Oke Okaro, General manager and global head of mobile, Bloomberg

Top Innovators in Business Publishing 2012

By Marie Griffin

Oke Okaro

General manager and global head of mobile

Bloomberg

Oke Okaro was named general manager and global head of mobile at Bloomberg in March 2010 after spending almost six years as VP-mobile at ESPN. Over the past 13 months, he has led the rollout of four innovative new mobile applications using the popular Apple iOS operating system—Bloomberg TV+ and Bloomberg Businessweek+ for the iPad, and Bloomberg Radio+ and Bloomberg Businessweek+ for the iPhone. He has also made sure all the company's websites are optimized for viewing on any mobile device. As a result, Bloomberg's mobile audience grew 92% from March 2011 to March 2012 to 7.8 million unique monthly visitors.

In a world where technology and media are converging, Bloomberg can leverage a heritage and core competency in technology, Okaro said. Not only is Okaro able to take advantage of Bloomberg's in-house development team to build innovative apps and mobile sites cost-efficiently, he can also use the company's data analytics capabilities to understand exactly how audiences are interacting with them. “We have a deep understanding of our audience, which gives us a level of insight beyond what most media companies have,” he said.

“Our strategy for mobile is a portfolio strategy,” Okaro said, explaining that Bloomberg's brands have been aligned with the devices that provide the best user experience, such as pairing the Bloomberg TV+ app with the high-quality video viewing experience of the iPad. Links among Bloomberg's media brands have also been built into the apps. For example, a user can click a company's stock market symbol in a Bloomberg Businessweek+ story and get instant stock quotes from Bloomberg's financial division.

Originally posted on: 4/30/12