The secret to sticky content that really delivers
Published: 11 Feb 2025
Put your hand in the air if the first thing you do in the morning is scroll on your phone? Now, keep your hand up if it’s also the last thing you do at night.
Don’t worry – you’re not alone. Two in three Americans spend their time immediately before and after sleep viewing a screen, whilst 61% of Brits usually look at a screen in the hour before they go to sleep.
We are constantly inundated with content, which also means we’re constantly choosing from a myriad of options what to occupy ourselves with next. How should premium digital publishers respond in the face of so much noise also clamouring for your audience’s attention? We reached out to the AOP Digital Publishing Awards jury to get their expert advice on how to create sticky and engaging content for your audience.
Richard Jamieson, Chief Commercial Officer at Press Gazette, neatly summed it up: “Sticky content needs to solve a problem for the reader.”
Whether it’s keeping abreast of the news or learning how to DIY your kitchen renovation, people go searching for the content that solves the challenge they’re facing. “Consumers are constantly on the lookout for solutions that fit their specific needs,” shared Nav Dhillon, Head of Advertising at Gumtree. “If a platform can provide content that helps users solves a problem, achieve a goal, or enhance their experience, then the value for the user is immediate.”
Lean into your expertise. Digital publishing brands are built around being trusted sources of information within a specific area – however, you can’t rest on your laurels. “Be the best channel for your audience,” explained Phil McGauran, Ad Operations Manager at Haymarket. “Know the current trends within your industry[.] Season your content with context and insight.”
One of the greatest strengths digital publishing has at its disposal is the depth and quality of insights it has into its audiences. With that comes an ability to understand what excites your audience, and what it is that drives them to your site.
Angie French, Ethical Intelligence Architect at Alf Consulting, recommends that “by developing detailed audience personas and mapping their journey, content can speak directly to their needs in a way that makes them stop scrolling.”
Charlie Celino, Strategic Development Director at News UK, expanded on this idea, challenging digital publishers to understand the habits of their audience in order to deliver experiences that resonate. “Take commuter journeys, for example,” he explained. “People are on the go and need quick, visual, content that grabs their attention fast. On the other hand, during quiet moments, when they have more time, they’re more likely to engage with more detailed content.”
As Charlie went on to recommend, if you can tailor your approach to the ways in which people choose to interact with you, you can deliver content that naturally becomes a part of their daily routine.
Detailed audience insights are essential in understanding why and when people want to receive your content – and how they want to be communicated with. “On Mumsnet, we speak as one of our community, not to our community,” stated Nino Stylianou, Head of Programmatic Yield. “By mirroring how our users naturally communicate – referencing in-jokes, using familiar acronyms, and adopting a conversational, authentic tone – we create content that feels relatable, trustworthy, and impactful.”
Several of our judges also highlighted the importance of giving your journalists the scope to investigate and follow their noses. “In the B2B world, particularly where you need to own your own niche, going farther than human and AI competitors will give you the edge in creating authority and value,” shared Thomas Lake, Product and Technology Director at Infopro Digital.
Whether you’re an AI-optimist or an AI-skeptic, the fact of the matter remains that current technology can only remix existing information into new formats. Against this backdrop, investing in your journalists is essential. “As AI-driven technologies make it simpler to rehash existing work, the real differentiator lies in true originality,” explained Jody Doherty-Cove, Head of AI at Newquest. Chloe Davies, Founder & CEO at It Takes a Village Collective, concurred, sharing that publishers need to “be original! It seems so obvious and yet so many people try and be like someone else or mimic other people’s styles in the hopes of better engagement.”
We have to return to the basics of journalism. Or as Robin Shute, Group Operations Director at Arc Europe, put it, “have the humility to realise that your readers want to hear about their peers’ experiences, not yours[.] Do your research – your audience will know more about the subject than you, and they’ll switch off if you mangle the facts.”
However, in an era of Gen-AI, you need more than facts and figures to stand out from the crowd. “Storytelling is what truly captures attention,” shared Alf Consulting’s Angie French. Our brains are wired for narrative, so structure in the content with clear stakes, tension, and resolution will trigger interest and compel the reader to continue.”
Or as Haymarket’s Phil McGauran put it, “write like a human, and dare to be different.”
As premium digital publishers, many have already honed in on what it is that makes them successful and, to a certain extent, consistency is key to delivering against the expectations of a loyal audience. However, overly committing you to what has worked in the past can also hinder you from reaching new audiences.
“The best advice is to create room to experiment and take risks,” recommended Guljeet Samra, Director of Acquisitions and Social Media at Immediate. “In practice, this can be a hard thing to do, but it really is the best way to find out what is and – just as importantly – isn’t working. Having a core set of customers, you can call on to run ideas past them can help you build confidence to test, too. This has the added benefit of engaging your community to build loyalty.”
Alastair Lewis, Founder at Quested Consulting, concurred, sharing that “consistency in tone and visuals helps build a recognisable identity, while experimenting with trends of formats keeps your content fresh and relevant and will generate more user insights that help you prioritise relevance and value.”’
You have to walk the knife-edge of handing on to what has contributed to your success, whilst embracing opportunities to grow your reach.
Of course, great content is more than just the words or the footage – it’s also how they’re put in front of your audience.
“You have to have the right mix of words, personality, authenticity, and authority, combined with visuals which excite or entice,” stressed Dave Randall, Head of Performance & Data at Mail Metro Media. “Layer in video which is uniquely honed and native to every platform it appears on – one size does not fit all.”
Embracing the nuances of different channels allows you to deliver enhanced off-platform content that responds to the specific needs of your audiences. And it also lends to a seamless user journey within your own domains as well.
One area that many digital publishers are still tackling is how to deliver advertising that supports the commercial need of the organisation without turning away users. We need advertising solutions that enhance the user experience, rather than disrupt – and this delivers extended benefits beyond the user’s experience. “By offering ads that align with the user’s specific needs and intentions, brands increase the chances of conversion because the ad is seen as relevant and timely, rather than a random interruption,” explained Gumtree’s Nav Dhillon.
We need to foster a virtuous circle where the user experience supports engagement with supports brand loyalty, which in turn supports the user experience. As Sophie Hanbury, Director, Strategic Content Partnerships at The Independent, shared, “newsroom teams have heavily adopted some great new digital tools to drive engagement (voting buttons, polls, live blogs, vertical video all spring to mind), but it’s not only about engagement. It’s about the whole motivation associated with trust in your brand.”
The AOP Digital Publishing Awards champion excellence in online publishing, including editorial, product development, audience development, and more. See the full list of categories here – the Awards close for entry on March 20th.
