During the ?How Mobile Became the Largest Digital Platform for the World?s Leading Magazine Publisher? session, the executive discussed the company?s trek towards mobile over the past couple years, which has served it well, placing Time Inc. in the number ten spot in media in comScore?s Multiplatform Report from November 2014. As well as optimizing its content for the mobile channel, Time Inc. has had to take several steps to make sure its advertising capabilities stand up to the reputation of its editorial content.

Two in every five Americans are viewing its sites on mobile devices in the United States, leading the brand to not only optimize its content but also its ad capabilities to continue to drive revenue. 

To accomplish this, the media brand focused its partnerships with advertisers less on ?baby banners,? otherwise known as 300-by-50 pixel static banners, and instead invested in developing unique ad solutions that offered advertisers enhanced performance on the mobile platform.

One example of Time Inc.?s ad solutions is the ?InStream Unit,? a rich media that sits within the content, aiming to allow advertisers to bypass click-throughs and take the user straight to engagement, while also providing a larger canvas for the advertiser to create engaging ad experiences.

Time Inc. also has invested in building cross-screen ad solutions that aim to help advertisers adapt engaging desktop creative to be as equally effective on mobile. Two examples include Pepsi?s Naked Juices campaign, and FOX?s Gotham campaign, which delivered an 800 percent increase in engagement in comparison to typical Time Inc. desktop-only benchmarks.

People and Entertainment Weekly magazines hosted mobile-centric video ads to promote Fox?s TV show Gotham on a couple of Time, Inc., Web sites, including Ew.com and People.com, and saw a lift in engagement 8 times higher than traditional desktop campaigns.

The campaign also ran for three days during annual event Comic-Con and utilized advertising platform Celtra to create the rich media experience, which bypassed the iOS native player and auto-streamed the video in-line with editorial content. Serving as less of a disruption than typical redirecting video ads, the campaign video garnered 5 million plays and more than 300,000 minutes of consumption (see story).

The media brand is also using audience data to increase engagement by trying to deliver the right ads to the right user at the right time. By matching its audience data with social networks, third-party apps and sites, Time Inc. is delivering sponsored content experiences to its audiences outside the environments of its own sites. 

An example is Nestle?s Outshine campaign. 

Time Inc. and Nestle created a unit containing both Nestle brand messaging and Real Simple content and delivered the ad to Real Simple?s audiences even as they visited sites and apps beyond Real Simple?s own site.

Time Inc. has also seen success from native advertising on the mobile platform. Its clients that have run native ads with Time Inc. have experienced an increase in click-through rates, compared to standard Time Inc. banners, 600 days worth of time spent in the past nine months, and 25 percent of users exposed to native content taking social action. 

Mr. Masch mentioned the ?side door society? and claims that the majority of its side door traffic comes in via mobile-first platforms, including mainstream social networks.

Mr. Masch has also spoken about how the publisher uses third-party data and what is trending on social media for more targeted editorial and advertising experiences at the Mobile Shopping Summit 2014 in Litchfield Park, Arizona.

Creating targeted experiences on mobile is a challenge for many marketers because of the lack of cookies on mobile. Time Inc. is addressing the challenge by matching its own user database against social media user databases, leveraging third-party insights to pinpoint mobile users and then layering in social media data (see story).

Among the media brand's move to Web responsive design for its publisher sites, Sports Illustrated's new SI.com site is one to note as Time, Inc., aimed to keep users coming back. 

Upon the release of the revamped site, plans for the future may entail a mobile application, executives said in June.

Featuring clutter-free information, a focus on graphics and social connectivity, the new SI.com places information that is popular with mobile users, such as scores, front and center for quick and easy consumption. Sports Illustrated?s directors also completely revamped the editorial channel to enable a fluid experience for the consumer (see story).

Time, Inc., does not plan to slow down with digital innovation given its success thus far.