Case Study: Future PLC achieves rapid mobile subscription growth and $1M+ incremental revenue with Airship

Delivering Happiness Through Apple’s Newsstand

Future PLC, an international special-interest media group with more than 180 titles, wanted to strengthen its mobile business by offering app-based subscriptions through Apple’s Newsstand and improving how subscribers received news and alerts. The challenge was to manage individual subscription rules, deliver and update content to devices, handle notifications and in-app purchases, and integrate event reporting and analytics — all in time for the iOS 5 Newsstand launch.

Future partnered with Urban Airship to add subscription, push-notification and reporting capabilities, enabling a fast app-store launch and targeted alerts that drove engagement faster than email, search, SMS or banners. The integration scaled messaging and monetization at a fraction of the cost of an internal build: Future exceeded its 100,000 subscription and single-issue goal eight months early, reached 6.5 million devices and generated over $1 million in incremental revenue within 45 days.

Future PLC

Richard Walker

Director of Consumer Revenues