The digital advertising landscape in Germany just got a little more interesting. Two major players, wissenmedia and the rtv media group, have joined forces to boost their online portfolios. The core of this partnership? A classic distribution cooperation that allows advertisers to mirror their campaigns across both wissen.de and rtv.de.
If you are running an ad campaign on wissen.de, you can now choose to have that same campaign appear on rtv.de. It is not about merging the sites. It is about extending reach. Both portals attract a specific demographic: highly educated, affluent, and consumption-oriented users. By combining these audiences, both companies are optimizing the visibility of their clients’ messages.
Already some clients are taking advantage of this setup. The Tourism Board of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and vacation provider Wikinger Reisen are currently using this cross-promotion. They are looking for a “Wandering Scout” for their latest campaign.
Why This Partnership Matters for Advertisers
This move is strategic. It expands the inventory available to brands without creating new content from scratch. wissenmedia handles the monetization of its online magazine in-house, focusing on complex image campaigns. These often include multimedia and social media elements.
For standard advertising formats, the partner Ströer interactive steps in to manage the sales. This split allows each company to play to its strengths. wissenmedia focuses on deep, content-rich integrations. The broader portfolio is handled by specialized sales partners.
Ulrike Kleinhans, Head of wissenmedia Service, sees the synergy clearly. The target groups complement each other perfectly. This creates a specific value proposition for clients who want to maximize their budget across high-quality environments.
Martin Schumacher, head of rtv media solutions, agrees. He sees wissen.de as a strong partner. Together, the two sites strengthen their market position. The goal is not just to sell ads, but to offer a more robust platform for brands targeting discerning consumers.
The Audience Behind the Screens
To understand the value, you have to look at what these platforms actually offer.
wissen.de has been active since May 2000. It is an online magazine that curates current knowledge, general education, and science topics. It covers eight different departments. Users get access to a comprehensive lexicon, dictionaries in German and foreign languages, and various knowledge trainers. It belongs to wissenmedia in der inmediaONE GmbH, which is part of the Bertelsmann arvato AG.
rtv.de is run by the rtv media group, another subsidiary of arvato. This group is a leading European media house for TV program solutions. They publish rtv, the largest weekly TV magazine in Germany with around 13 million readers. They operate rtv.de and serve over 200 clients across Europe with media solutions related to TV program content.
The common thread is quality. Both platforms serve users who are not just scrolling aimlessly. They are looking for information. They are engaged. For an advertiser, reaching this group means higher potential engagement rates compared to generic traffic.
How the Technical Execution Works
The cooperation is structured as a distribution partnership. This means the backend logistics are handled to allow campaign mirroring. Advertisers do not need to build two separate creative assets from scratch. They can take their wissen.de campaign and apply it to rtv.de.
This is useful for brands that want broad coverage among the same demographic. It simplifies the buying process. Instead of negotiating separate deals with two different entities, there is a coordinated offering.
Ströer interactive manages the standard advertising assets for both partners. This ensures consistency in sales processes. wissenmedia retains control over its high-end, in-house managed special advertising formats. These are often the most expensive and complex buys, involving multimedia elements.
The Bigger Picture in Digital Media
This kind of cooperation is becoming more common as ad markets mature. Brands are looking for efficiency. They want their messages seen by the right people without wasting budget on irrelevant traffic.
By linking a science and education portal with a TV program magazine, the partnership covers different
