AUSTIN — Over the years, when most people have talked about The Economist’s online strategy, discussion has centered around its access model. Right now, that is three free articles a week – but this is not the only horse the publisher has in the race.

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) is also busy producing premium research and events for readers beside the main Economist.com brand – and giving marketers an opportunity to create their own, to boot.

“We’ve been doing content before content was popular,” The Economist content solutions unit MD Elena Sukacheva tells Beet.TV in this video interview. “With Economist Intelligence Unit, we publish a lot of research sponsored by mostly B2B companies.

“(Previously), it was very traditional forms of content – 7,000-word white papers that were often missing the vast majority of the audience; who has time to read 7,000 words?

“Instead of doing one massive paper, we break down the findings of the research in to multiple pieces and feed them through a social network, or create a content hub (for brands).”

Sukacheva was interviewed by Beet.TV at the 4As’ (American Association of Advertising Agencies) Transformation 2015 event in Austin, Texas. Our coverage is sponsored by Videology.  Please find more coverage from the conference here.