We know and understand our audience better than anyone else: Eliot Connor, CNNIC

As CNN International Commercial (CNNIC) looks to expand its footprint across India, the international news agency is counting on its audience-first approach, as well as a new suite of tools “drawing on the latest proprietary and third party technology” to achieve the same. 

exchange4media spoke to Eliot Connor, Sales Director for South & Southeast Asia and Digital Director for Asia Pacific, CNNIC, about the relationship the brand has built with Indian audiences as well as advertisers over the years and how it is utilizing its in-house developed tools to ensure that advertisers’ messages appear in appropriate context and they can maximise greater volume of CNN’s inventory platforms.

“We understand how important our audience is to us and they are at the heart of everything we do. We treat them as very complex individuals and separate interest groups and we do this in a few ways. First, we’re confident that we know and understand our audience better than anyone else. We’ve got a wealth of intelligence services and proprietary technologies to best understand what they’re engaging with, be that in content or media, and we understand how they navigate our platforms,” says Connor.

This in turn leads to the kind of content that CNNIC creates and curates, whether it is in news or campaigns, which are designed keeping in mind audience interests and expectations.

“Next of course is the ad experience which is supercritical to make sure that, once we’ve made branded content or campaigns on behalf of our clients and partners, our audiences aren’t frustrated by the experience and engage with it in the right way,” explains Connor, noting that CNNIC also utilizes intelligence from native units as well as its own high-impact ad solutions to ensure that all stakeholders are looking at the advertising the right way.

“We’ve found that people are looking for longer content, which is amazing, because that is what we do best. We’ve built more content, with India particularly in mind, while also recognizing that a large part of our audience here won’t necessarily be watching our content on TVs, but on their smartphones. So it gives us more opportunities to build more related and localized content, from both an editorial and brand content perspective,” he says, acknowledging India is still firmly a mobile-first market.

With the network boasting a monthly reach of 538 million on TV, 603 million on digital, along with 509 monthly page views on its apps, and 216 million fans across social media, Connor says that whether CNNIC’s news and branded content is being watched on TVs, digital devices, or mobile phones, the company’s technologies allow it to evaluate which consumers are watching what, when and how, allowing it to adapt its content as needed.

“As we are both a media and technology company we are enabled to build proprietary tools to do this in a way that is optimised for news media. One of these tools, which we call CEP, will analyse our content using an in-house taxonomy to really understand what it is about. This allows us to place the right advertisers within the context that makes most sense for their brand and objectives,” says Connor

He adds, “SAM, which is our brand safety tool, has also been built specifically for a breaking news environment. It will assess that content, whether it’s a video, image or article, and determine where it sits on a spectrum of negative to positive sentiment, to ensure that our partners are never appearing alongside anything that might not strike the right tone for them.”

With almost two decades of digital marketing experience, Connor’s role includes leading the CNNIC sales teams in the South and Southeast Asia region, managing key clients, as well as identifying and developing a range of solutions across CNN International’s digital portfolio from both direct sales and programmatic trading across Asia, with India being seen as a key market.

This also means that the company is in discussion with digitally native Indian start-ups for partnerships, though Connor stays away from giving further details as talks are still ongoing. That being said, CNNIC is also maintaining and sustaining partnerships with older clients, many of them legacy brands.

For instance, engineering conglomerate Kirloskar is partnering with CNNIC for the 14th year running to sponsor CNN’s ‘Going Green’. The initiative highlights a strong commitment towards a greener future in a show that explores green technology solutions for a sustainable future. According to a GWI Q3 2021 survey, the campaign has, through the years, reached over 700 million environmentally conscious viewers and more than 270 million business decision-makers around the globe to create awareness around sustainability and green innovations.  

Connor points to a recent study conducted for CNN by BVA/BDRC that “found that 79% of CNN’s audience in APAC advocate for brands that implement sustainable practices that have a positive impact on society and the environment (Source : BVA BDRC / CNN Adtracker March 2022 sustainability ; Asia Pacific – Australia, Singapore, India & HK).”

“According to the Advertising Association, 71% of advertising professionals are concerned that our industry has a negative impact on the environment, and so we have to walk the walk as well as talk the talk.  Our in-house brand studio, Create, is on the Ad Net Zero steering committee so we are helping change our industry and make more sustainable advertising,” asserts Connor saying the brand uses industry certified carbon calculators to measure, reduce and offset the carbon footprint for over 20 of their productions so far.