The Horse

How AI Helped This Media Giant Classify 30 Years of Content in Hours—And Skyrocket Ad Revenue!

Client

The Horse

Industry

Media

Services

Artificial
Intelligence

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About
the Client

TheHorse.com has been a trusted source for horse care and health content since 1995. With thousands of articles accumulated over nearly three decades, this equine-focused media giant, owned by Equine Network LLC, faced a unique challenge: How to categorize their vast content library in a way that allowed them to better serve advertisers and improve content targeting.

Led by Marla Bickel, the Vice President of Data & Content Services, TheHorse.com embarked on a quest to solve this problem without disrupting their workflow.

Problem

As content grew over the years, TheHorse.com had limited internal categories and subcategories to classify its content. Without accurate classification, their marketing efforts—and ability to deliver relevant content to their audience—were at risk. The stakes were high:

Advertisers needed more precise insights to target their campaigns. The marketing team struggled to understand which content drove the most engagement. Manually classifying 50,000 articles would have taken a team of three people over one year to complete, working full-time, 40 hours a week.

Stakes

Without solving the classification problem, TheHorse.com would lose valuable insights into its audience and miss out on critical advertising opportunities. Their ability to monetize the site would be diminished, as they couldn’t give advertisers a clear picture of the site’s content distribution.

Solution

We developed a custom plugin for TheHorse.com’s WordPress site, seamlessly integrating it into their existing system. This plugin automatically classified new and old content without requiring manual intervention or changing site structure. The plugin was scalable and versatile enough to extend to other platforms, such as Vimeo, which the client had in mind for future projects.

# 1
A Scalable Plugin for WordPress (and Beyond)

We developed a custom plugin for TheHorse.com’s WordPress site, seamlessly integrating it into their existing system. This plugin automatically classified new and old content without requiring manual intervention or changing site structure. The plugin was scalable and versatile enough to extend to other platforms, such as Vimeo, which the client had in mind for future projects.

# 2
Internal API &
Custom Dashboard

Behind the scenes, the plugin communicated with an internal API that processed content using a vectorization engine connected to a Pinecone database. Each article was analyzed and classified according to predefined categories and subcategories using a sophisticated compatibility index ranging from 0 to 1. This ensured accuracy and consistency throughout the classification process.

# 3
Completely Transparent to
Writers & Editors

One of the greatest advantages was that the system did not disrupt any existing processes. There was no need for writers or editors to adjust their workflows, and the system ran entirely in the background, ensuring minimal interference while maintaining peak efficiency.

# 4
Custom Innovations Tailored to Client Needs

This solution was fully customized. From the UI design to the API functionality, everything was built from scratch to address TheHorse.com’s unique challenges. Unlike off-the-shelf solutions, this system was built to evolve with the client’s future needs, providing adaptability for whatever platforms or new challenges they may face.

Results

$144,000

Saved thanks to
South Target

# 1
Speed & Precision

Nearly 30 years’ worth of content—over 50,000 articles—was classified in just a matter of hours. The level of accuracy and speed left the client amazed, especially compared to manual methods

# 2
Scalability

The system was designed to be scalable, meaning TheHorse.com could continue publishing new content without ever needing to worry about manual classification again. Future articles are automatically classified, and the client even has the option to extend this solution to new platforms, such as video platforms like Vimeo.

# 3
Increased
Advertising Revenue

The system allowed TheHorse.com to give advertisers precise insights into how their content was performing in each marketing category. This clarity helped boost advertising revenue, as advertisers were now able to target their campaigns based on exact data, increasing their confidence and spend.

# 4
Cost & Time
Savings

By automating the classification process, TheHorse.com saved significant time. If they had hired a team of professionals to do this manually, the project would have taken over a year to complete. Now, the system runs on auto-pilot, freeing up their team to focus on more strategic initiatives.

# 5
Long-Term Value

The system is future-proof. As content continues to grow, TheHorse.com now has a permanent, automated solution that evolves with them—ensuring every piece of content remains accurately categorized, and that advertisers always receive the most up-to-date, valuable information.

Overcoming Unseen Challenges

During development, we anticipated certain complexities, such as potential compatibility issues between legacy content and modern AI classification tools. We solved this by creating a system that worked independently of the site’s infrastructure, ensuring that there were no disruptions or conflicts with existing content or processes.

Key
Takeaways

By integrating AI-powered automation, TheHorse.com revolutionized how it managed its content. The solution we delivered not only classified three decades’ worth of articles in hours but also unlocked new advertising revenue and improved operational efficiency. This custom-built solution proved that AI is not just a tool for efficiency but also a strategic lever for growth.

Why South Target Was the Right Choice

TheHorse.com needed a solution that could automate decades of content classification with precision and scalability. South Target’s expertise in AI-driven automation and deep understanding of WordPress made it the ideal partner for this project. The seamless integration of custom-built AI solutions allowed TheHorse.com to efficiently classify content without disrupting its existing operations.

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Marla Bickel

VP of Data & Content Services at Equine Network

On Trustpilot

“We recently had the pleasure of working with South Target, in development of a WordPress plugin to automate the categorization of our website content and report on what articles our readers are engaging with. The plugin seamlessly integrates into our existing system, running quietly in the background without requiring any manual input from our team. This efficiency allows us to focus on creating quality content rather than spending time on data analytics. One of the standout features of South Target’s solution is the user-friendly dashboard. It provides real-time insights into our audience’s engagement patterns so we can quickly activate new revenue opportunities. South Target’s design exceeded our expectations as it has proven to be adaptable enough to meet our changing business needs. Overall, South Target has proven to be a reliable and innovative partner. We highly recommend their services.”

Already Trusted By

The Horse
Rex
PrimePro
PeerWise
Air Traffic Control
Barrel Racing
Myth
Royal Legal Solutions
Calf Roping
Equine Network
Kovels
Active Interest Media

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