Mashable Announces Exclusive Tech and Premium Vertical Video at 2017 Newfronts
Mashable Unveils Exclusive Technology to Reach New Influencers and Launches Premium Vertical Video Product at 2017 NewFronts Presentation
Mashable’s expanded Velocity: Kilogram technology allows advertisers to target New Influencers who are 7x more likely to share a brand’s message.
Mashable Reels debuts with four series, premium video produced for vertical, chapterized viewing exclusively on its mobile site.
New York, NY - May 11, 2017: Mashable, a global media and entertainment company for culture and tech superfans, today held its annual NewFront presentation on the roof of the Gansevoort Park Avenue Hotel in Manhattan. The company unveiled exclusive technology that allows brands to reach New Influencers and also launched Mashable Reels, a premium vertical video product for its mobile site.
“We know the future of TV looks nothing like the past. Great TV won’t be made for mass audiences. It’ll be made for the right audiences, using data both to inspire creativity and connect shows with influential viewers,” said Pete Cashmore, Founder and CEO of Mashable. “It won’t happen on the big screen. It’ll happen on the screen you have in your pocket -- the mobile phone. The future of video is on the handset, not the TV set.”
“With this advancement in our game-changing technology, Velocity: Kilogram, as well as the creation of Mashable Reels, we’re providing our brand partners with a proven way to reach the most receptive audiences,” Cashmore said. “We know that the real influencers are not social media celebrities with millions of random followers. The most influential people are everyday individuals with real passions and real credibility. The New Influencer is Sara from Green Bay, not Kendall from LA.”
Velocity: Kilogram (Kg) Technology
Expanding its proprietary Kilogram product, part of the Velocity Technology Suite, Mashable unveiled a new capability that allows its brand partners to reach targeted segments of Mashable’s influential audience both on and outside its owned and operated properties.
By analyzing how users share and consume content, Mashable identified:
The New Influencer: Not social celebrities, but everyday individuals who are defined and determined by who they reach, and how likely their followers are to take an action on a given topic.
The Influenceables: By mapping the social network surrounding these New Influencers, Mashable’s data science team identified groups of people who are influenceable. These Influenceables are twice as likely to act on a brand message.
Kilogram has been used to more effectively distribute entertainment series and branded content for Mashable and its advertisers. Initial results show that New Influencers not only share 7x more than average, they drive traffic, while The Influenceable engage with a brand’s messages more than double that of a typical viewer.
“With Kilogram, we’re able to put your content in front of the right people. This capability is not limited to Mashable properties. We can now reach these New Influencers and Influenceables across social networks and other platforms,” said Robyn Peterson, Mashable’s Chief Technology Officer.
Mashable is using Kilogram to target these audience segments and serve them branded and display content on its website, Snapchat and Facebook, along with other publishers’ sites. Kilogram will be expanded to other social and digital platforms in the coming weeks.
“We’re providing our brand partners with new solutions to make the most effective use of their marketing dollars,” said Ed Wise, Mashable's Chief Revenue Officer. “Data will be the differentiator for the future of media companies, and there’s no one better equipped than Mashable.”
Mashable Reels
Mashable’s audience has grown nearly 400% over the past year. With nearly 2 billion content views a month, more people now watch Mashable’s videos than read its articles. Building on that big growth, Mashable today launched a premium product for vertical, chapterized viewing of video. Mashable Reels are produced specifically for the company’s mobile site and feature entertainment, culture and tech programming.
“The original programming on Mashable Reels is incredibly visual and engaging. We’re using a combination of video, text, and animation to tell compelling stories in a premium format,” said Gregory Gittrich, Chief Content Officer at Mashable. “This is not an app. This is a new way to watch vertical video on the mobile web. New Reels will premiere every weekday on Mashable.”
The first Mashable Reels - focused on Mars, Wonder Woman, and Game of Thrones - went live today (May 11, 2017) with launch partners McDonald’s and Sprint®.
Mashable’s brand partners will be featured in Reels through three main ways: vertical video advertising, branded content made specifically for mobile, and custom creative crafted for Reels in partnership with Mashable.
Partnerships & Programming
Mashable continues to expand its original video programming through partnerships with premium broadcasters and publishers, creating one-of-a-kind stories for entertainment, culture and tech superfans around the world.
The company today announced several new and expanded partnerships, including:
Wattpad: Mashable will collaborate with Wattpad to identify, develop and distribute full-length pilots based on its community of creators’ stories. These series will be distributed across Mashable’s YouTube, Amazon and Apple TV channels, as well as platform-specific versions of the pilots will also be shared on a variety of social media channels as short-form video content, such as Snapchat and Instagram.
With over 375 million uploads shared on the platform, Wattpad is home to the world’s largest collection of original stories. Through Wattpad Studios, the company helps entertainment and media partners identify stories with the most fan engagement to co-produce content for other platforms.
Crackle: Mashable and Crackle, a unit of Sony Pictures Television Networks, will be teaming up to produce complementary video for their original series, which will run during commercial breaks on the streaming network and as standalone videos on Mashable platforms.
For the first show, Mashable and Crackle will be working to create original “BreakFree” advertising on “StartUp” season two, which premieres Thursday, September 28th on Crackle.
National Geographic “Further Community”: Mashable is one of three launch media partners to create original editorial and branded content in collaboration with National Geographic and their iconic video and photographic vaults of content, distributed across both partners' digital properties.
About Mashable:
Mashable is a media and entertainment company for superfans. We're not for the casually curious. Our proprietary Velocity technology suite gives us the unique ability to combine creativity with data. Our entertainment series and editorial coverage are smart, clever, ambitious, in-depth and first. We devour culture and tech. Our ideas shape the future and we speak to new influencers -- the early adopters who obsess with us around the globe.
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