Magazine publishing giant Bauer has today launched a portion of its digital women’s network as well as digitally relaunching its flagship brands The Australian Women's Weekly and Woman's Day.
The publisher's revamped digital offering has been in the works for sometime, however sales director for Bauer Tony Kendall told AdNews the fact the publisher is just entering the digital marketplace in a big way is not an issue.
“We come from a position of great strength in terms of the brands that are known and loved by Australian women,” Kendall said.
“We have literally hundreds of content producers, so the content [on the digital network] is going to be new and fresh, which is supported by great advertisers and that is significantly ahead of our competitors a) in their brands reach and b) their ability to produce new and engaging content.”
Also launching today is the Food to Love vertical, which is being sponsored by Woolworths, as well as Woman’s Day and The Australian Women’s Weekly, Kendall said most of the premium inventory on the site is already all stitched up.
“Most partnerships are going to be around campaign targeting women around the different verticals, so the sponsorship elements in terms of one partner owning a particular vertical will be limited to the one and two maximum, because we've had so much interest from so many different players we don't want to exclude anyone.
“We've got plenty of bookings in the system but there's always availability, but the demand for the premium inventory in the weeks and months ahead is very strong,” he said.
Kendall told AdNews that since the newly bolstered digital sales team started going to market the publisher has seen a double-digit growth in its overall sales, with Kendall saying that there has absolutely been a “halo-effect” experienced for Bauer's print sales.
“We've already seen a lot of briefs, they're digital briefs, but we're going back with digital and print responses. The upswing for both mediums is very strong.
“Advertisers are seeing the value is getting a print paid or earned component into their campaign as well, so whilst the digital briefs are much stronger than the print briefs at the moment, most of the advertisers are seeing the opportunity to incorporate print into the response as well.”
When it comes to the digital inventory that Bauer is looking to sell, native is high on the agenda, as is sponsorship and events.
“Our view is we want to have 60% to 70% of our businesses be a combination of sponsorships, data driven packages, native and more detailed partnerships around events and sampling, and 30-40% in the traditional display advertising,” Kendall said.
Despite being slower to enter the digital market Kendall is bullish about why advertisers should choose the magazine publisher.
“If you want to target Australian women from a marketing point of view Bauer is the first, second, and third place you should go and have that conversation because it's print and digital and we have a better understanding and better reach than any other media company.”
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