Verizon Media Group, which includes Yahoo, HuffPost, TechCrunch and Engadget among its portfolio of brands, has increased its commerce revenues by more than 250% year-on-year to November.

That is according to Joanna Lambert, the company’s head of consumer revenue, who told Digiday that, while content remains a core element of its commerce revenue strategy, it is product-level integrations that drive most of the deals.

“We’ve been able to be a powerful partner to the retail, grocery and lifestyle categories,” she said. “When we looked at this 12 months ago, we were looking at an aggressive strategy to build on the strengths we have.”

For example, for the second year running, Walmart and Verizon Media worked on a campaign called 30 Days of Savings, which featured content produced across titles including Yahoo Life, In the Know, HuffPost and TechCrunch, as well as early access to sale discounts on hundreds of products.

And according to Lambert, the campaign last year delivered 12 times more revenue than anticipated, while this year’s campaign – itself just a few days old – is already generating revenue five times higher than it was last year.

COVID-19 and the restrictions that have had to be introduced to combat the virus have also played their part in driving up Verizon’s commerce revenue, largely because so many more people are interacting and shopping online.

“The trend to online shopping has changed virtually overnight, and we’re seeing different types of customers who weren’t as comfortable [now transacting],” Lambert said. “That’s where we’re seeing strength.”

Its partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon, for example, meant the company benefitted from an extended holiday shopping season kicked off by Amazon Prime Day in October. In short, more online activity meant more interactions with Verizon’s brands.

Sourced from Digiday