BuzzFeed Inc. Unveils Lighthouse 2.0, Its Updated Suite of First-Party Data Tools

BuzzFeed Inc. announced this morning that it is going to market with a newly enhanced version of its first-party data solution, called Lighthouse, that now incorporates the scale and data of Complex Media, which it officially acquired in January. By combining Complex Media with the existing portfolio of BuzzFeed Inc. brands, the publisher now reaches 119 million monthly users, according to Ken Blom, its evp of business strategy and operations. The combined size and audience overlap of the portfolio allows BuzzFeed Inc. to offer more than 1,000 unique audience segmentations, and a meta analysis of 50 campaigns that used Lighthouse in 2021 found that the product suite led to a two times increase in brand awareness and purchase intent, according to a third-party study commissioned by the publisher. The addition of Complex Media also brings two new tools to Lighthouse: Collective, a consumer insights division, and Catalyst, a network of 40 creators and publishers that use the Complex Media ad-tech stack. BuzzFeed Inc. will formally introduce the newly expanded Lighthouse at its Upfronts presentation on April 27, which marks the first time the publisher has participated in the event in five years, Adweek can exclusively report. Publishers Embrace Snap’s Dynamic Stories for Gen-Z Exposure and a Welcome Revenue Share “What we’ve built is an extension of what we’ve done with Lighthouse, which are the foundational pipes connecting brands’ audiences,” Blom said. “But one big distinction is that these are data solutions for every part of the marketing funnel, not just display.” The enhanced abilities of Lighthouse come as a reminder of the positive externalities BuzzFeed Inc. sought to create when it entered the public markets via a special acquisition company in December. By going public, BuzzFeed Inc. aimed to enable itself to more efficiently make acquisitions and expand its reach and appeal to marketers. Instead, the publisher has encountered a variety of setbacks since its public debut, including the decline of its stock price, a resulting legal conflict and a spate of layoffs, first reported by Adweek. The evolution of Lighthouse When BuzzFeed Inc. first launched Lighthouse in March 2021, it only incorporated data from the BuzzFeed website and Tasty. Since then, the publisher has quietly folded in its other brand properties, including titles it acquired via purchase, like HuffPost. It now uses Lighthouse in between 50%-75% of all advertising transactions, Blom said. "[Scale] enables the possibility for higher precision in audience targeting thanks to the variety of the topics and types of content that BuzzFeed provides," said Giorgio Suighi, group director of customer strategy at Mindshare, via email. "In a moment when accurately targeting the right person, when they are expressing a specific need, is the ultimate goal of advertisers, being able to leverage this kind of information could drive notable results—if done well." The publisher will first bring the enhanced Lighthouse offering to private programmatic marketplaces, then roll into direct deals and RFPs for branded content deals, Blom said. BuzzFeed Inc. is considering offering the segments on the open marketplace in the future, but it is more concerned with highlighting the value of the connections and cohorts it can create within its universe. For example, how will fans of the Complex Media brand Hot Ones, which focuses on food as entertainment, intersect with the viewers of Tasty videos, which focus on the action of cooking? These kinds of crossovers can yield far more granular cohorts for brands than simply transacting against a high-level signal like interest in food. How Collective and Catalyst enhance Lighthouse While BuzzFeed primarily serves a general-interest readership, Complex Media has cultivated a following with specific consumer interests like streetwear, sneakers and gaming, Blom said. As a result, its consumer insights division Collective draws intelligence from an audience of subject-matter experts, making the findings valuable for designing commerce strategies. These insights, often gathered high in the marketing funnel, inform the kinds of content and creative that Complex Media uses. “If we were working with a sneaker brand, the opinions of 300 hardcore sneakerheads on what they want to see from a shoe company are pretty valuable,” Blom said. “This is about going much more deeply with a smaller set of people that we can make an inference on.” Complex Media also brings Catalyst, its end-to-end digital advertising service for publisher and creators, to BuzzFeed Inc. The network of over 40 domains adds further scale and data to the Lighthouse engine, as well as further positions BuzzFeed Inc. as a creator-savvy media company. BuzzFeed Inc. sees expanded use-cases for first-party data The idea of using first-party data to inform ad campaigns goes beyond digital display advertising, and Lighthouse hopes to expand how marketers think about using consumer-generated signals, Blom said. For instance, Complex Media generates robust first-party data from its flagship event, ComplexCon, and it launched its first event in the metaverse, called ComplexLand, last December. BuzzFeed Inc. does not currently have a framework for how it will incorporate that data into its marketing capabilities, but it sees such an interconnected universe as the natural next step in first-party marketing—as do marketers. "The ability to deliver an accurate and persistent view of the customer journey by leveraging disparate data signals across touchpoints—that is what is laying the foundation to create a complete portrait of both customers and non-customers for marketers," Suighi said.