FT increases marketing spending by one third

Max Willens of Digiday writes about how the Financial Times has boosted its marketing spending in an attempt to gain subscribers.

Willens writes, “Those join ‘Facts, Truths,’ and a fourth reader-focused campaign that it launched with several broadcast partners in the UK. Overall, the FT’s marketing expenditures are up 28 percent on consumer-facing campaigns and 30 percent on B2B campaigns year over year, making this the highest amount spent on marketing in years (it declined to share a hard dollar figure).

“The FT is spending big because the iron of opportunity is hot. U.S. publishers like the Washington Post and the New York Times have been enjoying post-Trump subscriber surges, and in the U.K., Brexit’s begun driving gains anew since Prime Minister Theresa May signed Article 50 at the end of last month.

“But the FT’s also motivated by a realization that its journalism is what drives subscriptions, and so it should be out front helping to sell it, thanks to programmatic targeting of prospective subscribers. ‘Our marketing now looks to keep up with our journalism,’ FT chief media officer Darcy Keller said. ‘Part of what’s driving the increased investment, is what we see as an opportunity around the news agenda.’

“Keller knows pivotal news moments can compel readers to sign up for subscriptions. Over the weekend that Britain’s citizens voted to leave the EU, digital subscriptions grew 600 percent year over year. To date, subscriptions across print and digital now total over 850,000; digital subscriptions, year over year, are up 14 percent. Those subscriptions is absolutely vital to the FT, which earns 60 percent of its revenues from them.”

Read more here.