In a little under a week’s time, Mx3 Barcelona will take place in Spain. In this exclusive interview, Eirik Næsje, CEO at Norkon, an event partner, describes why publishers who don’t have a live audience engagement strategy are missing out on a huge opportunity (P.S. there are still a few tickets left for Mx3 Barcelona).
At Mx3 Barcelona (March 12th/13th 2024), one of the key event partners is Norkon, with CEO Eirik Næsje and VP of Sales, Birger Soiland both in attendance in the Catalan capital.
Norkon is headquartered in Oslo and its dedicated staff of thirty six executives specialise in ‘live’ (real time) audience engagement and interactivity tools. The stated goal? Keeping readers engaged, informed and inspired. Clients include Amedia, DN, Global Media, Berlingske, Jyllands-Posten, Handelsblatt, Dirtfish, La Presse, Rikstoto, NZME and ABC News Australia, to name a few.
We caught up with Eirik to get a fresh understanding of the key trends in audience engagement, especially in the context of ‘in the moment’ real time publishing and live blogs.
Mx3: Why is live audience engagement so important?
Eirik Næsje: Live audience engagement is important because that’s what readers expect today, in one form or other. Here’s why: the success and popularity of social media. One of the biggest challenges newspapers face today is winning back Gen Z readers and wider audiences from social media, and that’s why so many publishers continue to explore formats similar to those used by social media.
Readers have acquired an ingrained habit of reading short-form text, as well as exposure to a high volume of visual support (images, videos, graphs, etc.), and the option to comment and interact with other users – not to mention the ability to explore a never-ending scroll-down function and discover new feeds every time they return to a platform.
A live audience engagement approach takes some or all of these elements and puts publishers in control, but with these interactions happening on their website. This translates into increased traffic, increased ad revenue and an opportunity to showcase high-quality journalism to new visitors.
Mx3: What makes live publishing so compelling as an audience engagement strategy?
Eirik Næsje: A live publishing or live-blogging approach is particularly effective as an audience engagement strategy for several reasons:
- The ability to inform: A live blog allows journalists to navigate unpredictable and dynamic, unfolding events such as election nights, sports events, etc. It offers a unique way to tackle the multifaceted world of elections and ensure continuous reader engagement through rich storytelling elements.
- A timeline: Publishers can use their live blog as a chronological timeline of an event while incorporating links to full articles or podcasts for further reader engagement. It also allows publishers to simplify complex issues, making it easier for readers to understand and follow events.
- A deeper opportunity for audience engagement: Depending on a news publisher’s strategy, interactive features can be enabled like commenting, questions, likes, sharing, and so on.
- Latest updates added to the top: The dynamic nature of live feeds cuts through the clutter and caters to the growing demand for a constant flow of fresh content. The approach is strategically designed to enhance website traffic and convert curious readers into loyal subscribers, as well as keeping them well-informed and engaged.
The combination of these elements make live engagement an exceptional strategy for maintaining reader interest, driving traffic, and encouraging subscriptions, by providing a continuous stream of engaging and informative content tailored to the audience’s preferences and interests.
In terms of hard data, this translates into four times more page views, and 80% more ads impressions.
Mx3: Can you give us a best-in-class example of a media brand engaging its audience in a live setting?
Eirik Næsje: Live Q&A sessions with subject matter experts can be incredibly effective as an engagement tool. A good example is the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, which organized a live session featuring a housing economist and chief analyst from Nordea Bank (who also offer housing loans to customers).
During this ‘event’, the economist addressed readers’ queries about property valuation, providing personalised insights. Each question submitted by the readers was republished along with the economist’s detailed responses, presented in an accessible, post-like format. This approach not only drives engagement but also delivers expert advice directly from, in this case, the financial sector, adding significant value to the reader experience.
Mx3: As a leading ‘live’ engagement specialist, what tactics are needed for live audience engagement?
Eirik Næsje: The most important element is to have, in the first place, a comprehensive live publishing strategy that supports newspapers’ revenue streams. To fully engage audiences, these strategies need to match the expectations and behaviors of the target audience.
As to tactics, here are some items that all publishers can apply, with or without a live blog:
- Provide expert analysis on a given topic and enable a Q&A for the audience
- Interactive features to engage the audience could be polls or quizzes, for example.
By combining these elements, news media brands can create a dynamic and engaging live content strategy that attracts and retains audiences across different interests.
Mx3: You also provide a unique game for publishers. What trends are you seeing with it? Can any publisher get involved, or do they need to be specialists?
Eirik Næsje: There are more and more initiatives in the news industry that leverage gamification to encourage news consumption and subscriber conversion. One such initiative, for example, is the NewsArcade project which is funded by the European Union, or the Game Hub project, which reunites a network of broadcasters who explore different storytelling venues in combination with interactive and immersing gaming technologies.
The common denominator is that the game reflects the publisher’s coverage, of course, but the more specific the topic, the greater the chance that users will engage in a unique game that is tied to it. A great example is the news publisher Cuestion Publica which ran a Game of Votes election game in relation to upcoming presidential elections in Colombia. Their game reached almost 42k unique visitors if I remember correctly.
We also offer a unique game to publishers, Fantasy Funds, that revolves around the stock market and investing. Players get to pick their stocks, invest with “fantasy money” and are able to watch their portfolio’s performance based on real-time stock exchange data. There are, of course, real prizes to win for the best performing portfolio at the end of the competition, while publishers get a chance to introduce players to their editorial content. In 2023, we registered 123k users in 6 Fantasy Funds games, across different countries.
The power of gamification is multifaceted: it provides increased reader engagement and loyalty, enhanced learning, higher pageviews and ads revenue, and a way to introduce high-quality journalistic content to new audiences who wouldn’t engage with a publisher’s site in different circumstances.
Mx3: Finally, you are advocates for streamlining workflows at a time when publishers need to consider and integrate so many disparate technologies. How can this be achieved?
Eirik Næsje: The tech landscape today is typically composed of best-in-class solutions which have a strong interconnection – or seamless integration. All software providers wants to ensure that their customers can leverage the full potential of their tech stack without being hindered by compatibility issues or siloed data.
Another aspect is flexibility. In an ever-evolving environment, adopting modular and adaptable solutions is important to allow publishers to adapt their tech stack in response to trends and needs without undergoing a complete overhaul.
For example, a solution that integrates real-time content creation with existing content management systems (CMS) and digital asset management (DAM) tools can significantly streamline the workflow for content creators, enabling them to produce and distribute content more efficiently. That’s exactly what we’re aiming to accomplish with our live publishing platform and our partner network.
The goal is to create a tech ecosystem that supports the publisher’s strategic objectives, enhances operational efficiency, and fosters a deeper connection with the audience. We’re doing this by forging strong alliances with leading tech providers from the industry. Our commitment is to deliver the most intuitive and user-friendly user experience to publishers as well as supporting the wider news and media industry.
You can meet Norkon at Mx3 Barcelona 12-13th March 2024. The event is an off-the-record international summit focusing on innovation in and across media verticals (Consumer & B2B). The event also offers opportunities to meet 1-on-1 with industry experts as part of our Mx3 Huddles concept, as well as time for social interaction. Come and join us!
