The Big Ideas Store is an event that showcases how Powered by Nine can leverage creativity to help clients engage with Nine’s ecosystem of brands.
The event has grown from a small pop-up on Oxford street in its first year to now growing to almost the importance of an upfront in its fourth year.
The theme of this year’s event is Sky High with the two-week event taking over the 22nd floor of Nine’s new HQ in North Sydney.
See also: Nine launches The Big Ideas Store for 2021
Mediaweek spoke to the director of Powered, Liana Dubois about the expanded event and what to expect from the next two weeks.
With the events large scale growth this year Dubois said that Nine is always aiming to make things bigger and better.
“We obviously do the Upfronts in September/October every year and this is a good point in the middle of the year to go big again and to remind agencies and advertisers alike of the huge, huge platforms they have got to play with here.
“We have at Nine such an extraordinary marketing platform that has been built out over the last five years with the mergers and acquisitions of the company formerly known as Fairfax and the company formerly known as Macquarie Media which are now Nine Publishing and Nine Radio. Adding that to our digital footprint and our huge television megaphone we just have such a candy shop or a playground for brands to play with.”
With all the different pieces that now make up Nine’s portfolio of assets, Dubois said that it is a case of every brand having its place in the Nine ecosystem.
“We know the power of each of those individual assets and each of those content brands, we have got an extraordinary data and technology capability as well. It is about getting a blank piece of paper and mapping out in our all minds what our capabilities are and then working with a lot of amazing collaborators to bring in different thinking and different point of views to really make it the industry event that it is.”
The Big Ideas Store lives up to its hype offering a visual and physical experience for those in attendance, and Dubois said that the reason for this is twofold.
“Coming out of Covid is really important, we are a people based industry and we do our best work together and we have been separated for a really long period of time. So having the opportunity to bring people in and to get together to network and shoot the breeze and share ideas is something that we love to do and we wanted to create the opportunity to do that.
“From Nine’s point of view having clients and agencies be able to come in and physically engross themselves in the world of Nine is really important. We are a content data and technology organisation but a lot of what we do is on the screen or in the printed page, so it is important to let people come in and physically touch it.”
Dubois said that Powered by Nine always has a lot to announce so the growth of this event won’t affect the quantity of quality of its announcements at the Nine Upfront.
“I have no doubt that the Upfronts will be full of large scale announcements about where to next and how will continue to evolve in the years to come.”
When asked about what she was looking forward to most from the next two weeks, Dubois said she won’t single out a favourite child but is looking forward to one thing the most.
“I am looking forward to just having people come in here and perhaps spark and agitate for some industry debates on a few topics.”
You can register for The Big Ideas Store here.
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Top Photo: Liana Dubois with Powered’s, director of strategy, insights & effectiveness, Toby Boon