How Ekstra Bladet Scaled Native Sales – With A Publisher-First Platform

Many publishers still rely on manual processes for selling native – but it doesn’t have to be that way.

👉 Read the case a explore what’s possible for you.

Background

Ekstra Bladet is one of Denmark’s largest news platforms, known for bold journalism, dynamic storytelling and continuous innovation. In 2024, Ekstra Bladet and its Brand Stories unit partnered with Contimo to accelerate growth in native advertising — and build a more scalable, efficient setup for both internal teams and advertisers.

The Challenge

Ekstra Bladet’s native team faced a familiar set of challenges:

• Manual workflows across CMS, analytics, and ad servers slowed things down — these systems weren’t built for native and didn’t integrate.

• Campaign setup and management demanded disproportionate internal resources.

• A lack of deep data insight, tracking and automated optimisation made it difficult to improve performance and document outcomes to advertisers.

• Small and mid-sized advertisers had limited access to native content and advertorials.

This meant a growing revenue opportunity that was hard to capture without a smarter, more connected way of working.

The Solution

By consolidating operations within the Contimo platform, Ekstra Bladet was able to:

• Form a close partnership with Contimo — not just as a demand partner, but as a hands-on collaborator focused on growing native revenue

• Streamline the full campaign flow: from content creation to teaser setup, optimisation and reporting

• Access real-time data and automated performance optimisation

• Launch a self-serve tool with Contimo, opening the door to new advertiser segments

• Build a scalable and future-ready model for native advertising
  

The Results

• 📈  16% native revenue growth in just 6 months

• 📈 More daily active campaigns 

• 📈 Significantly reduced time-to-market on native campaigns

• 📈 More campaigns sold – including to new advertiser groups and agencies

• 📈 Improved transparency in reporting and documentation

• 📈 Substantial drop in internal admin time

  
  

What Ekstra Bladet says

“With the same team size, we’re now handling significantly more campaigns and generating higher revenue — without compromising on quality.” — Sebastian Fernandez, Head of Brand Stories

“Through the platform, we’re gaining meaningful revenue from clients we wouldn’t otherwise reach — while keeping full control over the campaigns we run externally — Emil Rath, Product Development Ad Sales & Tech

Ready to scale your native business too?If you’re dealing with similar challenges — or just looking to unlock more revenue with less friction — Contimo could be a fit.

👇 Tell us a bit about your setup and let’s explore what’s possible.