How Winmo Launched Publishing Giant, Future, Into New Verticals During the Pandemic

ABOUT FUTURE

Future Plc is a global multi-media platform. The company has 200+ brands and engages 400 million people across the US and UK (that’s one in three adults for those keeping score) through their websites, magazines, and events. 

Their formula is pretty simple — create reviews and educational content that help people engage in the things they care about. Then, help them discover what they need to buy in order to live and experience those passions. Their brands include household names TechRadar, PC Gamer, Guitar World, and Marie Claire. 

Jason Webby is the vice president of the Eastern region at Future, joining the team in June 2020. Webby oversees advertising and leads all programmatic strategy and development. 

CHALLENGES AND OBJECTIVES

In the past, Future made the conscious decision to market the brands themselves. Then, as they started to get much bigger, it was time to market Future, the company.

“We especially needed the media community who buys advertising to understand that we’re not just TechRadar. Future is a massive portfolio owner and there’s more we can do with different brands,” said Webby.

Before implementing Winmo in 2020, Future was challenged by the constant movement of contacts in their prospecting, filling their pipeline with out of date information.

“We have a legacy in the music industry with Guitar World, Bass Player, Louder, and a string of other niche music titles, but now we’re a player in entertainment,” said Webby. “That changes the way we go to market and who we can do business with.”

HOW WINMO HELPS FUTURE SUCCEED

As Future enters into all of these new verticals, Webby and his team have to be smart about how they allocate their time and resources. Winmo helps them understand who the top spenders are, so they can prioritize prospecting efforts after the biggest fish.

“I also have an enterprise sales team that focuses on large accounts and a mid-market sales team for smaller accounts. That helps us identify prospects in both areas,” said Webby. “I can say, ‘Okay, mid-market team, you’re going to go after these 5,000 accounts. Enterprise, you’re going to go after the top 500.’ It helps prioritize our efforts and quantify how we’re doing.”

Winmo, and the digital ad intelligence of Winmo Pro, help Future discover potential clients they’ve never heard of, discover how they’re already spending their money, and exactly which decision-maker they need to build a relationship with.

“It’s a natural fit for what we’re trying to do. If we were just in tech and weren’t looking to grow, we already know everybody in this space. However, we’re entering into new verticals where we have very few relationships and don’t really know all the players yet,” said Webby.

FUTURE PLANS

Future is one of those unicorn brands that has found their stride during the pandemic — increasing their audience share, taking more number one positions, acquiring new businesses, and launching new verticals.

“We acquired TI Media in 2020, which is a branch of Time Inc. over in the UK, and a number of different lifestyle brands over there that we’re now migrating over here as new launches, including Woman & Home,” said Webby. “We’ve also launched a couple of new ones, Real Homes, My Imperfect Life, and the fitness sites Adventure and Fit&Well.”

One of the ways Future is looking to use Winmo more is through onboarding. They’re also looking at market share data to understand competitors and the landscape. 

“Are we growing our unfair share of that pie? And before we do that, we get to define what that pie is,” said Webby.