At the end of March, Reach kicked off its Behind the Scenes event in Cardiff, opening its doors to a diverse array of businesses at the Wales Online office.
The two-day event drew over 70 attendees from various industries, who participated in six sessions aimed at providing insights into the digital advancements unfolding at Wales Online and Reach.
Lisa Cameron, our Commercial Director for Regionals, set the stage by offering a comprehensive overview of Reach — its brands, core values, and journey so far. This was followed by an inspirational session from David James, Audience and Content Director – Media Wales and Chiara Rinaldi, Senior Editor (Customer) – Media Wales. David took us through the heritage of Wales Online and its evolution into a contemporary digital news brand known for representing its communities in Wales. Chiara explained how we gather data insights from our readers, what captures their attention and how it all plays a part in the subject line-picking process for the articles.
Behind The Scenes event speakers
The conversation then shifted towards our unique hyper-local news platform. Darren Evans, Head of Commercial for InYourArea, demonstrated how InYourArea empowers businesses to maintain a local focus but operate on a national scale.
We then held a panel discussion to allow our guests time to ask any questions. Guy Keeble, our Business Development Director, led a panel featuring Lisa Cameron, David James and Chiara Rinaldi. They discussed some of the challenges businesses and our own operations are currently grappling with.
The latter half of the session highlighted our AI-led technology and how we use it in digital marketing. Cian Slattery, our Client Analyst & Trading Desk Lead, outlined how Reach has harnessed advanced targeting technology and AI through Mantis, our proprietary contextual and brand safety tool. Natalie Toulson, Head of Digital for Regionals, further illustrated this by sharing client testimonials and campaign successes that spoke to the benefits they experienced from this approach in their own marketing initiatives.
Post-session, attendees were given an opportunity to engage in networking activities and to ask our panel of speakers any questions they might still have.
Attendees left with valubale insights and interestig behind the scenes curiosities, with Lauren Williams, Communications Officer at United Welsh commenting: “It was great to hear more about InYourArea, Reach Solutions’ leading app for hyper-local news, and how it can be used to connect our communities with relevant news and stories. I also enjoyed the panel session with David James, Audience and Content Director, and Chiara Rinaldi, Senior Editor.”
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