Publishing platform Pugpig was Best Media Technology Partner at AOP’s Digital Publishing Awards for 2024.
It was described as the best in class for delivering scalable solutions, impressive partnerships, and close publisher relationships.
The long-established annual awards ceremony, which was held in London last week, honours the digital publishing industry’s top talent, and the Pugpig team was said to be over the moon to be amongst this year’s 27 winners.
The Best Media Technology Partner award aims to champion the best partners working closely with publishers to evolve solutions to the sector’s challenges.
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The team of 31 industry expert judges looked for entries that could demonstrate an effective contribution to the business of their online publisher clients. Judges were after evidence of a real impact on business efficiency and bottom line.
Pugpig’s entry focused on the key role mobile apps play for publishers – from driving up reader revenue and cultivating direct relationships with readers to building habit and retaining their most loyal audience.
Jonny Kaldor, CEO of Pugpig said: “Bloody hell, we did it!
“I’m so happy for every single member of team Pugpig – they put their heart and soul into their job, day after day and this is the result – just fantastic!
“Huge thanks to our amazing publishers who make our product the best on the market – we couldn’t do any of this without the close partnerships that we enjoy with so many great brands and teams.”
Pugpig’s award-winning submission to the PPA
Elevator pitch
“Pugpig is the UK’s leading mobile publishing platform powering over 380 media brands and allowing publishers to launch deeply engaging mobile apps that significantly drive up reader revenue and retention.
“As ad revenue continues to be challenged and first party data becomes increasingly important, cultivating direct relationships with readers and focusing on reader revenue are the number one priority for publishers.
“This is where Pugpig apps come in: we provide the most beautiful and effective way to engage publishers’ most valuable audience, to build habit and to retain them for as long as possible.”
How it is working in practice
“Nine of the UK’s top 15 publishers – Reach, Newsquest, Future, NewsUK, Conde, Hearst, MNA, NationalWorld, and DC Thomson – representing 865 brands, are powered by Pugpig.
“Across these, we deliver unparalleled engagement of 48 monthly sessions per user and an average session duration of over 25m amongst the top-performing apps.
“Pugpig apps offer many ways to engage readers – articles, audio, video, puzzles, podcasts, community and more. For example, The Scotsman subscribers spend 52m per session in puzzles.
“We work with a broad spectrum of publishers from independents to national dailies, working closely with them to enhance and extend our platform to suit their needs:
“Our work with The Independent centred around enhancing their in-app video and premium content offering to retain their most loyal readers – we built a custom video player just for them.
“We worked with The Scotsman to rethink their mobile offering, building a high quality paid product for their most valuable subscribers also helping them strengthen their DTC relationship and drive up ARPU.
“New Scientist wanted to bring audio front and centre to their mobile apps so we designed an exciting new way to listen to their weekly edition in-app. 85% of readers say it played a part in their subscription renewal. “
Pugpig gets results
“We’re small but we punch above our weight and we’re growing. Over 80 brands joined our platform in 2023.
“We make publishers happy – over the past year we’ve received an average NPS score of 8.2
“Our most engaged readers spend, on average, 20 mins each session, 20 times a month consuming a mix of articles, puzzles, videos and audio, advertising, podcasts and more.”
Pugpig publisher highlights
The Scotsman saw 15% increase in returning users since relaunching their app to be a feature-rich, premium subscriber experience, while average engagement time increased by 27m per user per session.
The Spectator significantly reduced their tech spend and editorial effort, enabling them to focus resources on other key areas of the business while improving app performance.
New Scientists saw a 65% increase in subscription renewals since harnessing the power of audio and video in their app.
Pugpig publisher testimonials
Katie Vanneck-Smith, CEO, Hearst UK: “Pugpig are an excellent partner – they are a true extension to our team. They act as our CTO and trusted advisor on all things tech and beyond.”
Kate Bird, VP, Global Consumer Revenue, Conde Nast (now Marketing Director EMA, Snap Inc.): “I have complete confidence in Pugpig’s ability to deliver – there is no project too small or too big! I love their experimental nature, can do attitude, and just having them around as a sounding board. We have accomplished a huge amount for our customers with their help.”
Zach Leonard, Chief Executive, Independent Digital News & Media: “We’ve worked with Pugpig as a core app development partner since going digital-only in 2016. Their multi-platform, SaaS approach has helped us to efficiently achieve our commercial goals to deliver Independent journalism globally, and drive subscriptions in user friendly, reliable mobile products.”
Sam Forrest, Director of Digital Product, National World: “As ever, the team at Pugpig worked at a breakneck pace to ensure we could hit the date required. We’re working together on new features and upcoming launches and their expertise, enthusiasm and unflappable demeanour continues to give us the confidence that we have grown accustomed to.”
Zack Christenson, Editor, The Spectator: “Pugpig turns something that should be extremely complicated (building a high quality app) into something that’s extremely simple, and does it for a tenth of the cost.”
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