9 spots left to attend the Digiday Programmatic Marketing Summit
This is View from the Top, a new video series from Digiday where we sit down with leaders and pioneers at brands, agencies and publishers to find out how they’re adapting to the modernization of media and marketing.
When Philippe von Borries and his co-founder Justin Stefano started Refinery29 in 2005, they didn’t have Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to build an audience for their budding city guide to fashion and culture. Instead they went door-to-door and introduced themselves to retailers and anyone who’d sign up for their newsletter.
Von Borries said, “We stepped into a space that was digital media [and] actually the fruit wasn’t fully ripe yet.” Now nearly a decade later, Refinery29 is not only a leader in fashion content but also stepping into national news (they recently interviewed Hilary Clinton), creating videos on hot button issues (they just launched a video series with Planned Parenthood and musician Jack Antonoff), all while putting on live events that trend on social media.
Von Borries talked to Digiday about building Refinery29 from scratch. “I would by no stretch of the imagination have foreseen where we are today,” he said.
More in Media
The Rundown: The potential browser buyers if Google’s forced to sell Chrome
Antitrust trial witnesses from OpenAI, Perplexity, DuckDuckGo and Yahoo testified about buying Chrome if a judge forces a sale.
As AI lawsuits mount, publishers still struggle to block the bots
Ziff Davis is the latest media company to sue OpenAI over copyright infringement, but the lawsuit highlights a broader reality: Publishers still have no reliable way to stop AI companies from scraping their content.
TikTok touts livestreaming as next big revenue stream for creators and agencies
Through private Discord servers and Zoom webinars, TikTok’s livestreaming push is educating creators about live gifting on TikTok Live.