Hearst Newspapers had difficulty efficiently creating custom advertising packages that were hyper-targeted to niche subjects due to a manual process. They partnered with comScore Activation to automate the process. The solution uses pattern recognition to understand content and create targeted advertising segments aligned with advertiser goals. For a Mavericks surfing event sponsorship, Hearst set criteria to include relevant keywords and categories while excluding unrelated terms. The automated system packaged all Mavericks inventory in real time and updated dynamically. It grew impressions from 200k to 2 million by real-time segmentation, analysis, and extending the audience. This enabled Hearst to unlock revenue and sell premium inventory while improving efficiency.

1. THE CHALLENGE
For publishers operating in the digital
space — where new content is constantly
created and old content lives forever —
making the most of advertising inventory
can be a monetization challenge.
The promise of digital is that advertisers
can hypertarget ads to relevant content,
even for niche subjects. While these
sharply targeted ad segments are highly
valuable, creating these custom packages
is often a manual process that demands
time and resources — and leaves holes of
unmonetized content.
Hearst Newspapers’ properties SFGate
and San Francisco Chronicle consider
offering advertisers valuable custom
sponsorship opportunities a priority, and
the manual process had to be improved.
With a sponsorship of the Titans of
Mavericks surfing competition, Hearst
chose a new approach: an
automated solution to enable
easy, scalable creation of
custom packages.
THE APPROACH
Hearst automated its sponsorship program
using comScore Activation, a solution
that helps media buyers and sellers
activate audiences and content by turning
granular data into actionable targets.
The solution uses proprietary Pattern
Recognition Technology to understand
page content to create
advertising segments uniquely
aligned with advertiser goals.
For the Mavericks sponsorship, Hearst used
the comScore Agent App to set custom
criteria for relevant content, including both
positive keywords and categories — such
as “Surfing” and “Mavericks” — as well as
negative keywords like “Dallas Mavericks”.
Once the segment was created, the
comScore platform was able to package
all Mavericks inventory in real time and
update automatically as new content was
produced. Additionally, Hearst included
users who previously consumed relevant
surfing content in the sponsorship segment,
enabling them to target those users across
any Hearst property.
THE RESULTS
This solution enabled Hearst to
unlock revenue by creating 10
times the scale for sponsorship
content, growing the Maverick
segment from 200 thousand to 2 million
impressions through real-time
segmentation, complete content analysis
and extended audience targeting.
In addition to greatly increasing the amount
of valuable inventory, the program brought
other benefits:
• Higher CPMs for inventory. By creating
a well-targeted, niche package for its
advertiser, Hearst was able to sell valuable
content at a premium, doubling the CPM
for this inventory.
• Greatly improved efficiency. This easy-
to-use packaging process allowed Hearst
teams to more efficiently use their time,
allowing them to focus on creating new
advertising packages for additional clients.
• Highly customizable packages. Hearst
was able to use this solution to create
extremely niche packages to match
advertiser goals.
As monetization becomes increasingly
challenging for digital publishers, this
solution can help media sellers offer
differentiated advertising inventory to
achieve the goals of media buyers.
Hearst Activates Inventory to Improve Sponsorship
Packages for Advertisers
To learn more about the comScore approach to advertising effectiveness measurement, please contact your sales representative directly or email
learnmore@comscore.com
©2016 comScore, Inc. US MAY
“comScore Activation enables us to have a more strategic conversation
with our advertisers about their needs, giving us the granularity and
flexibility we need to take control over our ad packages and maximize
scale for inventory monetization.”
— Alex Gibson, Senior Manager Ad Operations and Planning, San Francisco Chronicle
Include Do not include
Dallas Mavericks
Basketball
Top Gun
Brand-unsafe content
Surfing
Mavericks
Half Moon Bay