Group Nine’s branded product boxes brought in at least $1 million in revenue in the first year

For Group Nine, branded product box activation has quickly become a revenue driver.

The publisher’s direct-to-consumer ad product that sends brand-sponsored and editorially-curated items to sweepstakes winners has brought in seven figures of revenue in its first year, according to Geoff Schiller, Group Nine’s chief revenue officer. While Schiller declined to share specifics, he said he hopes the “BOX’d” program will grow to drive eight figures of revenue in its second year.

Since launching in November 2020 as a way for Group Nine’s publications and advertisers to reach people during the pandemic, 19 boxes have been created with brands in entertainment, CPG and alcohol, such as Hulu, Netflix, CBS, Discovery+, Campbell’s, Folgers and Corona Extra, among others. All five of Group Nine’s media properties — including Thrillist, NowThis, The Dodo, Seeker and PopSugar — have been a part of the BOX’d program. It attracted around 250,000 sweepstakes entries and has shipped close to 6,000 boxes, according to a spokesperson.

BOX’d started “as a unique way for our brand partners and marketers to engage with our audiences stuck at home. It has taken flight and it’s been something that will have legs far beyond the soon-to-be-ending pandemic,” Schiller said.

As some semblance of normalcy returns to the world, Schiller expects BOX’d to expand into more categories, like travel and auto. “We did really well with a bunch of categories missing from the equation, so we are pretty confident with this solution,” he said.

The way the program typically works is a brand comes to Group Nine with a brief looking to acquire emails or find people to sample products, Schiller said. The product box can be used to promote a theme around a campaign, TV show or event.

Group Nine then matches the brand with ones of its digital publishers and puts together a box of around five products, some from the client and others chosen by the publisher’s editors. They launch a sweepstakes competition, and the winners get shipped the box. BOX’d is usually part of a larger campaign deal with Group Nine, Schiller said. People have also won boxes by RSVP’ing to brands’ virtual events and live events as well. When asked if Group Nine shares sweepstakes entrants’ email addresses with a campaign’s sponsor, a spokesperson said “first party data capture is a component of Box’d.” Consumers do need to opt-in in order to receive marketing from a brand, they added.

Group Nine charges a flat fee “associated with a minimum number of boxes created,” Schiller said. “We provide benchmarks in terms of entries and engagement rates and earned media impressions in terms of sharing the box,” he added. The fee “scales up or down” depending on variables like the items in each box and the number that will be produced, Schiller said.

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