April 2018 - Nine for Brands

We Can’t Underestimate What Moving To The Primary Channel Will Do For Netball

Nine’s senior sports leadership is projecting significant audience growth in preparation for the launch of its second season of Suncorp Super Netball.

This Saturday, for the first time, Nine will shift the game to its primary channel, a move which Nine’s Director of Sport, Tom Malone, predicts will lead to year-on-year, double-digit growth.

“I think what we are going to see in terms of audience this year is only further growth,” said Malone, referencing the strong audiences achieved last season. “Hopefully again in the double digits, because this year netball will be airing in the winter months, which aligns more with when the Netball season in the community.
In 2017, Netball was broadcast for the first time on Nine in a revenue-sharing partnership whereby the media company in effect became the game’s marketing partner, selling sponsorships across everything from TV to digital to in-stadium signage. More

“I think the beauty of netball and Nine is that it is a true partnership,” said Keeley Devery, Nine’s Head of Netball. “We are all working together on how we can move the sport forward.”

Devery noted that the first year of Netball on Nine had seen strong audiences, with more than four million Australians tuning in, and real strength in audiences in regional areas. More

“Netball is played everywhere, and the high audience numbers in regional areas last year were a pleasant surprise,” she said. “I think it’s partially because it has a strong foothold in country towns and regional areas – every major country town has a netball club.

“With games at 3.00 pm every Saturday and 1.00pm every Sunday I don’t think we can underestimate what that is going to do for the sport.”

Malone agrees, arguing that Netball’s size as a participation sport is what gives it such strength.

“We didn’t anticipate was just how big Netball was going to be in regional and rural Australia,” he said. “The figures were staggering and the feedback we got in rural and coastal areas was huge, because Netball is the number one participation sport for women and girls.

“Now they are getting their chance to see their heroes live and free on Nine and that connection between the grassroots and the elite versions of the game now has been completely formed.”

For marketers, Malone says netball offers some distinct advantages.

“There is a huge interest in netball from marketers for good reason. You don’t get better athletes in Australia than these intelligent, articulate, incredible fit players playing in the best league in the world.

“Netball is a female-led sport and Australia draws on the best players in the world, which had an impact when Australia beat England in the Commonwealth Games.

“Suncorp Super Netball is an incredible league with incredible players and it is targeting a demographic that is hard for marketers to reach, women aged 16 to 35 who participate in netball right around the country every week. Netball offers the chance to reach this audience in a brand-safe, premium environment of sport.”
Devery agrees, noting the strong role models that Netball players offer children and teenagers.

“Seeing women playing sport on TV is well overdue,” she said. “As a mother I am so pleased my daughter can now watch her heroes on the sporting field.

“The great thing about the Suncorp Super Netball is that it’s the best netball league in the world.”

Leverage The Power Of Connected TV With Nine

The 2017 IAB white paper about the Connected TV (CTV) landscape reinforces the explosive growth for connected TV streams in Australia, increasing by 351% in total over the last 15 months across the four major free-to-air broadcasters in Australia.

Connected TV: The New Era of Television offers a significant resource for advertisers looking to understand and leverage the exponential rise of CTV, and the benefits professionally produced video platforms such as 9Now provide when targeting Australian audiences.

The ever-increasing audience who are watching more and more programs via CTV and loving ‘The Living Room Experience’, has helped 9Now reach an important milestone of over 5.5 million sign-ups. Nine’s General Manager of Video, Niamh Collins, says “We have seen that people love the living room experience. They love watching connected TV, same as with linear TV, on the 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.”

With over 2.9 billion ad opportunities served across Australia’s main four free-to-air broadcasters in the last 12 months, coupled with ongoing advances in server-side ad insertion, improved user experience across devices and increased adoption amongst audiences, there has never been a more important time for advertisers to consider the benefits of CTV for the next campaign.

Download the IAB Connected TV white paper for more information, or speak to your Nine sales representative for high impact campaign opportunities involving Nine’s broadcast video on demand platform, 9Now.

PHD’s Beatriz Grattan-Smith Wins The Voice Agency Battle – Sydney

Nine of Sydney’s major media agencies went head-to-head last night in a hard-fought karaoke contest to win The Voice Agency Battle – Sydney.

More than 150 people attended the event, which was hosted by Ryan Gallagher from Married at First Sight at The Beresford Hotel in Surry Hills.

PHD was out in force, with the judges awarding Beatriz Grattan-Smith the top prize for her rendition of Dusty Springfield’s Son of a Preacher Man. Later in the night the broader team from PHD also brought the house down with their singing/dancing version of Tina Turner’s Nutbush City Limits.

Grattan-Smith took home a double pass to The Voice Grand Finale plus a $1,000 Merivale gift voucher for her agency team.

Judges Liana Dubois, Nine’s Sydney Sales Director, Alfie Arcuri, winner of the The Voice 2016, and Andrew Coorey, Live Band Karaoke Manager, scored the nine agency teams on vocal performance, stage presence, creativity and audience reaction.

The other contestants included:

Aiden Dabbagh and Danielle Galipienzo from Initiative, who sang Valerie by Amy Winehouse
Cameron Chu from UM Sydney, Under the Bridge by RHCP
Joshua Alvarez from Starcom, Drops of Jupiter by Train
Emelia McAdam from Wavemaker, Tainted Love by Soft Cell
Danny Zarka from Dentsu Aegis – Amplifi, Twist and Shout by The Beatles
Julia Guan from The M Agency, Drops of Jupiter by Train
Kyle Sapsford and Matt Fiorenza from Mindshare, Let Me Entertain You by Robbie Williams
Rob Christian from Carat, Better Man by Pearl Jam
Nine will be bringing The Voice Agency Battle to Brisbane next week.

SEE PHOTO GALLERY HERE

Food Stars

A show all about real businesses & real opportunities

Australia's newest entrepreneur hopefuls, who looked to turn their dreams into reality, put everything on the line in Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars, a brand-new series for the 9Network, which aired on Channel 9 and 9Now.

Breaking into the multi-billion-dollar food and beverage industry could be an impossible feat unless you were lucky enough to have some big investors behind you.

Global culinary superstar and CEO Gordon Ramsay was pitted against Australian business mogul Janine Allis. With an investment of $250,000 each, they were on the hunt for Australia’s most exciting and innovative new food and drink ideas to mentor and invest in.

Australia is the small business nation

98% of all Australian businesses are small and medium enterprises

SMEs employ over 40% of the domestic workforce and contribute the equivalent of one-third of our GDP

Yet in Australia 60% of businesses fail in the first three years

Australians want to see small business supported and succeeding in 2023

Source: CPA Australia, Asia Pacific Small Business Survey 2021-22

Food Stars is bringing small businesses to a national stage
in prime time viewing

9 Episodes

2 Teams

2 Mentors

2 Winners

Contestants are embarking on new challenges that develop real-world skills

Contestants are pitching their concepts to win a spot in the competition, before surviving high-pressure challenges and intense grilling from two reigning food stars, determined to see if they have the raw ingredients to become Food Stars. They need to prove they have what it takes when it comes to service, marketing, branding, and event management.

Food Stars joins a line up of Australia’s most loved content

Your brand can leverage Nine’s ecosystem to meet audiences where they engage most

Nine can deliver a compelling solution for your brand through the powerhouse of our cross media ecosystem. No matter the category, no matter the business goal, Food Stars has a big idea to help deliver your brand real, measurable results.

Plus highly impactful digital extensions

Daily Editorial – Opportunity: This series will feature key highlights from the show and exclusive content that is often not covered in the recaps across 20 bespoke articles.

Back Stories – Opportunity: Back stories of all competitors, likely to be pulled from the show but could be bespoke.

Editorial Galleries – Opportunity: Based on images captured via production.

To find out what your brand can achieve with a Food Stars partnership, request a tailored response to help realise your marketing objectives today.

Request more information - GENERIC

Nine looks to build on Married ratings momentum

Nine’s program director, Hamish Turner, says he is focused on building on the stellar ratings success of Married at First Sight – across television and digital – through the upcoming launch of strong performers such as The Voice, Talkin’ ’Bout Your Generation, and the new franchises Young Sheldon, Buying Blind and Love Island Australia.

“Nine has had a fantastic start to the year with Married at First Sight delivering record numbers across all the key demographics and Total People,” Turner said. “We have seen record numbers across all platforms including digital, with Married on 9Now reaching as many as 300,000 per episode.

“That delivers us amazing momentum into the second quarter and provides a strong promotional platform to celebrate our upcoming programming.”

Turner cites the success of Young Sheldon, which debuted last week with a metro audience of more than one million, as an example of the ratings momentum Nine will carry into April with the launch of The Voice.

Bachelor in Paradise and Spartan Shrink as Young Sheldon Soars

“We have already seen the first of those results with the fantastic numbers for Young Sheldon,” he said.

“And then the big audience driver coming out of the break will be The Voice. We have seen a change in the coaches with Joe Jonas coming on board. He is fantastic and provides a new dynamic to the mix with Boy George, Kelly Rowland and Delta Goodrem all returning.

“Our expectation for The Voice in 2018 is that it will continue to be consistent performer – there is always great reliability with that format. As a new coach, Joe Jonas will also add a new dynamic, but we know it will be strong across all the key demographics and make for fantastic family viewing.”

Turner is excited about the audience response for both The Voice and also the return of Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation.

“Having the likes of Joe really helps us to speak to a millennial audience and that will bring a bit more ‘cool factor’ into the mix this year.

“Joining The Voice is Talkin’ Bout Your Generation hosted by Shaun Micallef, and Gen X led by Robyn Butler, Gen Y led by Andy Lee and Gen Z led by Laurence Boxhall.

“It is great family entertainment and we are excited to see this show return as it will also engage a broad audience around the TV at 7.30pm.”

Nine’s program director also said he was also experimenting through the launch of Love Island Australia, one of the UK’s most talked about franchises, which has been commissioned as a cross-platform play for TV and digital.

“Love Island is coming to Australia in 2018,” said Turner. “It is what Married at First Sight was to Australian audiences in the first quarter. It is one of the noisiest shows around, and its third season in the UK was one of the most talked about across both television and digital.

“It will roll out in the second quarter, where we are sending some young Aussies to Spain for love in the sun. Love Island is a huge commission for us. It will be playing on 9Go! and also 9Now, where it has been a huge driver in the social space.

“We bring ten singles to an island in Spain and there they have to pair up in order to stay on the island. It’s a different format, something we haven’t seen in Australia before.

“The audience for Love Island will be focused on 16-39s, that’s where all the records were broken in the UK. It’s a young show, a social show, but it’s something different and that inherently is where the appeal is.”

Turner argues that in 2018, Nine has significantly rebuilt its second-quarter content slate in order to deliver greater consistency and a strong performance across all the key demographics in preparation for the back half of the year.

“We have strengthened our second-quarter slate with programs like Talkin’ ‘Bout Your Generation and Buying Blind,” he said. “These, together with The Voice, will see a strong Sunday night performance in Q2 where we will also have State of Origin and The Logies, big-event TV.

“Heading into the third quarter we will then have the powerhouse that is Australian Ninja Warrior, plus The Block and Family Food Fight. That sets us up for a fantastic year, delivering consistency and momentum right to the end of 2018.”

Month: April 2018