The interview: Reddit is transforming its platform with two major initiatives: expanding its commerce capabilities and redefining social media engagement through a “seeking, not scrolling” approach, according to a recent EMARKETER interview with CMO Roxy Young and Jim Squires, executive vice president of business marketing and growth.

Platform strategy: Reddit is embracing its dual roles of empowering intent-driven users seeking specific information and fostering communities for ongoing discussions.

• Reddit Answers, released last month, bridges these behaviors by surfacing relevant communities based on natural language queries.
• Reddit Pro, launched last March, provides businesses with free organic tools to participate in relevant discussions—and getting prospective advertisers comfortable with the platform’s unique mechanics.
• Over the last year, Reddit has introduced dynamic product ads as part of a full-funnel solution, with multiplacement optimization automatically placing ads across feeds and conversations.

Behavior and commerce: Reddit's value proposition for advertisers centers on authentic consumer conversations that span the entire shopping journey.

• “People are in this mindset where they're actively seeking out products and services... they have this discovery and purchase intent mindset on the platform,” Squires explained about Reddit's unique commerce position.
• Young highlighted how product discussions emerge organically, citing a home improvement post where “people were actually having deep conversations and evangelizing and endorsing their purchase decisions” about every element of a kitchen remodel.
• The platform serves the entire purchase journey, from product discovery through post-purchase discussion.

Our take: Reddit's distinctive approach combines commerce and community engagement in a way that sets it apart from some other social platforms' endless scroll model. As Young describes, the platform facilitates "deep conversations [where users are] evangelizing and endorsing their purchase decisions" while serving as "an incredibly valuable tool for people to find real human perspectives.”

Those authentic conversations could provide advertisers with valuable opportunities to connect with users when they’re most receptive to highly relevant contextual ads.

Go further: Read what Young and Squires had to say about Reddit's global expansion.

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