Brief
Innovative editorial distribution model taps Feedly, Nearpod
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – OZY, the first and favorite source for the Change Generation, revealed impressive audience momentum, unparalleled ad engagement during its premium pilot program and a brand campaign investing more than $1 million in Web and mobile takeovers of The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, Slate and The Daily Beast, along with a full embrace of programmatic ads.
This generation is educated and edgy; open, curious, ambitious and diverse; they covet the new and the next, and they drive innovation
The rapid growth stems from the company’s focus on the underserved Change Generation, says OZY co-founder and CEO Carlos Watson. “Media’s customer base has changed. This Change Generation has shown up. And the people often running media shops don’t see it; they aren’t a part of it; they don’t have a hunger to thrill them; and consequently what they bring to them isn’t that compelling.”
The Change Generation is driven by purpose and inclines toward social action. Unlike generations defined solely by age demographics, the Change Generation spans three: including Millennials (now 20-35), GenX (now 36-51) and the upcoming GenZ (the upper reaches of which are now 19). The group totals some 400 million worldwide, with 40 million in the U.S.
“This generation is educated and edgy; open, curious, ambitious and diverse; they covet the new and the next, and they drive innovation,” adds Watson. “And we’re here to thrill them. To make them feel like they have to come back. To be spectacular and truly different.”
Toward that end, the company produces six stories a day with a smart, flavorful, forward-looking approach. Experienced OZY journalists are stationed around the world to produce high-quality original reporting that is authentically global.
Among recent highlights:
- More than 42% of OZY’s forward-looking stories in its first 12 months — a full 150 stories — appeared an average of 3.3 months before top-tier mainstream media. In some cases, OZY stories appeared eight to 10 months ahead.
- OZY in May published its first in-depth reporting series: Trailer Park Nation: The New American Dream?, a multi-part look at a hidden America that includes one in every 15 Americans (20 million and rising). The original text, photo essays and videos looked at all sides of this economy: residents, landlords, lawmakers, the underlying economics, surprising demographic shifts and more.
- OZY is attracting a growing list of distinguished and provocative voices who are sitting down for in-depth interviews and guest curating the company’s daily morning news digest, The Presidential Daily Brief. Among these so far: Bill Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, HUD Secretary Julian Castro, Jeb Bush, Bill Gates, former Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, former Obama campaign guru and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina, Tony Blair and Arianna Huffington.
- In its first year, OZY’s visual design was a finalist for both Best Publishing Site Design from the Digiday Publishing Awards and Digital Magazine of the Year from the Society of Publication Designers.
- The company last week announced the inaugural recipients of its OZY Genius Awards. Each of 10 recipients receives a stipend of up to $10,000 to pursue a project and will be part of an OZY Films documentary this fall that chronicles their progress. The inaugural recipients span the globe — from Minnesota to Malawi and from Korea to Case Western. Hundreds of submissions were received and more than 100,000 people visited the company’s contest page. Judges for the first installment included Emerson Collective founder and chair Laurene Powell Jobs and Google executive David Drummond. The global competition was sponsored by Credit Suisse and presented in cooperation with affordable education pioneer Chegg Inc.
- OZY content is being incorporated into K-12 lesson plans via a partnership with interactive classroom technology provider Nearpod. Through the Nearpod relationship, OZY content is available some 650,000 teachers.
At 10 million organic monthly uniques, the OZY core audience is larger than that of The Economist, The New Yorker, MSNBC.com, Quartz and Politico, according to comScore and Quantcast ratings. And engagement continues to rise. OZY has more than one million people who return to the site as many as 10 times per month, with a full 1.24 million core subscribers to its daily emails and social media feeds. And more than 65% of OZY’s audience comes via mobile device.
OZY’s total audience is approaching 20 million thanks to content deals with USA Today, CNN, PBS, NPR, Huffington Post, Yahoo!, MSN and Die Welt. As OZY sails through its 18-month mark, it’s seeing faster growth than Huffington Post or BuzzFeed did in their initial months.
Strong Advertising Performance
The company is seeing equally strong engagement with ads on OZY.com. In a recent pilot that measured the performance of custom ad types tailored to the OZY user experience, advertisers saw up to 5X the engagement as when those ads ran in other media. Premium advertisers participating included Andaz, The Boston Consulting Group, Burberry, Deutsche Bank, Emirates, John Varvatos, Lufthansa and VISA.
Separately, the company shared details of an aggressive $1 million brand advertising campaign. Web and mobile takeovers of The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker (also with a June 1 print ad), Slate and The Daily Beast run throughout this month alongside a robust programmatic buy.
The creative also includes what the company believes is the first ad campaign dedicated to a publisher’s daily email news digest — in this case, The Presidential Daily Brief — as well as an in-app campaign being run in support of the site’s daily content with Feedly.
The Presidential Daily Brief is designed to be ready wholly in email as a stand-alone editorial product, not simply serving as a click-through mechanism to the Web or mobile site.
OZY Media believes More is Possible. Each day, OZY catches you up and vaults you ahead with substantive, stylish stories and experiences. Created by a diverse, world-class and authentically global team, OZY helps you see more, be more and do more. More than 10 million people turn to the OZY.com digital magazine each month, and more than 1.2 million subscribe to OZY emails and social feeds. Every morning, the Presidential Daily Brief deftly curates the most important and intriguing news within business, politics, pop culture and sports from the past 24 hours around the globe. The Daily Dose showcases the new and the next, focusing on eight smart stories spanning profiles of new people, emerging trends, provocative ideas and good sh*t. OZY’s content is also showcased by world-class partners including CNN, Huffington Post, MSN, PBS, NPR, USA Today and Yahoo!. Distribution partners include Feedly and Nearpod. OZY is supported by forward-leaning investors including Laurene Powell Jobs, Axel Springer, GSV Capital, Ron Conway, David Drummond, Dan Rosensweig and Larry Sonsini. Join us at OZY.com.
via BusinessWire
