Peru. The Peruvian newspaper El Comercio has been publishing the most important events and news of the day since its founding 181 years ago since 1839. Since going digital in 1997, the medium has been increasingly using the video format to tell engaging and compelling stories for its readers, who today amount to more than 120,000 subscribers. readers and growing online audiences.
While continuing to publish both in print and online, and using more and more videos, El Comercio has had to find new ways to monetize its growing library of content.
The switch to online video platform JW Player in early 2021 provided the publisher with new opportunities to monetize. The brand set an aggressive goal of increasing its video revenue from 4% in 2020 to 10% in 2021, with the goal of increasing video views by 40% year-on-year. El Comercio's challenge earlier this year was to increase both reach and revenue in a scalable way across its digital media landscape.
The solution
With more than 30,000 videos available on its eight editorial websites, the medium first needed a solution to increase the reach of existing content. With JW Player's recommendation engine, El Comercio was able to gradually increase the audience. The recommendation engine analyzes billions of signals from viewing activity on the JW Player network to recommend curated and personalized playlists from curated and personalized video libraries at the individual viewer level.
"The player can suggest new videos and increase views, thanks to the recommendation engine," said Diego Peralta, Director of Digital and Programmatic Products at El Comercio.
To further increase views (and ad impressions) on its already available videos, El Comercio leveraged JW Player JW Player's unique integrated Header Bidding solution. Video Player Bidding, integrated directly into the player, helps reduce latency and improve demand for programmatic ads. And starting in spring 2021, JW Player's ad pods functionality allowed the medium to increase the number of ads shown per playback.
"We were able to access more sources of programmatic demand using JW Player's Header Bidding to help increase video ad revenue," Peralta said. "And by implementing two pre-roll and mid-roll ads with ad groups, we increased our video impressions."
The results
Since switching to JW Player at the beginning of the year, El Comercio has seen a 63.81% increase in views to date, exceeding its domestic growth target of 40% year-on-year. By using a recommendation engine to generate views based on user tastes and interests and increase engagement per user, you've been able to further monetize existing audiences.
And with an effective strategy set up for ad groups by increasing pre-roll and mid-roll ads, El Comercio has increased its ad impressions by 107.44% since the beginning of the year. According to Peralta, video revenue has increased 90% year-on-year and JW Player accounts for 60% of that growth.
"JW Player has allowed us to professionalize video delivery and monetization, allowing us to generate sustained growth in both the number of views, impressions and revenue. JW allows us to reach different sources of demand and formats to which we did not have access before." — Diego Peralta, Director of Digital and Programmatic Products at El Comercio.
