What exactly is content marketing? That’s the question currently on everyone’s lips within the media sector, and one that ISPO.COM actually gave a very definite answer to a good three and half months ago. And with the initial results now in, it is clear to see that the leading trade fair for the global sports business has got exactly the right idea. Following a shift in focus towards content marketing, almost 440,000 visitors were welcomed to its website in January 2016 alone. According to its own counts, this equated to some 1.2 million page views.
ISPO.COM was developed over the past few months by a newly established editorial team working under the management of Gunnar Jans, a journalist who has previously worked for the Munich newspaper Abendzeitung and leading German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung. Now it is an information platform and the first port of call for all sports business professionals and people with an active interest in sport. The ISPO.COM editorial team publishes the latest from the industry every day, posting everything from news to interviews and background reports.
THE DIGITALE—the Deutsche Telekom content marketing service provider—took care of transforming the old, static site into the information platform it is today, in line with the Messe München digital strategy. Klaus Dittrich, CEO and President of Messe München, notes: “As event organizers, it is no longer enough for us to simply provide exhibition spaces. This is why we have been striving to make our services more digital and more global in recent years. Relaunching ISPO.COM with a new focus on content management was merely the next logical step into the digital world for the leading sports trade fair.”
“This is exactly what modern content marketing is all about,” says Karsten Lohmeyer, Editorial Director of THE DIGITALE. “By introducing modern technology and journalistic content, within a matter of months we have managed to turn ISPO.COM into a medium that not only has a wide reach but that also allows us to achieve clearly defined results. Although this latter stage is often forgotten, it really is key if the aim of content marketing is measurable success.”
In January 2016, ISPO.COM received 439,000 visits and 1,184,000 page views. ISPO digital services, such as ISPO OPEN INNOVATION and ISPO COMMUNITY, are also helping with the widened coverage, offering, among other things, platforms for crowdsourcing projects.
“The best part is that we have even been able to maintain our excellent figures following the ISPO MUNICH event in January, which is when we usually see our highest visitor numbers,” says Gunnar Jans, Editor in Chief at ISPO.COM.
328,000 visits to the website and 867,000 page views in February—tallied up internally using the tool AT Internet—puts the figures well ahead of the previous year.
“It is still a little too early to celebrate just yet, but we can certainly already see that our content marketing concept is working,” says Tobias Gröber, ISPO Group Director. “As well as switching over to the ISPO services, we have also now managed to achieve higher revenues with native advertising and traditional advertising marketing. Plus, our exhibitors are reaping the benefits of a neutral information platform addressing a huge audience and reporting on their latest news. The next step for us is to learn and adapt so we can expand our reach accordingly in the B2B sector as well as B2C.”
Why not take a look for yourself at: www.ispo.com
