Jordan, Patti "Refinery29 Recharged: Brand Boosting the Digital Mediasphere.

" Bloomsbury Fashion Business

Cases. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018. Bloomsbury Fashion Central. Web. 3 Oct. 2022. <http://
dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781474208796.0055>.

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 Refinery29 Recharged
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Brand Boosting the Digital Mediasphere

by Patti Jordan
DOI: 10.5040/9781474208796.0055
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
ISBN: 9781350994126

Content Partner:

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Learning Objectives
Introduction
Business Questions
Teaching Notes
References and Further Reading
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Abstract
The award-winning digital media company Refinery29 was launched in 2005 as a consumer resource
for local merchandise. The platform has since grown into a global lifestyle brand that is focused on
fashion, beauty, and entertainment. From the time of its conception Refinery29 firmly established
itself in a market segment of women aged eighteen to thirty-five—the company increased its
advertising revenue at a significant rate between 2012 and 2015. In December 2017, however,
Refinery29 announced worldwide staff redundancies, which were attributed to changes in the digital
mediasphere. Renewing its focus, Refinery29’s rebranding has helped to revive its viewership; the
digital provider now prioritizes not only editorial content, but a more visually impactful, robustly
designed platform with greater media options. Students will examine the challenging advertising
climate to create multiple, alternative methods to reinvigorate the Refinery29 brand and further
increase its viewership and revenue. Students will be prompted to outline how the company can
potentially renew credibility, regain profitability, and continue to demonstrate a profit margin over a
ten-year trajectory.

FULL ARTICLE
Learning Objectives
Upon completion of this case, students should be able to:

• Create a comprehensive mission and vision statement for Refinery29 that ensures both
profitability and sustainability, while remaining as a tactical and ethical marketing
communications platform.

• Examine the advantages and disadvantages of Refinery29’s current digital offerings, including
content and platform design, to determine alternative solutions for its future brand building.

• Analyze the ways in which Refinery29 advertises content to create brand awareness for its
marketers while simultaneously increasing purchase considerations and sales amongst its target
market.

• Explain how Refinery29’s newly formed data analytics platform could augment or hinder its
digital marketing strategy.

Introduction
Refinery29 is a global media entertainment company which targets an audience of young millennial
women between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five. Refinery29’s content highlights a wide net
of sociopolitical concerns for this market segment, with a focus on women’s empowerment. After
 to cofounder and cochief executive Phillip Von Borries, since this time Refinery29 has continued to
focus on creating its own original content but has assimilated a softer slant towards its news coverage
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and embraced a more entertainment-oriented approach to grow its audience base (Steigrad 2017).
The website now comprises several genres of online articles filtered through the lens of female-
driven content. The platform’s navigation is categorized into “stories” which cover topics such as
style, beauty, health, entertainment, news, work, and money. In recent years, the company has also
decided to capitalize on original scripted and unscripted video and live streaming. Areas of specific
focus have been in short and long-form scripted and unscripted video, though the website offers other
diverse forms of original media content, such as live entertainment as seen in 29Rooms events. Amy
Emmerich, Refinery29’s chief content officer, is in control of the company’s editorial offerings and
has expanded the site’s video and other media content production to pivot toward more trend-focused
news and service journalism, as well as personalized storytelling.

Refinery29’s status has consequently transformed since its conception, from a New York City fashion
editorial guide and e-commerce site into a diversified, global media content provider, boasting a
monthly viewership of approximately twenty-seven million. The company today states that its mission
is to serve as an inspiration and lifestyle website for millennial women while offering both content
and a sense of global community.

Business problem
In 2017, Refinery29 was valued at around $500 million (Steigrad 2017). The majority of Refinery29’s
nine-figure revenue is derived from sponsorships and the digital advertising that it provides for a
diverse range of global brands. Alexandra Steigrad of Women’s Wear Daily affirmed that “as of March
2017, Refinery29 boasted a global staff of 450 employees, encompassing such territories as the United
States, France, Germany, England, and Canada” (Steigrad 2017). The company is noted for having
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raised $125.4 million in investment since 2010, with an additional contribution of $45 million made
last year by Turner Broadcasting (Spangler 2017). Additional investors have included WPP, Hearst,
Scripps Networks Interactive, Stripes Group, Floodgate, Lead Edge Capital, First Round Capital, and
Lerer Ventures. Although the investment that is being provided to Refinery29 is significant, Variety
magazine has estimated that dozens more digital media entertainment companies have been funded
within the last two years. This has led to significantly increased competition within the online market.

The cofounders of Refinery29, Philippe von Borries and Justin Stefano, have stated that this increase
in competition across the digital-media marketplace has led to “a correction in the digital media space”
where “the strongest businesses with the most meaningful brands and diversified revenue streams
will continue to shine — and thrive.” Refinery29 alongside other top digital-media outlets, such
as Buzzfeed and Mashable, are consequently having to cut back on their staff spending to provide
more revenue for them to focus on building their brands and revenue streams (Spangler 2017). It
can resultantly be seen that adjustments are required within the organizational frameworks of digital-
media content providers in order for them to remain relevant in a saturated market.

Identity crises
Refinery29 has been quick to adapt to the challenges that it has faced in the modern, evolving digital
sphere. However, it has come under fire for its rapid transitions and has been labelled as being in
an “identity crisis” period by those who have worked there (Steigrad 2017). Indeed, Alex Konrad of
Forbes magazine stated in 2013 that Refinery29 has successfully stayed in business “by being lucky
way more than right” and “by having backers of supernal patience, allowing the company to tinker
endlessly” (Konrad 2013b). Refinery29 launched in 2005 as a local e-commerce site that advertised
fashion apparel and accessories, geared mostly towards New York City locals, a decision that could be
considered an initial wrong move for the business; the company’s name was derived from the twenty-
nine exclusive retailers who were initially featured on the site (Konrad 2013b). Refinery29 initially
had big plans for their e-commerce, opening pop-up stores in 2008 and adding a “daily deals” unit
to their platform in 2010. However, despite the hope that commerce would contribute to 40 percent
of sales in 2012, the plans did not live up to their estimations with figures actually rolling in at 14
percent (Konrad 2013b). Instead, Refinery29 found that their biggest earner was advertising revenue
which was being propelled by a growing readership who loved their content. Although Refinery did
find some success with the commerce business model, they recognized that, in its current format, it
was not scalable. In a 2012 interview, Von Borries recognized that “More than anything, [the content]
is our product. That’s what’s going to drive our commerce business” (Griffith 2012).
 In order to best capitalize on the revenue that they were receiving from their content, Refinery29
strategically decided to take to the “media company” trajectory by moving toward increasing their
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content offering and moving their focus away from developing the commerce aspects of the website.
In 2013, however, founders Von Borries and Stefano realized that their branding wasn’t keeping
up with the business vision as a media-focussed company. Stefano states that “Media companies
are no longer just content publishers in the traditional sense—they manufacture products, create
technology platforms, videos and other assets that go far beyond the written word,” but recognized that
Refinery29’s current website and branding wasn’t allowing for this. The constant onslaught of articles
that Refinery29 was publishing were quickly outgrowing the platform, with their blog becoming
“cluttered, inconsistent and difficult to navigate” (Orma 2013). The platform was therefore redesigned
in July 2013, with a focus on making the site more streamlined with better advertising placement, an
icon scrollbar, and functionality that allowed users of the site to connect with social media.

Continuing financial concerns

The redesign, however, was not successful in saving the company from financial and development
difficulties. Online competition in the media landscape amongst digital advertising companies has
led to an oversaturated market, and Refinery29 has been met with a recurring demand to upgrade
and hone its visual and editorial branding, particularly in light of the need to attract a more global
audience. These actions resulted in some difficult personnel decisions, including staff redundancies,
to ensure that it had employees in the appropriate areas such as global news, lifestyle, and video to
guide it through turbulent financial times. By December 2017, Von Borries and Stefano were forced
to reduce their workforce by 7.5 percent, a reduction of thirty-four employees. This was cited as a
result of stagnation in the digital advertising arena (Spangler 2017). The company hoped that these
reductions would allow the business to make a greater financial investment in Refinery29’s future, and
thus enable the firm to financially regroup, reinvent, and restructure its visual and editorial branding
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message and better deal with the turbulent digital publishing and advertising landscape.

Technological limitations
The ubiquity of more globalized media markets over the last several years has induced greater
competition in the bourgeoning terrain of digital publishing. Entering global markets, such as France,
Canada, England, and Germany, has been imperative for Refinery29. In addition to its New York
City location, Refinery29 has now established offices in Paris, London, and Berlin, and ventured into
offering its platform as a German-language version. Alongside its expansion into other global markets,
Refinery29 has also focused on growing and diversifying the media content that it offers in order
to incorporate into its platform new trends in content production. Refinery29 has begun to listen to
crowdcultures (Holt 2016) that have advanced on social media platforms, including Instagram and
YouTube, when strategizing this growth and diversification. The website has consequently come to
recognize that its consumer base tends to value experiences over product (Jerde 2018). As a response
to this, Refinery29 has expanded their content into including live entertainment and experiential
consumer events. Refinery29’s 29Rooms events are examples of interactive, immersive environments
where audiences can meet in person and share curated, physical spaces staged by a diversity of artists.
Within the past two years, Refinery29 has also begun delivering immersive virtual reality productions
on a consistent basis. The company showcases 29Rooms as one of its augmented reality productions
that has created a tremendous amount of excitement, specifically in New York City and Los Angeles.
In 2016, the 29Rooms New York City launch generated 250 million social interactions (Johnson 2017).
According to Von Borries, an inherent advantage of these events is that the format enables thousands of
people to show up to the real-world event, and tens of millions to engage digitally, increasing audience
scope exponentially (Johnson 2017). This outcome demonstrates that broadcast experiences can be
optimized when shared. Amy Emmerich stressed that bringing people together in these multiple ways
also enables Refinery29 to gather greater consumer data and insights while simultaneously creating
meaningful experiences with the millennial generation (Jerde 2018).
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Refinery29’s Albie Hueston, creative director, amidst an art installation at Refinery29 Third Annual 29Rooms: Turn It Into Art
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—Press Preview on September 7, 2017, Brooklyn, NY. Photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images for Refinery29.

Art installation at Refinery29 Third Annual 29Rooms: Turn It Into Art—Press Preview, September 7, 2017, Brooklyn, NY.
Photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images for Refinery29.
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Art installation at Refinery29 Third Annual 29Rooms: Turn It Into Art—Press Preview, September 7, 2017, Brooklyn, NY.
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Photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images for Refinery29.

Millennials’ demands have continued to gravitate more towards lifestyle, political, cultural, and
inspirational issues in the digital-media space, meaning that Refinery29’s other new initiatives have
centered around featuring leaders that proactively engage in human rights issues, race, and gender.
Refinery29 has clarified that its content, business strategy and perspective are all geared around the
consumer and her interests and passions, and it wants to be certain that viewers from diverse walks of
life are reflected in all aspects of its content. R29 Features, for example, is a series of documentaries
that aim to educate audiences and inspire change through the process of personal storytelling. Another
offering, Shatterbox Anthology, is Refinery29’s film archive. In 2016, Shatterbox Anthology aimed
to address the imbalance in representation between male and female film directors by showcasing top
films that were directed by twelve women.

The livestreaming of such events has begun to demand even greater technological advancements from
Refinery29, and thus only five years after their first website rebrand the platform was undergoing
further changes in 2018. These changes were focused on enabling swifter load times and greater ease
of customer online navigation (Jerde 2018). Other areas of the website that have also been identified
as in need of development include the users’ interaction with Refinery29’s content across multiple
social media platforms.

Platform-driven businesses today must function within a state of continuous curation of content to
stay relevant. Some media channels’ existing navigation systems still demand the users to select,
identify, and aggregate the varied content the user wants to see. In response to navigational deficiency
and a drive towards personalization, many digital-oriented companies have expanded their artificial
intelligence capabilities, in order to provide services and products to their consumers in a more
customized manner based on their preferences and algorithms. Businesses which are able to sift this
data and then offer personalization of content are arguably offering users more value by delivering
content that their users are more likely to engage with and, in addition, are able to make better and
swifter conversion on these offerings into advertising revenue. Personalization is currently an area
that Refinery29 is working on developing. However, a more robust data analytics engine is required
in order for the business to successfully deliver within this area.

Business Questions
1. Create a comprehensive mission and vision statement for Refinery29 that ensures both
profitability and sustainability, while remaining as a tactical and ethical marketing
communications platform.
 2. Taking into consideration the current digital landscape, which requires marketing strategies
that exploit multiple messages through multiple channels, what are the advantages and
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disadvantages of Refinery29’s current digital offerings, including content and platform

design?
3. Identify at least three strategies for Refinery29 that you believe will be most effective in
unifying its digital marketing messages in order to increase sponsorship and grow its target
audiences. How could these strategies successfully transform Refinery29 over both the short-
and long-term, such as a two-year or ten-year trajectory, or beyond?
4. How can Refinery29 improve message creation in its integrated marketing communications
(IMC), such as persuasion and emotional appeal, in both a tactical and ethical manner, for
long-term growth?
5. In what ways could Refinery29 apply the marketing and media theorem: “more than less and
sooner than later” to its current business model? Can creative disruption be applied here?
6. The internet has enabled digital media communications companies to serve as a two-way,
interactive form of engagement, affording the customer optimum content choices. How
could Refinery29 capitalize on these recent technological advancements and their limitless
capabilities to track and analyze consumer data? What might be new digital initiatives or
alternate forms of engagement not yet discovered?
7. Explain how Refinery29’s newly formed data analytics platform could augment or hinder its
digital marketing strategy.
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Teaching Notes
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References and Further Reading

Beck Megan and Barry Libert . 2018. “A Platform Strategy Won’t Work Unless You’re Good
at Machine Learning.” Harvard Business Review, May 14. Accessed June 4, 2018. https://
hbr.org/2018/05/a-platform-strategy-wont-work-unless-youre-good-at-machine-learning .
Dunn Brian K. and Chris F. Kemerer . 2017. “Netflix Inc.: The Disruptor Faces Disruption .” Richard
Ivey School of Business Foundation , November 27: 3–5 .
Flamm Matthew . 2018. “Fast 50.” Crain’s New York Business . Accessed June 5, 2018. https://
www.crainsnewyork.com/features/2016-fast50 .
Griffith Erin . 2012. “Content and Commerce Only Flow One Way.” Pando, September 6. Accessed
August 8, 2018. https://pando.com/2012/09/06/content-and-commerce-only-flows-one-way/ .
Holt Douglas . 2016. “Branding in the Age of Social Media.” Harvard Business Review, March.
Accessed May 29, 2018. https://hbr.org/2016/03/branding-in-the-age-of-social-media .
Jerde Sara . 2018. “Refinery29 Expands 29Rooms Events to San Francisco.” Adweek, May 2.
Accessed May 29, 2018. https://www.adweek.com/tv-video/refinery29-expands-29rooms-events-to-
san-francisco-chicago/ .
Johnson Lauren . 2017. “Refinery29 Aims To Help Brands Connect With Women IRL.” Adweek, May
3. Accessed June 5, 2018. https://www.adweek.com/digital/refinery29-is-aiming-to-help-brands-
connect-with-women-irl/ .
Key Thomas Martin and Andrew J. Czaplewski . 2017. “Upstream Social Marketing Strategy: An
Integrated Marketing Communications Approach .” Business Horizons 60 (3): 325–333 .
Konrad Alex . 2013a. “Five Lessons Refinery29 Can Teach You To Be The Next $100M Startup.”
Forbes, November 7. Accessed June 5, 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2013/11/07/
refinery-29-lessons-for-startups/#676f8c06346a .
 Konrad Alex . 2013b. ‘“Refinery29 Flops On Commerce, But Growing Ads Business Keeps
Investors From Bolting.” Forbes, October 30. Accessed August 8, 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/
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alexkonrad/2013/10/30/rag-time-the-story-of-refinery-29/#7ffca279e5c3 .
Orma Stephanie . 2013. “Fashioning Change: Refinery29 Gets a Branding Makeover.” Orma
Design . Accessed June 5, 2018. http://ormadesign.com/blog/entrepreneur-magazine-refinery29-gets-
a-branding-makeover-design-writer/ .
Sluis Sarah . 2017. “Refinery29’s Converge Moves Branded Content Farther Down The Purchase
Funnel.” Ad Exchanger , July 31. Accessed June 5, 2018. https://adexchanger.com/publishers/
refinery29s-converge-moves-branded-content-farther-purchase-funnel/ .
Spangler Todd . 2017. “Refinery29 Lays Off 34 Staffers in Latest Sign of Digital-Media Malaise.”
Variety, December 15. Accessed May 29, 2018. https://variety.com/2017/digital/news/refinery29-
layoffs-digital-media-pullback-1202642073/ .
Steigrad Alexandra . 2017. “Refinery29 Charts New Course of Growth Amid Restructuring.”
WWD.com, March 1. Accessed May 31, 2018. https://wwd.com/business-news/media/refinery29-
charts-new-course-of-growth-amid-restructuring-reorganization-10825364/ .
Stuart Hughes Holly . 2017. “How to Land Work with Refinery29.” Photo District News, June 22.
Accessed May 29, 2018. https://www.pdnonline.com/business-marketing/land-work-refinery29# .
Weill Peter and Stephanie Woerner . 2018. What’s Your Digital Business Model: Six Questions to Help
You Build the Next-Generation Enterprise . Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.
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The author wrote this case solely to provide material for class discussion and independent learning.
The author does not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a situation. The
comments and interpretation presented are not necessarily those of the company or its employees.

This case has been written on the basis of published sources only. The interpretation and perspectives
presented in this case are not necessarily those of the company in question or any of its employees.
Definitions Crowdculture:

Defined by Holt (2016) as the fusing of “cultural innovators and their early adopter markets,” as
caused by the rise in social media as a tool for marketing and selling. Holt writes that whilst cultural
innovation used to flow from the disconnected margins of society, through the mass media, before
being disseminated into the mainstream, the rise in social media today has allowed previously disparate
groups to be brought together with an increased sense of pace and collaboration: “With a few
clicks, you can jump into the center of any subculture, and participants’ intensive interactions move
seamlessly among the web, physical spaces, and traditional media.”
Mediasphere:

Collective environment of media including all published and broadcast media.

Service journalism:

Journalism that gears its content towards its consumers. Platforms that use service journalism will
publish features and advice ranging from serious to trivial.

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