The World Media Group (WMG), a strategic alliance of ten of the world’s leading premium media brands, was conscious of the growing demand from advertisers for better viewability performance. In addition, in an era of fake news, it wanted to explore whether ads seen on trusted media websites were viewed more attentively by consumers. It therefore commissioned analysis to assess the overall performance of the inventory of WMG brands during Q3 2016.
The overall aim of the analysis was to identify whether digital ad campaigns that appear in respected premium media brands – that invest in both quality journalism and quality campaign delivery -outperform industry benchmarks. The independent study was carried out by SaaS analytics and measurement company Moat.
The results revealed that ad campaigns across the WMG inventory outperformed every single benchmark for that time period. Attention and viewability rates saw lifts up to 92% in some instances.
Matt McAllester, Global Editor-in-Chief of Newsweek, a member of the WMG, explains, “Readers across all World Media Group titles have always trusted, valued and engaged with the high quality content we provide – and that trust is more important than ever when ‘fake news’ is, itself, making the headlines. The analysis results have validated the link between well written, properly researched journalism and the ‘halo effect’ brands experience when their ads are seen alongside it.”
The WMG brands comprise The Washington Post, Bloomberg Media, The Economist, Forbes, Fortune, National Geographic, Newsweek, The New York Times, TIME and The Wall Street Journal. These prestigious titles have received over 1000 major journalism awards, including 190 Pulitzer Prizes, between them.