Nine has showcased its leadership of the premium partnership space in Australia through the strategic client solutions division, 9Powered, at its 2019 Upfront event in a presentation from Nine’s group content strategy director Lizzie Young.
In unveiling its 2019 program slate, Nine highlighted how, through its big-content franchises including Married at First Sight, The Voice, Australian Ninja Warrior, Family Food Fight, Love Island Australia, The Block and the new Lego Masters, it delivers marketers the strongest cross-platform opportunity to align with powerful “water cooler” content and reach mass audiences at scale, delivering real, measurable results for brands.
Lego Masters was announced earlier this year and it is expected to screen in the schedule midyear, perhaps between Australian Ninja Warrior and The Block.
Of the others, Love Island will move from 9Gem and Nine’s primary channel.
“In a fragmenting media world, premium partnerships are a key battleground that marketers are looking to harness and we are focused on continuing to lead this space,” said Young.
“In the US, this is a space that is projected to grow from $6 billion to $20 billion between now and 2021, and Australia is no different.
“Nine, through 9Powered, has shown the way in driving smart, strategically led integration – built around a big idea – that works for both brands and audiences. Each year shows like The Block, Married at First Sight or The Voice clearly demonstrate how we can help brands to enter into the conversation in a meaningful way that delivers for them.”
Young also outlined how Nine invested in building out expertise to better meet the needs of marketers.
“We now run collaborative ideation workshops called Powered Hacks to crack that ‘Big Idea’,” Young said. “We provide the expertise, through our content partnerships teams that work closely with our content creation teams, to make that idea a reality. Our studios team deliver the creative execution, our client experience team manage the process end-to-end, and we have a new hire in the effectiveness space, a role aimed at building our capability to demonstrate results and show marketers the real business impact of their partnerships with Nine.”
Young added that Nine has a very real competitive advantage in both strategic thinking around premium content partnerships and the strength of its content offering, across platforms – television, 9Now, the powerful digital properties such as nine.com.au and 9Honey – or off-platform.
“The strength of 9Powered in this area reflects Nine’s understanding of wider culture, be it in areas like relationships, music, food or renovation and, as a result, we consistently drive a meaningful conversation with millions of Aussies every night.
“We understand that being everywhere – across every platform – is critical for us in 2019, and being able to connect on their terms with made-for-purpose communication is an important part of driving results for marketers, which is what we are here to do.”