News Australia pulled out all the stops for the roll out of its new unified video advertising package, All Screens for All Australians, aimed at connecting brands with audiences across mobile, tablet, desktop and connected TV (CTV).
The launch, held at ILUMINA on Thursday, comes as strong digital video growth and a growing audience appetite for News content, punctuated by News’ exclusive partnership with Tubi.
Lou Barrett, Managing Director of Client Partnerships, called the new package ‘the most powerful unified buy’ in Australia.
“With one billion videos consumed on our network in the last 12 months alone, we can connect advertisers with more than five million of Australia’s online video viewers through premium content in premium contexts.”
Mediaweek caught up with media buyers and leaders from the industry to get their perspectives on the package, what it means for the industry and for their budget and strategy.
Sam Buchanan, CEO of IMAA, called the All Screens a “powerful proposition” for independent agencies. “Indies have a tremendous thirst for video. One of the most powerful things about it is that targeting is nothing without scale and they’ve got buckets of scale.”
Lisa Squillace, Head – Motion Entertainment Head – Motion, WPP Media Australia & New Zealand, praised New Australia’s presentation and ambition at connection over half of Australia’s online population, from the small screen to the large screen.
“I’m a huge believer in long-form premium content and it’s exciting that they’re able to bring that to the party with Tubi.”
“You’ve got the opportunity for lean-in and for laid-out and news is now able to cater for all sorts of video and all sorts of requirements.
“Our brands are still looking to connect. The CTV and the television screen is still the largest screen in the house. To quote an old television person, ‘the sofa is still pointed to the TV screen.’”
She noted that their advertisers are always looking for ways to integrate sponsored or brand-supported long-form content in an environment that has such a huge global scale.
Squillace highlighted the contextual billboard as a clever and visually appealing opportunity.
“I like things to look good, so I think that that’s a winner. At the end of the day, News do a fantastic job and they’ve done a great job of also putting their price points.”
Lou Barrett, David Salmon and Pippa Leary
Daniela Rocchi, Head of Investment, Sydney at Initiative, also applauded News’ All Screens proposition and incremental audience reach.
“[It] is what we’re looking for in this market at the moment, especially when a lot of clients are starting to come off TV and move into that video space. It just gives us that audience that we’re looking for.”
For Rocchi, she noted that reaching audiences across a range of screens — from mobile to connected TV — is important to Initiative’s current strategy and to many of its clients.
“We’ve got a lot of retail clients that are really looking for that incremental reach and Tubi can give us that incremental reach that we haven’t had before, and that new audience.”
She also noted that the package deals are the cheapest CPMs in market and gives buy-in for some of their clients, that don’t have big budgets.
“[It] gives us that security in market, especially in those peak seasons, coming October to December for a lot of clients, which is really great for a lot of our clients.”
Karen Halligan, CEO of OzTam, said it was pleased to see News Corp further its interests in video and expand its footprint across screen formats.
“I think what we’re seeing is consumers making a lot of choice and it’s always great for people to have different choices.”
News’ presentation highlighted on-going partnership conversations between Tubi and OzTam, which Halligan shared has been “very positive”.
Halligan also highlighted Tubi’s recent figures in the recently released Streamscape report which showed an uplift in numbers from Q1 to Q2 since News took ownership of the proposition and added: “It’ll be exciting to see what they can do.”
As a media buyer, Peter Wilson, Head of Digital – Sydney at Nunn Media, shared that he was enthused to see OzTam and Tubi have on-going conversations.
“Having that involved with our planning and buying really helps us make sure that we’re reaching those right audiences for our clients.”
He also praised News’ All Screens proposition and said: “There’s a niche there that needs to be filled. I think that’s even more expelled over the last few days with the YouTube being brought into the social media ban.
“I’m all for it and I’m looking forward to see how it develops.”