New Digital Age (NDA) in association with LiveRamp is spotlighting the men and women championing a data-led revolution in the marketing industry. ‘Meet the Revolutionaries’ focuses on the efforts of the industry executives helping to push digital marketing into a new era of data collaboration.
Here, Hannah Buitekant, Chief Commercial Digital and Strategy Officer at dmg Media, shares her expert opinion on nurturing innovation and leveraging data collaboration…
Tell me about your current role.
In my role as Chief Commercial Digital and Strategy Officer, I’m at the forefront of a truly exciting transformation, helping drive the company’s evolution into a digital-first powerhouse. I have a global scope, focusing on how we can innovate and break new ground in digital opportunities. At the same time, I need to ensure that our commercial strategies are aligned with our broader business goals.
Can you give an example of a time when you personally have helped to drive innovation?
Here’s an example from our recent business journey. Some of our low-yielding video inventory was causing a decline in revenue and going unsold. It was time to rethink our strategy. We had to stop chasing quintessential 30-second tv spots.
Instead, we drew on what we are: content creators. Over 60% of our content is lifestyle-based and our platforms are recognised as fame-makers for people, products, and brands. So, we turned our attention to social video and its exponential growth. The Daily Mail has 24m followers on TikTok, 14m on Snap, and 30m on Meta. Native was our commercial storytelling offering and has been successful for many years and won us many awards, and we needed to apply our experience of telling brand stories in a way that feels like editorial to video storytelling.
The process wasn’t particularly glamorous: four professionals (our Global Advertising Product Director Nicole Pottier, Group Strategic Partnerships Director Amber Moore, Strategy Director for Digital Heimunn Li, and me) – holed up in a room for six weeks, breaking down the market, challenging each other, testing, learning, and building. But the result was real innovation: EDITS. A new video product that could combine the power of our native storytelling with our massive growth in social, in video format, and that we could distribute seamlessly across all our channels.
Since launch in 2024, EDITS’ results speak for themselves – we have booked more than £1.5 million worth of EDITS content in less than a year. We have signed up more than 30 advertisers, with clients including Jet2, Vodafone, Next, British Airways, Elizabeth Arden, and People’s Postcode Lottery, with more on the horizon.
What are the most common challenges to innovation?
Time, focus and hesitation, on the most part. We’re in an industry that just does not stand still, and our organisation also refuses to rest on its laurels. Yes, we’re pushing the boundaries for publishers on social channels, we’re launching new podcasts and long form content series. But this is the reality for the modern publisher – to understand the audience in as much depth as possible and to seek them out where they are looking for information and inspiration.
To do that, you have to have a crystal-clear sense of brand identity, a solid starting point for who you are and what you stand for – otherwise you will find that identity is eroded if you try to be all things to all people, in all places.
It’s also vital to have a common goal in mind. Innovation rarely succeeds in silos and in an organisation of the size and heritage of ours, you have to make sure the goals and challenges are clearly understood by a number of stakeholders to be able to change things up and move forward together. Bringing everyone along with you is part of the innovation journey, and we work very hard to make sure that everyone in the business is aligned.
What tips can you offer others hoping to drive innovation?
Communication – updates on progress, honesty when there are hurdles and making sure that everyone who needs to be involved in the process is aware of status. You can never overcommunicate.
Test and learn. This industry is being challenged like many others by the development of technology and constantly changing trends. You cannot stand still, or you will fall behind. This means you need to be honest about concerns and plans for obstacles, but don’t let them hold you back.
Build a great team. There is never just one person. There are simply too many moving parts and areas where specialist knowledge is needed to be able to succeed. We’ve worked very hard to build the Mail Metro Media team and I’m exceptionally proud to work with every one of our team members, each of whom are passionate, dedicated and truly leading thinkers.
Trust your gut! Even if the data is not supporting you, listen to your inclinations and the inclinations of others around you.
How do you think digital marketing might evolve over the next few years?
In my experience, I’ve learned not to make predictions about specifics in digital! I can tell you that we will continue to follow our users and respect those audiences. We will stay focused on keeping authentic and ensuring that audiences can find us and our unique storytelling approach wherever they seek us out.
There is so much going on in social to be aware of, especially the still-unresolved future of TikTok. The new Instagram Creator Lab is on our radar to leverage, given the role of the publisher as ‘the original influencer’, and YouTube is also a big part of our future for both long and short form video even if the monetisation element is out of your hands. My advice would be – if you’re not mass, focus where the audiences have an affinity to your brand, If you do have scale, take that brand forward with audiences to encourage discoverability.
I also believe that retail media is an incredible opportunity for mass media publishers and retailers – creating an ecosystem beyond walled gardens, leveraging publisher first-party data, indexing shopper content and direct connections to the final checkout on site. Expanding access to the full funnel for retailers is a really attractive development, and publisher involvement potentially answers a lot of the questions about measurement and incremental value which are starting to be asked.
Do you think ‘data collaboration’ will become more important to marketers?
I strongly believe that data collaboration will become increasingly important to marketers, especially as we continue to see a seismic shift towards data-driven strategies.
With our omnichannel reach including over 300 million global monthly visitors, 70 million social followers, several successful podcast launches, and highly-engaged YouTube series such as Daily Mail Investigates, DMG media has made significant progress in developing our own data capabilities. Our data capabilities are designed to offer real-time, behavioural insights, unlocking the potential for brands to extract insights, track Return on Ad Spend, and engage with known users more effectively. This type of collaboration will be critical for marketers, enabling them to identify target audiences, refine their strategies, and ultimately drive stronger results.
However, I have concerns that publishers may face pressure to give away their valuable data, which could lead to a repetition of the open-market place purchasing model that’s often detrimental to both publishers and media buyers. The commoditisation of inventory and audiences has already eroded value, resulting in a landscape filled with low-value solutions that offer little to no differentiation or meaningful impact.
The key to overcoming this challenge will lie in how data collaboration evolves, particularly through open communication between ad tech, agencies, planners, and brands. As these stakeholders become more curious and strategic about targeting audiences, we’ll see an opportunity to unlock greater scale, engagement, and performance.
