September 25, 2013

NEW YORK – Two ABC News executives on the Mobile Marketing Association’s SM2 conference said that the corporate is experimenting with a brand new way of sending messages to its readers via a brand new mobile application, inbox and push alerts.

In the “Bread Crumbs Lead: At the Move from Profiling by Demographics to Profiling by Intent” fireside chat, the execs discussed the challenge of providing consumers with relevant information without bugging them with excessive notifications. Brent Hieggelke, CMO of Urban Airship moderated the session.

“One of the things we attempt to do every 6 months or so is pull back just a little, come back to our foundations and seek advice from consumers,” said Peter Roybal, head of mobile products at ABC News Digital Media, Manhattan.

“For years people had been telling us that they would like to be the primary to grasp,” he said. “But people also would like to catch up. They get overwhelmed comfortably. They’re getting hammered by information in the course of the day.

“Push alerts – people like them when they’re relevant but mutually they are often too frequent, too irrelevant, too promotional, so we predict that there’s really a chance for a brand new thanks to let people stay current.”

Notification moderation
In order to balance both needs of readers, to remain informed but not overloaded, ABC News decided to attempt out a brand new system.

The company is rolling out a brand new app for Android and iPhone this October. The app will still send push alerts to readers, but it surely also will have an inbox.

With the recent system, the scoop organization could be capable of send urgent messages to readers via push notifications and send less time-sensitive messages to them via the hot inbox. Readers can check their inboxes all alone time and browse stories on their lonesome schedule.

Additionally, the inbox is a more flexible format so that they can let ABC News send out links to videos as well as breaking news.

The app may also let readers “star” a narrative to indicate that they’re concerned about receiving follow up information regarding the tale. Those follow-ups will appear as push alerts on readers’ lock-screens since they’ve indicated that it is a relevant topic for them.

“Our users love push notifications but they’re commencing to feel a little bit spammy,” said Doug Vance, vice chairman of product at ABC News Digital Media. “Our users weren’t saying we would like less push alerts, they were saying we wish them to be more relevant to me.”

Until now, an article team would need to evaluate a news story and choose even if it was worth sending out a push alert. Forty percent of readers will need to see it, but 60 percent could be annoyed, so the question will be if it was worth it or not.

With the hot system, ABC News can be ready to revamp the system, hopefully serving relevant information to express readers.

According to Mr. Roybal, it’s all about segmentation. ABC News must observe certain demographics and locations to choose even if a push notification or an inbox message can be better suited to a narrative.

The session

Easy news
With the recent app, ABC News is making an attempt to make the entire news experience easier for readers.

Mr. Roybal checked out television for the app’s inspiration. The tv audience can press a button and feature content served on to them.

ABC News is making an attempt to reflect that have for phones. The inbox is meant to be an effective way to open an app and feature relevant information served to readers immediately.

“I think the inbox has a considerable number of personal connotations to it, but you furthermore may sort of get that there’s stuff coming to you,” Mr. Roybal said. “You don’t ought to work for it endlessly. [We tried] to make it feel fun and never another thing it’s worthwhile to check off to make it in the course of the day.”

Final Take
Rebecca Borison is editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York