Episodes  · Season 3  · Episode 41  · 28 min

Owen Griffiths: First Party Advantage

Owen Griffiths, Commercial Revenue Director at The Sun, on building the Nucleus first-party data platform to make 140 sub-channels coherent for advertisers, why a 10-year partnership with Tesco grew brand recall from 45% to 51%, and what brand synergy means as a commercial philosophy.

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 ·  The Business of Marketing  · S3 E41  · 28 min
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"I was looking this morning and just on our video offering alone, we have 140 different sub-channels across nine different platforms."

The Conversation with Justin Cooke

How The Sun built a first-party data platform to connect 41 million monthly users to brands across 140 sub-channels

Owen Griffiths oversees the entire commercialisation of The Sun across all its platforms and portfolios. The Sun has 41 million monthly users globally, a growing US presence alongside its UK core, and a 140 sub-channel estate spanning nine platforms from print to YouTube.

In this conversation Griffiths explains how The Sun built Nucleus, its first-party data platform, to make that complexity commercially viable, how a decade-long partnership with Tesco grew brand recall by 6 percentage points through creative evolution from print to digital, and why brand synergy is the commercial principle that drives The Sun's most valuable relationships.

Key Takeaways

  • Nucleus connects 140 sub-channels across nine platforms into coherent targeting opportunities. Data is what makes that complexity commercially viable.
  • Brand synergy: connect brands to audiences that genuinely fit them, not just the biggest available audience.
  • 10-year partnership with Tesco grew brand recall 6 percentage points through creative evolution from print to digital splash screen.
  • 41 million monthly users globally, with a growing US presence. The Sun is a global business now.
  • First-party data is the publisher advantage in a post-cookie world.

Topics Covered

  1. 01 Building Nucleus: a first-party data platform that makes sense of 140 sub-channels
  2. 02 How brand synergy drives longer and more valuable commercial partnerships
  3. 03 What a 10-year Tesco partnership looks like: from front page to splash screen
  4. 04 The global expansion of The Sun and the growing US presence
  5. 05 Why publisher first-party data creates targeting precision third-party data cannot replicate

Key Exchanges

05
01 Tell us about the scale of The Sun today.

My role is to look after the entire commercialisation of The Sun. On our video offering alone we have something like 140 different sub-channels across nine different platforms. Getting my own head around that takes a lot. Globally we are reaching around 41 million users per month.

Griffiths describes a commercial role spanning a genuinely complex media operation. The challenge of presenting 140 sub-channels coherently drives the importance of Nucleus.

02 Tell me about Nucleus.

We worked quite hard to have all the first-party data that we have on our consumers across all platforms come together. We packaged it up in a format which we call Nucleus, our data platform. We have tools within that that help connect advertisers to those different communities.

Nucleus translates audience data into targeting opportunities that advertisers can act on, shifting the conversation from volume of inventory to precision of audience.

03 Tell me about the Tesco partnership.

We have worked with Tesco for forever now. A partnership hopefully moving into its 10th year. The creative idea was to be front of mind, literally the first thing readers see whenever they come to our products. Over 10 years we evolved from a print front page ad to the first digital ad on the website to a splash screen on app launch. Brand recall has grown from around 45% to around 51%.

The example shows how creative brand synergy compounds over time when the fit between brand and audience is genuine.

04 Tell me about a recent creative partnership execution.

For Paramount+ launching an 80s-themed show, we turned the newspaper and parts of the website into a mock 1980s version incorporating characters from the show in Sun-style headlines. We even changed the masthead from The Sun to The Current Bun. That creativity and humour shining through is what makes the partnership feel authentic rather than forced.

The Paramount+ example shows how editorial integration creates genuine brand association rather than standard advertising.

05 What makes a great partner?

A willingness to work with us and evolve over time. Being clear on your KPIs. And making sure everyone feels involved in a constant dialogue. That four-way communication between us, the agency, editorial, and client going on daily is what makes these long-term partnerships work.

Griffiths frames great partnership as a communication and evolution discipline more than a transaction.

S3 E41Season & Episode
28 minDuration
41M Monthly users across The Sun's global digital platforms
140 Sub-channels across nine platforms connected through Nucleus

"A 10-year partnership with Tesco. That is what brand synergy and long-term commitment look like."

Hear Owen on
The Business of Marketing
Season 3 Episode 41 28 min
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Lightly edited for readability.

Host Tell us about your role and The Sun today.

Griffiths Commercial Revenue Director at The Sun, part of News UK. 140 different sub-channels across nine platforms. 41 million monthly users globally. We built Nucleus, our first-party data platform, to make that coherent for advertisers.

Host Tell me about the Tesco partnership.

Griffiths 10 years, almost. The creative brief has always been to be front of mind, the first thing readers see. Evolved from print front page to first digital ad on website to app splash screen. Brand recall grew from 45% to 51%. Brand synergy: does this brand speak to our audience and can we speak to theirs? With Tesco, bang on.