Domain may have built its heritage in property, but next year it plans to renovate its content verticals to become a complete lifestyle brand.
“We’re not just a property website,” Domain Media group director Simon Kent tells AdNews.
“As a brand Domain has come a long way. Next year my challenge is to get clients and agencies to not just think of us as a property website, because we are a lot more than that.”
CEO Antony Catalano says the move from a classified business to a lifestyle brand was a logical step for Domain’s growth.
“What you’ll see from our business over the next few months is Domain will move beyond what was originally just a classified distribution business, to helping people with mortgages, designing their house and more,” Catalano says.
Through the revamp of its content and advertising offering, Kent is hoping to attract brands not traditionally associated with real estate.
“We used to be wedded to banks, utilities and your straight forward real estate advertisers. But now with the expanding content team we are moving into retail, automotive and travel,” Kent says.
“We are opening up all the categories that traditionally we didn’t previously get support from and expanding our content play to cover anything with a brick in it.”
Simon Kent
Domain has made big moves in the content space this year, launching the second series of its satirical show Avalon Now and its first weekly print magazine.
Recently the Domain team moved out of the Fairfax building and into its new offices, to house the now 700 strong staff. The offices in Pyrmont boast a games room, a wellness space and a sales team of 50 people.
“With the new offices, it feels like you are working in a startup that’s supported by a legacy business. We feel like we have the best of both worlds because we can move quickly but when we need support to grow we have Fairfax’s assets,” Kent says.
“Previously our media offering was print ads, display ads or sponsorship. It was really straightforward. But now we have a branded content team, a commercial team and more than 15 ad products.”
Domain's new offices in Pyrmont
The business has been a strong performer for Fairfax, with it delivering a 33% growth in revenue and 40% increase in EBITDA this year.
Domain’s biggest competitor has been News Corp-owned REA, but Kent says with Domain expanding into lifestyle it shakes up the property publisher category.
“Content is our heritage and Fairfax and Domain have a trusted name. Content is our point of difference. REA will never be able to match the quality content proposition we have,” he says.
“We compete against everyone in the content space and we have commercially savvy editors that understand brands need to be involved in content too.
“Next year, our content combined with our data offering will be the nirvana.”
Read Kent's opinion piece on the importance of content and context.
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