News Australia throws open the doors with News All Access, giving advertisers a campaign test drive
Buying media is one thing. Seeing exactly how your campaign will work before you've spent a dollar is another.
Buying media can sometimes feel a little like buying a car from the brochure. You know what the features are, you've read the specs, but you don't really know how it'll perform until you're behind the wheel.
That's the thinking behind News All Access, a new showcase event series from News Australia designed to give brands, agencies and SMEs something closer to a test drive of its advertising ecosystem.
Rather than sitting through a sales presentation, attendees are invited behind the scenes to see the tools, data and technology that power News Australia's commercial business, and even map out what their own campaigns could look like.
Running across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, the events combined market intelligence from senior News Australia executives with live demonstrations of the company's advertising products and a new membership program offering customised solutions by industry.
Taking the guesswork out of campaign planning
One of the centrepieces is The Internet Connect Group, News Australia's audience platform that houses the company's first-, second- and third-party data.
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For advertisers, it removes much of the manual work involved in audience discovery. Search for a customer type or behaviour and the platform surfaces matching audience segments almost instantly, while also allowing campaigns to be planned, booked and measured from the same interface.
Programmatic Lead Daiki Tanabe told Mediaweek the platform was built in-house with AI capabilities that dramatically speed up audience planning.
"So this is a platform that we built from the ground up. It's built relatively new. It also has AI capabilities. So whatever word or audience you want to target, it works."
Having previously worked elsewhere in the industry, Tanabe said the difference was immediately obvious.
“I'm in my old role at another company. They don't have anything like this... It's groundbreaking.”
Seeing a campaign before it's live
If The Internet Connect Group helps determine who to reach, Boost Media's campaign builder shows advertisers how they'll reach them.
Instead of presenting a traditional media plan buried in spreadsheets, the tool lays campaigns out visually in a calendar format, allowing clients to see exactly where creative will appear across News Australia's portfolio. It's less media schedule, more campaign preview.
Executive Director Mat Linett said that visibility helps clients understand the breadth of News Australia's inventory before committing to a campaign.
"We've kind of gone back to the old media schedule format. A calendar view really helps people see what they can actually get for their investments."
Rather than asking businesses to imagine how a campaign might work, Linett said the platform lets them see it take shape.
"They're really receptive... they can actually say, oh, wow, this is tangible, it's accessible, it's something that we can co-create if it's possible for their business."
That philosophy extends to the event itself.
"Being an all-access environment, we're opening the doors. We're having a conversation with editorial, online business, showing up different ways."
Beyond impressions
Measurement is another major focus of the showcase.
News Extend's Digital Suite is designed to help clients understand not just where advertising appears, but whether it's delivering against business objectives. Rather than optimising for individual channels, the platform brings campaign data together to build a clearer picture of performance and continuously refine activity as campaigns run.
Strategy and Solutions Lead Emily Walker said that matters in a market where consumers are exposed to advertising almost constantly.
"Everyone's just kind of exposed to so many ads a day that what we start to lose is really the cohesive story."
Instead, she said, the platform is designed to help brands tell that story consistently across every touchpoint while feeding performance data back into future planning.
"What we're doing with it is full planning... this gives us the data and insights we need to continuously make it better, so replicate success, build on learning."
For News Australia, the pitch is straightforward: rather than simply telling advertisers what its products can do, News All Access aims to let them experience those capabilities before they buy in.
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