Top tips for thriving in the new norm

With the digital landscape changing rapidly and new technologies enabling content producers to reach audiences more quickly, more frequently and in a more targeted way than ever before, this year’s Digital Innovators’ Summit (DIS) will hear from a host of the world’s leading digital players on taking advantage of new opportunities.

Among others, delegates at this year’s Summit - which runs from 24-25 March in Berlin - will have the opportunity to tap into the latest thinking at Facebook, Amazon, Buzzfeed, Esquire, The FT, IPC and Condé Nast. If you haven't yet, register for the DIS today - remember only days remain!

Buzzfeed VP Scott Lamb will host a session on the first day on the Summit looking specifically at the relationship between news and social media – exploring why some social content is more successful in reaching audiences, as well as the role data plays in delivering news today. Lamb will explain how social is really driving the news agenda now – and the difference that has made to how Buzzfeed operates.

“Social is really setting the news agenda now rather than following it,” he says. “If a story breaks, often the emerging information is available through social media channels before it is reported through mainstream news. A big part of what a news organisation like Buzzfeed has to do around breaking news now is to cover what is being put out through social media.

"So sometimes our role is to say: ‘There are rumours going around that there is a storm taking place, here’s a picture of that storm, but we think it is fake and here is the evidence of that.’ News organisations can't ignore that. It’s no use pretending the world isn’t turning to social media for breaking news.”

Tailoring content for specific audiences is the subject of a session by Ed O’Keefe, Editor-in-Chief, NowThis News (USA). In a session entitled ‘Native Storytelling for Mobile and Social’, O’Keefe will explore how to reach a new generation of users that is constantly on their mobile phones and spend much of their time on the latest apps and social networks like Whatsapp, SnapChat, Vine, Instagram and YouTube, or at least Facebook and Twitter. He will explain that the answer lies in bringing the news to them – to the medium and app they are using and in the format they prefer: highly visual and with much video.

Meanwhile, James Mann, Global Sales Director - B2B Content, Financial Times (UK),will share how the last 7 years have seen major transformations in the FT's B2B digital strategy. He will review how the key decisions were made and the innovative digital solutions that have contributed to the largest paid-for circulation in the FT's 125 year history. 

Of course, the changing digital landscape is also changing the funding and advertising model for media businesses. In a session entitled ‘Programmatic Ad Transactions for Publishers’, Condé Nast’s Rick Welch will provide an overview of the programmatic ad landscape, ways magazine media companies can build programmatic capability and the approach Condé Nast has taken with the CatalystDesk, which he heads up.

New business models will also be the subject of a session by Steve Hannah, CEO of The Onion (USA). In a session entitled ‘Same Media Brand, New Format and Business Models’, Hannah will explain how the US satirical news brand has become more successful by moving almost entirely to digital, increasing video production, creating native advertising that fits its brand and becoming a creative services agency that extends its comedy talents to advertisers.

For more on these sessions and details of a host of other major brands set to share their digital strategies at this year’s Digital Innovators’ Summit, click here. To see the list of speakers, click here.

We hope to see you in Berlin. If you haven't yet, register for the DIS today. Only days remain to book your place!