POLITICO Gets News-worthy Results with Brightcove Platform
POLITICO is a nonpartisan, Washington-based political journalism organization that covers the Presidency, Congress, the 2012 presidential race, Washington lobbying, plus the intersection of politics with Wall Street, the media and personalities. POLITICO’s content is found online, in print and most recently through mobile devices. Its newspaper is distributed primarily around Capitol Hill and the White House but also in neighborhoods around Washington, D.C. and the surrounding suburbs.
Political news happens at all hours when people are in any given location. With the Brightcove platform, we can be sure that no matter what device somebody uses, they can quickly find our video content.”
Chief Technology Officer for POLITICO
Situation
Launched in 2007, POLITICO revolutionized the way politics are covered. Featuring specialized reporting from experienced journalists, its website provides up-to-the-minute political news and analysis through articles, blog posts and video. Initially, video content for the site was integrated with POLITICO’s own content management system (CMS). As video became a more advanced method of distributing and consuming content, and a possible means for generating revenue, Politico needed a video platform that could disseminate video in real-time to its audiences across a wide range of properties, including online and mobile.
Solution
Brightcove online video platform, August 2007.
ROI
- Increased portability of website news content
- Faster publishing rate of video content
- Increased traffic to website
- Provided viewers easier access to additional video content
- Created increased revenue opportunities
Brightcove Attributes
Easy, Efficient, Advanced
Increased Access to Content
POLITICO’s specialized focus and “as-it-happens” coverage of the political landscape generates excitement among its niche audience who, before POLITICO, were accustomed to waiting for news during the 24-hour cycle. POLITICO’s ability to provide near-instantaneous analysis and newsmaker reaction from the political frontlines has made it a choice destination for coverage of the most pressing issues – and the company’s vast online video selection is a key part of its appeal.
POLITICO has a team of video producers who shoot, edit and post videos online, using the Brightcove platform, within minutes of newsmaker interviews, political speeches or breaking news.
Easy access to video on a variety of platforms is at the heart of POLITICO’s strategy.
“Political news happens at all hours when people are in any given location,” said Ryan Mannion, chief technology officer for POLITICO. “With the Brightcove platform, we can be sure that no matter what device somebody uses, they can quickly find our video content.”
A prime example of POLITICO’s quick turnaround occurred on May 1, 2011, when news broke that Osama Bin Laden’s had been killed. Within minutes of President Obama’s announcement, POLITICO uploaded video of his speech to the Brightcove platform making it instantly available to audiences online and on mobile devices, including the iPhone, iPad and Android.
Increased Revenue Opportunities
As a free publication, POLITICO has also been able to use the Brightcove platform to generate additional revenue – supplementing the revenue it receives from traditional print and online banner advertising. POLITICO can monetizes its video content through pre- and mid-roll advertisements run on the Brightcove players.
“There’s a lot that can be done with Brightcove to promote not only our video content, but also to support our business goals,” Mannion said.
As POLITICO’s video traffic continues to grow year after year, Mannion is able to analyze viewer behaviors using Brightcove’s analytics as well as Omniture, an online marketing and analytics business tool. Through this research and tracking, Mannion has discovered that POLITICO’s average viewer retention rate is extremely high – between 70 and 75 percent of an average video.
To improve its web traffic and user experience, POLITICO is currently the process of building a new online section dedicated to highlighting its video content using the Brightcove application programming interfaces (APIs) with an API-based search engine.
