Background:
The highly-anticipated 2020 elections were approaching and Nielsen needed a central place to direct reporters.
Every election season, starting with the Democratic and Republican Conventions, Nielsen posts media advisories that share the estimated overnight viewership numbers, and reporters inundate the small team with requests for the current and historical data. This past year, given the social discord across the country and the social justice movement, I predicted that not only would the demand be higher, but we would also need to find a way to incorporate multicultural data and stories.
Headwinds:
Unlike most of our content, this page would require a consumer-focused viewpoint.
Given the tension around this election, we needed to convince stakeholders to trust us with the messaging and positioning of facts with our diversity, equity, and inclusion stories.
Due to the aforementioned tension, we were limited in the types of promotion we could do.
Tasks
Create a one-stop-shop for reporters
Reduce the crippling burden of pulling time-sensitive viewership data for reporters during election season.
Tell the election and multicultural stories without bias
Demonstrate the power of multicultural viewers and voters, encourage equity in reporting, and avoid political sand traps.
Expand the conversation beyond viewership event data
Demonstrate the breadth of insights available and highlight several of our related solutions.
Approach
Create a one-stop-shop: I created a fully dynamic page, the 2020 Election Hub, to compile all of our relevant election data and media releases. It launched with the historical data, as well as interactive charts. I spotlighted each election event at the top of the page and provided a summary with historical context. We trained reporters to use the site and, as the user base grew, we gained stakeholder confidence. By late September, we were able to add additional multicultural research and insights.
Partner with the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion teams: I worked with our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) teams to evaluate and share available multicultural data. I coached the team on content development that would meet their diversity objectives and address questions coming from their industry partners. Through this partnership, we were able to build a robust story centered around voter demographics, as well as create consumer-friendly content that we could promote across our DEI channels.
Start Small to Build Big: Given the short election cycle time frame, we needed to build SEO power quickly on topics beyond election viewership data. Typically, we would create multiple pieces of long-form content that we could promote across channels. However, at the beginning of the election cycle we didn’t have enough data to tell a complete story. Instead, we started by embedding mini stories into the page, which typically featured 1 - 2 paragraphs and a chart. As time went on, more data and research became available, enabling us to create more stories and link them back to this page. During the election cycle I worked closely with the SEO team on the election page, solutions pages, and associated articles to improve our ranking. We met regularly to make updates to pages and keep track of best practices.
Results
Results from Q3 2020 - Q3 2021
#2 page in the Insight section
26k page views
4% of all web traffic to article pages
Average time spent on page: 5 minutes and 29 seconds
5% of traffic went on to explore other relevant insights or solutions
240+ Earned Media Coverage in Q3
Increased blended rank and search engine volume for 5 keywords
Content Blocks
Screenshot A
This is a screenshot of the spotlight section at the top of the page. This section featured the latest viewership ratings, which linked back to the simultaneously published media advisory. The interactive charts were updated in real time using Infogram. Below the spotlight section, reporters could see a “smart list” which placed all the media advisories tagged “political”.
Screenshot B
This section housed all of our mini stories, which were embedded into the page using an accordion feature. When a visitor clicked on the grey bar, it would expand to show several paragraphs and a corresponding chart. As more content became available, we added buttons to related articles.
Not Pictured: Historical Election Event Ratings
This section housed the viewership data for any election event that was not currently being spotlighted. We used a tab function that allowed users to toggle back and forth across events.
Screenshot A
Screenshot B
