BuzzFeed's European boss tells us how she plans to 'dispel the myth' that the site is just about 'cats and kids'
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Speaking to Business Insider in BuzzFeed Europe's London headquarters, Burns lists them off: The big hire of former Guardian deputy editor Janine Gibson as BuzzFeed's UK editor-in-chief; BuzzFeed passing 1 billion monthly video views; and the company raising $200 million in funding from NBC, which will soon see the digital brand expand into traditional media like movies and TV. Had we met her a week later, she would no doubt have added the company's multi-million dollar advertising deal with the world's largest ad agency holding group WPP to the company's recent list of achievements.
It's evident Burns is being genuine when she talks about her love of the brand. "I jump out of bed every day and work my butt off," she beams.
But Burns wasn't always so blown away by online content brands.
"I basically stalked [BuzzFeed president] Greg Coleman on LinkedIn"
Burns is an internet advertising veteran, having held some of the biggest roles in the European tech business. Back in 2001, she was the first international hire at Google, joining as its UK managing director. After building up her team of one to more than 300 employees in five years, she was promoted to become Google's regional director for UK, Ireland, and Benelux.
Burns then served as UK and Europe managing director at online video site Dailymotion. She went on to become VP and managing director for Europe at AOL's teen-focused social media site Bebo. Clearly making an impression with the parent company, she was promoted to become AOL's VP of sales for Europe, and then she was promoted again in 2010 to become CEO and SVP for AOL Europe. She also had European VP roles at ad tech companies Drawbridge and Shift before joining BuzzFeed.
It was only at AOL that she became convinced content companies could become big internet players. But it took three years of convincing.
"I was working at AOL when Tim [Armstrong, AOL CEO] revealed this content strategy. I'd just joined from Google when I thought search was the be all and end all when it came to online. What even is online content? I kept asking that question: 'why content? TV networks do content, it's not scaleable [online.]' But in three years at AOL, Tim showed that maybe if you can do it cleverly, it can work. Look at the numbers of that business. And look now at the digital audience and how we ferociously check news, and video, with the big mobile transformation," Burns said.
Burns said she was immediately drawn to BuzzFeed when she heard from a friend of a friend that Greg Coleman - former president of ad tech company Criteo, and before that the former president of AOL-owned Huffington Post - was joining the company. The two had crossed paths over the past two decades and knew each others' names, but had never actually met.
"He's got this incredible background, a superstar, one of the most experienced media professionals there is. So when I found out he'd gone to BuzzFeed, I basically stalked him on LinkedIn and sent a message saying 'let's have lunch'," Burns said.
"I think he ignored me at first, but I was persistent. We met for lunch and talked about our backgrounds, and BuzzFeed. What really got me excited was that magic mix between art, and tech, and science," Burns added.
She came away from her lunch meeting and did more research into the company, particularly into BuzzFeed founder and CEO Jonah Peretti, who Burns finds "inspirational."
Burns said she went from that lunch to her hire at BuzzFeed in the space of just 10 days.
One of Burns' biggest jobs now is to 'dispel the myth that we are about cats and kids'
Burns joins BuzzFeed Europe in an enviable position. BuzzFeed.com is hugely popular in the UK, already attracting 17.8 million monthly unique users in the country, according to Quantcast. She describes BuzzFeed UK as the "jewel in the crown" for BuzzFeed Europe, and it's the company's largest business outside the US. Some 45% of BuzzFeed's traffic already comes from outside of its home market.
Elsewhere, Burns says Germany and France - the two other offices in Europe where BuzzFeed has editorial staff stationed - are "growing at a really nice rate." When Business Insider mentions industry chatter we had heard that BuzzFeed France may not be performing as well, Burns dismisses this suggestion but admits it "takes time" to build out a brand - not least because BuzzFeed France has an editorial staff of 10, compared to BuzzFeed UK's 70 (more people = more content = more traffic.)
BuzzFeed also plans a launch in Spain in the coming months, Burns told us, adding that the plan is to make other "small investments" (meaning launching new regional operations) in other countries next year too.
On the advertising front, Burns only has commercial staff positioned in the UK so far. She won't give us any revenue numbers, or even revenue growth numbers, but says BuzzFeed Europe already has "three to four significant programs worth more than £1 million," referring to upfront advertising deals the company has struck with advertising agencies.
Some of that perception work will happen editorially, with UK editor Janine Gibson coming on board earlier this month and as the company continues to grow out its news operation. BuzzFeed UK has also tapped two other journalists from The Guardian: its former special projects editor James Ball. who has become BuzzFeed UK's special correspondent, and the newspaper's former head of news Stuart Millar, who is joining BuzzFeed UK in the same role.
But Burns doesn't want BuzzFeed to become too serious: "Jonah [Peretti] often describes us as a kind of Parisian cafe. You could be reading Sartre, with a copy of Le Monde on the table, and Vivaldi playing over the radio, while stroking a poodle. There's much more diversification in our product than people think, and the more we talk about that the better."
Burns has plans for BuzzFeed to do just that. She has made her first marketing appointment - previously there was no marketing support outside the US - and has begun building out the "classic business plan."
That will include events, partner outreach, parties, conferences, thought leadership, releasing advertising case studies, and going into ad agencies to educate them about the BuzzFeed brand.
"People are very receptive and want to hear from us. We almost have a captive audience. People go crazy for our [swag bags of branded merchandise] - there's such an amount of warmth for the brand," Burns said.