GWADS Promotional Awards

The Sacramento Bee
1st Place

Sports Pass

City: Sacramento, CA
Daily audited circulation size: 104,228
Sunday audited circulation size: 202,958

Objective

Grow total digital subscriptions and create more paid relationships with content by selling access to a unique content section vs. just unlimited access to all sections.

Starting with Sports.

Strategy

Target consumers who have exhibited deep interest in sports content vs. all types of content.

Build out a marketing segment for those users and target them through all available channels (on site | social retargeting | off site ads | email) to drive subscriptions for Sports Pass.

Unlimited digital access to all of the local sports content we have to  offer for a particular market.

This will create a middle ground between paying $0 a year for no access and paying $XXX a year for full access to everything.

Establishing the habit of engagement combined with habit of payment positions us well for upsell opportunities down the road.

Results

Originally piloted out of the Miami Herald, the program quickly took off to other major markets that cover professional, collegiate and powerhouse prep sports.

To date across the network, we've generated more than 3,500 Sports Pass starts which includes 5 markets in the west and Ft. Worth.

In Sacramento, Fort Worth, Tacoma & Boise alone, the take rate and sign up volume exceeded expectations and could have potentially been higher if we had timed closer to the start of football season (maximizing interest of the Cowboys, TCU, Boise State, 49ers and Raiders-along with the enthusiasm for high school football).

We expect a substantial increase as the prime sports seasons come back around and we're able to more aggressively target and promote at the consumer level.