With its 117th birthday approaching this December, there are few names in entertainment and business publications that stand up to Variety. It takes a special kind of business to not only survive past its centennial, but to by doing better than ever nearly two decades after it.
In March 2022, Variety.com smashed records and had its highest traffic month in its history. It had 36.9 million unique users visiting. This blew other major entertainment news sites like Deadline and Hollywood Reporter out of the water.
So what is the secret to their success? What has new and returning users coming back to this site for all of their entertainment news?
It comes down to their strong editorial and marketing strategy and staying consistently on top of news from every angle.
1. Variety Stays On Top of Current Events
While Variety is always on the pulse of nominees, snubs, winners, and drama come award season, this past March they might have had a little help, courtesy of the Fresh Prince. After the Oscars, viewers were running to the internet in droves. They wanted to report, comment on, or learn more about Will Smith, his wife, and his infamous slap.
With a dedicated team of writers and editors on stand-by, it’s easy. They crank out that content at lightning speeds for readers to eat up. Whether it’s movies, documentaries, trends, TV, film, etc., Variety writers work hard to not only deliver the news first, but the best.
2. Variety Drives Website Traffic by Catering to Diverse Audience
It’s not only the everyday gossip fiend that tunes in to read Variety.
With 62,700 subscribers to their print publication and 22 million visitors to the site each month, Variety is a trusted voice in the business, even to those who work in the industry themselves. Executives, producers, directors, writers, actors, artisans, casting directors, and more all go to variety.com for their industry news. More than that, people looking to break into the industry trust Variety to deliver entertainment news.
People in the world of marketing and advertising, and even industries like finance look to Variety for expertise.
3. Variety.com Thrives Because of Multi-Platform Content Coverage
With multiple podcasts, a studio dedicated to video and other digital media, and teams covering multiple avenues of the entertainment industry, Variety has content for literally anybody.
No joke, on Variety’s site, there are tabs for Film, TV, What to Watch, Music, Docs, Tech, Global news, Awards season news, and more, and then you go down and there’s a tab that reads “More Coverage.” There’s so much to read, from news to editorials to opinion pieces and more.
There’s something to be said about putting a ton of content out there, but quantity hardly ever outpaces quality, and Variety brings in readers because they heavily invest in talent so that they can deliver both.
4. Variety Taps In to Audiences Through Media Sponsorships
When asked how they’ve successfully managed to reach their target audiences, Variety’s CMO Dea Lawrence commented that becoming media sponsors for numerous events puts their name and their brand in an advantageous spot for bringing in views.
Media sponsorships provide financial aid in securing media coverage for events. This happens through things like commercials, social media channels, blog posts, and more.
They cover much-anticipated, celebrity-facing events like the Met Gala, awards shows, and premieres. This gives viewers and readers front row seats to illustrious events they otherwise wouldn’t get to see.
5. Chief Marketing Officer Adopted Digital Marketing Early
Variety CMO Dea Lawrence is back again, this time because she is largely credited with bringing Variety and variety.com into the digital age.
During Lawrence’s first stint at Variety in the early 2000’s, she built up the digital business side of things but found difficulty with the company’s growing reluctance to expand outside of print publication. When Lawernce was offered the CMO gig after Variety was bought by Penske media, however, she saw her chance.
From there, through creating branded content with Variety’s video-centric Content Studio, she built variety.com from just an online news site to a source of entertainment and content that brought in readers by the thousands.
6. Variety Developed a Strong Editorial Strategy First
By finding talented creators, writers, editors, producers, and other individuals to be a part of their editorial team, Variety has invested in quality instead of just quantity in their publications even though, as I said, they have a leg up in both.
“Making certain that we create the very best product is something we’ve done very, very effectively,” Dea Lawrence said. “It’s also important to define and articulate what it is that you do better than anyone else.”
Variety found and invested in its own strengths to make sure that they are, in fact, the best.
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