Five questions with: Deborah Sherry, Future CCO
Deborah Sherry, Future’s chief commercial officer, discusses the company’s recent acquisitions, its financials and championing women from all walks of life in magazine imagery
You joined Future as CCO in April this year – What appealed to you about the company? What are your plans for the company, both in the near and long term?
Future is an impressive media company with an agile and digital-first mindset, which is continually evolving and adapting. With a significant audience – now reaching one in three adults in the US and UK – and its innovative diversification strategies, it’s a powerful player and I’m excited to be a part of its next chapter.
My background is rooted in helping forward-thinking companies drive strategic change and seize emerging opportunities, having most recently worked as director of UK&I Enterprise at Amazon Web Services, so Future’s capacity for evolution is hugely appealing to me.
Looking ahead, I’m extremely interested in how Future couples its quality content with industry-leading e-commerce capabilities to engage diverse, high-intent audiences, offering them the best online deals.
Amid the pandemic, swift adjustment to new audience habits has fuelled the company’s innovative nature, leading to growth in audiences across a multitude of verticals – including women’s lifestyle, homes, technology and gaming – as well as making more opportunities available for brands and agencies to reach them.
In fact, continued investment in diversification has led Future to roll out a number of recruitment initiatives. Since Q4 2020, Future has pushed forward the biggest recruitment drive in its history, introducing more than 160 new roles globally at all levels in the editorial, video and tech teams, as well as launching its e-commerce Graduate Programme, which will bring a new wave of emerging talent, and support our continued mission to offer the best opportunities for brand and agency partners.
This week, Future announced some impressive interim results, what has been the key driver of this success?
The media ecosystem is fiercely competitive, making constant progression critical to survival. Future has long been aware of this and committed to finding ways of continually optimising user and brand value, which meant diversification and agility were high on the agenda before Covid-19; placing the company in a strong position to navigate disruption.
This is reflected in our interim results with a 21% increase in organic revenue growth in both existing and new verticals, alongside global audience growth of 31% year-on-year.
Being a data driven business, we are continuously driving added value for our company and customers, which has resulted in a digital advertising display yield mix growth of 34%, and a 19% increase in direct advertising campaigns thanks to our high-quality audiences and data.
Much of the success we’ve seen in the first half of 2021 is due to a powerful combination of human skills and smart tech. From a content perspective, our editorial and audience teams have collaborated closely to use search insights as the basis for tailored, reliable and informative digital content in publications such as Gardeningetc, which launched in July 2020 and grew to 800,000 online users at the end of March 2021.
Similarly, this knowledge has accelerated the performance of My Imperfect Life – which is six months ahead of target audience growth – as well as household brands like Ideal Homes, which grew 37% MoM in March and now reaches three million visitors.
When it comes to revenue, our diversified and data driven monetisation models allow us to identify prime income streams that will drive the most value for both Future, brands, and agencies. That includes assessing opportunities posed by new channels, advertising, e-commerce or content franchise opportunities.
While we are continuing to launch new brands in our areas of expertise, we’re also putting relentless focus on driving value from our existing brands using these models, resulting in consistent organic growth.
Future has just announced its acquisition of Marie Claire US. Why did Future decide to acquire the Women’s Lifestyle brand? And what does this mean for Future’s audience reach in the UK and globally?
With its UK title joining Future’s portfolio last April, acquiring Marie Claire US was a natural next step also in line with our US first strategy.
At an operational level, managing connected brands under one roof creates better cohesion. But the decision was also motivated by the sizeable scope to optimise growth using knowledge gained over the last year.
The acquisition has illustrated the impact of switching to an insight-led mindset where data enhances content relevance and visibility.
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Ahead of Black Friday, the Marie Claire UK brand ranked number one for search terms such as ‘designer Black Friday deals’. The same techniques can be applied for Marie Claire US to super-charge engagement and revenue in the region, with the deal also increasing Future’s global reach.
Adding Marie Claire US to its roster also boosts Future’s female reach, creating valuable opportunities for advertisers targeting this audience and those looking to engage users based on the interests covered in this vertical.
To support advertisers and editorial teams, Future conducted a research study, Women Wise, looking at audience trends in the Women’s vertical.
The findings reveal that eight in 10 women aged 40 plus across the US and UK don’t feel represented in current media. In response, woman&home created its REAL campaign to champion women from all walks of life in magazine imagery – a project that will be extended across Future’s women’s interest brands.
Speaking of acquisitions, Future announced completion of the acquisition of GoCo Group in February this year. Could you talk us through the strategy behind this?
We’re always on the lookout for strategic opportunities and securing GoCo Group was a great fit.
Having already cemented Future’s e-commerce proposition and honed advanced price comparison capabilities for product purchases, adding a new vertical by bringing financial services into the mix was a logical move.
As well as presenting audiences with carefully curated selections of relevant items, Future can assist individuals in discovering the right finance or insurance solutions for their needs.
GoGo Group and Future also share the same fundamental makeup as data-led and tech-enabled companies. GoCo Group has shaken-up the finance sector with streamlined and unique comparison tools, and by adding this to Future’s extensive tech stack, we have created a leading offering, which provides complementary insights and enables consumers to make informed choices in their passions, interests and key purchasing decisions.
In particular, Future’s first-party data strategy will be instrumental in delivering more meaningful experiences that will deliver better outcomes for users and the brands connecting with them.
Combined with existing insight from the financial services group and data gathered from wide-ranging Future publications and transactions, we will be able to create a stronger foundation for optimal engagement.
What is your biggest hope for the future of the media and advertising industry?
My main hope would be for the industry to sustain momentum.
In large part, that’s about keeping pace with audience requirements, market shifts and the ongoing march of privacy protection; all of which call for tech innovation. But there’s also a need for collaboration and willingness to change.
Pandemic turmoil has made it important to re-assess business models to ensure they are adaptable to change, ultimately leading to new approaches that have greater long-term viability. As we move into recovery, the digital industry as a whole must be ready to keep changing and grow in line with new conditions and opportunities.