Overview of this campaign

The way audiences consume video has changed dramatically—social platforms have trained users to expect fast, immersive, and interactive experiences. Traditional news videos lacked engagement and struggled to retain younger audiences, prompting VG to rethink the next-generation digital video product from the ground up.

 

VG set out to develop a new video format that was engaging, mobile-first, and interactive, bringing the best aspects of social video, live broadcasting, and journalism into one seamless experience. The key objectives were:

• Developed a scrollable vertical video player, mimicking the natural content consumption pattern of social media.

• Adopted a mobile-first production strategy, ensuring videos were formatted for optimal smartphone viewing.

• Experimented with new ad formats, balancing monetization with an uninterrupted user experience.

• Ensure content discovery was seamless, allowing users to scroll effortlessly through short-form news videos.

• Improve video retention and watch time, ensuring users consume more video per session.

• Create a scalable product, enabling other Schibsted Media brands to adopt the innovation?.

 

To achieve the longterm editorial ambition of an interactive, video experience the video team has been working iteratively on the “vertical video player” improvements throughout 2024, to redefine news video consumption. To meet the goal of an interactive U.S election, the team joined forces with the interact team - creating a product that offers:

 

• Real-time interaction features, enabling direct engagement between journalists and viewers.

• Revolutionize news video consumption by making it interactive and user-driven.

• Enhance audience engagement with real-time commenting, reactions, and direct journalist interaction.

 

VG created a video product that not only entertains but also informs and involves the audience in real-time journalism. With video consumption habits evolving, VG’s innovation has set a new benchmark for digital news video, proving that interactive video is the future of journalism.

Results for this campaign

The response to VG’s vertical video innovation has been overwhelmingly positive:

 

• In 2024 we’ve grown the daily user base by 400% in VG only

• The weekly video views have grown 500%. 

• And we’ve more than doubled engagement in the new player, comparing old and new video teasers’ click through rate from VG front page, and videos watched per session. 

• In 2024 we’ve scaled the product to all Schibsted Media brands, reinforcing its industry-wide impact?. 

• We've reached more than 10 Million users across Norway and Sweden (~16 Million inhabitants). 

 

The introduction of the live comments feature has been beyond successful. For the U.S election coverage we’ve:

• Reached an alltime high engagement of a single asset in the vertical player of 833K views during the U.S. election night live stream.

• Logged in 1200+ that participated in live discussions (1469 user comments on TikTok)

• We got 3,500+ real-time audience interactions via comments and questions, for the first time launch of the feature. 

• Reached a younger demographic with 50% of commenters under the age of 34 yo, proving that we successfully engage a demographic that VG normally struggles to engage with on our own brand site. 

 

This product is a blueprint for the future of news. It proves that digital media can be engaging, interactive, setting a new standard for innovation in journalism?. By merging high-quality journalism with interactive technology, VG has created a sustainable video product that scales across brands while ensuring continued audience engagement.

Contact

To contact a company representative about this campaign, click here for the INMA Member Directory