Andrew Cook, the director of sales at Are Media, is seeing signs of green shoots in the advertising market for magazines and the media industry whole.
The former Bauer Media magazine group has unveiled a major repositioning with new digital products, relaunches of existing brands, and an update to ecommerce and programmatic offerings, following a new name being announced in September (Are Media) after being sold to private equity firm Mercury Capital.
Cook says Are Media have a job to do on behalf of the industry to make sure that magazines are represented well to clients and media agencies.
Part of the repositioning, unveiled at a virtual showcase, is a relaunch of youth-focused title Girlfriend and bringing back the recently shut Elle as a digital-only platform. It is also revamping its beauty, health and homes portfolio.
“We've experienced some really positive signs in the December quarter," Cook told AdNews. "Briefs are on the rise and client confidence, in particular in Melbourne, is starting to pick up fairly quickly.
“I'm hearing throughout the media landscape that all media is starting to feel positive signs returning, which is just wonderful. It's good for the industry.
“We're giving our advertisers and clients a real sense of confidence in Are Media in 2021 with the ambition we've got and the direction that we're also taking.
“As you know, we had a name change, so we need to continually reinforce that we are now Are Media.
“That name is within everyone's lexicon already which is great and well-received. We got a lot of strong, positive feedback on the name change."
While Are Media has felt COVID-19 along with the rest of the industry, the internal team is energized and looking forward to 2021.
“We previewed the showcase to staff and there were tears, and celebration and sense of pride," Cook says.
“Not only do we provide the market with a view on what we're doing in 2021, but it also instills a sense of pride of working within Are Media.
“It's wonderful to hear and see amongst the halls and within the meetings of the teams the positive feeling and real confidence as we move forward.
“We've always believed in our magazines. I think it's fair to say that the industry has probably been looking at what we intended to do with them after the merger (with Pacific magazines)."
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