Here is a transcript generated by otter.ai of The Content Mix podcast interview with Zinio’s Stefania Trinchero on print media in the digital age and how to make personalized content:

Carlota Pico 0:14
Hi everyone, I’m Carlota Pico from The Content Mix, and I’m excited to be here today with Stefania Trinchero, who is Zinio’s global content marketing manager and has over eight years of experience in marketing and communications. Welcome, Stefania, and thank you so much for joining us today.

Stefania Trinchero 0:32
Hi Carlota, thank you. Thank you for having me, really. I’m very excited to be here and hopefully to share some insights about my experience and how I’ve been working on content mainly, and socials as well, over the past 8–10 years.

Carlota Pico 0:50
Wonderful. Well we’re very excited to hear about your experience and learn from your insights. So let’s jump right into the interview. To start the interview off, could you tell me a little bit about your background and a bit about your company as well, please?

Stefania Trinchero 1:04
Yeah, sure. So like you said, I’m working at Zinio, which is the first and largest digital newsstand. So a platform where we sell and distribute over 7,000 magazines from all over the world. So you can really find anything, from T3, The Economist, BBC Good Food, Vogue Japan, or anything really. I have a publishing background. I started ages ago, I started many years ago at Hearst Magazines Italy, first with the role of brand management for Cosmopolitan Italy. Then moving on to a weekly magazine and then into the project management kind of things in the advertising department. I now work at Zinio as, like I said, global content marketing manager, CRM and mobile. And here I manage digital and mobile marketing initiatives. And my responsibilities really spawn from creating automated customer lifecycle programs, delivered through a variety of touch points, mainly email, push notification and in-house messages, to discovering the most engaging content across the 6,000 publications that I was mentioning before, to increase customer engagements. And I also own and manage the relationship between Zinio and our partners. So for example, Amazon, isubscribe, but also UK publishers, in order to discover the most relevant content at the right time for our marketing campaigns. So really, it’s a very varied role that really touches on three main areas: CRM, mobile, and content.

Carlota Pico 3:18
Fascinating. In my previous role, I used to be part of the publication industry as well, the media industry. And on a personal note, I’m a big fan of Zinio, and I am an active user as well and constantly reading digital magazines, across my different platforms like mobile and my desktop, etc. So congrats on your work, congrats on your platform, it’s absolutely outstanding. And I can’t wait to learn more about your content marketing strategy as we move further into the interview. Since you’re managing Zinio’s operations in 33 markets worldwide, and as a content marketing manager, could you talk to me a little bit about the challenges and opportunities of working in marketing in Europe, and how that compares to working in marketing worldwide, apart from Europe?

Stefania Trinchero 4:08
Yeah, sure. I would say that over the past 10 years, not just at Zinio, but also in the past, I really had the opportunity of developing an international career, having worked myself first in Italy where I’m from, then in Spain, then back to Italy, and then in the UK. And I’ve also always had the opportunity of working in companies operating on global markets. So not just in Europe, but also North America, Latin America, Asia, South Africa, Australia, really many markets. And like I said, Zinio operates in 33 countries. So I really have a global overview of the markets. And all these experiences, and especially the one at Zinio, really gave me a great understanding of differences between these main big regions, and also, you know, each country and region’s peculiarities. You can really, you know, draw comparisons between certain types of markets within Europe. But also I found out that in publishing for example, there you can really draw a comparison between very far markets, say, for example, Australia is really comparable to the UK sometimes in terms of its size, but also the type of customers. So really having a global overview really was helpful from a professional standpoint to have, you know, to understand how you can use these differences, not just in terms of markets and customers, but also in terms of culture. And then I believe that, you know, understanding cultural differences and translating them into marketing opportunities and campaigns that work is the most fascinating part of my job, really.

Carlota Pico 6:12
I couldn’t agree more. I’m all about culture, I also have a very… my experience is very much international. I’ve worked across different markets, not only in Europe, but also in the US, across Asia, across Latin America, etc. And I think the most valuable thing that I offer is that cultural awareness, that cultural sensibility as well, sensitivity. And when it comes to marketing, if you don’t know how to communicate with your customer, you’re not going to attract the right customer.

Stefania Trinchero 6:44
Absolutely.

Carlota Pico 6:44
And it’s so important to localize that content, to adapt your strategy per culture, per market, because although for example, I’m from Spain, but although in Spain and Latin America we speak the same language, it doesn’t mean that we’re the same audience. Everything has to be adapted. Because if not, the strategy is just not going to work. What do you think about that, when it comes to Zinio, how do you adapt your content? How do you adapt your publications to the different markets? Because obviously, you’re offering publications, local publications to a global audience. So how does that work?

Stefania Trinchero 7:19
Yeah. So we really have, in terms of the campaigns that we run, we really have global campaigns, so themes and topics that we can really apply, and maybe just tweak a bit, but on a global scale. And then we work on a regional level. So we really go and see what’s happening in this region, and what type of customers, what’s their age, their sex, you know, all the characteristics really, of the customers we’re working with, that are different. The example you just used about Spain and South America is something we really see. For us, Spain and South America, Latin America in general, are very important markets. But we’ve seen that it’s not just localizing content in Spanish, like you just said, but it’s also, you know, working on seasonality that’s different from one region to the other—festivities, for example. So remembering that a specific festivity is valid in Spain, but it’s not in, say, for example, Mexico. So it really is not just translating or localizing content, but also understanding the peculiarities of each and every market.

Carlota Pico 8:39
Definitely. Because you do work in the world’s first digital newsstand, how has the rise of user-generated content impacted your business?

Stefania Trinchero 8:51
Yeah, so in terms of user-generated content, Zinio really, like I was mentioning before, sells and distributes content published by publishers. So it’s not content published by us, but we redistribute content published by Condé Nast, Hearst, BBC, The Economist and many other publishers. We have, I believe, in the UK, 52 publishers we work with. So it’s not our own content. But because of this, the relationship with publishers is very important. And being able to secure the right content at the right time, with the approval of the publisher we work with is very important. In terms of user-generated content, obviously we’ve seen this on other platforms, and in terms of our competitors what they’re doing. But for us, the rise of user-generated content has meant especially personalization. So being able to deliver the right content for a specific customer at a specific time. And this is something we’ve seen, especially now with the global pandemic and with COVID-19. So being able to produce personalized content and, you know, tweaking our content mix depending on the type of user, and the way they use and create their own content has been very important.

Carlota Pico 10:19
Well, as I mentioned before, I used to be part of the media industry as well. And there was a point in time where I was also in advertising. And when it came to advertising in print publications, many of the advertisers said, well, print is dead. There is no more print publications. And all of a sudden, Zinio took it, and digitalized print publications, so that it gave access to a worldwide audience and publications such as El Mundo in Spain or the Washington Post in the US, etc. could reach the hands of millions of users worldwide in a digital way. When it comes to that, what would you say to advertisers? What would you say about the impact that digitalization has had on the media industry, on the publication industry? And especially taking into account coronavirus and the current pandemic? Have you seen a rise of users using your platform?

Stefania Trinchero 11:23
Yeah, so starting with your, I would say, provocative thought about “print is dead,” because being in publishing for a long time, this is an ongoing conversation about “print is dead,” “oh no actually it’s not dead,” and myself as well, I started on print. So just on a print magazine, and now I’m working on digital only. So I also have seen this shift, whereas I have to say some brands really are not struggling on print, and some had to close. So really, it depends on the brand and on the strength of the brand. In terms of what you asked about the impact of the current pandemic on, you know, the interest towards digital content. We know that all online activities have had a great impact and a great boost caused by the current pandemic because obviously, people have been spending more time at home. And you know, they have relied on online platform to discover, to buy… for the purchases, but also to discover new things. So being Zinio a digital newsstand, we have seen a renewed interest in digital content to be read across different devices. We’ve also seen that the time and the way in which people consume our content has changed, because, you know, people have been reading our magazines, a certain type, you know, during a certain time during the day, but now this time has changed. So this has meant for me and for my marketing team, for my team, really rethinking some of our campaigns, simply the times of our communication. So should we send an email or a push notification at this time, or maybe customers will respond better if we send them at another time. And also tweaking really the content mix to respond to this new time that people have in their hands and their interest for digital magazines.

Carlota Pico 13:37
Could you give me an example of what your marketing strategy looked like before coronavirus, and what it looks like now, during the pandemic?

Stefania Trinchero 13:45
Yeah, sure. So I would say that my marketing goals for 2020, as before, really focus on driving subscriber growth by designing the strategy that’s centered on the customer, on the reader, and is applicable on several markets. So we really, in terms of KPIs, we really measure our efforts based on reach and engagement, I mean for our communications. What I was mentioning before about tweaking the content mix is that for example, I’m going to give you an example, we have seen that, especially after three or four weeks after this pandemic started, people were more interested and responded better, and better than before, to certain types of stories. For example, stories focused on positive news, well-being, exercising, mindfulness. So anything that’s positive compared to the sad news that they were reading. So people, I believe that in the first weeks, people were just reading news constantly, and like trying to understand what was happening in the world. So we had this on Zinio as well, so a lot of news-focused publication, politics-focused publication being read and asked and bought. But then people kind of shifted their interest into something more light. And so we really saw that there was a better response on this type of topics, sent through, you know, emails, push notification, and then purchase of magazines focusing on this type of content. So we had to change the type of communication we were sending, the time of communication, the segmenting, the targeting. And that was really interesting to see.

Carlota Pico 15:46
That’s so interesting. That’s so interesting. I’d love to talk about that more. But unfortunately, our time is limited during this interview, so we’ll have to continue this conversation after the interview as well. As content marketing manager, I do want to talk a bit about your content marketing strategies. Apart from email and push notifications, I’ve seen that you also have a mailing list. What other content marketing strategies do you use to attract new customers to your website, for example, are you leading a blog?

Stefania Trinchero 16:16
So we don’t have a blog. We do send communication via email on a daily basis, sometimes multiple times per day, depending on the market, obviously. In terms of the content-focused type of campaigns, what we do is sending a content-only email. So it’s sort of a digest, a sort of briefing, where we select articles from our publications and relevant content depending on the type of customers we want to target.

Carlota Pico 16:50
So like highlights, right?

Stefania Trinchero 16:52
Exactly, so if you express an interest for fashion, beauty and politics, then you’re going to receive a digest personalized, again, so made starting from your interests, and focusing on these categories and publications.

Carlota Pico 17:10
Interesting, but it’s not… So the language that these notifications go out in is in English always, but then it’s personalized content, according to their interest. Is that correct?

Stefania Trinchero 17:21
Exactly. That’s correct. But also, if you are reading on a Spanish newsstand, on a French, Italian, Chinese, then you’re gonna receive that communication in that specific language. So the language you use the app with, if it’s Spanish, then you’re gonna receive it in Spanish. Obviously, if it’s linked to an Italian magazine, sorry, in an English magazine, then you’re gonna read it in English, read the magazine itself in English, but the whole layout of the communication is going to be in your native language.

Carlota Pico 17:53
Okay, and you’re doing that several times a week.

Stefania Trinchero 17:58
Yes. So this is going at the moment twice a week. So sometimes we’re trying to, you know, increase the frequency depending on the topics and what’s happening in the world. So, you know, there’s news that are a bit more huge and to be sent or so forth. We really tweak our communication plans on a weekly basis as well.

Carlota Pico 18:19
That seems like a lot to manage. Are you currently relying on any external help? Or are you doing everything in-house?

Stefania Trinchero 18:27
We are doing everything in-house at the moment, sometimes we outsource, you know, designing work, or some type of translation and localization for some markets. But the team is quite big, both, well in London it’s quite small. But then in New York, San Francisco and Barcelona it’s quite big, so we kind of manage internally.

Carlota Pico 18:56
Excellent. Well, we are moving towards the end of the interview. I would love to ask you about your social media networks, but I don’t know if that’s handled by one of your colleagues, or if you also take care of social media?

Stefania Trinchero 19:08
No, I don’t take care of social media, I work with the department and the people managing our social channels. But it’s not my…

Carlota Pico 19:17
…area of expertise. Okay, well then let’s move into the rapid-fire questions. And we’ll leave social media networks, hopefully for an interview later on with one of your colleagues.

Stefania Trinchero 19:27
Absolutely.

Carlota Pico 19:29
Let’s talk about your recommendations.

Stefania Trinchero 19:31
Yeah.

Carlota Pico 19:32
Let’s talk about a lesser-known app or tool that you can’t live without, or that you can’t work without?

Stefania Trinchero 19:39
Okay. So this is quite difficult because it’s hard for me to think of a lesser-known app, because I feel like I’m using all the main mainstream ones, Monday or Trello or Slack. I would say despite operating on a digital-only environment, I still rely a lot on pen and paper, which is something that I find really helpful, especially when I have to take notes in meetings, when I have to, you know, during creative brief. So it really helps me, like having things written down really helps me remembering and being more creative as well. That’s it really. I also use, this is a bit off topic, but I also use a daily meditation app, sometimes to disconnect from work for as little as five minutes. I think it really complements, you know, the hustle and bustle of working in a digital space.

Carlota Pico 20:46
Wonderful. I’ll have to use one of those apps as well to help me disconnect from work, which is sometimes very hard to do. Although, when one loves what they’re doing, it’s always like the best situation that one can be in.

Stefania Trinchero 21:02
Yeah, sure. I agree.

Carlota Pico 21:06
What about a marketing influencer in Europe that you follow?

Stefania Trinchero 21:10
Yeah, so I don’t know if calling him a marketing influencer would do enough justice to him, but I am a big fan of Seth Godin. So I’ve been reading his books, I’ve been watching his TED Talks, I receive his daily newsletter. So it’s something I read on a daily basis. I read his blog. So I really like his approach to marketing in general. And I found it very, sometimes very simple way of seeing things, simply in terms of very straightforward and very easy to apply. So sometimes, I’ve really tried to apply his teachings, if you want, to my marketing challenges.

Carlota Pico 21:56
Okay, wonderful. And to finish up the interview, my last question would be a valuable European industry group, association or event that you continuously attend or participate in, and why?

Stefania Trinchero 22:12
Yeah. Like I said before, I have a very long experience in publishing. So I think when answering this question, I’m thinking of, you know, publishing groups and associations. So one worth mentioning in the UK is the PPA. So the Professional Publishers Association, and it really is for me, my go-to place whenever I need, you know, resources, but also attending webinars, workshops, events before COVID-19 obviously, and, you know, they really made, created a place and a platform for publishers to connect and to share knowledge. So I really recommend it to anyone working in publishing.

Carlota Pico 23:03
Okay, excellent. So for you you’re using events as a place to receive more information from, as a place for content, as a place to follow industry trends, more so than a place for networking? Would that be a correct analysis? Or are you also using it as a place to network?

Stefania Trinchero 23:18
Yeah, I would say both, because networking is really at the core of events, in my opinion. So really, and being publishing quite a small industry, the players are, they are those, and then it really is a place, the PPA for example, to meet publishers in real life, so meet people and networking like you said. So both things, I would say.

Carlota Pico 23:41
Okay, wonderful. Well, we are at the end of the interview. Thank you so much Stefania for joining us on The Content Mix. And we hope to hear many more insights from you later on during another interview after coronavirus. Hopefully we’ll be able to meet up in person and share our insights and experiences as well. Thank you once again for joining us. It’s been a pleasure, and tune in everybody for more interviews just like this one. We’ll be publishing interviews every single week about marketing and the communication industry in Europe. Stay tuned on The Content Mix. And thank you again for joining us, Stefania.

Stefania Trinchero 24:23
Thank you, Carlota, for having me. And I look forward to hearing and seeing the interviews. Thank you.

Carlota Pico 24:29
Our pleasure. Thank you. Bye bye.

Stefania Trinchero 24:31
Bye!

Transcribed by https://otter.ai