‘Look for businesses that are ripe for disruption’: A Slack town hall with Domino CEO Nathan Coyle
On Thursday, Domino CEO Nathan Coyle stopped by the Digiday+ Slack for our latest Slack town hall, which we hold every two weeks with change-making digital media and marketing executives.
Coyle, who’s led Domino for a little more than a year after a run as svp and gm at Refinery29, discussed why he’s focused more on Pinterest and Instagram than Facebook, what he thinks of Amazon and how he balances Domino’s pursuit of scale with its focus on collaborations with brands such as pop-up stores.
He also shared some news: Domino will soon launch a brand-licensing operation.
Below are excerpts from the conversation, lightly edited. Join Digiday+ to make sure you catch the next one.
Being small makes it easier to expand into new revenue areas
Being smaller allows us to be more nimble. It also allows us to really push the boundaries of brand elasticity. More established/legacy brands have a tougher time pursuing new businesses, as the audience doesn’t expect it. We are a young-enough brand that we can surprise and delight in many ways!
Pop-up stores aren’t just a gimmick
Pop-up stores check a lot of boxes: 1. Bring our brand into the real world where our readers and fans can experience Domino in real life, 2. Monetization through multifaceted brand partnerships, and 3. Grow our relationship with amazing makers of products whose merchandise we sell in [our] store.
Selling media and doing brand licensing at the same time is tricky
We look at categories [for brand licensing] that are not as big from an advertiser spending perspective. We look to get into business with the marketers who are also the biggest.
What Pinterest is best for
We’ve had real success sourcing visits (sessions) as well as data from Pinterest. This is driven by a couple of factors: One, our vertical (home, design, DIY) is super vibrant on Pinterest. Second, our strategy is totally different on Pinterest versus other platforms. It’s not all about growing followers — it’s about playing in the sandbox with (lots of) others.
If you’re a publisher dependent on Facebook, your focus has to be video
It all comes down to video on Facebook. For publishers with robust video programs (Vice, Buzzfeed, etc.) Facebook is key. But it is and will continue to be a cat-and-mouse game regarding who’s making what kind of money and how.
-
Publishers speak out on the state of the media business at the Digiday Publishing Summit
With the calendar flipping to spring, do publishers feel like the economic conditions are starting to thaw or do they expect the second quarter to be similarly frigid?
-
How Forbes and The Daily Beast are consolidating diverse revenue streams to create the highest value audience
Forbes and The Daily Beast have shed the silo-model when it comes to how their revenue teams operate.
-
How BuzzFeed’s Creator Score is grading the impact of its creator network
BuzzFeed's Creator Network is a primary focus in 2023 for the publisher, and its campaign grading tool is being used to prove out its ability to create successful ads.
-
SponsoredHow critical data pillars will increase brands’ confidence in CTV
Mario Diez, CEO, Peer39 With every quarter, the balance of TV viewership slips away from the traditional linear model and more towards connected TV. Less than half of the adults in the U.S. subscribe to cable or satellite, and fewer than half of the households watched linear TV daily in the second half of 2022. […]
-
In graphic detail: Google’s Ads Safety Report shows suspect ad activities are on the rise
Google's ad transparency efforts detail how bad actors necessitate further investment.
-
Media Briefing: Publishers share their biggest challenges and opportunities at the Digiday Publishing Summit
While Q1 ad revenue, sales cycles and payment windows appeared to be equally bad across the media industry, bright spots arose around consumer revenue streams, new tech experimentation and traffic patterns.
