ACM has launched ConnectNow, its first major trade campaign since the move to independent ownership under executive chairman Antony Catalano.
ACM chief revenue officer Sharon Fitter said ACM prided itself on keeping communities strong, informed and connected.
“Unlike many other publishers we are looking to grow our portfolio not shrink it,” Fitter said
“We’re two years on from the separation from Fairfax/Nine and we are now the largest independent publisher in the country and we want to celebrate the connections we make. We’re connecting readers to content, advertisers to audiences and we continue to add community support programs that aim to make the areas in which we operate better places to live.”
“While many mastheads polarise people at times, our trusted mastheads are part of the fabric of the communities they serve. If you ask someone in Newcastle about the Newcastle Herald, there’s a lot of passion: it truly is the ‘Voice of the Hunter’ and this sentiment is replicated across our network.”
“Add in the fact that our regional heartland has experienced unprecedented growth over the past 18 months as more and more Australians embrace the freedoms of living and working in our thriving regional centres. We’re saying if you want to connect to these audiences come and talk to ACM.”
The campaign will roll out across marketing trade press and ACM-owned assets throughout August and September and features the ACM ConnectNow lock up. A national roadshow will follow shortly after.
ACM chief marketing officer Paul Tyrrell said “we wanted to develop a campaign that visually captures the breadth of our reach across the country and also provide a framework to communicate the connections we offer advertisers”.
“The campaign creates a clear call to action to clients and agencies to ConnectNow to our audiences, our mastheads at a local or group level and of course our quality content solutions,” Tyrrell said.
“We’re not only raising the profile of ACM and our portfolio but also debunking a few misconceptions out there. The fact is, ACM’s reach is nationwide. We are strong in the regions where 9.1 million Australians now reside but many clients would not be aware that 48% of our audiences are from metropolitan areas. So with ACM it’s easy and efficient to reach both a regional and a metro audience with a single buy.”
“Our content solutions delivered by our Story Central department are market leading and allow advertisers to use our trusted voice to tell their stories. ACM has a team of more than 30 dedicated content creators who are pumping out nearly 3000 articles a month for clients.
“We look forward to helping more clients to ConnectNow with our audiences and advertising solutions.”