What business trends publishers can read from good user questions - interview with Philipp Montgelas

kress.de: Mr. Montgelas, you've been CEO at Gutefrage since the beginning of the year. How does this actually affect your private circle of friends and acquaintances: Do you increasingly have to exclusively answer “good questions” after work – such as when this unspeakable Corona spook will finally be over?

Philipp Graf Montgelas: In private, I actually encounter a wide interest from friends and family, since everyone has an idea of ​​our platform or has used it before. Interest is then usually directed towards which questions we are asked particularly frequently, which topics the community is currently dealing with, but also who our users are. There are actually no limits. My children, for example, are very proud that many of their friends from Generation Z know and regularly use Gutefrage. That makes me happy and of course proud.

kress.de: Your top position is accompanied by the addition "Growth Leader": How concretely do you have to fill this claim with life and what do you have planned for it?

Philipp Graf Montgelas: The question of how to make a model even better and more interesting for the respective user group is essential for me and part of every long-term strategic consideration. I have established this mindset as the foundation of my own thoughts and actions and thereby generated strong growth in the respective business models in almost all stages of my professional career. Twice I was allowed to be part of the management of an organization that grew from a small startup to a listed company within a few years (lastminute.com and Readly). With Gutefrage, I also want to understand what our users want, what opportunities we can open up for the exchange of experience and knowledge, and how we can continue to fill the community idea with life. With our topic specials or new formats such as "Blickwechsel" we have already created more targeted interaction among users. We will continue to expand this and also use the newly created synergies in marketing with our corporate family Müller Medien.

kress.de: You are considered to be well connected in the domestic digital and start-up scene: To what extent does a good question not already apply to you with 15 years of company history and around two million members little like "old economy" or even as a classic media company on the race track of the fast internet speedsters in the country?

Philipp Graf Montgelas: Gutefrage, as a company, naturally no longer falls into the "Startup" category. However, when I was allowed to support Müller Medien on the way to becoming the new owner of Gutefrage and highfivve, I recognized the great potential of the company. In addition to its enormous reach, Gutefrage has a high level of brand awareness and high user satisfaction. I also see strong innovative power in our experienced team, which includes tech experts and community managers. We have been working with artificial intelligence for years in data analysis, marketing and community management, which allows us to offer targeted content and market our pages in the best possible way. This know-how also gave rise to the programmatic marketer highfivve three years ago, which, in addition to Gutefrage, supports many other customers in marketing their content.

kress.de: What particularly appealed to you about the new position?

Philipp Graf Montgelas : I have been following the development of good question since my time at Netdoktor when both companies were part of the Holtzbrinck Group, so almost from the start. I was always a big fan of the idea of ​​making the knowledge and experience accessible to all people on a platform. Good questions today reach up to 30 million unique users per month across all platforms, i.e. almost every third person in the roof room. Every day up to 10,000 questions are asked and the community responds to these questions with up to 60,000 answers and comments. It is extremely exciting to experience this broad interest in the platform. And at the same time fulfilling if we can offer the community a high quality of the content on important topics.

kress.de: Your house is often seen as a kind of trend portal. Good conclusions about the current sensitivities in the country should be gleaned from the accumulation of questions. What pulse are you currently feeling: What moves the Germans the most?

Philipp Graf Montgelas: Gutefrage reflects social and media trends, usually before they are discussed in the media or in public. Basically, we are faster than the classic media, because every question is answered and discussed within a few minutes. During the lockdown phases, we could see how more and more topics related to homeschooling and homework were being discussed. But also that there were frequent requests for new console games for leisure activities. Both themes are now back in decline post lockdown. Currently, more and more questions are being asked about TMS, the “test for medical courses”. And of course the European Football Championship also plays a major role. Questions are discussed here that would not be taken up by the classic media, such as "In which European Championship or World Cup was electronic perimeter advertising used for the first time?"

kress.de: If you look at the Gutefrage trend topics: Which cluster surprised you the most and what explanation do you have for it?

Philipp Graf Montgelas: All topics that are socially relevant and discussed in the media are also disproportionately discussed here: Germany's elimination from the European Championship, political issues before the federal elections, the spread of the corona virus Delta variant or the question of a suitable course of study shortly after the Abitur exam. Nevertheless, there are also many topics that you don't notice because they may not appear in your own topic cosmos: A lot of questions are currently being asked about "Seven Deadly Sins". As we have learned, this is a manga series that has just made a breakthrough in Germany. You then get to know such trends faster via Gutefrage than you would probably do in real life.

kress.de: What marketing conclusions can you currently derive from strong question clusters: How well can you monetize these findings?

Philipp Graf Montgelas: Gutefrage is extremely exciting for advertisers due to the wide variety of content and the questions and answers from users. There is no other publisher in Germany that can offer a comparable range of topics and such a wide reach. Since each question is tagged with topic tags by our users, we can enable advertisers to target their advertising precisely. In addition, we were already working intensively on our 1st party data strategy long before the current cookieless topic. Through our own publisher DMP, we offer many different segments for targeting in the programmatic ecosystem. In combination with our Programmatic AdStack we monetize our inventory very successfully.

kress.de: If you look back on earlier positions: does your departure from the online kiosk Readly also mean that the Scandinavian model may not really fit the German market by a long shot?

Philipp Graf Montgelas: There is no connection. As Managing Director, I built Readly Germany from scratch in January 2015. The goal was to create a "Spotify for Magazines". Back then, within a very short time, we succeeded in making the German market the strongest Readly market. Readly's latest financial report shows that the German market, at 38%, is still significantly larger than all other markets. That was and is a great success. From 2017, in addition to my position as Managing Director, I was responsible for all international marketing activities as CMO. I also drove the expansion into countries like Italy, the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland. For about five years I traveled all over Europe for Readly. It was an exciting task, but at the same time it was simply about time for something new.

kress.de: Recently, you initiated ambitious innovations with the debate portal Forum.eu, among other things: How much heart and soul did you put into it? Isn't it particularly difficult to leave behind something as noble as a European project.

Philipp Graf Montgelas: The founders realized that with my experience at Readly I could help in many areas, from the business plan to the acquisition of publishing partners, and that I could give them a better push. Right from the start, however, my work for Forum.eu was only designed for a one-year start-up period.

kress.de: If you now look at your new tasks: how much does good question have to be developed in order to keep the brand and the attractiveness of the offer up to date?

Philipp Graf Montgelas: First of all, I look at the existing offers from Gutefrage. The platform has everything it needs to be contemporary and appealing to consumers. We have a very large and, above all, loyal community that is constantly growing and promoting exchange. This contributes to the high brand awareness of Gutefrage and proves that our business model works. Of course, this is also due to an excellent team with whom we are shaping the future and the expansion of the platform together. Of course, we never forget that the competition with other social platforms never sleeps. This is precisely why it is important that we always offer our users new formats and expand our work to new channels. We have already established various formats, such as the "Blickwechsel" ask-me-anything format and various topic specials. Most recently, we organized a topic special with the European Consumer Protection Center, which answered questions about "traveling in Corona times". In this way, we want to bring users into direct contact with experts and thus further promote the transfer of knowledge. In addition, I am also responsible for the programmatic marketer highfivve, which arose from good questions. highfivve was founded in 2018 with the idea that the knowledge gained about the successful marketing of Gutefrage, one of the widest-reaching websites in Germany, could also help other publishers monetize their content. So we offer marketing from publishers for publishers. In addition to Gutefrage.net, we also market all of our verticals such as finanzfrage.net, gesundheitsfrage.net or helpster.de. In addition, there are currently around 20 external publishers. Together with our partners, we reach over 30 million unique users and deliver around 1 billion ad impressions per month. We have the knowledge, the technology and the will to expand highfivve into one of the leading programmatic marketers in the German-speaking region over the next three years.

kress.de: Uncertainty has certainly been a big topic of late: How much was your company actually able to benefit from the boost in reach in times of the pandemic - also from an economic point of view?

Philipp Graf Montgelas: Of course, like every other company, the pandemic kept us busy. People stayed at home most of the time. They were more concerned with their private lives or their jobs. Possibly asked questions for which they otherwise did not have time. Many have spent more of their free time on the Internet and this is also reflected in the traffic on our site. We were able to win new users for our community and thus also expand our reach accordingly.

kress.de: You have the best contacts in the industry, especially with digital start-ups and other media companies. To what extent is the hoped-for departure already in full swing there?

Philipp Graf Montgelas: Due to the pandemic, there was certainly a kind of spirit of optimism in some startups and media companies. Others, on the other hand, have been hit hard by the restrictions, especially in the startup scene. The pandemic has many faces, so it's difficult to generalize. In general, however, it can be seen that the need for digital solutions has increased. At the same time, the realization is finally growing that digitization will continue to determine our future. Using the example of home office and remote work, we see how useful the use of technology can be. With the right equipment, hardware and software, a positive attitude towards video calls and a little practice, you can save yourself a lot of traveling. This saves time and energy and is also environmentally friendly.

kress.de: Digital reach, but also the digital advertising business came through the crisis well. What is your most important tip for classic publishers, so as not to fall behind in the current upturn in business?

Philipp Graf Montgelas: Classic media houses in particular should be more open to innovations and new technologies. One should ask oneself which model one wants to follow. Paid content can definitely be worthwhile, as the example of the New York Times shows. However, if you want to make free content available, you need effective advertising marketing. For this purpose, special know-how must be built up in the team and, above all, a new mindset must be established.

kress.de: If you look back on your own career: Which stations have influenced you the most, which mentors were particularly important?

Philipp Graf Montgelas: If I may pick one station, it must have been my time at lastminute.com in the years 1999 to 2001. At the height of the dotcom bubble of the time, we have in the shortest possible time several rounds of financing closed. Offices in Paris, Munich, Stockholm and other cities were opened from the headquarters in London, hundreds of employees were hired and finally in March 2000 we were able to list on the London Stock Exchange. lastminute.com thus became the first European “Unicorn”, even though the term didn't exist at the time. Although the dotcom bubble burst shortly after the IPO, lastminute.com is still a successful company in the global travel market. I was impressed by the entrepreneurial approach and the vision of the two founders, Martha Lane-Fox and Brent Hoberman, to turn a long-established market upside down. Her ability to convince investors, customers and employees and to take them on the journey, but also in particular her unconditional will to grow very quickly, were really inspiring. I am still in regular contact with Brent Hoberman to this day.

kress.de: At some point, even in the hectic digital business, you have to call it a day: How do you recharge your batteries?

Philipp Graf Montgelas: I prefer to spend time with my family and friends. Ideally, I combine this with sporting activities in the mountains like skiing or somewhere by the sea with diving and other water sports.

kress.de: What gives you the best ideas?

Philipp Graf Montgelas: Put on sports shoes and head out into nature. Jogging works wonders for me. Most of the time I come back with a fresh mind and see the challenges from a new perspective.

kress.de: You have a Kresskopf profile. How important is networking to you?

Philipp Graf Montgelas: Networking is closely intertwined with my life. However, I don't see it as a duty, but as an enrichment. Both professionally and privately, I like to make new contacts and always keep my eyes and ears open for interesting people to talk to.

kress.de: What news and professional inspiration do you get from reading kress.de and "kress pro"?

Philipp Graf Montgelas: I use kress.de to regularly find out about the latest developments in the industry. Just the other day, for example, I read the article about the planned equality of print and online editors at the Süddeutsche Zeitung. A very interesting development that can also give an impetus to the industry. The digital industry in particular is constantly reinventing itself, so you have to stay up to date. Since we are continuously working on the further development of Gutefrage, I am of course following developments relating to topics such as social networks, AI and marketing with great interest.

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