With above-the-fold content like “Things you’ll get if you have a love-hate relationship with your cat” nestled alongside hard news headlines, BuzzFeed is unique among the literally thousands of online publishers vying for eyeballs and advertisers.
A Google search for “the Buzzfeed effect” (8.5 million results) underscores just how influential it has become over the past decade, however, with even traditional media outlets that once dismissed its approach embracing many of its content strategies.
BuzzFeed now boasts 7 billion content views each month, with more than 90 million of its unique monthly views coming from outside the U.S. What makes it impossible for advertisers to ignore, however, is the fact that millennials comprise approximately half of its audience.
Launched last year, BuzzFeed Canada’s content mirrors that of its U.S. counterpart: Easily digestible, with an emphasis on listicles, quizzes and so-compelling-you-can’t-help-but-click headlines (1.9 million people were unable to resist the siren call of “21 people who need to be thrown in prison for eternity).
There are some tell-tale signs that this is a distinctly Canadian entity, however, most notably the small tab at the top of the page featuring a small maple leaf emblem and a single word: “Sorry.”
Sorry, but it doesn’t get much more Canadian than an unwarranted apology.
Less obvious, but crucially important to BuzzFeed’s accountants, is the number of Canadian-specific brands featured on the site – all of them using the company’s distinctive approach to advertising, which eschews traditional online display ads in favour of sponsored articles, listicles, quizzes, etc.
“The fact that we have not only broken into the real digital budgets of brands [in Canada] with our core native advertising content, [as well as] our co-branded videos is one of our biggest successes,” said BuzzFeed’s New York-based vice-president of international business Anne Hogarty. “The growth that we’ve seen having editorial and business teams on the ground has exceeded our expectations.”
BuzzFeed does not disclose its financials, but the company is said to have been profitable since 2013. Last year, Gawker released internal documents stating that the company’s revenue tripled from 2012 to 2013, and reached $46 million in the first half of last year.
In the 12 months since BuzzFeed launched in Canada, the company has had its challenges — the Canadian Press reported on Tuesday it would shutter its Ottawa bureau and wrap up its political coverage — it has build strong relationships with advertisers including President’s Choice, Scotiabank and the Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation.
BuzzFeed touts the latter partnership, built around a series of branded posts such as “13 breathtaking beaches you wouldn’t believe are in Ontario” and “11 Ontario experiences that are a thrill-seekers dream,” as one of its advertising success stories.
The campaign also targeted audiences in U.S. states including New York, Pennsylvania and Michigan with geo-targeted posts like “10 places in Ontario that the locals are too humble to brag about.”
According to the BuzzFeed case study, the branded content generated 390,600 total views, with 13 free views for every 10 paid views thanks to more than 49,000 social engagements (comments, likes, shares, etc.).
The company is also working with the Canadian offices of large multinationals – a group that includes Schick Hydro Canada (“14 easy ways to become a morning person”), Visa Canada (“62 struggles of being in between books”) and Microsoft Canada.
Hogarty said that educating Canadian advertisers on native advertising proved one of BuzzFeed’s biggest business challenges, largely because they have smaller marketing budgets and are more careful about how they are allocated.
“There was definitely an education process for our business team, but they’ve done a really good job of explaining what we’re about,” she said. “We anticipated the learning curve, but it might have been steeper than we expected.”
Hogarty said that BuzzFeed’s work with Microsoft demonstrates its expertise in developing compelling – and highly shareable – native content. The campaign is comprised of multiple components, including turning children’s drawings into animated GIFs using its Surface Pro 4 product, and a quiz inviting readers to see if they can distinguish between illustrations created by hand or using the Surface Book (I scored a respectable 6 out of 10).
Roisin Bonner, social media lead for Microsoft Canada in Toronto, said that the company’s work with BuzzFeed reflects the ongoing migration of its marketing and advertising budget towards digital and social.
“Using BuzzFeed is a really natural fit for helping us communicate with a younger generation in a format and a context that is familiar to them,” said Bonner. “We think the work they’ve done with Surface and Microsoft Office has been just fantastic. BuzzFeed has been a really great partner in terms of being agile and collaborative and bringing great content ideas to the table.”
Microsoft was also willing to cede creative control for its campaigns to BuzzFeed, which Bonner said was key to developing content that is more engaging and shareable for its target audiences.
“When we were less stringent about what the content should look like, we found there was a better end product that was more shareable than anything we could have done ourselves,” she said.
Bonner said that Microsoft will continue its Surface partnership, and will “absolutely” work with BuzzFeed during key sales periods such as back-to-school season.
Once dismissed by traditional media as a source for journalistic fluff like “listicles,” BuzzFeed has emerged as a can’t-ignore force in online publishing, particularly as it bolsters its news operations and incorporates more video content into its repertoire.
“Listicles are not the biggest part of our business anymore, but I love listicles and I think [our readers] love listicles,” said Hogarty. “I don’t have a problem with people equating BuzzFeed with listicles because it’s a very effective format. People like to see things in easily digestible forms.”
BuzzFeed has developed video content for brands including Smuckers, Whiskas and President’s Choice, and Hogarty predicts that its growth will outpace that of its core native advertising business, becoming what she described as a “growth engine” for the company.
BuzzFeed does face some potential hurdles however. A recent FT.com report said that the company missed its revenue targets for 2015, forcing it to halve its internal revenue targets for 2016, from $500 million to $250 million (BuzzFeed responded that “We are very pleased with where BuzzFeed is today and where it will be tomorrow”).
That piece of news prompted Condé Nast’s VanityFair.com to ask, perhaps a little too gleefully (and almost certainly prematurely), “Is this the beginning of the end of the millennial media bubble?”
For now, however, there are still 7 billion reasons why BuzzFeed isn’t going away anytime soon.
