24sata grows digital engagement

Through social media, gamification and UGC

Agenda

• 24sata: Croatia’s biggest media brand

• The strategy behind 24sata.hr

• Engaging readers

• UGC

• Social media

• Gamification

• Results & feedback

24sata

• Croatia’s biggest media brand – multiplatform publishing:

– Best read daily newspaper (launched in 2005)

– Most visited news website (source: gemiusAudience)

– First Croatian news TV (launched in 2008)

+ more than 10 free of charge, surcharge or stand-alone print products

+ biggest Croatian commercial Facebook page

Vision: News available to everyone, everywhere, at

all times! More than 1,5 million readers daily!

24sata: More than 1,5 million readers daily

Print editions:

Online edition:

TV:

24sata.hr: The Strategy

• News website for everyone

– kids: junior.24sata.hr

– teenagers: working on cool.24sata.hr

– adults: news content, lifestyle etc.

– pet-owners: ljubimci.24sata.hr etc.

More than 1,1 million readers a

month in Croatia (reach of 47,8%), gemiusAudience 2013.

24sata.hr: The Strategy

• Serious, up to date publishing: We get the news first!

• Fun and useful articles: Lifestyle, Viral content, Videos, Games...

• Extra content: Prize winning games, Quizes, Horoscope...

Reader engagement crucial for all online activities!

Engaging (digital) readers since 2005

2005

Launch od 24sata and 24sata.hr

Introducing UGC to Croatia: getting news from the readers and publishing them regularly

2007

Readers get their own section on 24sata.hr, we publish all their valid stories

2008

24sata on Facebook: we soon

become the biggest Croatian FB page

2010 - 2014

Zona24 on 24sata.hr:

Gamification of 24sata online community activities

2013 - 2014 We have 750.000 FB fans

We’re getting journalists involved in Facebook

We have 270.000 active online community members in Zona24

User generated content

• Since 2005, readers are encouraged through all our editions to send news, photos and videos

– Through a free of charge phone, e-mail, website form

• We also have specific themes for them (for example seasonal)

• They are rewarded for published stories and

for regular activity (‘reader of the month’)

• Readers are our best ambassadors and 24sata is recognized as the people’s newspaper and website

Online form for sending news – also shows front pages with the readers’ stories

The ‘Reporters’ section Advertisement encouraging people to send us specific photos and videos

Social media: Facebook

• 24sata has about 750.000 Facebook fans and has been active there since 2008

• Today it has eight extra FB pages alongside the main page which generate smaller but active audiences (pet owners, teenagers, fun-seekers, middle-aged women...)

• In 2013 & 2014 all of our journalists and editors joined Facebook and are now officially shareing and communicating with their readers personally

Facebook

Some of our pages:

Facebook

The journalists’ pages (examples):

We like Facebook, but we want more than ‘likes’ from our Facebook fans!

Facebook

• We use Facebook for:

– website traffic (targeted) – more than 19% comes from FB

– brand awareness&image

– reach&relevance

– extra content (UGC) for web&print

– opinion! But also...

• We have fun: – we make fun apps

– we ask silly questions and communicate with the fans

– we have a ‘neverending status’ – we ask for help and advice

– we give out prizes (since now it’s allowed)

Facebook

Some of our apps:

Most successful: creating fake funny articles

on 24sata.hr – more than 90.000 created!

Facebook

The ‘neverending status’:

Since 19/06/2011, it collected

more than 500.000 comments!

Our admins get involved regularly to join the conversation

Social media: Twitter

• Active since the beggining (but Croatia is not big on Twitter)

• 17.200 followers

• Influental community, bloggers, IT experts, community managers, politicians...

• Not a traffic source but a

great source for news, interaction and image!

• Our online community is organized in Zona24

– a gamified system which allows our readers to be actively involved in the creation of our content and rewarded for their efforts

http://www.24sata.hr/zona24

We are BIG on

Gamification

Gamification: Zona24

• More than 270.000 members

• Can help authors with extra information on stories and have the

right to correct our grammar or point out other mistakes

• Can comment, vote in polls, get involved in prize-winning games...

• Collect points for all activities (reading, commenting, shareing, voting, correcting...)

• We follow their activities and interests and give them badges accordingly (The Politician, The IN girl, The Sports Guy...)

• Are eligable for rewards and prizes monthly (for the most active

users etc.)

• Our journalists and editors get involved in discussions with

them to clarify their points or get extra information

Gamification: Zona24

Commenting

Polls&discussions Prizes for activity

Gamification: Prize-winning contests

• Regularly we reward our readers with prize winning games and contests – most of them

require their full engagement – Writing motivational messages

– Writing jokes or advice

– Making videos on certain subjects

– Sending photos

– Answering questions etc.

• Most of them are sponsored so they are a revenue stream

Prize-winning contests: example

Nabrundavanje (a made up word for cheering)

• Prior to the European Football Championship 2012

• Sponsored by Croatia’s biggest brewery

• Concept: Teams of readers send us videos of fulfilling funny football-related tasks – we publish them all, readers vote for the best ones. They have a live ‘face-off’ filmed by our crew and published on our website as webisodes.

• Prizes: Beer and tickets to the Championship

• http://www.24sata.hr/nabrundavanje2012/

Prize-winning contests: example

Nabrundavanje

• Results:

– More than 300 really funny videos received

– 500.000 pageviews alltogether

– 17 filmed, edited and published shows from the live ‘face-off’

– A very happy sponsor

– Viral content, great for image and brand awareness

Prize-winning contests: example

Nabrundavanje: ads

Digital engagement efforts: Results and feedback

• Loyalty: 85% returning visitors!

• Image: The peoples’ newspaper/website

• Traffic: Since 2008 the number of real users has

more than doubled! (from 570.000 to 1,2 mil.)

• Revenue: Sponsored contests are an extra revenue stream which has been actively used since 2010 and is well accepted by the advertisers

Thank you for your attention!

The 24sata digital team