Are Playbuzz Flip Cards a Listicle Killer?

In order to create sharable content optimized for mobile, Internet quiz-maker Playbuzz is hoping to change the game, and its reputation, with Flip Cards.

Playbuzz is a free content creation site that helps brands like MTV, Martha Stewart, and Time, Inc., make those omnipresent quizzes and listicles scattered across social media. Yesterday, the company rolled out a new content creation tool, Flip Cards, that add a little mystery to the common listicle with a “flip to reveal” feature that, according to Playbuzz co-founder and chief executive (CEO) Shaul Olmert, has readers engaging much more than a traditional listicle. 

“We constantly tested Flip Cards against listicles and measured to see which had the highest results,” says Olmert. “Early tests [such as the one the brand conducted with Distractify] showed that engagement was eight times as good as it was for the same piece of content without the format when we tested against lists. We measured by completion rate, whether users were flipping each item, and time spent on the site.”

The Distractify test post, a list of Flip Cards revealing what Orange is the New Black characters look like out of character, recieved 25,000 social engagements in its first 24 hours, according to Jason Mustian, CEO of Distractify.

Hidden panels in articles are nothing new. In fact, BuzzFeed has been using its “Tap to Reveal” feature for at least a year now. However, Olmert says that formatting Flip Cards to mobile and making individual cards shareable across social will soon make Flip Cards as popular as quizzes and lists. Playbuzz has done testing on things like picking the right sized images for screen sizes and how long people spend on each item when they scroll, making adjustments accordingly.

While Olmert is hoping to solidify Playbuzz’s reputation as a content creation tool with Flip Cards, he doesn’t think that the listicles and quizzes on which Playbuzz built its reputation are going anywhere soon.

“No format ever really dies,” Olmert says. “The long-form article is still around. But people need new ways to view content on mobile devices, and since users discover content on social, you constantly need to adapt to that.”

Olmert is also hoping that Playbuzz itself with evolve from being primarily known as a website that produces sharable quizzes optimized for Facebook to a content tool used by major publishers looking to leverage social media shares for site visits.

One way Olmert says that Playbuzz is looking to change its image is by removing itself from Facebook’s rankings. Until recently, Playbuzz was consistently ranked as the most-shared site on Facebook, but this month, the company removed itself from the rankings, which handed the title to The Huffington Post.

“We wanted to make sure we weren’t competing with our publishers,” Olmert says. “We are the partner, not the competitor. These new tools are really our way of differentiating what we do, making products to make publishers more successful. Our website is a showcase of our network; we’re not a standalone entity.”