How ARTE’s Message Center experience boosted content visibility and engagement

5

%

increase in Sunday app sessions within the first quarter

260

%

increase in direct engagement on message center vs. push campaigns

ARTE is the leading European Culture Platform featuring media across all major channels — linear TV, a proprietary ARTE.tv platform, social media, and more — all in a wide range of languages. Driven by the belief that culture, good stories, and quality information are key to maintaining a democratic public space, ARTE offers rich programming that reflects the cultural diversity of Europe.

Overview

Today’s consumers are flooded with marketing wherever they turn and increasingly reject blunt promotions. Email open rates and social media engagement have declined, placing more pressure on brands to capture and maintain customer attention with in-the-moment experiences.

That’s precisely what ARTE set out to do with an in-app Message Center experience, showcasing hand-picked media features for their audience. By repurposing existing content in a curated center with high visibility, the team empowered customers to choose their preferred content, created new discovery habits, and dramatically scaled reach and engagement.

Challenge

Push notifications can get lost in the marketing “noise.” Consumers will swipe them off-screen without a glance, waving them off as just another interruptive promotional message. As a public organization with a small team, ARTE recognized the need to deliver innovative tactics without requiring too much effort from their already-stretched editors. They set out to break through to their entire app audience and drive engagement with curated content.

Results

ARTE saw an increase in the average session count on Sundays and Mondays, driven by the push notification and badge feature notifying members about the Message Center. This was especially true among opt-out audiences, increasing the brand’s reach with their entire app audience. ARTE also increased direct engagements on message center vs. traditional push campaigns, highlighting its effectiveness in delivering content and creating a habitual engagement pattern.

Solution

An optimized message center experience creates new readership opportunities

A custom-built template enabled rapid innovation

ARTE was committed to creating an experience that enhanced rather than disrupted audience browsing. The Message Center was the perfect choice for the team to create a home base for content and increase the chance of content being read — especially by readers who did not opt into notifications. ARTE tapped into the ease of Airship’s dashboard to create the Message Center from scratch, seamlessly incorporating ARTE’s brand guidelines into the experience to align with the app’s overall look and feel.

Experimentation increased visibility and engagement

ARTE was able to see right away that they needed to make the Message Center easier to find. They tried out different ways to notify their audience about the Message Center to improve visibility, reach them when they’re most likely to consume content, and ensure old content was removed. Featuring a curated selection of weekly editorial recommendations from ARTE’s newsletter, the new feature allowed their team to shed a spotlight on high-value, existing content and reach 100% of their app audience.

Success laid the groundwork for new app experiences

Today, ARTE’s weekly recommendations in the Message Center are a staple of the app experience. Editors can edit and manage the campaigns themselves in little time, enabling greater organizational agility than was previously possible. The success of ARTE’s initial Message Center campaign has also paved the way for more use cases, including monthly “last chance” reminders and rich content in the onboarding process.