Adweek: Three Tips for Thriving in the Scrolling Economy

It's an understatement to say that the current media climate is in flux. In fact, with ever-growing access to the web via mobile devices, the media today is seeing rapid changes the likes of which advertisers and publishers have never experienced. That may seem terrifying, but what underlies it is unbelievably exciting, and there is opportunity around every corner.

The ongoing evolution in media has created new and better ways to connect directly with audiences, facilitating a two-way conversation. At NowThis, having a real conversation—finding the humanity in every story—is their lifeblood. Engaging with their audience happens every minute of every day, exactly where their audience lives, at the intersection of social, mobile and video.

In fact, at NowThis their videos are distributed solely over social—Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, etc. They've fully embraced the distributed media model, and the mobile-driven "Scrolling Economy." They've also learned the nuances of exactly how to succeed with platform-appropriate content, and how to appeal most to the audiences who are living on those platforms.

In order for content to thrive in the Scrolling Economy, videos must be built specifically for this environment—and the consumers living in it. Here are three core observations about consumer behavior in the Scrolling Economy.

Video today is consumed highly on mobile. Fully 82 percent-plus of our video views come from mobile. All content must be consumable on a small screen size and with consumer behavior on mobile taken into account.

Video must be optimized for social consumption. In particular, autoplay should be enabled by default across social.

All content needs to be built to unlock earned media potential. Armed with insight around the power of earned media, NowThis aims to answer the question, "How do I make something that gets people to stop scrolling in their feed, and get them to engage with and share our content?"