On Thursday 29 November, our Behind the News breakfast series returned with LADbible’s Group Head of Communications’ Peter Heneghan. Hosted by Account Director Richard Suchet, the discussion proved to be of great insight.
Five key lessons we learned:
- LADbible’s average consumer is in their mid-twenties and increasingly female. Unlike alternative online news providers, it’s audience grew on social media before their website even existed. It now has over 62 million followers across the world. Their content being most prominent in English-speaking markets, where one third of millennials follow them.
- LADbible considers itself in its own market, with no direct competitors. Peter argues that brands such as Buzzfeed and Vice seek to challenge the TV market, LADbible doesn’t. On their main channels, they produce and share new content almost every half hour, but there’s no schedule or quota by day.
- They were and continue to be ahead of the curve, their Trash Isles campaign put plastic waste on the agenda before Attenborough tapped into the UK’s public psyche.
- Algorithm changes on Facebook haven’t intruded on the popularity of content as LADbible’s approach is so socially-orientated. If people are sharing and engaging with content then the algorithm promotes their content. Peter believes other news organisations have fallen behind as they’re not promoting conversations around their content, meaning their articles and posts drop down news-feeds or don’t feature at all.
- As with other forms of journalism, storytelling is key, but the ‘can you tell it to your mates in the pub while holding their interest’ test is even more critical on social outlets.
Our next Behind the News event will be on the 31st January with former policy editor of BBC’s Newsnight, Chris Cook. Chris has now joined innovative new media agency, Tortoise Media. To ensure you don’t miss out on this exclusive event, reserve your space here.