The Chief Strategy Officer at Mashable gives an overview of their humble beginnings, as well as how they used technology & social media to create valuable content that was shareable. For the full video to go with the slides, follow this link: http://bit.ly/1TvrIlc

1. Media & Advertising
For The Connected Generation
Presented
by
@AdamOstrow
Chief
Strategy
Officer,
Mashable
M

2. Our humble beginnings:

3. 2005: The Dawn of Social MediaM

4. MySpace Was The Dominant Social NetworkM

5. There Was No iPhoneM

6. The Most Viral Moment in Pop CultureM

7. Mashable and Adam in 2005M

8. The declining cost of creating and
distributing content allowed Mashable to
punch above its weight

9. Our Bootstrapped ApproachM
Our bootstrapped approach:
• No outside capital
• No office space
• 24x7 from the start
• Outsourced sales
• Laser focus on analytics
• Investing every dollar in
audience growth

10. Our Approach to ContentM
We took technology and social
media coverage to the mainstream
consumer by creating content
that was:
• Useful
• Inspiring
• Entertaining
• Accessible
• Outside the bubble

11. We quickly discovered that our most
powerful marketing vehicle was to create
content that people wanted to share

12. Our Audience Loves to ShareM

13. Social Since the BeginningM

14. Early and Aggressive to New Social PlatformsM
2005
2014
Mashable content is now shared 3x per second!

15. In 2014, digital culture is mainstream culture.

16. The Digital World in 2014M
• More than half of mobile users
own smartphones
• Facebook: More than 1 billion
users
• Twitter: 400 million Tweets
posted every day
• YouTube: 100 hours of video
uploaded every minute
• Size of online ad market has
tripled ($42B US, 2013)

17. We’ve grown with social media
and technology. In 2014:
• 35MM Monthly Uniques
• 15MM Social Followers
• 50% Access on Mobile
• 50% Arrive via Social

18. Mobile and social are now redefining the way
media is created, distributed and monetized

19. Mobile Is the Primary Way People ConnectM
24 billion connected devices by 2020

20. Understanding Mobile DevicesM
Mobile is inherently different:
• Smaller screen sizes
• Native functions like camera,
GPS and accelerometer
• Different ways to interact with
devices (touch, voice, NFC)
• Its own social graph (the
address book)
• Extends targeting to previously
“dumb” platforms
• Article page is the new
homepage

21. “Accessing social media is the #1 mobile
activity today … [and] is users primary way
of accessing social media.”
2013
Adobe
Mobile
Consumer
Survey

22. Social Networks Are Now Primarily MobileM

23. Everyone Is a CreatorM
Mobile social media users are
creating a staggering amount of
content every day:
• WhatsApp: 500 million photos
• Snapchat: 400 million Snaps
• Facebook: 350 million photos
• Instagram: 55 million photos

24. Mobile Social Media Users Are Redefining JournalismM

25. Smartphones are making “the feed” the
standard way to consume media and
advertising

26. The FeedM

27. Mashable Is Optimized For the FeedM

28. Advertising Is Moving to the Feed TooM

29. The feed is dictating content strategy

30. On TwitterM
Photos and videos drive the biggest increase in retweets

31. On FacebookM

32. Mashable Is Becoming More VisualM

33. And Creating More VideoM

34. Proprietary data helps us win in the feed and
scale our business model

35. Making Sense of Infinite Data SourcesM

36. Mashable VelocityM

37. Velocity Powers Social DistributionM
Leveraging Velocity in our
social distribution strategy has
lead to:
• Mashable’s traffic via
Facebook is up 250% yoy
• Mashable’s traffic via
Facebook mobile up
475% yoy
• 2x growth in new
subscribers/followers
across platforms

38. And Created New Job TitlesM
Mashable now employs:
• Data Scientists
• Artificial Intelligence
experts
• Real-time News Editors
• Dedicated SnapChat
storyteller

39. The feed represents the biggest opportunity in
digital advertising

40. Mobile Advertising Is Quickly Catching UpM

41. Native Will Be a $5 Billion Industry by 2017M

42. Why Native?M

43. Mashable’s business model is to help brands
succeed in the feed

44. Aligning Brands With Relevant ThemesM
Female Founders Series Small Business Solutions Tails and Rails
What’s Inside Styldby Global Innovation Series
Photo Challenge Future of Travel Emerging Tech Hubs

45. Emirates Boston to Dubai RouteM

46. Capital One America’s Most Social Small BusinessM

47. Intel Building the Future TodayM

48. We’re only at the beginning of the mobile +
social transformation of media.

49. The Rate of Change Will Continue to AccelerateM
Consider these stats:
• 38% of 2-year-old use
mobile devices
• Average age for first cell
phone is now 13
• YouTube reaches more
18-34 year olds than any TV
network

50. But Connectivity Is More Than Just Phones and TabletsM

51. Screens Will Get Even SmallerM
Smartwatches Speed reading?

52. New Ways to Track Consumers Will EmergeM
“Pay per gaze” TV That Watches You

53. Media Is FlatteningM
“Formerly separate industries are
colliding on the Internet. It’s
newspaper vs. magazine vs.
broadcast TV vs. cable TV vs. wire
service. Now they all compete.”
- Marc Andreessen

54. And Giving Rise to New Power PlayersM

55. Some key strategic questions to consider:

56. How to Survive and Thrive in the Mobile + Social AgeM
• Are we in the feed, or in the
periphery?
• Is our site optimized for the
screens of today and
tomorrow?
• What unique data can we
leverage to gain a
competitive edge?
• How do we speak to our
brand’s values instead of
its products?
• What visual assets can
help tell our brand’s story?

57. Thank You!