April 29, 2014

The New York Times is upping its digital video investments with the launch of a brand new editorial section that enhances several new cross-screen advertising opportunities for marketers.

The new video section is known as Times Video and is designed with responsive design to render across smartphones, tablets and desktops, and Acura is the launch sponsor of the recent site. The recent York Times has also partnered with Vimeo to create customized content for advertisers.

“There is a high demand for prime-quality, original source video, from both viewers on NYTimes.com and from our advertisers,” said Linda Zebian, spokeswoman on the Long island Times, Long island.

“The days have been producing video for a few years so this isn’t a brand new venture for us, however this was our first time presentating at NewFronts,” she said. “We desired to create a fresh and fascinating presentation for Times Video, allowing users to seek out the content they’re searching for easier, in addition to experience new content they might not have expected.”

Dialing up mobile video
Times Video categorizes video into 14 categories, which runs the gamut from lifestyle, sports, science and news content, on http://www.nytimes.com/video. 

Examples of video content include a bit called “Times Minute,” where a reporter recaps a narrative in a brief video clip.

The Ny Times’ video

Another video looks on the implications to the style industry from last year’s collapse of Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza. The video complements an editorial at the Ny Times’ Site.

The Ny Times debuted Times Video yesterday during a presentation in Long island, marking the publication’s first NewFront appearance.

As the appetite for mobile and tablet video grows, the hot York Times is betting that advertisers may be fascinated with running cross-device campaigns.

A recent study from the Mobile Marketing Association indicates that it is true.

Per the report, non-skippable linear video ads generate the best click-through rates. The ad formats within the study averaged a 2.3 percent CTR, followed by 1.5 percent for skippable linear ads and a couple of.21 percent for non-skippable interstitial ads (see story). 

Another screenshot of Times Video

Branded video content
In addition to the brand new editorial section, the recent York Times can even begin churning out more branded content as section of a partnership with Vimeo. The content is out there via Times Video and on Vimeo’s platforms.

The first effort out of the partnership is a sequence that examines the evolution of food and culture inside the United States’ immigrant society.  

Advertising content is additionally being incorporated into branded playlists for you to appear next to editorial content.

The first branded playlist campaign launched yesterday from Sotheby’s International Realty. The content is marked and shaded in a mild blue color to point out that it’s sponsored.

Sotheby’s campaign features a video it truly is greater than seven minutes long and appears on the Seven Springs ranch property in Cupertino, CA.

Sotheby’s sponsored content

The video playlists are the latest addition to the brand new York Times’ sponsored content monetization efforts that began rolling out earlier this year with the publication’s biggest digital revamp since 2006 (see story). 

With mobile now accounting for approximately 1/2 the hot York Times’ traffic, optimizing the video content across multiple screens is a great move for the publisher. 

“We know that almost half our digital audience accesses our content from a mobile device so it will be significant that we reach our users at the devices they use,” Ms. Zebian said.

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York