Hjemmet Mortensen covers the Norwegian house and home market with five interiors magazines, each in its special way offering readers ideas for improving their homes. But inspiration is only the first link in the home value chain.

‘Egmont must be in contact with customers from the moment they start thinking about rearranging the lounge furniture to the day they complete a purchase and discuss the results in the network,’ explains Anne Kolberg, director of Hjemmet Mortensen’s home and interior area.

Cato Broberg, digital director of Egmont Magazines, Hjemmet Mortensen and the digital centre in Norway, is working with Anne Kolberg to make the most of all Egmont’s media products in the house and home sector in a comprehensive multimedia vertical that will follow them throughout the value chain.

One element of Egmont’s digital strategy focuses on generating multiple income streams from existing brands. The vertical strategy takes the opposite approach: ‘When we work with verticals, we start with the customer’s needs. What does he or she want?’ says Broberg.

In other words, the focus is not on the medium but on the interest in house and home. This interest must then be promoted through TV programmes and inspiring magazines, tools and checklists for mobile phones, webshops and books about how best to tile a new bathroom.

Transactions, transactions, transactions
Transactions and prospective customers have become key concepts in an online world where content based exclusively on advertising income has proved to lack longterm profitability.

Anne Kolberg illustrates why verticals are valuable in the house and home segment: ‘Verticals let us reach consumers at all stages – when they’re looking for ideas, planning, searching, acting and evaluating. During the first phase, we establish a relationship with the customer that we will have to sustain during and after the transaction.’ In other words, it is ownership of the transaction itself that can generate profit for Egmont.

Verticals build on strong content
‘We start working with verticals at the point with the greatest potential and where Egmont is most likely to beat the competition,’ says Broberg.

He mentions a couple of specific projects: strategic alliances with external suppliers and collaborations or acquisitions that will enable Egmont to offer good online shops.