Hearst unveils Buzzing@Hearst with trend-detecting capabilities for advertisers

by Johann R. Rodriguez

Hearst today announced that its industry-leading trend detector, Buzzing@Hearst, is now open to advertisers, allowing them to programmatically target top-performing content across Hearst’s media properties. Born out of years of research and development, Buzzing@Hearst analyzes data-driven signals to constantly monitor trending articles, enabling marketers to uniquely marry their message to what’s hot in real-time.

Buzzing@Hearst is an extension of MediaOS, Hearst’s proprietary analytics-driven content distribution platform. Buzzing monitors thousands of active articles across Hearst’s digital ecosystem, including newspapers, magazines and television channels, and provides information about trending articles that editors can curate for their sites. Marketers are then able to serve up ads on pages that are receiving the most audience engagement.

Linked directly to DoubleClick for Publishers (DFP), Buzzing allows for a direct data connection between Hearst’s editors and digital sales teams, offering an opportunity for premium programmatic ad sales on trending pages. Advertisers’ content can then be served alongside Hearst’s editorial content that is demonstrating the highest levels of engagement at any given moment.

Hearst CTO Phil Wiser says:

“Harnessing the power of data science to recognize and instantly integrate trending stories with targeted ads signifies a groundbreaking solution for Hearst and our brand partners. Buzzing@Hearst demonstrates a new model for publishers and advertisers looking to deliver a user experience that keeps readers and customers engaged and coming back.”

Buzzing@Hearst looks at hundreds of signals, refreshed every 90 seconds, to create a “Buzzing Score” of 1–20, a rating assigned to every article to determine its popularity and interest among Hearst’s 350 million unique visitors. Buzzing scores are reflective of a variety of factors, giving advertisers an opportunity to advertise on pages based on everything from audience engagement to social engagement, in addition to other metrics.

Buzzing@Hearst interface

By integrating Buzzing@Hearst on every editor’s dashboard, Hearst is able to constantly monitor for trending articles with the highest Buzzing Scores and curate content relevant to their publication. It also allows editors to receive instant feedback from readers and develop content more likely to resonate with audiences.

Buzzing@Hearst in action

Recently, for example, a piece that appeared on ELLE UK about Kate Middleton breaking the Queen’s dress code received a high Buzzing Score and, as a result, was curated to also appear on U.S.-based Hearst sites. Armed with these insights, advertisers now have a window into the best performing channels and can use this feedback to target the right audiences with the right message.

In another instance, Hearst’s TV station in Orlando produced a web video about an 11-year-old boy who shot a man who was trying to break into his family’s home. Esquire then used Buzzing@Hearst for its own story.

“The things that appeal to someone sitting over in Town & Country amazingly show up across all brands you wouldn’t necessarily know would have an interest in it.” — Hearst CTO Phil Wiser.

Buzzing works as a kind of extension of Hearst Exchange, its programmatic buying marketplace, giving advertisers a better idea of where to place their bets. The same way you would do a homepage takeover, you would own the Buzzing content for a day. Julie Clark, VP of Sales and Strategy, Hearst Core Audience, says:

“We are thrilled to offer a dynamic means for marketers to tap into hundreds of real-time signals we receive through Buzzing. From social signals to time spent on site and understanding current trends — we give clients a front row seat to what’s hot right now. The marriage of data driven marketing with premium content is a reality at Hearst.”

Buzzing is latest example of Wiser’s goal to beef up Hearst’s technology capabilities, and in the process, think about Hearst as a whole rather than its many individual parts. Since Wiser came aboard four years ago, Hearst has launched Exchange; Core Audience, its cloud-based measurement platform; and MediaOS, its analytics-driven content distribution platform. Like other media companies, Hearst’s goal to present itself as one large company is the new normal.

“In this market where Facebook and Google and others are absorbing a large portion of the ad dollars … you need to have scale.” — Hearst CTO Phil Wiser

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