ITV relaunch of Friends Reunited proves a success

by Daniel Farey-Jones, Brand Republic 27-Aug-08, 09:00

LONDON - Friends Reunited, the ITV-owned social networking site, drew 5.5m unique users in July, which is almost three times the 2m it had during April, just before it relaunched as a free service.

The user figures, supplied by Nielsen, show that 5.2m of the total were from the UK. In addition the group of Friends Reunited sites, which include Genes Reunited and Friends Reunited Dating as well as the main site, attracted 6.6m users in July.

Subscription charges for the main site were dropped at the beginning of May after ITV decided to move to a purely advertising based revenue model, which is expected to capitalise on making video a feature on the site.

The site is hoping its relaunch and accompanying £8m ad campaign, created by Hurrell Moseley Dawson Grimmer, will bring back some of the 19m people who have registered with it over the years.

The relaunch introduced features such as a timeline, which allows members to share events from each other's past. More than 200,000 events have been added to timelines since.

Andy Baker, managing director of Friends Reunited, said: "One of the main reasons for our success is that we have made use of new, easy-to-use, no-nonsense features aimed squarely at helping UK grown-ups stay in touch with their friends online."

He added: "Friends Reunited is preparing for the launch of new features to be released later in 2008 which will further extend its position as the leading UK social network for grown ups.

"One of the areas we're most excited about is the rampant growth of video across the other ITV portfolio sites and online generally, which presents opportunities to add considerable value for the communities developing on the site."

Comments

Felix Velarde - 27/08/2008

This huge jump in traffic is quite possibly down to the fact that FR sent emails to all its lapsed members, then followed up with spurious and misleading emails saying new messages had been received, login to retrieve - only to be presented with an email from FR again promoting their site. In my case that's three visits over several days (consequently with no way to distinguish between repeat and unique user visits) just to unsubscribe. Much more telling will be next month's traffic figures. In general terms, re-launching a paid-for site as free by emailing everyone you've ever been in contact with (I stopped using FR in 2005) several times is a no-brainer way of generating not just additional traffic but also - clearly - welcome PR exposure. There are much better ways of re-connecting with lapsed or dormant customers, and a properly thought-out eCRM programme would do this without risking alienating people who might well become customers again in future if the offer is compelling enough. FR is a great brand, and some of the folk who have helped shape it are awesome people, but I think the blunderbuss approach FR has taken in this particular case will at least have shaken out a number of waverers who could have been reactivated but instead have signed off for good. It'll be fascinating to see the settled-down figures.