Mail Metro Media has been rated the best media owner to work with.
That is according to the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising’s (IPA) Digital Media Owners Autumn 2023 Survey, which found nearly nine in 10 (88%) of respondents said their overall experience of working with Mail Metro Media was positive.
The Mail and Metro publisher’s commercial arm was followed by Blis (87%), Reddit (85%), MiQ (82%), GumGum (81%), Quantcast (81.1%), Reach (80.6%) and Pinterest (80%).
Mail Metro Media was additionally named the best media owner for ‘Ease of contact with the sales team.’
Other news publishers also performed well among respondents. The Guardian was rated as the top media owner for ‘Exploitation of cross-over media opportunities’ and Reach plc was found to be the most broadly improved media owner, with an increase of 10 percentage points or more across seven survey categories.
Mail Metro Media took a number of steps to improve its offering this year, including by entering into a pilot partnership with industry-backed online sales house Ozone, launching a new multi-platform ad solution and brand refresh for Metro, and hiring former Guardian sales director Guy Edmunds to lead in a new role as media director for video and podcast.
Mail Metro sales chief: Brexit ‘definitely having an effect on adspend’
According to Ipsos Iris data released this week, MailOnline remains the largest monthly digital newsbrand in the UK (excluding the BBC) and grew its online audience 17% year-on-year to nearly reach 25 million.
Mail Metro Media: ‘we have to be more commercial’
In an interview with The Media Leader in July, Mail Metro Media chief revenue officer Dominic Williams said he was committed to iterating on display advertising formats and upping Mail Metro Media’s game on video and podcast.
“We have to be more commercial than ever before,” Williams explained. “Because TikTok, Facebook, Snap, YouTube, are all over us. They’re all over everything.”
Williams added that on top of added competition from social media companies in the attention economy, Brexit, inflation, and the war in Ukraine had combined to create an adverse effect on advertising budgets. He admitted it was ironic Brexit has negatively impacted Mail Metro Media given the Mail‘s historically pro-Brexit editorial stance.
But, Williams said, the “addictive” nature of the Mail‘s news and entertainment content has created loyal readership he feels confident he will always be able to sell to advertisers.
Williams, alongside other Mail Metro Media executives, also highlighted the publisher’s capacity to be insulated from the demise of the internet tracking cookie and of their use of first-party data to make its readers targetable at its recent advertising upfronts.
