COLOGNE \u2013 Can a hurricane top a presidential inauguration for grabbing eyeballs? At CNN the answer is a resounding yes.<\/p>\n

Breaking news also represents a \u201cbalancing test\u201d in being able to monetize those eyeballs most effectively, as CNN Chief Product Officer Alex Wellen explains in this video interview with Beet.TV.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like CNN is more relevant than it\u2019s ever been before,\u201d Wellen says during a break at the DMEXCO advertising and media trade show.<\/p>\n

On digital platforms, consumption of the company\u2019s weekend hurricane coverage was about 80% compared with desktop, according to Wellen. One day of that coverage made it the number one day for the entire year, bypassing the Trump inauguration.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had 34 million multiplatform uniques across all of our platforms, largely on mobile first,\u201d Wellen<\/a> explains.<\/p>\n

Video growth has been \u201cimmense\u201d for CNN, including its 360-degree coverage of the Total Solar Eclipse from multiple locations and some 9 million live streams, on some 40 different platforms.<\/p>\n

As its distribution and reach has grown, CNN is working closely with advertisers \u201cat the onset of these platforms\u201d to create authentic editorial and advertising experiences. \u201cNot an adjacency or an afterthought.\u201d<\/p>\n

Breaking news is more appealing to some advertisers than others and they are connected with CNN through automation. \u201cThere are some advertisers, particularly through the private programmatic means, that we can connect with this content. They want to reach large audiences at scale.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, CNN is \u201cvery, very precise and surgical\u201d about which advertisers are aligned with premium, long-form or evergreen executions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we have these spikes, we leverage them with advertisers that are very broad and then when we create bespoke content we can charge a higher CPM, but it is much more around the premium executions,\u201d Wellen says.<\/p>\n

He has a problem with the digital term \u201cpersonalization,\u201d considering it to be \u201ca bit of a cop out\u201d as it relates to scaled technology automating everything. This is because at CNN, being \u201cpersonal\u201d when delivering content means focusing on curation and relevancy derived from audience insights.<\/p>\n

\u201cProduct for us is that combination of storytelling and technology and the way they come together to really present something in a way that others can\u2019t really do,\u201d Wellen says.<\/p>\n

This video is part a series that examines programmatic from both the seller and the buyer perspective. It is presented by PubMatic. For more videos from the series, please visit this page<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COLOGNE \u2013 Can a hurricane top a presidential inauguration for grabbing eyeballs? At CNN the answer is a resounding yes. Breaking news also represents a \u201cbalancing test\u201d in being able to monetize those eyeballs most effectively, as CNN Chief Product Officer Alex Wellen explains in this video interview with Beet.TV. \u201cIt looks like CNN is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[]},"categories":[6709,6731],"tags":[3884,5718,6701,6767,6768],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47879"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47879\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.beet.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}