News Corp's Whimn seems to be making a play for scale through its integration of parenting brand Kidspot and lifestyle brand Body and Soul, but commercial integration boss Ainslee O’Brien tells AdNews that size isn’t everything. Rather, it’s a premium offering that advertisers are after.
“We all know biggest is great, but it’s not everything. Increasingly customers are looking for scale because of the fragmentation of the market and reaching that scale in one hit is appealing, but being number one in size for the sake of being the biggest is not what we are about,” O'Brien says.
“For us, our competitive positioning is about pairing scale with premium environments.”
Since its launch six months ago, Whimn has paired with big brands for its native offering, including Dove, Yoplait, Elucent, Bayer and Princess Cruises.
O'Brien says native content is Whimn’s “sweet spot” and it holds its weight in comparison to editorial content, often achieving similar metrics.
“There are no surprises for our clients with our commercial options. We don’t under deliver,” she says.
“We don’t want to be known for coming out with great ideas, we want to be known for delivering outcomes, which is just as important as the idea itself.
“It’s no secret that client integrations are more expensive than display but obviously with that investment become deeper engagement with the client, greater than you can achieve with a display and banner.”
To align with Whimn’s official launch, it landed a significant content deal with Dove in celebration of the brand’s 60th anniversary. The campaign has a dual purpose to raise awareness of the Dove Self Esteem project alongside supporting Doves Real Beauty pledge, to always feature real women.
Each of the Whimn brand’s played a role in creating content to promote a positive body image and self-esteem, each creating a native article series aligned to the individual audience sets.
Despite native content being the most popular with clients, O'Brien believes display still has it’s place as long as its refined.
Unlike news.com.au that is renowned for its branded takeovers, Whimn likes to keep it simple and the site was designed to give readers a “breath of fresh air” with more white space.
Whimn features "refined" display ads
“Skins are a huge part of our business and our commercial partners do want to take over the site but we make sure they are as native as possible to stick with our premium proposition,” O'Brien says.
Soon, WHIMN will release Doco180 – its film initiative with Screen Australia which features six short documentaries directed by women.
O'Brien says this will “increase the armoury of video inventory” for clients, including pre rolls and sponsorship opportunities.
"I'm really looking forward to more initiative and tactics for Whimn as a place to empower women and drive female agenda and give a platform for readers to come together as a smart community," she adds.
From conception, Whimn aimed to revolutionise women’s content from celebrity news to smart content for women who want more.
O'Brien says this approach has been extremely successful with brands as there was a gap in the market for advertisers wanted to be associated with “highbrow” content.
News Corp is shortlisted for gongs at the Australian Magazine Awards. See all the winners here.
“There was a real gap in the market for Australian women who were telling us they wanted to understand more about the world but through the Australian lens,” she says.
It’s a gap in the women’s market that is quickly closing, with Nine recently announcing its launch of a subscription site targeted at professionals and other players in the market, including Mamamia, 9Honey, Yahoo7 Be, Bauer's Now to Love and Popsugar.
Looking to the next six months, O'Brien says Whimn is officially “on the map”, but there are initiatives she hopes with further establish the brand.
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