Case Study: Der Standard achieves 23x contributions revenue and rapid go-to-market with Piano

How Piano powered the launch of a new revenue stream, exceeding annual goals in a matter of months

DER STANDARD is a Vienna-based German-language daily with one of Austria’s largest digital audiences. During a 2019 site relaunch the team wanted to diversify revenue to better fund quality journalism without reducing its strong digital ad income. Early tests of a contribution model showed promise but the existing tech made it hard to communicate offers or rapidly experiment with messaging and targeting.

DER STANDARD implemented Piano Composer and engaged Piano Launch Services to accelerate rollout, moving a planned six‑month launch into a few weeks and going site-wide in February 2020. The effort capitalized on increased traffic during COVID: contributions rose 10x in the first full month versus the 2019 test, contributions revenue grew 23x and paying contributors increased 7.5x in the first half of 2020, allowing the publisher to surpass its annual contributions goal by Q2.

Der Standard

Florian Stambula

Head of Digital Subscription Products