Old media wants to learn from new media. In that vein, Publishers Clearing House Digital, the digital arm of the marketing sweepstakes company, has hired a new chief marketing officer away from e-commerce firm Gilt Groupe.
PCH doesn’t want to be a victim of digital disruption, so the sweepstakes marketing company is spreading out into the digital realm with new mobile apps and games. To that end, it has added Jason John, former vice president of marketing and strategy at Gilt Groupe, to its executive team at PCH Digital, a subsidiary of the larger company. It’s another sign of a new focus on digital marketing.
Above: PCH
Many in the U.S. knows the Publishers Clearing House Brand as the marketing company that sponsors sweepstakes with a huge grand prize of $7,000 per week for the life of the winner. The company has given out more than $250 million to date. It gives out a prize every five to 10 minutes on its network, and one six-week contest earlier this year drew 123 million entries. Its main business is to offer consumers magazine subscriptions and other items. That’s the legacy business, and now the company wants to do more to develop its future businesses in mobile and games.
The challenge is that PCH wants to be a disruptor, not the disruptee. Publishers Clearing House governs its approach to extending into mobile by focusing on what it is good at. It is, for instance, combining digital social casino games with some kind of sweepstakes activity. That is similar to how rival Real Networks moved to improve engagement by combining sweepstakes with its social casino games last year.
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Earlier this year, the company hired Mark Cullinane, previously a corporate development executive at casual game company GSN, as vice president and general manager of PCH’s digital team. Part of his job is to expand into new digital businesses such as games.
And that’s what the hiring of John is all about. The division wants to turn itself into a leading media and entertainment network, Cullinane said in an interview with VentureBeat.
“Jason is going to be a nice fit,” Cullinane said. “For us, this is a brand new role. We have known Jason for years, and he is very plugged in. We wanted someone with experience in a digital pure-play business.”
PCH started in 1953 selling magazine subscriptions, and the sweepstakes came along in the 1960s. The brand today is associated with the chance for a big win and a life-changing event.
The digital businesses are contributing a considerable percentage of revenues these days, and it is the focus of the company’s marketing efforts. PCH spends about $65 million in paid advertising per year, including $35 million in digital and $30 million in TV ads. PCH will operate its legacy business as long as it can.
PCH gets a massive amount of traffic from its contests. It has millions of people interacting with its brand every day, but PCH wants more share of everybody’s day.
That’s what attracted John.
“The complexities of this business are great, with multiple properties and multiple channels,” John said in an interview.
PCH has already grown a big digital business. The company has 550 employees, mostly in New York. It acquired the Liquid Wireless performance advertising group in Portland, Me. Liquid Wireless has teamed up with the App Tap app discovery and advertising platform to deliver the right apps to the right users at the right time.
Online, PCH has 16 million monthly unique users. PCH already has some of the most visited gaming sites online, which are part of the Play & Win Studio. The Play & Win Studio is part of the PCH Digital network of sites and includes PCH.com, PCHgames.com, PCHlotto.com, PCHslots.com, PCHblackjack.com, PCHbingo.com andCandystand.com.
