The 2023 Australian Open officially begins today, with Nine broadcasting all the action from Melbourne Park.
With the broadcaster holding the rights to all premium tennis played in Australia until 2029, it's started this year's coverage with the launch of a special Tennis magazine, an out of home partnership with oOh! and the announcement of major partners and sponsors for the 111th edition of the first Grand Slam of the year.
AdNews spoke to Anne Gruber, head of content partnerships at Nine, about the proposition for advertisers, the importance of utilising a mix of new and returning partners and the plans the company has for augmented reality technology this year,
Gruber said that the response from advertisers and brands has been “really positive”.
“We’re in our fifth year of being the exclusive broadcast partner of the Australian Open. We've had an opportunity to work with those key sponsors and partners and also work with our content teams and our talent internally to find the best way to tell those brand stories across the platforms that we have at Nine.
“That obviously encompasses our broadcasting platforms across television and streaming, but particularly this year and the last couple of years, also across our publishing and audio assets as well. That's been really well received from a brand perspective, because not everybody is looking for just that broadcast presence.”
Powered - Nine’s internal marketing services team – has played a key part in bringing this vision together, effectively serving as an entire internal creative agency.
“The Powered team works really closely with brands to come up with an idea based on campaign messaging, their business objectives and marketing objectives, to then fit that into the best place in our coverage.
“That could be through on activation and television, or it might be a podcast, or it might be a published series in one of the mastheads, and they all talk to each other. That's a benefit for advertisers, because it's kind of an end-to-end production facility.
“We know that not every brand is looking for the same thing, so it's about tailoring the right solution. Some brands want to lead with publishing and some want to lead with audio but then tack on some television or vice versa. Tennis, and the Australian Open particularly, is a perfect place to do that, because we do cover it across all those platforms exclusively and Australians have to go to one of those assets to connect with our stories.”
Gruber said that the mix of returning and new partners and sponsors Nine has for the 2023 Summer of Tennis means that they can fulfill different campaign objectives for different sponsors.
“Because it's the start of the year, it's a launch phase for a lot of brands. We work really closely with Tennis Australia and the brands that are partners on ground - the likes of Kia and many others that have been very long standing partners - but I think also for us, it's important to kind of venture out into different categories.
“We've got a range of new brands like Gordon's Gin, Berocca, Optus and Qantas joining this year, where we haven't had brands in those categories specifically. It’s about working with them to find a kind of storytelling ecosystem that works for them.”
Gruber said that as a sports broadcaster, augmented reality technology is something that's becoming more and more important for Nine, something demonstrated in last year’s Australian Open, when viewers saw a new model Kia drive around the rooftop of KIA Arena via augmented reality.
“We, as a business, regardless of whether it's a brand partnership, or not, always continue to invest into those areas and other ways that you can enhance the broadcast for the viewer.
“With Kia this year, you'll see another enhanced and different version of using augmented reality via a drone light show. As the technology keeps evolving, people's expectations, and habits also keep evolving with that.”
The recent introduction of new in-app experiences to 9Now, including instant live TV as soon as you open the app and the ‘start over’ function, means Nine can expand their offering beyond just the linear television broadcast.
“Across the board, we've seen streaming numbers explode, and particularly across live sporting events. Tennis, and the Australian Open in particular, is one step above that, because particularly in the first week of the tournament, you've got so many matches going on at the same time.
“For the broadcast, we pick the best ones, but if you're a fanatic and you want to follow a particular player, you want to go to 9Now to go to that particular court. You can ‘start over’ if you’ve missed the start and really immerse yourself, so it's about offering different experiences for different levels of fandom.”
Gruber said that the historical success that Nine has seen with the Australian Open and television and streaming audiences means that advertisers should think seriously about getting involved.
“The Summer of Tennis has delivered, across the years, some of Australia's most iconic and biggest sporting moments. Just last year, it delivered the highest commercial Share in OzTAM history.
“That’s a testament to the kind of the unique power of what the tennis and the Australian Open is - the fact that you can, as a brand, tell your story across all those different touch points and platforms at a time that works for your brand, because with the pre tournaments and the two weeks of the Australian Open, it is truly a month of nonstop storytelling.
"The Australian Open obviously starts the year from a tennis perspective, but Nine is also the home of all four grand slams. A lot of our partnerships and a lot of our kind of storytelling conversations with brands span across the other Grand Slams as well, so it's a year-round tennis story and proposition.”
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