RUMinations

This blog has moved!

rollup-rags — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 14:19:53 +0000

Hello followers and fans! Our blog has moved and can now be found here: http://www.rollupmedia.com/blog/

Come and visit us there!

You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

See you there!

How simple psychology can increase brand engagement

rollup-rags — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 19:34:48 +0000

How simple psychology can increase brand engagement:

Before you can start, it’s better to realise that no matter how diverse your audience is, either geographically or by age, all interaction boils down to two things: Needs and desires. Needs are something you absolutely need to survive, the basics if you will, while desires are things you don’t necessarily need, but you feel will significantly enhance your life.

Ben takes the UK office through the RUM pitch and gives a...

rollup-rags — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 09:43:04 +0100

Ben takes the UK office through the RUM pitch and gives a company update…lots of good stuff going on!

Why Niche Pubs Should Ally

rollup-rags — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 12:22:53 +0100

Why Niche Pubs Should Ally:

Stephane Pere at the Economists niche ad network sums it up nicely:

What can niche publications do to show agencies they’re worth their time?
The natural path for them is to go down custom executions, generate ideas that have integrated solutions. Branded content is a great way to have a conversation. If we just focus on the display side, it’s hard to get in front of buyers. One solution is to build an alliance with like minded pubs. It goes to the threshold of reach, the cornerstone of how buyers buy. Align with other publications that can compete on the reach side of the buy. There are different ways to do that: An alliance can be based on common demographics or profiles; it could be a mindset or topic-oriented — let’s say publishers all covering sport or science. I think in order to tap into display advertising, small and medium-sized publishers need to merge together to offer a cohesive product for marketers.

We agree! :)

Rolling with Handpicked Media

rollup-rags — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 10:55:09 +0100

Rolling with Handpicked Media:

We are thrilled to announce our strategic partnership with Handpicked Media. When we first met Krista, Debbie and the rest of the team, we immediately recognised that we were both aligned in terms of our mission to help independent publishers. HPM bring not only their network of top lifestyle blogs and sites, but also a seasoned capability to plan and execute social activation campaigns that we in turn can offer our clients. By the same token, we are excited to be exclusively taking HPM to our agency partners and to offering our platform and tools to increase the reach of HPM and their partner sites.

NMA Article on Everyday Health

rollup-rags — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 09:48:36 +0100

NMA Article on Everyday Health:

Lucy Tesseras interviews Ben Wolin, CEO of Everyday Health, about our recent partnership:

The sites will be monetised through advertising and sponsorship and RollUp Media will provide a dedicated sales force in the UK, which will focus particularly on FMCG brands.

A team of ten to 15 people, made up of staff from Everyday Health and RollUp Media, will work on the project initially, but the company will be looking to expand that geographically into Germany and France over time as well as establishing separate teams for different titles as things develop.

Everyday Health will also work in conjunction with RollUp Media to promote the UK versions of its brands as it looks to extend its reach, using both traditional and digital media to market the sites.

“We will rely a tremendous amount on search and social to get the word out and will then be looking to expand the base audience that is already there,” added Wolin.

Heidi Murkoff signing books for our director’s wife at our...

rollup-rags — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 13:17:07 +0100

Heidi Murkoff signing books for our director’s wife at our mini kickoff last week in NYC. Was great for a few of us to to meet the Murkoffs and hear firsthand about the WTE story and brand. Looking forward to working with them more closely.

Publishers Need To Work Together More To Survive

rollup-rags — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 17:57:39 +0100

Publishers Need To Work Together More To Survive:

So says NMA’s Lucy Tesseras in her latest column on media. She goes on to say:

It’s a view shared by Donald Hamilton, chief revenue officer of sell side platform Improve Digital, who said at yesterday’s AOP forum, “If we agree that the market is about audience, reach and content, the bit most publishers miss is the reach piece. Publishers need to collaborate more with other publishers to own their space.”

It’s an interesting point and one that could spark controversy among some who are still fiercely competitive with their rivals. But it is a model that can work.

The Economist, for example, is working with fellow publishers through Ideas People Media, the ad network it set up in the US two years ago after asking its readers which other publications they liked and trusted.

We couldn’t agree more and that’s very much a part of the RUM vision. Watch this space for more news on that front…

Everyday Health & RUM

rollup-rags — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 17:29:19 +0100

Everyday Health & RUM:

It’s humbling that Everyday Health chose to partner with our us so deeply to take them to the UK, Australia and beyond. We finally made it official yesterday, although it had been a while in the making. We’ve been having fun getting to know and working with the EH team and really excited about the opportunity. Onwards!

Native Ads vs Banners

rollup-rags — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 13:42:34 +0100

Native Ads vs Banners:

Rick Webb at Barbarian Group and now Tumblr lays out the ‘native vs banner dichotomy’ nicely. Put simply, we believe there’s a place for both.

The pendulum is swinging back to creative, to native, to emotional brand advertising on the Web. Just a bit, but that’s where things are headed now. The banner can be a part of it. Most of the hatred of banners comes because of their poor fit for metric- and direct- driven advertising — in that they don’t work because no one clicks on them. We just need to use them differently. Banners have always sort of been miscast. They are a great brand vehicle — just like a wild posting or a billboard or a magazine ad — but they were sold as something that we could measure and drive traffic with. That doesn’t especially work, and people don’t really click on banners. But they still see them. Eventually, I think they’ll be used pretty much exclusively for branding. The clicks will be ancillary.

Content Marketing

rollup-rags — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 13:20:30 +0100

Content Marketing:

Content marketing is gaining currency in the trade press.We’re big believers in this. We still believe in the ability for standard and rich media display to generate awareness as part of a media plan. But clearly there is a trend towards advertisers also being publishers, which is very much part of our vision.

Why the Interest Graph is a Marketer's Best Friend

rollup-rags — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 10:18:29 +0100

Why the Interest Graph is a Marketer's Best Friend

MIT Tech Review Interview

rollup-rags — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 13:43:14 +0100

MIT Tech Review Interview:

Fascinating interview of Jason Pontin, editor/publisher at the MIT Tech Review. He comments on their giving up on apps and a number of other industry trends. Money quote vis a vis what we’re up to:

You wear several hats at Technology Review — editor-in-chief and publisher. What keeps you awake at night on the business side of things?
There are, I guess, two things that keep me awake. The first, as Michael Wolffe said in his piece for us, “The Facebook Fallacy,” is the heartbreaking reality of digital publishers. The people in the business of selling display advertising on business-to-consumer sites are involved in an essentially exhausting attempt to increase audiences faster than the cost of advertising is declining. We have a high CPM, and we succeed in a business-to-business ad market, where there’s less downward pressure, but even we feel it. In a world of infinite advertising inventory, where ads are simultaneously measurable, publishers are not the ones in control. We’ve held the line so far on our CPM. But I find it nerve-racking.

Tesseras on Media: Publishers Should Launch Country-specific Digital Versions

rollup-rags — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 09:21:43 +0100

Tesseras on Media: Publishers Should Launch Country-specific Digital Versions:

Big news from RUM HQ but official announcement will have to wait. In the meanwhile, as a teaser, read Lucy’s recent NMA insight. We agree! ;-)

Kaylie Interviewed in Australia's Media Week

rollup-rags — Wed, 06 Jun 2012 11:32:00 +0100

Kaylie Interviewed in Australia's Media Week:

The recent launch of RollUp Media in Australia and UK offers independent online publishers in niche markets the distribute their content more widely and monetise it, and gives advertisers the ability to reach valuable new audiences.

RollUp Media opened its first offices in Sydney and London with a group of leading digital advertising veterans who have worked together at businesses around the world including DoubleClick and Google, BBC, Lycos and the Rubicon Project. Led by CEO Ben Regensburger and Kaylie Smith in Australia, RollUp Media plans to take on the marketing, search and advertising sales for these niche publishers and enable advertisers to access their audiences.

In Sydney we have three people and in London we have 15 people who are developers and engineers. Here it is a sales and content offlce,” Smith told Mediaweek. “About a year ago I got a call from Ben, who is a former boss of mine, and he felt that advertisers were trying to get access to rich content but there were not many alternatives. There were large ad networks and large publishers but it was hard for advertisers to get access to niche audiences and smaller publishers, which are really valuable. So he came up with the idea of RollUp Media.”

The startup began building its platform during the last year aiming to enable advertisers to get access to ad serving, SEO (Search engine optimisation) tools, content management trending and social tools and the ability to build apps. Importantly it also began sourcing publishers in some key verticals - career, parenting, health and travel.

We’ve been putting our publishers onto our platform and getting them ready to take to market,” Smith explained. “ln talking to these publishers we have found they are small one or two-man bands, or a few people are working on these sites. They have great content and a great business, but are really struggling to do it all to drive traffic, to build a social strategy, to monetise the site effectively. It’s a lot to ask a small team to do. We found that we could help them with that part of the business while they continue to build effective content, great audiences and connections to those audiences. We can help them with the heavy-lifting around monetìsation, search, social strategy and those kinds of things. We can help them take their audiences to advertisers and agencies and help them build their audiences as well.”

Is Forbes the Model for a Digital-first Media Entity

rollup-rags — Thu, 31 May 2012 09:51:02 +0100

Is Forbes the Model for a Digital-first Media Entity:

We’re big admirers of what Lewis Dvorkin has been doing at Forbes…

Our first ever All Hands meeting with Ben video chatting to the...

rollup-rags — Wed, 30 May 2012 17:56:57 +0100

Our first ever All Hands meeting with Ben video chatting to the remote RUMmers

Our shiny new office at the Media Village in Fitzrovia....

rollup-rags — Fri, 25 May 2012 13:08:41 +0100

Our shiny new office at the Media Village in Fitzrovia. We’ll miss Covent Garden but very nice to be in one room with a fast connection.

Digital story telling and the rise of new publishers

rollup-rags — Thu, 24 May 2012 10:10:43 +0100

Digital story telling and the rise of new publishers:

Well said, Jim, we couldn’t agree more:

“Story telling digitally is a native art just like broadcasting,” says Bankoff, who argues that publishers must build themselves in response to the shape of the web and its audiences.

In practical terms, this means building content that is tailored to the fractured, passionate communities that make up the web. The audience isn’t “sports fans” or people interested in “health” but rather New York Rangers fans or those suffering from gout.”

Pix in from the RUM AU party. The RUM AU team with agency...

rollup-rags — Fri, 18 May 2012 12:59:12 +0100

Pix in from the RUM AU party. The RUM AU team with agency friends + Caroline & Doireann show off the new signature drink, the RUM Diary.