BuzzFeed, launched in 2006 and headquartered in New York, was ranked the fastest growing web property after it tripled its multi-platform audience in USA alone to 71.3 million visitors. In August, the Internet news media company announced plans to broaden its international footprint to Berlin, Mexico City, Mumbai and Tokyo. BuzzFeed India officially launched at the recently concluded Social Media Week where Henna Achhpal caught up with Scott Lamb, VP – International, BuzzFeed for a quick chat on all things viral
Q] ‘Virality’ is the unsolved mystery of the marketing business but BuzzFeed seems to have gotten it right. What lessons can marketers learn from the BuzzFeed model?
Rather than a formula, we think of virality as the combination of several different factors. It’s impossible to be able to guarantee that people will share something you’ve made, but by studying things that have gone viral in the past and looking at the factors that lead to them being spread, you can understand some of the shared aspects of things that go viral online. These could include: An element of the unexpected, a real emotional impact on the reader, something that captures the moment, something that’s simply hilarious, or something that speaks to deeper beliefs about the world. If you’re lucky enough to have one of these elements as the primary aspect of something you’ve made, you’ve got a shot. It’s a mixture of art and science.
Q] What are you planning to do differently with BuzzFeed India?
BuzzFeed India’s success will come from the ability of our team in India to create stories that resonate with Indian readers. Our strategy hasn’t varied that widely between different countries. We have a very clear philosophy behind the work we do, but we also know that for it to be shared, it has to be authentic and local.
Q] How has viral content changed the dynamics of the traditional communication model for marketers?
As the world has become more social, the biggest shift is that the dominant mode of mass communication has gone from a broadcast model to a network model. In the networked world of the Internet, your readers are also responsible for passing on your message. They’re both your audience and your distribution network. The great thing about this is that if you make something great, people will pass it on and there’s incredible value in that. But it also means that marketers have to take a new approach to the work they do.
Q] How does BuzzFeed plan to scale its business, and grow revenue and traffic in the Indian market?
At this point, BuzzFeed is solely focused on growing its audience. We want our team here to crack the code of the social web in India, to figure out the kinds of posts that Indian readers love to read and share. We’re very focused on growing our impact on social media. Once we’ve figured that out, we’ll start thinking about the business side. But initially, it’s entirely an editorial operation.
Q] BuzzFeed CEO, Jonah Peretti, believes in learning from data. What kind of data, specific to the Indian market, can you share with us?
We definitely believe that data is key to being a successful publisher in the digital era. There’s no substitute for an understanding of how your stories are being read and shared. As for data specific to India, though, it’s too early to say anything just yet — we’ve only started!
Q] It is said BuzzFeed is the next level in the ‘dumbing down’ of content. What are your comments?
People love serious news, and they love celebrity gossip, and there’s nothing wrong with wanting to have both. It’s like a Parisian cafe: Imagine yourself sitting there, enjoying an espresso and reading Sartre. A cute dog comes by your table, and you lean down to pet it. But you don’t stop being yourself when you switch from philosophy to a cute dog — they’re both part of the human experience. BuzzFeed has both. We’ve got a team of foreign correspondents around the world, an investigative team led by a Pulitzer prize winner, and an editorial team of over 200. Some of them do great, hard-hitting reporting; others do the finest cat lists the world has ever seen. We do quizzes telling you which ‘Friends’ character you are, and at the same time run magazine-length feature stories, innovative video and breaking world news.
Feedback: henna@exchange4media.com
