Chive Media Group has grown up a lot in the decade since its founders, Leo and John Resig, launched the company. On Nov. 9, Eric Spielman, the chief strategy officer of Chive Media Group, joined Digiday+ members on Slack for a town hall to discuss everything from push notifications to membership programs to the company’s award-winning video platform, Chive TV.
We hold Slack town halls every two weeks, and in between, we’ll have editorial chats and group discussions on industry topics. Become a member of Digiday+ and join us.
A portion of the conversation with Spielman, lightly edited, appears below.
On blending content and commerce and not using Amazon for commerce
“On merch, the biggest successes from a business perspective come from the natural blending of content and commerce. It has to be more than just house ads and cross-promotion. For example, on a recent design launch for a ‘Three Amigos’ T-shirt, we put time into a post on the three amigos, celebrating the nostalgia. That movie, that comedy, that time period fits in well for our audience. So, the announcement of that shirt design fit naturally into the content.”
On launching a membership product earlier this year
“We knew there was an appetite for this because users had been asking for an ads-free version for a while. We talk to our hardcore users all the time. Literally. We built this business one user at a time with meetups, office tours, long nights in lots of bars. We have hundreds of Chive chapters around the world.”