Buzzfeed gets a bad wrap from traditional journalists but millennials apparently love it. At the IAB Digital Content NewFronts, which is the online version of TV’s upfronts for ad sellers and buyers, Buzzfeed co-founder Jonah Peretti told the audience that since last years Newfronts their audience has grown from about 2.8 billion monthly views to more than 7 billion! Peretti added that over 75 percent of BuzzFeed’s content is viewed on third party platforms such as YouTube (14%), Snapchat (21%) and Facebook (33%). Buzzfeed.com and other company owned sites account for 23% of total views.
To illustrate their audience power for ad buyers Buzzfeed’s Tasty channel posted a video at 9 a.m. on how to make chocolate-covered marshmallow fluff balls. By the end of their 4 hour presentation the video had 8.3 million views and 75,000 shares. Just 24 hours after posting the video it has over 19 million views and 318,000 shares on Facebook.
They are illustrating, and I might add successfully, that their videos are more powerful ad formats than typical television ads, unless you are talking about the Super Bowl or other rare TV content.
Buzzfeed is also one of the original test partners of Facebook Live which will be part of its marketing push this year.