The Power of Integrated Marketing

From sponsorship to contextual advertising, the opportunities for brands to align closer to TV content have never been greater.  Whether it’s aligning your brand with the perfect programme, integrating your product into the action of a show, or signing TV talent to act as your brand ambassador, the prospects are delicious.

Turbo charge attention and sales through brand integration.

AdLand has always known that integrating brand messages into appropriate TV content, and sponsoring shows, provides a brand with long-term, sustained equity impacts.

And yet so often advertisers overlook integration in the media mix in favour of ‘spots and dots’ because they carry a lower (cost per thousand) CPM.  The Benchmark Series found that brands enjoyed a sales uplift when they integrated their brands into TV’s fabulous content.  It’s like the icing on the cake, isn’t it?

Be it sponsorship, advertiser-funded programming, advertorials, interactive content, competitions and promotions, televised branded events, product placement, or licensing, there are many bright colours on the palette of content partnerships for advertisers.

I get so emotional every time I watch TV

We know TV is the complete story-telling medium, capturing viewers’ hearts story-telling medium, capturing viewers’ hearts and minds and bringing them back week after week.  TV affords brands the time and space to create a beginning, middle and end, build tension and resolution, triumph or loss – and the ads are shown against premium quality content.  Combine the power of story-telling with mass reach and you have the perfect context for your brand to build valuable equity and grow.

TV advertisers have learned a thing or two about high quality content too – it’s why they spend so much time crafting ads that resonate with their audiences.  And research from the Benchmark Series shows that they are right on the money.  TV ads that generate a strong emotional reaction – irrespective of whether or not the reaction is positive or negative – attract 16% more attention than ads which elicit weak reactions.

When your ad sits within highly engaging content your audience’s emotions will be heightened, creating greater attention.  And if we know one thing from Benchmark, we know that attention translates into sales: ads that generate a strong emotional response get a 30% greater sales impact than ads that generate a weak response.

For more information, go to thinktv.com.au.

Source: ThinkTV, 76 Million Reasons to love TV, 2018.

The Hottest Show on Earth is Coming to 9Go! and 9Now

Nine’s Head of Content Production and Development, Adrian Swift, and Nine’s Group Content Strategy Director, Lizzie Young, speak about Love Island, its breakout success in the UK, the opportunity for brands to connect with the hard to reach millennial audience at scale, and what’s in store for the Australian version

Swift says that Love Island embodies all of the things that Nine does: “At the heart is this fantastic building, The Villa, which is a little like The Block. There’s all that fabulous heartfelt drama, chaos and tension, a little bit like Married At First Sight. It’s got a fantastic voiceover, not unlike Hamish & Andy, but best of all it’s got all the abs of Ninja. We think it’s a show that genuinely embodies everything we do and a lot more.”

Watch the Love Island Australia promo here:

LOVE ISLAND AUSTRALIA LAUNCH NO DONKEY

‘The living room experience’ is driving the growth of connected TVs

Nine’s General Manager of Video, Niamh Collins, says the 9Now audience numbers for a program like Married at First Sight – in some cases more than 200,000 – would not be as strong without a major uptake in the number of connected TVs.

According to Collins, 2017 saw real growth in the household penetration of products with growth platforms such as Telstra TV, Fetch TV and Apple TV, opening the door for a rapid expansion of the broadcast video on demand (BVOD) market.

“We have continued growth across all platforms – and iOS, Android and desktop – but in particular connected TVs,” she said.

“We have seen that people love the living room experience. They love watching connected TV, same as with linear TV, on that big screen. But the difference is that connected TV has the benefits of both worlds – the best of television and digital, for consumers and advertisers alike.”

Nine is seeing around 35-40 per cent of its BVOD traffic coming from connected TV and Collins argues that its key benefit for advertisers is the fully viewable, brand-safe environment.

In November last year Nine also launched its Summer Love initiative, which was designed to drive video consumption on 9Now over the Christmas break.

Collins said: “Late last year we acquired a substantial amount of reality and drama content that we knew would resonate with consumers, dramas like McLeod’s Daughters, reality shows like Arranged. And we enabled customers to watch that content on their own terms.

“Over the summer we saw strong uplifts in viewing on the platform, particularly on weekends, which says to me that 9Now is moving from a catch-up proposition to a broader platform, where you have great on-demand content and can also binge on your favourite shows and dramas throughout the year.”

Collins said Nine had also done a lot of work to improve both the consumer and advertiser experience, and it was this combination that had helped 9Now to reach an important milestone of five million sign-ups.

“From an advertiser point of view, we have done a lot to improve issues like back-to-back ads, and we have seen a dramatic reduction in those frustrations over the past 12 months,” she said.

“The work has helped us hit five million sign-ups on the platform, a phenomenal milestone. A sign of our success is in distributing our content across 14 different platforms, such as Fetch TV, Telstra TV, Apple TV, Google Chromecast and others.

“We are also doing a lot to improve the consumer experience. We have ensured that 9Now is available on all platforms that consumers engage with on a daily basis, and we want to continue to improve the experience, whether that’s making sign-up more seamless or surfacing the content easier.”

Underbelly is Back – with all Guns Blazing

Nine’s co-head of drama, Andy Ryan, says the time is right to bring back Nine’s highly successful Underbelly franchise.

Speaking ahead of Sunday’s launch of the two-part television event focusing on Mark “Chopper” Read, Ryan said: “We have come back with all guns blazing, with a new Underbelly Files: Chopper. It’s the story of Mark ‘Chopper’ Read, the story of his life picking up after the well-known Eric Bana movie.

“It really is a return to the energy, dynamism and gangster chic of the original Underbelly, and we have several returning characters, such as Alfphonse Gangitano, played by Vince Colosimo, who was such a fan favourite of the original series and is a major part of this story, as is the Moran family, with Debra Byrne reprising her role as Judy Moran.”

Ryan said the launch of Underbelly Files: Chopper on Sunday, starring award-winning actor Aaron Jeffery, would introduce a strong year for Nine in the drama space, with a mixture of different genres.

“We have great variety in our drama slate for this year,” he said. “We have announced four scripted programs for 2018: Underbelly Files, Bite Club, Doctor Doctor and True Story with Hamish & Andy.

“We have the gangster genre in Underbelly Files, we have a crime procedural in Bite Club, we have a broad family drama in Doctor Doctor, and a comedy in True Story with Hamish & Andy. We like to have a big variety across the slate. I think the thing that unifies all those shows is their extremely high quality. They are of an international standard in terms of production values and they have broad audience appeal.”

Underbelly in particular is seen as a format that has broad audience appeal and is a high energy production.

Chopper is a return to the energy, dynamism and gangster chic of the original Underbelly.”

Ryan also said he was excited about the return of programs like Doctor Doctor later in 2018 and the launch of Bite Club.

“We haven’t had a crime procedural on Nine for several years,” he said. “It used to be something we did a lot of, where you have a crime-of-the-week storyline. Bite Club is a return to that kind of storytelling, updated for contemporary audiences.

“It is a crime drama with a real edge. We have a great cast with Ash Ricardo, who was in Offspring, Todd Lasance, who is a Logie winner, Deborah Mailman, who is one of Australia’s most loved actresses, and an international star in Dominic Monahan, who was a star of Lost and Lord of the Rings.

“This cast brings a real energy and dynamism to what is a crime-of-the-week drama with a serial-killer story arc. It looks fantastic, it’s set in the inner city and beaches of Sydney, it has a strong backing from Sony internationally, and most importantly for us, strong local appeal.”

The senior Nine drama executive also noted that Doctor Doctor was returning due to strong viewer demand later in the year.

“The great thing about Doctor Doctor is its heart-warming, life-affirming drama with an edge,” he said. 

“With this series, we were keen to return to something that Australian audiences really respond to, which is the country doctor. It’s been a feature of Australian television for more than 40 years, but wanted new life breathed into it.

“In Doctor Doctor, we achieved that with Dr Hugh, played by Rodger Corser, who plays a very naughty character in a country town which is very modern – it isn’t stuck in the past – and so you see very contemporary issues and the Knight family are extremely relatable to all audiences and all age groups.”

More broadly, Ryan said drama on Nine was being viewed very differently as audience habits shifted and viewers moved to more on-demand viewing through platforms like 9Now.

“It used to be that we commissioned drama purely and simply for the overnight ratings number,” said Ryan. “That’s no longer the case.  We now take a much broader view of how we measure the success of a drama and that includes the overnight numbers, the time-shifted viewing, and also 9Now.

“We see our drama as having a very long lifespan, something we factor in right from the start.”

Ryan cited the success of the Summer Love initiative, which accounted for close to 50 per cent of streams in December and January, as an example of how Nine is driving its drama product in the digital era. 

“The way we measure success has changed rapidly,” he said. “The numbers we get on 9Now are fantastic.  It’s exciting to see how our drama lives on way beyond the initial broadcast.

“Over summer we saw a terrific response from the audience for shows like Doctor Doctor, House Husbands and McLeod’s Daughters. We now have a fantastic library of dramas for Nine. It is a destination for people who want to watch drama at a time of their own choosing, and it’s a great complementary platform for our free-to-air channels.”

Television automation set to take volatility out of TV buying

One of Australia’s top media buyers says the automation of television buying has now reached a key watershed and is set to grow rapidly in 2018, driven by the need to reduce volatility and achieve efficiencies in the purchasing process.

Speaking about the rollout of Nine’s automation platform, 9Galaxy, across the group’s agencies, Dentsu Aegis Group Investment Officer, Ashley Earnshaw, noted that Denstu Aegis was seeing real benefits for clients from automation.

9Galaxy Video - Trade Marketing_FINAL

“The automation of television in 2018 is going to accelerate,” said Earnshaw. “The benefit of automation for clients is firstly taking volatility out of the process. Clients want to have guaranteed delivery of schedules, know the pricing of those schedules, and also know what kind of audience reach they will achieve.

“We have been through a rigorous testing phase with 9Galaxy to give our clients confidence that the technology is able to deliver for them. There have certainly been benefits in efficiency of buying.   Clients are able to get effective schedules that deliver on the quality they expect from television.

More broadly, Earnshaw said the biggest win from using 9Galaxy was the removal of volatility, giving marketers greater certainty over their TV buying by tailoring it to individual marketer needs, based on category or campaign.

“Our experience of 9Galaxy has been very positive,” he said. “We looked at the platform and tested it with a mixture of clients – some who have a very broad targeting and some who needed the technology to deal with several adherences.

“We see the benefits of automated platforms like 9Galaxy for media buyers as taking the friction out of the buying process while delivering on efficiency and targeting, thus removing that volatility for our clients.”

Also, from an execution point of view, client confidence comes through, and we see from an invoicing point of view how the invoicing becomes more accurate, which is important. In terms of how media is paid for, that has been a positive experience as well.”

Nine’s Chief Sales Officer, Michael Stephenson, said the importance of efficiency and the removal of volatility for marketers has been a key driver behind the growth and take-up of 9Galaxy.

Nine Offers Guaranteed Audience Delivery on Dynamic Campaigns Through 9Galaxy

“The benefit of a fully automated trading system like 9Galaxy is in its design, which removes the volatility that currently exists in the buying and selling of linear television,” he said.

“It will fully automate the buying process between buyer and seller, and at the same time give a 100 per cent guarantee that the ratings you buy from us will be delivered.”

Stephenson said there has been a very strong client reaction since the launch of 9Galaxy at Nine’s Upfronts in October 2017, driven in part by the guaranteed delivery of Nine’s off-peak and multi-channel inventory.

“There are a number of benefits for advertisers,” said Stephenson. “Now when you buy 100 ratings points, we guarantee to deliver you 100 ratings points. There will be no makegoods or shortfalls on that inventory.

“More importantly, when a TV spot is booked it is touched on average around eight times by buyer and seller before the spot is broadcast, as agencies look to optimise their campaign to deliver their ultimate ratings outcome.

“9Galaxy avoids all this. Once the price is set and the number of ratings is agreed to, it is a far more efficient process that gives the advertiser certainty.”

Nine has also committed to integrating 9Galaxy with its data lake in 2018, opening the door to automation of buying across its broadcast video on demand (BVOD) products on 9Now.

Earnshaw believes this innovation is attractive to both agencies and marketers who are increasingly planning cross-platform in their campaigns.

“9Galaxy sets our clients up for a future of intent-based executing of television,” he said.

“We see 9Galaxy as not only providing that automation and execution, but also setting our clients up to be able to transact with intent-based targeting, looking at audiences in a different way, including a future with divergent screen activity as well.

“We are working with clients on the execution of cross-platform strategies and certainly we see the partnership with Nine on 9Galaxy as an integral part of this as it helps to deliver those cross-platform strategies into the future.”

To request more information about 9Galaxy or an in-agency presentation click here