Sogemédia, a key player in regional weekly press with titles such as L’Observateur and La Voix de l’Ain, has chosen Axeptio to manage its online consent handling. This partnership marks a crucial step in the group’s digital transition strategy, as it seeks to improve data management while increasing revenue. The integration of Axeptio across the group’s 18 sites has already shown promising results, notably a significant rise in opt-in rates and reader engagement.
About Sogemédia
Sogemédia is a regional weekly press media group consisting of local press companies and subsidiaries. Sogemédia has about 20 titles and regional online newspapers with most located in Hauts-de-France. These sites range between 3 and 5 million monthly page views, among the most famous are L’Observateur, La Voix de l’Ain and La semaine des Pyrénées.
Jimmy Hautecloche is a project manager at the web agency Cross Media Consulting and has been commissioned by Sogemédia to serve as digital manager. He participates in managing Sogemédia’s digital transition strategy and is in charge of digital crosscutting issues related to artificial intelligence. Jimmy works closely with Franck Fyleyssant, who runs the digital advertisement department and manages website monetization at Sogemédia.
Choosing Axeptio in Early 2024
Sogemédia had an agreement with another press group that provided access to another CMP (Consent Management Platform) on the market. Upon the expiration of the agreement, Sogemédia’s teams consulted several consent management solution providers before choosing Axeptio because it best met their needs:
- The need for a provider with a solution that is technically simple to implement and use.
- Proximity and the need for support from Axeptio’s teams, as Sogemédia is a small buisness (SME) with a very specific corporate culture.
- A partner capable of supporting a local player like Sogemédia with dedicated support and a willingness to invest time in the success of its clients.
- A French company to ensure digital sovereignty.
- Data security through Axeptio’s trusted third party.
- Reasonable integration costs and overall budget, thanks to an offer that includes support and no surprises for additional features.
Migration from One CMP to Another
Switching from one CMP platform to another can be risky for a media publisher and impact their monetization. The implementation of the first CMP often leaves publishers with bad memories. Migration is therefore often seen as a major obstacle with significant stakes, especially regarding monetization.
“The migration from one CMP to another went smoothly and quickly thanks to the responsiveness of the Axeptio teams, without any negative impact on website monetization, especially since web performance is smoother with the use of the new CMP.” Franck Fyleyssant - head of digital advertising development at Sogemédia.
Partnership with Axeptio for Publishers
The ‘Axeptio for Publishers’ solution, launched in January 2024, offers an IAB TCF 2.2 certified CMP dedicated to digital publishers, media groups (press, radio, TV), retail media players, and any other company whose business model relies on advertising monetization.
The integration of TCF CMPs took place on 18 Sogemédia websites between February and late March 2024.
The CMPs were customized for each media site, with an example being La Voix de l’Ain.
“The artistic direction of Axeptio is highly appreciated, with very personalized design concepts that impressed us. The adaptability of the banner is a strong point,” explains Jimmy.
In case of a refusal to accept cookies, a deployment via Qiota technology offers an alternative for readers who wish to continue reading: informational inserts within articles invite visitors to subscribe.
“We also appreciated the ease of interfacing with Qiota, our solution for the paywall, without having to call on external providers or agencies to make connections between providers, which would increase the cost of each project.”
Although the Axeptio for Publisher solution works well for Sogemédia, Jimmy’s teams are still underutilizing its capabilities.
As a media group, Sogemédia has a whole project on audience advertising monetization and aims to achieve the highest consent rate. Eventually, Sogemédia plans to conduct A/B tests to fully utilize the platform’s capabilities, especially on consent banner messages with scenarios for displaying and redisplaying the consent banner based on the user’s journey.
Indeed, it is possible to offer innovative approaches on cookie banners to test their impact on readers’ consent and opt-in rates. Thus, discussions are underway with the teams to suggest messages based on humor, like the Bonhomme Picard and its humorous messages that already appeal to audiences.
The Sogemédia-Axeptio partnership also includes advertising to promote Axeptio’s B2C solution called Taste. Taste is a Chrome extension that replaces cookie banners; it consents on behalf of the reader in one go. User privacy is thus guaranteed through automated granular consent.
Results
Sogemédia immediately saw results, notably a 25-point increase in the opt-in rate on freemium websites’ traffic, impacting monetization. The freemium websites were launched six months ago. They are indeed part of a broader policy and strategy, but the integration of the Axeptio CMP played a role in converting new subscribers.
When we compare the page view numbers for Sogemédia group websites before and after the Axeptio CMP integration, which took effect on April 1, 2024, we observe the following:
- An average increase of 30 points in reader interaction rates on banners.
- An average increase of 27 points in the opt-in rate (average of 18 sites).
- This level has been maintained and remains stable throughout Q2 2024.
