Today, we look at the New York Times’ clever pitch to convert Wordle users into Times subscribers.
Knowledge Waits is a feature where I just share some bit of pop culture history that interests me that doesn’t quite fit into the other features.
As I recently wrote, the New York Times has done a really nice job keeping Wordle as its own thing without messing with it since it purchased it.
Today, it made its biggest change to Wordle and it is an extremely clever and not at all intrusive idea. Basically, after you got your Wordle word correct today, it made an offer to let you sign up with the Times for a free account so that your stats could be maintained even if you change computers. I, for instance, got a new laptop back in March and so I lost my Wordle stats. Here, you can keep your stats if you’d like even if you change computers…just so long as you sign up for a free Times account and so they can now list you as a “subscriber,” I suppose.
It’s a great pitch because it goes right to the core of what people who play Wordle are interested in, the scores and the communal sharing of the scores. It is not an intrusive offer, at all, as you can just keep playing the same way if you’d like (which is what I’ll be doing, for instance), but if you want to keep your stats, they are giving you an easy way to do it and all you have to do is give them a “subscriber.”
Very clever stuff that really shows an understanding of Wordle players. Now, if a free account would ever be a REQUIREMENT in the future, then forget that, but I see no reason why that would be the case.
Drop me a line at brian@popculturereferences.com if you have any other interesting bit about pop culture that you’d like me to discuss!
