Radio Archives - Nine for Brands

Building Enduring Success with the Financial Review’s About Time Watch Weekend

Building Enduring Success

In the realm of luxury, where exclusivity and experience reign supreme, creating an event that resonates with both brands and consumers is an art form. The Australian Financial Review's About Time Watch Weekend has emerged as a shining example, a unique and enduring industry-first event that connects luxury watch brands with highly engaged and affluent AFR subscribers and readers.

Nine Publishing's Luxury Client Partnerships team and the AFR Magazine teams together identified a opportunity: to establish an internationally comparable prestige watch event within Australia which, despite being a priority market globally, did not have such a fair. The vision for the About Time Watch Weekend was to provide a valuable platform for luxury watch brands to cultivate quality consumer engagement.

We spoke with Chloe Moo, Client Director of Luxury at Nine and the About Time Watch Weekend about this best-in-class brand experience.

The Evolving Landscape of Luxury Engagement

The appreciation for fine timepieces in Australia is not a fleeting trend; it signifies a deepening appreciation of craftsmanship, heritage and enduring value.

Explaining this nuanced evolution, Chloe Moo says:

“The growth in the luxury watch sector in Australia reflects a sophisticated appreciation of the artistry and desire for tangible investments. In creating the About Time Watch Weekend event, we sought to provide a platform that honours the appreciation for luxury and watches amongst our Financial Review readership by creating an immersive event for luxury brands to not only showcase products but speak to their heritage and craftsmanship behind their timepieces. A bespoke booking platform, built by Nine's Powered Studios, further elevated the experience by seamlessly connecting consumers with the brands on show."

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The Art of Connection: Experience in Engagement

The innovative format defied the conventional style of a large-venue fair. Instead, AFR went for a series of intimately curated brand experiences hosted within the elegant settings of partner boutiques. This approach allowed attendees to rotate through pre-booked time slots, selected by participants based on editorial coverage and a bespoke custom booking platform, ensuring a highly personalised journey.

Our approach to luxury engagement balances experience and exposure. Luxury audiences seek more than a transaction; they crave understanding, connection with the brands and pieces they invest in."

"The About Time Watch Weekend, crafts deep engagement and caters to our readers and subscribers who love watches, Chloe Moo said. "It's an event that leverages the AFR's pioneering authority in watch journalism to create intimate brand encounters within partner boutiques. This allows attendees to connect directly with the brands, their heritage and craftsmanship, complimenting traditional advertising partnerships with the title."

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Immersive Environments, Meaningful Dialogue

The results of the About Time Watch Weekend are a testament to the luxury expertise of Nine Publishing, the Financial Review, and the excellence of our partners. The event has garnered significant acclaim, attracting 970+ high-value attendees, with 98% of attendees rating their experience as excellent, 94% saying others in their network would have found the experience valuable, and 80% declaring they would attend again.

Though not a KPI of the event, the commercial impact was clear: nearly 1 in 2 attendees said they were likely to purchase a watch they saw at the event, and 17% had already made a purchase. The 2024 event also welcomed a 15% uplift in female attendance, reinforcing its growing appeal across a broader audience of luxury consumers.

Source: Nine Insights October, 2024

Looking ahead, the success of engaging with the luxury market hinges on the ability to forge genuine connections. At Nine, we understand this implicitly. Through platforms like the AFR Watch Weekend, we are not just showcasing products – we are cultivating relationships, fostering understanding, and building lasting desire.

Looking to put your brand at the heart of the AFR's Watch Fair in 2025? We'd love to hear from you.

Serving Brands Without Disrupting the Action: How Nine Aced Sponsorship Integration at the Australian Open

Serving Brands Without Disrupting The Action: How Nine Aced Sponsorship Integration at the Australian Open

In the competitive world of live sports broadcasting, striking the perfect balance between commercial integration and audience experience is an art form. Nine’s coverage of the 2025 Australian Open exemplifies this balance, weaving sponsorship messages seamlessly into the broadcast without disrupting viewer engagement.

Anne Gruber, Director of Content Partnerships – Sport, Olympic, and Paralympic Games at Nine, gave B&T an inside scoop into how Nine achieves this, the innovations driving sponsor visibility, and the broader impact of sponsorship on brand perception.

The Art of Seamless Sponsorship Integration

Sponsorship within live sporting events often risks being intrusive, but Nine’s approach prioritises synergy between branding and editorial content. “All of the sponsored moments across the broadcast are designed to work hand in hand with editorial segments,” Gruber explained. “A brand should always complement the broadcast in a really intuitive way so that we can add value to the audience, but also add value to the customers of that brand”.

To ensure a natural fit, Nine carefully considers branding, taglines, and campaign messaging when pairing sponsors with in-program segments or talent associations. This strategy ensures that sponsorship is not merely an add-on but an integral part of the broadcast storytelling.

Nine doesn’t just integrate sponsors; it ensures their investment yields tangible results. The network conducts an extensive effectiveness study post-tournament, analysing key metrics such as brand recall, sponsorship awareness, and brand consideration.

“Our 2024 campaign showed that AO viewers are three times more likely to consider sponsor brands that appear in the broadcast exclusively, compared to brands that just run standard TV spots,” Gruber shared. Additionally, returning Australian Open sponsors saw a 75% increase in brand consideration, underscoring the long-term impact of deep sponsorship integration.

The Australian Open is not just a television event. It is a multi-platform experience. Nine extends sponsorship visibility beyond linear broadcast through digital and social channels. “The digital and social channel mix provides incremental reach for the broadcast content, both on-network and off-network,” Gruber explained.

This approach allows brands to personalise and target digital content to key demographics, measuring engagement across multiple touchpoints. Some brands, like ANZ, successfully leveraged Nine’s digital platforms to enhance their tournament presence.

Data-Driven Storytelling: Enhancing Sponsor Value

A key component of Nine’s integration strategy involves leveraging player statistics and match analysis to reinforce sponsor narratives. “The storytelling around the athletes and what happens on court is super important,” said Gruber. “The tennis is the biggest marketing platform to kick off the year, and using the players and their performance as a narrative platform is something really powerful”.

Nine collaborates closely with Tennis Australia to utilise advanced broadcast technologies, such as ball tracking, shot percentages, and real-time player statistics. “We use things like head-to-head stats, ball tracking technology, shot percentages, and point percentages to provide the audience with a deeper understanding of player performance,” she said.

This data-driven storytelling benefits sponsors by integrating their brands into highly engaging, analytical moments of the match.

On-Ground Activations and Colour Reports

Many Australian Open broadcast sponsors also maintain an on-ground presence at Melbourne Park, and Nine ensures their activations receive prime coverage. “One of the things we do is create colour reports to amplify and reinforce that these brands have a direct event association,” said Gruber.

Nine’s Wide World of Sports colour reporters roam the tournament grounds, spotlighting sponsor activations, products, and fan experiences. “They talk to the location of those activations, the products, and the experiences, weaving in editorial messaging to create the hook back to the tennis,” she added.

This strategy ensures sponsors receive visibility in a way that aligns naturally with the overall event narrative.

Augmented Reality: Elevating Sponsor Visibility

One of the most innovative aspects of this year’s coverage was the use of augmented reality (AR) to integrate sponsors into the broadcast.

In addition to these on-court elements, Nine introduced a new AR feature in its on-ground studio, Court Nine.” Court Nine is another impactful way to weave in sponsor branding,” said Gruber. “We rotate this between all of our sponsors across every day of coverage, where you will see a logo rising from the court directly and spinning like a hologram”.

The introduction of this technology was inspired by Nine’s learnings from its Paris Olympics broadcast. “The brand effectiveness results from our Olympics coverage were absolutely outstanding,” she explained, “Making the decision to implement similar technology at the Australian Open a natural progression”.

Striking the Right Balance

While maximising sponsor visibility is crucial, maintaining the integrity of the broadcast is paramount. “The editorial integrity of our tennis coverage and all of our sporting coverage is absolutely crucial,” said Gruber. “That’s where you get the lean-in from audiences at home, and that also has an effect on brand results for those sponsors”.

To achieve this balance, Nine’s partnership team works closely with the World Wide Sports production team, even co-locating during the tournament. “For the duration of the tournament, every minute we’re on the air, our partnerships team sits directly with the producers,” she revealed. “They select the right moments in the broadcast to deliver sponsor activations in a way that’s authentic and non-disruptive”.

Nine’s sponsorship strategy is not just about meeting expectations; it is about setting new industry standards. “We believe we have already set a benchmark,” said Gruber. “Our Wide World of Sports team is world-renowned for the way they tell stories across live sporting moments”.

Looking ahead, Nine remains committed to evolving its sponsorship strategy. “We continuously take feedback from our partners, reviewing it internally with our content and technology teams,” Gruber said.

Key areas of focus include content evolution, new broadcast technologies, audience engagement tools, and enhanced brand measurement. “Our mantra is to offer a world-leading platform for brands to engage audiences, in line with our broader business strategy,” she concluded.

With an ever-expanding set of digital and technological tools at its disposal, Nine is redefining the way sponsorship is integrated into live sports, setting a new standard for both brand impact and audience experience.

This article was first published by Aimee Edwards, B&T.

Looking to put your brand at the heart of The Australian Open in 2026? We'd love to hear from you.

Rugby on Nine

UNLOCK THE POWER OF
RUGBY ON NINE IN 2023

Nine is the home of Rugby Union. Reaching more fans than ever before across the year. A major global sport and truly multi-cultural game, which connects Australia with the rest of the world on an international stage.

It's the game they play in heaven, and Rugby on Nine in 2023 will see fans feasting on an unrivalled commitment to premium Rugby content spread across our Television, Radio, Digital and Print offering.

Featuring a commentary team lineup of Rugby Union superstars and experts led by Roz Kelly and Nick McArdle, Wide World of Sports will produce every game shown on Nine and Stan Sport, with cutting-edge technology and studios that offer the best possible experience for Rugby fans.

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

Request presentation

Check out what's to come for Rugby on Nine this season...

Rugby Union is a compelling platform for brands - offering authenticity, excitement and connection with millions of highly engaged fans.

From the Rugby purist to the casual viewer, Nine covers all the action - with broadcasts of Wallabies and Wallaroos test matches, plus a Super Rugby Pacific match every Saturday night live on 9Gem throughout the season.

And with Nine's WIN network partnership, it really is a sport that touches all corners of the community.

The Rugby World Cup is one of the biggest sporting events in the world and the pinnacle of the 15 man game. Held every four years it is contested by the best international teams from across the globe.

The tournament touches all corners of the community and unites Australia behind the green and gold across the whole Nine ecosystem, from Channel 9 and 9Now, our digital and print executions and talk radio.

ALL WALLABIES GAMES LIVE FROM FRANCE ON CHANNEL 9 AND 9NOW

8TH SEPTEMER - 28TH OCTOBER 2023

CAPTIVATING MORE HIGHLY ENGAGED FANS THAN EVER BEFORE

Reached 2.3 million Aussies in 2022 across Metro Australia

Of Super Rugby Pacific were streamed across 9Now in 2022

Eyes on Nine for the July Series v England in 2022 – 11.9% YOY increase

YOY growth on 9Now of 45% across the July Tests with 14.5million minutes streamed

Source: OzTAM Live VPM, Super Rugby, 19 Feb - 18 Jun 2022, includes coviewing on connected tv devices. OzTAM Live VPM, July Tests Rugby, 2 July – 16 July 2022, includes coviewing on connected tv devices. Adobe Analytics, WWOS - Rugby, 19/02/2022 - 18/06/2022, 02/07/2022 - 16/07/202, page views. Based on cumulative page views for these periods. OzTAM (5 City Metro) + Regional TAM (Combined Agg Mkts) data, 19 Feb – 18 June 2022, Super Rugby Pacific includes pre and post matches (Nine Network + Affiliates), Reach, Total People, consolidated 7. OzTAM (5 City Metro) + Regional TAM (Combined Agg Mkts) data, 2 Jul – 16 Jul, Wallabies vs England includes pre and post matches (Nine Network + Affiliates), Reach, Total People, consolidated 7.

RUGBY ON NINE CONNECTS WITH HEARTLAND AUSTRALIA

Super Rugby Pacific reach in 2022

July Test viewers in 2022

Source: Regional TAM (Combined Agg Mkts) data, 19 Feb – 18 June 2022, Super Rugby Pacific includes pre and post matches (Nine Network Affiliates), Reach, AUD & Commercial Share %, Demos as above, consolidated 7. Regional TAM (Combined Agg Mkts), 2 Jul – 22 Jul 2022 vs 7 Jul-17 Jul 2021, Wallabies V England includes pre and post matches & Wallabies vs France, Total People, AUD (match only) & Reach, Consolidated 7.

Rugby Storytelling Across Nine's platforms

Nine broadcasts every game with an always on strategy across 9, 9Gem and 9Now, including amplification across our news and current affairs portfolio as well as the Today Show, weekly updates on Nine Radio, in depth analysis within our publishing mastheads, alongside Stan Sport for the Rugby purist who wants to see every single game in high definition, live and on-demand.

Network amplification across Today Show and Nine's News and Current Affairs

RADIO

Weekly code updates from Nine's Rugby commentary team across WWOS radio on 2GB and 4BC

PUBLISHING

Sydney Morning Herald and Age Rugby page views 9.6 Million across 2022

WWOS.COM.AU

With dedicated columnists and reporters.

2.6 Million Unique Visitors
4.6 Million Visits
1.5 Million Total Streams

SOCIAL

3x Rugby social channels up 120% year-on-year

Source: Roy Morgan database ending June 2021. OzTAM Metro + Regional Data, Nine Network, Cumulative Reach, Super Rugby, July Test, Bledisloe Cup, Rugby Championships, 19/2/2021 – 2/10/2021, Consolidated 7 data. GfK Radio Ratings, SMBP Survey 6 2021, Mon-Sun 5.30am-12MN, Cume (000s), Nine Talk Radio – 2GB, 3AW, 4BC, 6PR; Nielsen Consumer and Media View National Online Survey S03 2021. Fused April 2021; Roy Morgan Asteroid single source database for the 12 months ending June 2021. Adobe Analytics, WWOS – Rugby, 19/2/21 – 4/10/21, unique visitors, visits, page views; Internal Brightcove data, WWOS – Rugby, 19/2/21 – 4/10/21 total streams, viewed minutes

One Network covering all the action

Realise Big Ideas
and drive results
for your brand

Big ideas make brands famous.
As does the power of premium sporting content.

And with the help of Powered by Nine, we have a big idea for every budget, underpinned by Australia’s best Rugby Union content. From the main game to the experts and the entertainers, we provide brands with an unrivalled platform to tell their story.

Explore Powered Studios

ISUZU LEVERAGED A CROSS-MEDIA RUGBY PARTNERSHIP TO DELIVER HIGH IMPACT MARKETING MOMENTS

CHALLENGE: At the heart of every Isuzu lies a tried and tested DNA of a refined combination of power, efficiency and reliability. In 2022 Isuzu wanted to bring this to life through the launch of the latest Isuzu D-MAX and MU-X, and to ultimately connect their product with a male audience.

SOLUTION: Rugby on Nine was identified as the perfect sporting vehicle to support Isuzu, over the Super Rugby Pacific and Wallabies Season, through compelling storytelling across our Total TV offering - including Channel 9, 9Now and Stan Sport, alongside radio integrations and Sports Sunday extension.

RESULTS: Utilising Nine's Rugby Union coverage, Isuzu put their brand message at the heart of the action - with a campaign consisting of an integrated Half-Time key moment with verbal introduction, Live Break TVC, Billboards, Radio integration and a Key Rugby Moment extension across Sports Sunday during the Wallabies season.

"From an IUA perspective, we engaged in a 2022 Rugby Partnership with Nine to deliver multiple messages over an extended period, and so 33 weeks of rugby with multiple spots and integration allowed us to run a variety of creative at high frequency to an engaged male audience."

Tanya Howson
Senior Marketing Manager
Isuzu UTE Australia Pty Ltd

PUT YOUR BRAND AT THE HEART OF THE ACTION WITH RUGBY UNION ON NINE IN 2023

Sports marketing is a powerful tool that many brands have leveraged to deliver real success. Best of all, it’s a genre that works across virtually every industry. Why does it have such power? Because it has the ability to connect brands with fans.

There is plenty of opportunity available to grow your brand through the power of Rugby Union on Nine in 2023. We're up for the challenge. Brief us today.

To find out more about what your brand can achieve with a Rugby Union partnership, request a tailored response to help realise your marketing objectives.

Brooke Corte: Money News, shares her top tips on turning renewed optimism into something tangible

Brooke Corte, host of Money News shares her three top tips on how small business owners can make the most of the economic situation we are in right now, by turning renewed optimism into something tangible.

Corte’s tips include:

Tip 1: Connect with your customers
Tip 2: Do something new
Tip 3: Adopt an optimism bias strategy

To find out more details on each of her tips, watch the short video.

Category: Radio