News UK now lets advertisers target readers based on their emotions and opinions

NewsIQ UK will let advertisers plan, optimise and audit their campaigns based on data gleaned from the kinds of stories read

News Corp has brought its NewsIQ tool to the UK in a move that will see it leverage the publishing giant’s first-party data to target consumers based on their emotions and attitudes.

News UK is pitching the data platform as a way for brands to drive “emotional loyalty and advertising engagement”. The Sun and Times owner also claimed the feature will help brands looking to move their focus away from "simple click metrics" to a measurement system defined by awareness and attention metrics such as time spent engaging with an ad.

Launched at Cannes Lions on Tuesday (19 June), the UK iteration of NewsIQ lets advertisers plan, optimise and measure their campaigns based on first-party data such as the kind of stories readers are interested in, plus other consumption habits.

Additionally, surveys asking readers how they felt about content will be embedded into articles on The Sun and The Times to help News UK access more first-party data, such as the emotional state of a reader.

People-driven solution

For example, a travel brand targeting readers of The Times can select audience segments such as those with a preference for outdoor pursuits, whose opinions are linked to a sense of exclusivity, or those that over-index in video consumption and respond with positive emotions to adventure stories.

NewsIQ launched in the US last year.

News Corp's private video adtech outfit Unruly, has previously built private marketplaces (PMPs) for the publisher with targeting capabilities such as the emotions a piece of content was likely to elicit, but it's not involved with this product.

To support the UK debut, the media company commissioned research from Professor Paul Dolan of the London School of Economics. The study found that readers who had just read an emotionally arousing piece of content are 45% more likely to subsequently complete a view of a video ad, compared to those who were exposed to non-emotional stories.

Similarly, audiences that read features they defined as ‘pleasurable’ before engaging with an ad were 32% more likely to watch the entire video than those who had been exposed to non-pleasurable content.

NewsIQ will let advertisers target UK audiences across News Corp's international portfolio of titles, with media buyers also able to leverage its behavioural insights along with more standard criteria such as location.

“NewsIQ UK builds upon the traditional approach to digital advertising by recognising that audiences are people, driven not just by who they are and what they do, but by what they think and feel," said Ben Walmsley, digital commercial director at News UK.

"Preferences, opinions and emotions are fundamental factors in driving behaviours and the ability to identify these states and then build campaigns around them is going to change the way that advertisers communicate with audiences."

Following on from GDPR, News UK's move comes as agencies and brands are increasingly looking to publishers for legitimate first-party data.

Get The Drum Newsletter
