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Tobias Borris
How applied creativity and critical thinking helped a leading media conglomerate tap into a new high-income target group and fuel its capital markets story while sticking to its strengths.
Summary
A leading European media company faced stagnant growth in the TV advertising market, with PwC reporting a modest 1.5% CAGR from 2018 to 2023. This slowdown posed a significant challenge to the company’s advertising-driven business model. To address this, a comprehensive 6-week analysis was conducted, examining the entertainment industry, media consumption trends, and emerging customer segments. This research culminated in the creation of THRIVE, a digital media platform targeting 12 million progressive, college-educated women aged 20-50 in Germany, with a particular focus on 5 million "fast-trackers" who control billions in earned income. THRIVE's real value extends beyond advertising by unlocking access to a high-income customer segment for the company's e-commerce startups, which operate in the more lucrative consumer goods market. The concept received outstanding feedback from the board and was advanced for further validation and development, aligning with the company’s ongoing content hub strategy.
Challenge
As PwC reports, the global TV advertising market shows little sign of growth (1.5% CAGR, 2018-23). This presented a major challenge for one of Europe’s biggest legacy media companies, which is largely based on advertising revenues. While the firm invested into new advertising forms and formats, drove synergies and diversified through M&A activities, activist investors questioned the company’s performance. To strengthen its innovation muscle and unlock new growth in spaces close to its core business, the company was looking to explore and define new product concepts.
Approach
I kicked off the engagement with a rich exploration of the larger entertainment industry, emerging outside competitors as well as a detailed look at how media consumption has continued to evolve and what different customer groups are now motivated by. I then synthesized these learnings into opportunity spaces that serve as guidance and inspiration for the development of new value propositions.
The Opportunity
One opportunity space centred on the emergence of new customer segments: it pointed to a gap in the German media landscape that was rooted in a lack of diversity of its audience that didn’t reflect the zeitgeist and value set of today’s consumer segments. Business and career-related content across different media types was primarily targeted towards college-educated white men, whereas fashion, style and lifestyle media were mostly trying to compete for the female audience. At that time (2016), successful women did not have a media brand that properly speaks to their interests.
The Value Proposition
To seize this gap in the market I conceived and developed THRIVE – a digital media platform that celebrates progressive and sophisticated women that are committed to win and empower the next generation of leaders. To them, a successful career is not a profession but a way of leading a self-determined life marked by intellectual, spiritual, societal and financial growth. Through its website and social media channels THRIVE offers users a female perspective on international business, technology and the finer things in life. Featuring thought-provoking journalism and photography of the highest quality, it showcases journalistic investigations, philosophical essays, reflective pieces and interviews with inspirational women through a distinctive combination of aspiration, boldness and warmth. While examining complex and controversial topics, THRIVE manages to cover them in a concise and approachable manner without losing its intellectual appeal.
Germany’s first national amplifier of female entrepreneurial voices, creatives, and catalyst to those who aspire to more in life
Potential THRIVE brand ambassadors
The solution is built on the company's existing assets and requires only modest investment: Given its strong relationships with leading advertisers, content production capabilities, and ability to market THRIVE across multiple TV channels, digital platforms, and celebrities, the company has a clear path to bring THRIVE to market quickly.
The Commercial Value
THRIVE speaks to a total addressable audience of 12 million college-educated women between 20-50 years of age across Germany – in particular, the fast-trackers: 5 million females that control 34% of earned income ($24 billion income) and whose needs are directly aligned with the platform’s value proposition. Driven by native and social media advertising this reach translates to a projected 8-figure revenue within two years for THRIVE. It also helps win new advertisers who were not attracted by the previous programming, while introducing them to other advertising offers from the company.
THRIVE's true strategic value, however, lies not only in the relatively small $180 million market for eMagazines, but in supporting the company's acquired e-commerce startups to expand further into the $87 billion market (6% CAGR 2020-25) for fashion, cosmetics and travel purchased over the Internet. THRIVE serves as a marketing vehicle that attracts a new high-income customer segment, while also referring them to the parent company's e-commerce startups. This allows the lucrative digital companies to expand their offerings into the premium segment, build new relationships with third-party vendors, and increase margins by enhancing brand equity.
By looking at its media offering through more than just the lens of direct advertising revenue, the company opens up a new universe of content themes, media categories and brands that transcend the traditional four-quadrant system – resulting in a win-win-win situation for consumers, advertisers and the company's bottom line.
Outcome
In 2016, senior leadership approved the concept and authorized additional testing to further bolster confidence in THRIVE. Collaborative testing with stakeholders across various business units provided deeper insights into the operational and organizational dependencies critical to swiftly bringing THRIVE to market. The Content Hub strategy, under which this greenfield project was developed, was also presented by the board to the investment community as a signal of the company’s ongoing innovation and its focus on targeting emerging consumer segments.
Screenshots from annual IR presentation
Key Services
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Idea Development, including value proposition creation, idea calibration and evaluation, ideas portfolio development
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Prototype Design, including build-test-learn-iterate planning and research
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Commercial Modelling, including business case development, organization human & asset resourcing planning
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Solution Design, including business model design, technical and operational feasibility assessment, implementation design, partner identification and evaluation
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Additional services that I provided during this project include various forms of research, identification of commercial opportunities and validation of new solutions.
Duration
6 weeks
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