From Saliency to Sales: How Retail OOH Unifies the ‘Sofa to Store’ Journey

Insights from Nine Upfront 2027

From Saliency to Sales: How Retail OOH Unifies the 'Sofa to Store' Journey

12th October, 2026

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Tim Murphy

Chief Sales Officer, QMS

It is no secret that Retail Out of Home is a highly populated and established category in Australia. Major retailer-owned media networks have done an exceptional job of proving the value of the space, fundamentally shifting how marketers view the path to purchase.

The next frontier for brands isn't just about tapping into a supermarket's data loop; it is about taking the full-motion broadcast quality of Digital OOH and placing it where daily habits are formed, meaningful connections are nurtured, and final purchasing decisions are made. It is about understanding that true national scale is built from the neighbourhood up.

The Local Trust Halo

Australians live their lives locally. While the major big-box supermarkets are often destinations for the sprawling weekly shop, the moments of true, habitual connection happen closer to home. It is the shop at the local independent grocer, the Saturday morning project run to the hardware store, the quick stop for liquor on the way to a dinner party, or the daily coffee run at the corner convenience store.

These are high-frequency, trusted retail destinations embedded in the social and commercial fabric of Australian neighbourhoods. When a customer steps into a local IGA, Mitre 10, Cellarbrations, or their local convenience store, their mindset shifts. They are in an active, receptive state, making decisions for their households and engaging with businesses that sit at the core of their community. We call this the "Local Trust Halo."

This is the philosophy behind our new Retail OOH network, SHOP. By bringing together the Metcash "LocalEyes" network – featuring 860+ screens across IGA, Cellarbrations, The Bottle-O, Thirsty Camel, Mitre 10, Home Hardware, and Total Tools – with The Convenience Network's 470 screens across 7-Eleven stores, we aren't just aggregating inventory. We are creating an environment where brands meet local shoppers at scale.

When you consider that 70% of Australians live within three kilometres of a SHOP retailer, the strategic value becomes clear. Delivering more than 16 million monthly shoppers * across 1,300+ screens – including over 400 regional locations – offers the scale of a national media buy, but it is delivered with the intimacy of a local endorsement.

Redefining the Space: Pure-Play Retail OOH

To truly capitalise on this environment, we need to separate Retail OOH from the broader definition of Retail Media. We aren't talking about digital catalogues or in-store audio. Retail OOH is about building mental availability at the physical point of entry. It brings the visual impact and flexibility of pure DOOH directly to the point of purchase, acting as a broadcast bridge between top-of-funnel brand campaigns and immediate in-store action.

Viewing the channel through this pure play DOOH lens unlocks two distinct, yet equally powerful, commercial opportunities:

  • For Endemic Brands: It is the ultimate conversion engine. Retail OOH allows brands already sitting on the shelves inside to influence local shoppers, driving immediate path-to-purchase conversion and capturing 'share of basket' right when intent peaks. Crucially, it benefits from the proven dual effect of DOOH – driving immediate, short-term sales whilst also building long-term brand equity.
  • For Non-Endemic Brands: It provides a highly cost-effective, low wastage platform to reach qualified local audiences. For categories like automotive, financial services, insurance, and telecommunications, the local independent retail environment offers a rare, low-distraction canvas. It allows advertisers to tap into household decision makers within high-trust, highly receptive everyday shopping environments without competing in a crowded retail media ecosystem.

The Complete Ecosystem: From Sofa, to Street and now, to Store

As DOOH continues to advance, our focus as media owners must remain firmly on effectiveness and outcomes. This is where the strategic integration into the broader Nine ecosystem changes the game for agencies and brands.

At the recent Nine Upfront, we highlighted the power of moving consumers seamlessly from the 'Sofa' – capturing high-attention viewing in the living room – to the 'Street', to maintaining brand presence across our quality national DOOH network.

SHOP now completes that commercial continuum. By adding the retail footprint as the final, crucial touchpoint, we create a truly holistic proposition for Australian marketers. We can now accompany a consumer from relaxed entertainment at home, through their daily commute, right up to the final point of purchase in their local community.

It is no longer about choosing between brand awareness or retail conversion, the highway or the high street. By taking the sophistication of Digital OOH and embedding it into the everyday retail rhythms of Australian neighbourhoods, we give brands the complete, connected canvas they have been searching for: the power to inspire on the sofa, build saliency on the street, and drive real-world action at the store.

*Source – Nielsen CMV, Survey 4 2026 ^Metcash Transaction 2025 Data, IBA Shopper Intelligence, Summit Transaction Data 2025

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Trust isn’t the Finish Line: Turning Influence into Action Through Real-World Ecosystems

Insights from Nine Upfront 2027

Trust Isn't the Finish Line: Turning Influence into Action Through Real-World Ecosystems

5th October, 2026

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Ashleigh Thomas

Commercial Director, Publishing Sales

Brands increasingly need partners who understand the forces shaping purchase decisions within their category, not just media channels. The true power of connected media not only connects with Australians in those moments of intent, it transforms passive readers into active consumers.

For decades, the media industry has measured success through attention. We’ve chased eyeballs, optimised for dwell time and built a digital advertising model around the assumption that adjacent placement was the pinnacle of influence. But in an industry oversaturated by the infinite scroll, passive attention is no longer enough. The real opportunity lies in turning trusted relationships into meaningful action. And that requires a fundamental rethink of what a publishing environment is designed to do.

Australians aren’t reading our mastheads to understand the world, but to decide how to live in it. From the suburbs they invest in, to the shares they buy, the restaurants they book and the flights they board, news media is actively shaping Australian culture.

Yet historically, the commercial model hasn’t always reflected the influence publishing has on those decisions. We have largely sold brands access to audiences around our content, rather than creating ways for them to participate in the moments that content inspires. The opportunity now is to close that gap, taking the trust, authority and influence built on the page or screen and extending it into richer experiences that can move people from consideration to action.

Finding Moments of Intent

Today’s audiences move fluidly between platforms, channels, communities and experiences. For marketers, the challenge isn’t finding those audiences anymore. It’s finding moments of intent. We know today’s most effective campaigns are built around passion points: Money, property, food, travel and culture. Because they’re the decision-making categories.

Take travel as the blueprint. By pairing editorial authority with specialised commercial expertise, a brand story can move seamlessly from a weekend print feature into a digital interactive, onto our TODAY show for broadcast amplification, and straight into a consumer’s inbox.

This is the true power of connected media that puts brands alongside Australians, throughout their entire journey through life, and transforms passive readers into active consumers.

Yet even the most sophisticated content ecosystem has limitations. While digital environments excel at building consideration, the moments that most powerfully shape behaviour often happen in the physical world. That is where trust becomes participation, and participation becomes action.

The Power of Real-World Experiences

The challenge for publishers is no longer simply building trusted audiences. It is creating pathways that move people from engagement to participation, and from participation to purchase. The bridge between digital scale and physical experience is where that opportunity exists. And it’s a reflection of how consumers increasingly engage with trusted brands beyond content consumption.

We are seeing this come to life through properties like The Australian Financial Review Ventures portfolio, the Good Food Guide Awards, and the newly announced Melbourne Assembly. This is the physical manifestation of our editorial IP.

For a brand, the difference between advertising next to a restaurant review and integrating into a live culinary event where thousands of engaged consumers are tasting, drinking and purchasing is profound. It shifts the dial from brand awareness to brand experience, wrapped in the credibility of the masthead.

Consider the Financial Review About Time Watch Weekend (ATWW), the AFR Magazine’s annual watch fair where we bring AFR audiences direct to our Watch partners for two weekends in September. By restricting access exclusively to loyal subscribers, the event has curated an exceptionally high-calibre audience. The results challenge conventional performance marketing expectations: Almost 1,000 individuals registered, generating more than 2,600 partner appointments in four days across two cities. Attendees averaged three brand appointments each, demonstrating serious purchase consideration.

Most importantly, the physical ecosystem is known to generate measurable conversion. The 2025 event survey results showed that 26 per cent of repeat attendees had purchased a watch they discovered at an ATWW activation.

But creating these outcomes requires more than audience scale or premium environments alone. It requires a deep understanding of the categories where consumers are making decisions and where brands are seeking growth. The most effective publishing ecosystems are built not just around content, but around category expertise.

Commercial Specialisation is the New Strategic Imperative

As audiences become more fragmented and categories more complex, brands increasingly need partners who understand the forces shaping purchase decisions within their sectors, not just media channels. This is why we are aligning our dedicated commercial teams directly to audience passions and partner growth sectors, expanding beyond traditional media categorisation to create bespoke solutions for Retail, FMCG, Utilities, Services and Travel.

This deep category expertise allows us to move beyond standard media buys and design experiences that genuinely resonate. We see the advantage of this approach when specialised commercial understanding merges with editorial authority.

Our Scenic and Fin! Magazine High Seas launch, hosted at the Aster Bar for 70 guests, provided a tailored platform that drove genuine brand advocacy by placing the partner directly in front of an influential audience. Likewise, an exclusive event with Van Cleef & Arpels gave an influential cohort of readers behind-the-scenes access to a travelling collection of exceptional jewels before anyone else.

The Active Trust Advantage

Recently, there has been much debate about the value of trusted news environments. Trust is undeniably the signal that cuts through the noise. It’s the foundation, but not the final destination.

The future belongs to brands that can convert trust into momentum. By building lifestyle ecosystems, pioneering live brand experiences, and matching editorial authority with deep commercial specialisation, we are offering brands a new way to operate in these spaces.

Attention built the digital media economy. Trust helped to sustain it. The next era will belong to brands that can transform trust into participation, and participation into action.

Looking for more efficient, effective and transparent ways to grow your business? Enquire today.

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Sport: From Live Event to Cultural Slipstream

Insights from Nine Upfront 2027

Sport: From Live Event to Cultural Slipstream

22nd September, 2026

Live sports broadcasting is no longer a two-hour window. As audience consumption habits evolve, the final siren remains critical, but is just the start of the conversation.

Fresh off the recent Nine Upfront 2027, AdNews spoke with Brent Williams, Nine’s Director of Sport and Andrew Cann, Nine’s National Commercial Director of Sport, about how brands can participate beyond the broadcast, and what this means for both scale and sustained engagement.

Q: The debate, the analysis, the emotional high after the lights go down - that’s modern sport. How can brands integrate into the post-game environment across streaming, publishing, social and outdoor?

Andrew: The biggest shift is recognising that sport is no longer confined to a single screen or a single moment. Audiences move fluidly and brands need partners that can help them participate across that entire consumption cycle.

Beyond the final siren is where brand value compounds. Today, we can turn a two-hour game into a continuous conversation. The moment play ends, audiences move into analysis, highlights, commentary and discussion. While 43% of mainstream sport engagers connect primarily through live broadcast viewing (PMAX Sports Fandom Tracker June 2026), our publishing assets, social platforms, streaming environments and outdoor network work together to extend the experience.

Our mastheads are the most read in Australia, not only can brands appear in a trusted news media environment, but alongside curated highlights across 9Now and Stan Sport, and remain present as fans continue following the story on their socials throughout their day. It’s a smorgasbord of options for brands looking to creatively tell their stories and captivate audiences who are already with the platforms they love.

Brent: Take the upcoming UK Ashes: a historic ritual shifted straight into Australian winter primetime. While the live action happens overnight, Australians wake up wanting to catch up on key moments, understand the context and join the conversation.

That’s where the opportunity has evolved. We are capturing the entire cultural slipstream of the game, making it a truly immersive experience. We’re constantly developing new and innovative ways to drop our audiences into the heart of the action - whether that’s deploying social-first FPV drones at the Winter Games to bring fans onto the slopes, or leveraging real-time AI ball-tracking data during the Australian Open to give viewers unparalleled tactical depth. We are taking fans closer to the sport than ever before.

Q: Nine’s ‘Sofa to Street’ strategy, walk us through how outdoor comes to life on game day?

Brent: We think about outdoor as a real-time extension of the broadcast experience. For major sporting moments, we build anticipation leading into the event, provide live updates while games are underway, and then transition into highlights and key takeaways immediately afterwards.

The objective is simple: wherever audiences are consuming sport, whether at home or commuting, the experience continues.

Andrew: What makes this particularly powerful is our ability to connect audience intelligence amd measurement as consumers move from the screen to physical environments throughout their day.

Q: Looking at the 365-day calendar, how should brands balance ‘owning’ a cultural pinnacle versus maintaining an always-on presence?

Andrew: Both play an important role. For brands seeking concentrated, mass-market impact, they can dominate a cultural pinnacle - like the State of Origin, Australian Open or the Olympics - through premium cross-platform packages.

At the same time, we’re seeing increasing demand for consistent year-round engagement - that’s where tapping into our rapidly expanding women’s sport portfolio works hard. Properties like the NRLW, Netball, WNBL, and Grand Slam tennis offer consistent, high-sentiment engagement with key household decision-makers throughout the entire year.

According to research we conducted in collaboration with Gemba, sports sponsorship builds awareness 25% faster than other sponsorships and delivers 7 percentage points (+20% relative) stronger sponsor recall retention when compared to other sponsorships. Kantar analysis of the Winter Olympics 2025 showed brand association drove a whopping +11.8 percentage point increase in brand consideration - when brands pair year-round presence with major pinnacles, the impact compounds rapidly.

Q: Securing the Rugby World Cup on home soil and bringing the NBL to free-to-air are massive cultural plays. Plus, women’s netball and the highly anticipated LA2028 Olympics. How will Wide World of Sports elevate these properties to ensure they capture Australia?

Brent: Live sport is one of the last remaining genres with the power to universally unite communities and countries.

For 50 years, Wide World of Sports has operated on four pillars: to elevate, excite, engage and entertain. We curate major event television, and as the NBL returns to free-to-air and we build toward monumental home-soil events like the 2027 Rugby World Cup, we continue to take content directly to where fans want to consume it.

Our broadcast is fundamentally about the athletes, the fans, and the stories we tell around them. By pairing cinematic viewing experiences with deep, human connection, we’re able to create an environment where emotional responses are at their peak.

Q: Advertising is now fully integrated across Stan Sport. What unprecedented access does this unlock?

Andrew: Stan Sport is where the super fan lives. Ad integration here means low-clutter, high-attention exposure across premium subscription properties like Premier League, UEFA Champions League, and international rugby - all in native 4K ultra-definition.

Crucially, it completes Nine’s full-funnel video ecosystem. By bridging free-to-air, BVOD and SVOD under our unified first-party data stack, we offer brands non-duplicative reach across both free and subscription environments.

Q: What are you most looking forward to for the future of sport?

Andrew: Our portfolio of local and international sports content showcase the greatest games on the earth, delivered with the accountability of a closed-loop ecosystem. It’s a single destination, and no brainer if you’re looking to grow your business. That’s exciting territory.

Brent: Sport remains one of the few environments capable of bringing large audiences together around shared moments. The platforms matter, but what makes sport so powerful is its ability to create long-term engagement and lasting connection. So I’m most looking forward to… more of it!

Looking for more efficient, effective and transparent ways to grow your business? Enquire today.

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Nine Upfront 2027 Through the Eyes of the Industry’s Next-Gen

Insights from Nine Upfront 2027

Nine Upfront 2027 Through the Eyes of the Industry’s Next-Gen

22nd September, 2026

Watch as Zoe Richter, Natalie Armstrong and April O’Neill go behind the scenes at Nine Upfront 2027.

Upfront season is traditionally viewed by the next generation of the media industry from a distance. This year Nine invited Zoe Richter, Account Coordinator, Frontier, Natalie Armstrong, Implementation & Activation Associate Manager, EssenceMediacom, and April O’Neill, Media Implementation Executive, OMD, to experience Nine Upfront 2027 firsthand, along with an exclusive pre-show, behind-the-scenes immersion.

Entering the venue, the trio were “expecting big announcements”, eager “to see how all the offerings translate to media buyers”, and hoped to learn how they could “utilise Nine’s offering holistically”.

Stepping past the red carpet, the guests were immersed in the operational engine that brings Nine’s Upfront to life, meeting Nine leaders across talent, content, sales and strategy to learn how the Upfront comes together.

Behind the Scenes of the Production: Crafting Content & Managing Talent

Bringing Nine Upfront 2027 to life required synchronisation across live event production, talent management, and real-time storytelling to extend the narrative beyond the room.

Kristen McGrath, Head of Media Talent, detailed the coordination of Nine talent for the event, with logistics spanning travel, styling and precise schedules.

Calleb McLeod, Content Lead, demonstrated live event coverage in action. While his team conducts talent interviews at the Media Wall to create social content, back-of-house teams work to publish programming announcements the moment they drop on stage.

Translating the Story: From Upfront Vision to Daily Media Buying

An Upfront only creates value if its vision translates into practical media planning and execution.

Jo Barton, Head of Sales – Sydney, highlighted how client engagement is not one-size-fits-all, detailing how Nine follows the Upfront event with a tailored roadshow, aligning specific announcements with individual client KPIs.

Stewart Gurney, Director or Strategy & Effectiveness, and Remi Baker, Director of Client Strategy & Innovation, from Powered by Nine, unpacked full campaign life cycles, from early collaborative workshops to executing multi-platform campaigns. Their key advice to the guests: involve media partners early in your strategy sessions. “The best ideas happen when all the different parties are in the room together. When all of that comes together is really when the magic happens as a team.”

Pre-Show Anticipation

An Upfront only creates value if its vision translates into practical media planning and execution.

Jo Barton, Head of Sales – Sydney, highlighted how client engagement is not one-size-fits-all, detailing how Nine follows the Upfront event with a tailored roadshow, aligning specific announcements with individual client KPIs.

Stewart Gurney, Director or Strategy & Effectiveness, and Remi Baker, Director of Client Strategy & Innovation, from Powered by Nine, unpacked full campaign life cycles, from early collaborative workshops to executing multi-platform campaigns. Their key advice to the guests: involve media partners early in your strategy sessions. “The best ideas happen when all the different parties are in the room together. When all of that comes together is really when the magic happens as a team.”

Next-Gen Takeaways from Nine Upfront 2027

Following the main stage presentation, Zoe, Natalie and April’s perception had evolved from evaluating Nine channels in isolation to looking at Nine as a unified media ecosystem. Reflecting on Nine’s connected scale, they noted that being able to book media across streaming, broadcast, publishing and digital out-of-home in “one spot” makes campaign processes “simplified and condensed”, leaving “brands a lot less to worry about”.

Key announcement standouts included Nine’s 2027 sports slate, the transformation of QMS into Nine Outdoor, and the launch of Nine Neo.

They were equally struck by the network’s star power: “Until you see them all together in a room at once, you don’t realise how big their offering is. There’s just so much to explore for brands.”

Their final verdict on Nine Upfront 2027 was clear: Nine is “one holistic media network to build your brand”.

More Insights from Nine Upfront 2027

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Stop Buying Passive Attention: Amanda Laing on Why Brands Need to ‘Enter the Chat’

Insights from Nine Upfront 2027

Stop Buying Passive Attention: Nine's Amanda Laing on Why Brands Need to 'Enter the Chat'

21st September, 2026

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Amanda Laing

Managing Director, Streaming & Broadcast, Nine

For over a decade, Stan has pioneered Australia’s streaming landscape - as the first streamer to launch in Australia and, today, as the country’s only locally owned and operated streaming service. When it first launched, it was bold, noisy and here to stay. The task was simple: originally, it was to disrupt the traditional content consumption habits of Australians watching television, and today it provides a distinctly Australian voice and perspective as a compelling alternative to the global streamers.

At the centre of it all has always been unique content that sparked conversation long after the credits rolled or the sound of the final whistle. From Stan Originals and some of the world’s biggest shows, to sport that captivates and unites us all - great content has always been the vehicle for our success. It’s what captures and holds attention in an increasingly fragmented world.

There is no denying that media is at its most powerful when it is shared. As an industry, we can no longer afford to view streaming as a passive, single-screen destination. Buying programmatic inventory against fragmented attention is no longer enough to build real brand equity. The true value for marketers lies in a platform’s ability to drive active national conversation across screens, spaces, and daily rituals.

We’re entering an era of cultural participation, and Stan’s latest brand campaign, ‘Enter The Chat’, sits at the centre of that. The traditional trade narrative still insists on siloing linear broadcast, BVOD, and SVOD into competing buckets. But that’s not reflective of how audiences live or engage with content.

A viewer’s evening doesn’t start and end inside an app; it ripples across their entire life. A dramatic twist on MAFS: After the Dinner Party isn't an isolated event, it becomes a flurry of group chat debates, a trending topic on social feeds, radio shows and podcasts, and the primary conversation at the office coffee cart the next morning.

Viewing is an active social driver. When content operates in a vacuum, it dies down the moment the credits roll. But when an ecosystem is intentionally built to connect those moments, it becomes a national lightning rod.

Nine’s distinct advantage lies in Stan being a core part of the most powerful media ecosystem in the region which we unashamedly and aggressively leverage. After successfully extending the 9Network’s (and the country’s) biggest show, Married At First Sight, into a Stan spin off with MAFS: After the Dinner Party, next year Blockheads will be able to keep the conversation going with the launch of The Block: The House Next Door on Stan and Love Island Australia will extend the love to Stan with unseen and uncut feeds direct from the Villa.

Stan’s monumental 2027 entertainment slate will be sure to get tongues wagging. With a reboot of Australia’s beloved rural drama, McLeod’s Daughters; a return of MAFS: After the Dinner Party; season 2 of Australia’s fastest selling drama of all time, The F Ward, and a remake of Baywatch to name a few - the group chats will be in a frenzy.

And the conversation won’t stop there. Stan Sport is in for a massive year, with home world cups for Rugby Union and Netball on top of Premier League, all four Tennis Grand Slams, NBL/WNBL, and Olympics still to come.

We extend, amplify and complement all of this extraordinary content, as well as our documentaries and magazine sports shows, across Nine’s whole ecosystem - sparking conversations during morning television, covering cultural moments across publishing and digital assets, driving off platform and social platform involvement, digging deeper in our podcasts, and increasing engagement by windowing content across our free and paid platforms.

For brands and media agencies, shifting from “what people are watching” to “what people are talking about” changes the equation for commercial return. Through strategic ad integration across Stan’s basic tier, live sport, and deep cross-platform narrative executions, Stan is also giving brands the opportunity to 'enter the chat.' You are no longer interrupting a show; you are integrating into active cultural moments which convert passive viewers into engaged, active participants.

The era of algorithmic isolation is ending. My challenge to Australian marketers and agencies as we look toward 2027 is clear: stop buying passive attention in isolated silos. Start investing in ecosystems that drive national culture and get your brand into the conversation.

Looking for more efficient, effective and transparent ways to grow your business? Enquire today.

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The Unmissable Moment: How Purpose and Performance Unite a Nation

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Lydia Lassila,
Winter Olympics Expert Commentator, Milano Cortina 2026

Australian freestyle skier Lydia Lassila knows exactly what goes into an Olympic gold medal performance - years of sacrifice, training, and sheer dedication. Our Aussie Olympic and Paralympic athletes don’t just compete, they create a powerful, unifying experience for the entire nation.

With the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games taking place in a European time zone, Nine’s digital-first approach means fans can curate their own Olympic experience. Every athlete story is ready for them, on their terms.

Tap into the storytelling and national mood of inspiration and pride at Milano Cortina 2026.

Looking to put your brand at the heart of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games on Nine? We'd love to hear from you.

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State of the Nation with Chloe Moo, Client Director, Luxury

Nine Publishing

Independence  |  stories that matter  |  commercial with integrity

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SOTN

Chloe Moo - Client Director, Luxury

We have a clear responsibility in the Luxury space: to connect the world’s most discerning brands with Australia’s most affluent and influential audiences – through the platforms they trust, at the moments they seek meaning, indulgence, and inspiration.

Our strength lies in genuine partnership, tailored solutions that balance reach with refinement, data with editorial instinct, and brand alignment with real audience engagement. That’s the Nine Luxury difference.

Say hello

Let's talk about how Nine's premium publishing ecosystem can elevate your brand's impact.

READY TO CREATE? //

CONTACT //

Nine ad enquiries

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Married at First Sight: Expert Insights – Adrian Swift, Head of Content, Production & Development

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MAFS: How a Television Show Became a Cultural Touchstone

When a show like Married at First Sight goes to air, the real magic happens when it moves from the screen to a national and international conversation. Adrian Swift, Nine’s Head of Content, Production and Development, explores how MAFS transcends its format to become a cultural phenomenon and a powerful platform for brands.

Watch Now >

Prefer to Read? Recap on the Insights Below.

Success Beyond the Screen

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Swift has years of experience under his belt, witnessing the change in content and formats throughout the years, but when talking about a show like MAFS, he reflects the gratification of seeing it become a rapid topic of conversation.

While the big themes are identified during production, the true impact is realised when discussions about the show spread through other platforms, explode on social media and dominate real-life conversations. "You know then that the show has had the impact that you hoped and planned for," he says.

MAFS and the Modern Relationship

What makes MAFS so culturally relevant? For Swift, the secret is its connection to real life. "It's reality. What you're seeing is a snapshot of Australian relationships at the point at which we make the show." This authenticity allows the audience to see themselves in the stories, creating a powerful resonance that extends beyond Australia to the UK, US, New Zealand, and Europe.

Every season, the show's enduring success is built on a simple premise: finding people with compelling stories and relationship journeys to embark on. With 14,000 people applying for the show, the challenge is to find 12 individuals and create genuine matches. "What we end up with is people who are genuinely looking for love," Swift notes, ensuring that each season offers a new, authentic, and relatable story.

The Perfect Match for Brands

When it comes to brand partnerships, Swift stresses the need for careful and thoughtful integration. MAFS offers numerous opportunities for brands to weave into the show's storytelling and themes. Collaborating closely with brands is the priority, to understand their narrative and find a way to authentically bring their story into the world of the show.

"It's an easy task and one that's actually quite fun for both parties," he says, underscoring the creative and strategic process that ensures brand messaging is not only seen but also embraced by a highly engaged audience.

Connect with us today to learn more about integrating your brand with Married at First Sight in 2026.

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The Winter Paralympic Games: A Lifelong Dream

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Jess Gallagher,
Dual Summer, Winter Paralympian & Multiple Medallist

The opportunity to represent Australia at the Winter Paralympic Games is a lifelong dream for Para athletes. It’s an opportunity to showcase their personal best on the international winter stage after years of work and sacrifice.

For dual Paralympian Jess Gallagher, there’s one way to describe the Games – “jaw-dropping”. Milano Cortina will be no exception, with a spectacular group of Aussies set to compete. Align your brand with the resilience and courage of these athletes during the 2026 Winter Paralympic Games.

Looking to put your brand at the heart of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games on Nine? We'd love to hear from you.

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Joy, Excitement and Heartbreak: The Power of the Winter Olympics

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Torah Bright,
Winter Olympian – Gold & Silver Medallist

For professional tour athletes like snowboarder Torah Bright, competing on the world’s biggest stage in the Winter Olympics is another level of competition entirely. “You know you can be a world champ over and over and over, but you may not be an Olympic champ yet,” she says. The stakes are high, athlete emotions are raw, and you can feel the joy, excitement and heartbreak.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity for your brand to be a part of the Winter Games action in 2026.

Looking to put your brand at the heart of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games on Nine? We'd love to hear from you.

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