How Washington Post Live Found Staying Power

Like a lot of companies, a year ago Washington Post Live pivoted from in-person events to virtual interviews in response to the pandemic. But what began as a workaround solution has evolved into a successful standalone product, and is delivering better results for some advertiser clients than in-person events. The 22-person Washington Post Live team now produces between 8-10 programs per week, featuring longform interviews that regularly exceed 30 minutes in runtime. The series features conversations with lawmakers, artists, business executives and other influential figures, discussing subjects such as race, energy consumption, policy and the economic response to Covid-19. Publishers are tentatively planning to host in-person events in September, but many will be keeping some of the virtual components: The virtual benefits of audience scale, breadth of speakers and lower overheads are hard to give up, even if the returns are less tangible compared to in-person events. The Post has seen solid interest from advertisers in sponsoring its Live programs. By March 2021, the Live team's booked revenue had already surpassed the revenue it generated in the entirety of 2020, a year that itself surpassed the revenue of the year prior. The Post declined to name specific revenue figures. Reach and price efficiency keeps sponsors The interviews live in front of the Post’s paywall, making them easy to share and effective top-of-funnel devices for attracting new audiences to The Washington Post. The videos reach an average of 175,000 viewers, though the Post team cuts and repurposes clips of them for its social feeds, helping the programs maximize their reach. Washington Post Live also repackages its interviews as podcasts, and in March it saw the audio products downloaded 145,000 times, said Kris Coratti Kelly, the Post chief communications officer and general manager of Washington Post Live. The videos’ reach and the associated cachet of their interview subjects make Live an attractive proposition for advertising partners keen to be seen as thought leaders. As a result, Washington Post Live has enticed sponsors like Siemens, Blue Cross Blue Shield and AstraZeneca. “You don't you don't do this kind of programming for lead generation,” Kelly said. “This is about thought leadership, so we built the sponsorship model around that.” The Live team tracks key performance indicators and presents their advertising partners with a bespoke score card that details the scope of their campaign’s reach, though the Post declined to share such metrics with Adweek. Sponsors of Live programs work with the Post in order to cultivate positive brand association rather than accumulate click-throughs (though there are likely plenty of the latter), Kelly said. As the days of cookie-enabled tracking draw to a close, contextual advertising will only grow in prominence, increasing the associational value of a partner like The Washington Post, said Amy Vollet, the senior vice president and executive media director of The Integer Group. "Brands looking to enhance or evolve their brand perception start with identifying influential subject matter experts to associate with," Vollet said. "Standard media KPIs don’t cut it for these initiatives: You must expand your measurement scorecard to include social chatter, brand health and perception trackers that will then return in efficiency." Hard to 'return to live events' Siemens has worked with the Washington Post for over 20 years, including a decade as a sponsor for its live events. Following the pivot to video series, Siemens now gets more value for its investment, said Raya Finklestein, the head of channel operations at Siemens. The reduced cost of the events means Siemens can sponsor more of them; the company has sponsored three to four events a year over the last two years, compared to two events per year in the preceding decade. “It's going to be hard for me to return to a live event because this virtual platform has just been so beneficial for us,” Finklestein said. Because you're not spending money on food, beverages, facilities and all the other stuff, you're able to have so many more conversations a year to match your budget.” Siemens sponsored a Live series in January that explored the challenges of reopening schools during the pandemic, and Finklestein estimates that their return on investment was four to five times their initial spend. The program, by virtue of its low overhead and wide reach, has proven successful enough to outlast the pandemic. The Washington Post Live team plans on continuing its series even when in-person events return, splitting the product into two distinct mediums. The Washington Post Amps Up Its App Strategy to Drive More Subscribers

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'This is About Thought Leadership:' How Washington Post Live Found Staying Power

The interview series encapsulates the appeal of virtual events: Scale with low overhead

Mark Stenberg

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