CBS Local Buys Eventful (Updated)
Event listing sites were once seen as a leading hub for local media, and a great generator of user generated content and social media. It isn’t clear that they’ve fully caught on in these ways, but they remain strong promotional assets; sell lots of event tickets; and they also bring in related advertising.
CBS Local — which supports CBS Local Radio and TV stations — obviously sees their value. Today, it announced it is acquiring Eventful, one of the leading listings sites – and one that has evolved over the years to become a major social media player for local entertainment, and for entertainment services and lifestyle brands targeting local users (i.e. TV shows, movies, music, games, liquor and even politicians.) CBS Local has been an Eventful customer for some time.
Recently, for instance, Eventful created a competition among cities to host a preview of the new “Sleepy Hollow” episode. The campaign got 30,000 participants, 18 million social impressions, one million trailer views and 35 million digital media impressions. Thirty-one percent of the participants shared their voting on Facebook and Twitter.
Such efforts illustrate Eventful’s ambition to become “a behavioral targeting engine involving e-mail marketing and other personalized outbound promotions.” The company has been sending out over 100 million emails a month.
“The local targeting capability of the Internet and direct e-mail marketing services like Eventful helps agencies appreciate the benefits of local focus,” CEO Jordan Glazier told BIA/Kelsey a couple of years ago. “They are increasingly including local as a requirement within their buys.” Under the new regime, Glazier becomes SVP of Digital Strategies.
Will CBS Local focus on Eventful’s newer entertainment promotion areas or its listings activities? CBS Local President Ezra Kucharz told us that it is definitely planning to continue both of these efforts. They will complement CBS’ strong audio streaming and video streaming. But he indicated that Eventful’s core business of listings probably remains front and center. In particular, CBS continues to focus on personalizing its user experiences.
Eventful CEO Jordan Glazier and founder Brian Dear