Publishers and media owners are pushing into content marketing in a bid to get closer to client briefs. Moves from both Fairfax and APN this week show how the dynamic between brands and media owners is twisting again to move beyond a transactional relationship – but some are sounding a note of caution.
Australian Radio Network’s parent company, APN News and Media, has taken a 51% stake in new content marketing company Emotive, which is being launched by former Brand New Media CEO Simon Joyce. Meanwhile Fairfax has launched a content creation studio, Made, headed up by managing director of content marketing, Simon Smith.
Emotive will help move ARN “further up the chain” when it comes to client briefs, according to ARN CEO Ciaran Davis. Smith is of the same opinion. Media owners are evidently tiring of being a last port of call in the creative process. Emotive is independent and able to use whatever channel necessary to get client work out, but APN’s stake means that it can leverage its channels.
Speaking to AdNews, Davis said that often radio stations are a later point of contact for a client after it has already worked with creative and media agencies. But with networks looking to take a greater share of ad spend, he said the partnership will move the network further up the chain when it comes to client briefs.
“[The aim is] not just working on creative brief, but forming a partnership with clients to be able to say: ‘Not only have we got the advertising and the amplification platform to get your message out there, but we’ve actually got a content-marketing dedicated team to be able to come up with strategy in the first place’,” Davis said.
Other media owners have already moved down that path. Nova Entertainment has had its own client solutions team, Create, since early 2011 to connect clients to their audience through a range of channels, primarily content creation, talent alignment and experiences such as its Red Room platform. Channel Nine has its Powered division, and Network Ten has Generate, but the move to earlier involvement is becoming more prevalent as publishers chase new revenue streams and different kinds of relationships with advertisers, beyond simply a transaction.
“Any publisher or media organisation tends to have a lot of discussions once the decision is made and the content is done, and then it’s about booking the space or negotiating the rate,” Smith told AdNews.
“[Made] will really help brands understand our audiences better, and how to have the right conversation, on the right platform, at the right time, and in the right tone.
“The clients that are talking to us are now starting to look at Fairfax beyond just a transactional place to put your advertising,” Smith said. “We feel it’s important to set up a part of the business to help brands and agencies do that, have more strategic conversations, and other conversations about ways their brands can reach our audiences, beyond just a placement of advertising.”
NewsLifeMedia and News Corp are also preparing to launch a greater suite of content marketing services to tackle content creation and native. News Corp’s director of digital strategy and sales, Neil Robertson, told AdNews that when entering the content space, brands and publishers needed to make sure they get it right, in order to ensure that the format stays profitable.
“There’s a lot of ‘Me too, we have to do native.’ Yes we do, it’s great, but how we do it is the question,” Robertson said.
“I still see the best examples of native being held up as Netflix's Orange is the New Black with The New York Times – that was quality work. That’s what we need to aspire to be. Our approach will always be ‘We want to do it better.’
“Good native will be a game changer, but bad native will risk the long-term viability of native being a revenue earner. That’s the commitment to quality we’re going to take.”
A version of this story originally appeared in the latest print edition of AdNews (February 20). Get your copy on iPad now, or in Print here.
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