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How Buzzfeed Targetted Millennials And Won The Media Game
I recently read a great article about BuzzFeed’s different revenue models.
Most popular websites only monetize in a few different ways:
- Banner ads
- Sponsorships (usually a logo on the website’s header)
- Paid access to premium content (NYT/WSJ, even Medium are all trying to execute this properly)
That’s about it.
In some cases, publishers will try to sell products, books, and/or services on their sites because they assume, since they have the traffic/audience, these will be easy sales.
But this rarely works the way people assume. As soon as a site has been established as a “free knowledge resource” it’s difficult to convince people to suddenly pay for additional knowledge.
What BuzzFeed has done differently to market themselves to today’s younger demographics is not only diversify their revenue models, but create (and actually OWN) sub-brands that are successful on their own.
The best example would be their viral video brand, Tasty.
You’ve most likely seen Tasty’s viral videos in your Facebook news feed.
