Online Journalism News

BBC tracks down global news 'inquisitives'

The BBC launched a major six-month promotional drive for its international news site this week.

The 'News for a non-stop world' campaign will focus on users in the US and Western Europe targeting 'inquisitives' - an audience that tends to grab small chunks of online news while at work and hunt out specific information rather than browsing.

Devised by the web marketing firm Agency Republic, the campaign uses RSS feeds to introduce BBC news headlines into a desktop alert service as well as messaging and ICQ tools.

The agency has also developed a new system to measure the effectiveness of the campaign. The system combines data from the ad servers with information on the site users to calculate the number of new users.

"bbcnews.com already attracts over 50 per cent of its international audience from the US and we also get significant traffic from Western Europe," said Alan Booth, controller of marketing at the BBC.

"In both markets there is a demonstrable demand for international news; an alternative and additional perspective on world events - in addition to that provided by local suppliers."

More news from journalism.co.uk:
BBC site braces itself for more open user comments system
BBC launches Europe-wide ad campaign
BBC.com fishes in US

Tags (click tag to find related articles; click icon for feed):
bbc | europe | united states | news site | online news | western europe | alan booth | agency republic | web marketing |

Sign up here for our free, daily email newsletter to get all the latest stories, jobs, tips and more.

Got a story? Email our news team: Laura Oliver; Judith Townend or telephone +44 (0)1273 384290. You can also follow us on Twitter: @journalismnews / @LauraOliver / @JTownend.