PowerPoint Presentation

2017A DIGITAL TIPPING POINT?Jeff Burkett, VP Advertising Innovationjeburkett@gannett.com@burk504

Been asked to identify tipping points that we may cross in 2017.

Looking at this from perspective of a traditional, premium publisher.1

ITS THE BEST OF TIMESIN DIGITAL PUBLISHINGRESURGENCE OF PODCASTINGVIRTUAL REALITYPUBLISHERS AS TECHNOLOGY COMPANIESPOWER AND SCALE OF THE MOBILE PHONE

So many new ways to engage with consumers Power and scale of the mobile phone allows us to reach almost everyone at anytime anywhereAvg person will pick up their phone within 5 minutes of waking upThen will spend 5 hours on that deviceTremendous opportunity

Popularity of podcasting is very exciting Ken Doctor did a 5 part series on podcasting in September and it seems as though this business is really starting to thriveUSTN jumped in and currently

Virtual Reality is an amazing new medium for storytelling that has only begun to exPublishers are just beginning to understand what this can meanGoogle Daydream

PUBLISHERS becoming Technology companiesWP in a few short years has become a tech company with real customers and compelling unique products

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ITS THE WORST OF TIMESIN DIGITAL PUBLISHINGTOTAL DOMINANCE BY A FEWCONSUMERS ARE FED UP WITH CURRENT EXPERIENCEFRAGMENTED CONSUMER ATTENTION

OFFLINE $ TO ONLINE $

A MYTH?

Marketplace is extremely fragmented. Consumer time spent is diversified across devices, browsers, and platformsIts difficult and expensive to stand up all of these environments

We want to be everywhere our consumers are. The big platroms are asking us to get deeper in bed with them. FB Instant, Ampbut concern over the black box algorithms. Is it safe to go all in.

OFFLINE TO ONLINE $ 600B worldwide $, $420B is Offline $180B Online75% is moving to facebook or google

The consumer is not happy with the ad experience on our sitesFed up with ads that disrupt their experience

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A REVOLUTIONIS UNDERWAYBROWSERS AND CARRIERS BAKING IN BLOCKINGIS MOBILE SAFE?CONTENT HAS EVOLVED ADS HAVE NOTIOS9 WOKE US ALL UP

Content has evolved but the ads have notAd Blocking has given them a weapon to fight back with

iOS9 woke us all up#1 reason installing is because they found out ad blocker existed2015 had 3 south park episodes about ad blocking. Howard Stern spent many hours promoting it. NOW ~20% OF CONSUMERS USE AD BLOCKING ON DESKTOP

Is Mobile Safe? Only 2% now

Firefox Privacy is essentially an blocker built into the browserHow long before Apple does this on iPhones?Foreign phone carriers are installing ad blocking at the network level to reduce unwanted data usage

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CONTROLTHE CONTROLLABLEWE CANT BLAME OTHERS, WE MUST DO OUR PART

We all say that blockers are blocking because of experience on other sites

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IAB HAS TAKENA HUGE STEPNOTHING COVERS CONTENTRISING STARS ARE DEADADS ONLY EXPAND ON CLICKNO FORCED COUNTDOWN

New Ad Portfolio discussionGo over some of the big changes and how they impact us6

HOW DO WETRANSITION?

From over the page and other bad experiences to more polite experiences that still deliver results?

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IAB RESEARCH ON SCROLLING AD UNITSINLINE > OVER THE PAGEREADERS PREFER THEMHUGEWIN WIN

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Premium Native. In most cases today, native means either branded content promos or really low quality ads whose only aim is to drive web traffic or DR strategies. This was a very bold step toward Native as a premium display ad unit.

FB has been selling component based forever. Google is rolling out as well and NYT is building their tech on back of Google.

Pulling ads from right rail and moving them inline between paragraphs and in feed in mobile.9

PARAMOUNT

NATIVE AS PREMIUM DISPLAY IS THE FUTUREOF DISPLAY ADVERTISINGREADER FIRSTCOMPONENT BASEDFLEXIBLEINLINE

If done well, these units can accomplish all that the over the page, disruptive ads can do, but do them in a way that is reader centric.

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NEW STORY TELLING OPPORTUNITIES

The reason we are excited about VR and got in early 2 years ago is that we recognized VR as an emerging medium as opposed to just being a new product or technology.

Presents incredible new opp for immersive storytelling. personal experience.

IN the hands of a great

Think about your favorite novel or best movie you ever saw.Thats the baseline in VR because of the full immersion storyteller this can do much more than in any other medium.12

We are very lucky because very rarely in a lifetime do we actually experience the invention of a new medium.

- Marc Mathieu, CMO, Samsung Electronics America

Virtual reality is that something indescribable. It thrills you, it makes you dizzy, it puts you INSIDE the story. Youve seen it before the gorgeous experience of being on the islands with the Sports Illustrated swimsuit editions models, the enormous industry buzz that pulled total focus at this years CES, the cardboard viewers that ended up on the doorsteps of every New York Times subscriber. Those experiences were great! But they were all one-offs. So heres the puzzle how do you make virtual reality a part of everyday life? Something that consumers keep coming back to over and over again? USA TODAY NETWORK is solving that. Heres our story13

We can put you there

HTC Vive has an amzing under sea world in it.14

have the adventures youve always dreamed of...

We rode with the blue angels and take you on an amazing journey of flight. Zuckerberg shared it twicewhich is a really great social strategy if you havent tried it yet.

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...or experience empathy you can only imagine.

We set up VR cameras in a house and then burnt the place to the ground. Its amazing to experience it from safety of your couch. The ability to look around and hear what is going on is disturbing.

At the end, a firfighters runs in and saves the cameras.

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VIRTUALLY THEREWEEKLY VR EXPERIENCE CREATED IN PARTNERSHIP WITH YOUTUBE

LAUNCHES NEXT WEEK

Major brands sponsoring each episode17

THE MAGIC OF COMBININGVR + JOURNALISM

A lot of this is for fun.but what about for journalism? Transition from experiences to storytelling and reporting.

Harvest of Change is a 5 part series in 2014 that used VR to immerse the reader into the lives of farmers in IOWA struggling through hardships related to climate change and other issues.

What we can say with certainty is that combining the technology of virtual reality and storytelling will lead to deeper human connections.

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VIRTUAL REALITY WILL BE AN AMAZINGPLACE FOR BRANDS

Same opportunity immersiveness is also available for brands.Impossible to multitask. consumer totally focused

we hired people from the newsroom vr team to work within Get creative.experts in story telling for VR.

Cubemercial a spec we created that allows us to build an immersive 3D experience out of stitching together 2D assets

but real Opportunity to make a very emotional connectionThe fire experience we discussed was actually something we created for NestThere is no better way to convey the dangers of fire than in VR.We also think there can be a great shopping experience to be had here. There will be amazing ways to interact and experience productsbefore you buy them or virtually try them on19

BRANDED CONTENT AND VR AREPERFECT PARTNERS

What is this Series called. Postcards from the Road. Wish you were here.

Australiawhere else?20

BRANDED CONTENT AND VR AREPERFECT PARTNERS

BRANDED CONTENT AND VR AREPERFECT PARTNERS

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400Designers and developers

109Local markets

Proving branded content can be scaled to local marketsBRANDED CONTENT AND LOCAL AREPERFECT PARTNERS

National Brands have bought in, and we are playing there but no one mastered local. Every publisher has a product but its for a limited set of marketers who can play thereGET Creative seeks to prove that Branded Content can be scaled to local markets. regionalizing a national message for a national brand is a huge opportunity

With 400 designers and developers in the Get Creative Design Studio and direct access to consumers and brands in 109 markets, we think we are in the position to prove this is possible

While we have massive reach (120M UVs last month), sometimes its not about reaching the masses. Its about reaching the right people at the right time and from the correct voice

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CROSSING THE TIPPING POINTIN 2017?Virtual Reality? Branded content scales down to localIAB spec changes will spark major innovation on premium sites

VR Audience will grow, but will not achieve massive scale.We will see brands throwing $ at creation, distribution of VR and advertising within itPublishers will move from experiences and into Journalism

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Thank You!Jeff Burkettjeburkett@gannett.com@burk504

Been asked to identify tipping points that we may cross in 2017.

Looking at this from perspective of a traditional, premium publisher.25