Nine Upfront - Media agencies on the big in-person pitch

By Chris Pash and Jason Pollock | 15 September 2022
 
Mitch Tambo and Reigan Derry. Image: Supplied

Media buyers were impressed with Nine’s first in-person upfront since the pandemic, setting a standard for the other networks. 

Nine, with the tagline Australia belongs here, gave media agencies and brands multiple ways to access and cut the media group’s gold mine of 20 million signed on users. 

Nine Now was a highlight, with streaming in HD and a new start over function, plus an enhanced advertising opportunity in radio and for the Sydney Mornign Heral;d and The Age.

The network's presentation was given to an audience of about 1,500 at Luna Park, followed by an after party across the harbour at the Rocks. 

Elizabeth Baker, Zenith’s chief investment officer: “Nine delivered a confident presentation - with many clients in the room, I think they successfully pitched their wares in the way we have come to expect from them.

“Whilst each channel and platform were given airtime, along with announcements on new content, the message was clear that it is the strength of the suite in combination – TV, audio, publishing and digital that provide clients with the best opportunity for targeted reach at scale - traditional channels bolstered by the strengths and targeting capabilities of digital.

“Likewise with the content itself, harnessing verticals across all platforms – news for example, as well as the text to audio announcement.

“It was evident that 9NOW is a significant focus for Nine. They unveiled an Australian first for BVOD platforms, placing their users in control of their viewing experience and offering a converged experience – “combining the simplicity of broadcast television with the convenience and interactivity of digital” - with start over features, interactive ads and shoppable moments on connected TVs.

“There were some compelling announcements on the audio front with Nine launching addressable targeting across digital radio assets. As part of accessing Nine’s broader 20 million signed in users, advertisers can now target logged-in users across Nine’s radio stations.

“The announcement of NTN – its own premium traffic network – was an interesting one, providing brands with the opportunity for cross platform integration at scale and the ability to own traffic updates across 2GB, 3AW, 4BC and 6PR, audio live streaming and digital platforms in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane with the network also set to roll out in TODAY in 2023.

“After a two-year COVID pause, Nine also announced that the renowned Good Food Guide hats are back with the guide publishing in November 2022. With the Good Food Kitchen TV series also returning for a second season in October, plus the Good Food events program relaunching in 2023, this will provide relevant brands with a strong cross-platform opportunity.”

Marelle Salib, national head of investment, OMD Australia: Nine had the benefit of being the first broadcaster to host an in person upfront event after two years of navigating the virtual world. True to style, they have set the bar for others to follow.

Nine are masters of packaging, presenting all the right ingredients, grounded in a purpose that brings Australians to the heart of their business. This allows advertisers to connect with audiences across multiple platforms, within thought provoking and entertaining content, that delivers scale across mass and diverse communities across Australia.

“Nine has spent the last few years cementing their position around total TV, total audio, growth of super brands and the importance of automated trading through Galaxy, which has delivered much needed simplicity for media buyers and their established data and technology platforms.

“The theme throughout Nine’s 2023 presentation was ‘Australia belongs here’, cementing their local routes versus the global tech giants. This positioning allowed Nine to really bring the focus of the presentation to what they do best; content that engages Australians across broadcast, audio, news and digital.

“Nine has a strong, proven backbone of content across broadcast with key tentpoles and news.

“Titles returning next year include MAFS, Lego Masters, Parental Guidance and The Block, which impressively is the only format to grow its audience year-on-year. It was refreshing to see a plethora of new content being added to the slate, appealing to various audiences.

“A sneak peek of the new grown-up love reality format ‘My Mum, Your Dad’ had the audience buzzing and given Nine’s expertise in this format with MAFS we would expect to see some big numbers.

“The event drama ‘Warnie’ will no doubt attract mass audiences across linear and BVOD and the new format ‘The Summit’ looks promising and brand friendly. Lastly, Gordon Ramsay is back on Australian screens with ‘Food Stars’, this new spin will be a test on whether it can reinvigorate a tired genre.

“The most exciting announcements were around 9Now. With streaming as the future of TV,
they have put the viewer experience first and this can only be a good thing for audiences and advertisers alike.

“All content is now available in full HD for free with the ability to start over a live stream if a viewer misses the beginning of a program, creating more interactivity for the platform.

“These are big steps for free streaming and will help Nine stay competitive for audiences. Personalised household profiles will allow more accurate targeting for advertisers.

“Interactivity with ads and commerce capabilities across all platforms are providing new opportunities for brands to connect with consumers, the detail on Nine’s new products in this space will be eagerly awaited by many. Understanding how these compare to others will be key to Nine’s success.

“Despite Nine touching on total TV, it felt a little light-on in terms of how they plan to evolve and transact audiences across multiple platforms. With converged audiences, the hope for media buyers is a world where audiences can be transacted across a singular currency in a simplistic fashion.

“Data and attention remain a strong pillar of Nine’s strategy. With a 20 million strong user base, brands have the opportunity to understand viewer behaviour to inform messaging, targeting and various approaches.”

Andrew Murray, head of trading, UM Australia: “A strong start to Upfronts ’23 season last night with Nine Entertainment Co. (NEC) demonstrating a robust and broad selection of programming which will continue to attract audiences across all Metro and Regional markets.

“With a collection of current programming like ‘Lego Masters’, ‘Married At First Sight’ and ‘Travel Guides’, underpinned by a consistent News, Current Affair and Sport pillars, combined with new announcements of new programming lead by ‘Gordon Ramsey’s Food Stars’, ‘The Summit’ and the real-life documentary of ‘Warnie’ is a great commitment from NEC in content and a great opportunity for clients to connect with over 20 million Australians.

“The approach to combined Total TV audiences, coupled with a focus on attentive placement is an approach that UM Australia and their clients would love to lead and explore further as it delivers strategic trading dividends for all our clients.

“The introduction of the Nine Traffic Network is proposition that UM Australia are keen to understand more of and how those aspects of a connections plan aligned to the “traffic report” arena which we believe that over time will deliver strategic pricing dividends for our clients.

“Further to this, the dynamic and targeted insertion of digital placements in Nine’s more traditional and well regarded titles is a positive for UM Australia’s clients.”

Marianne Lane, head of investment, Kaimera: ““It was great to see the return of a content focused upfront and once again the content didn’t disappoint. It’s strong, safe, and consistent.

“My top picks for new content in 2023 are My Mum, Your Dad and The Summit. Both these programs will appeal to the broader 18-64 demographic and although the younger audience won’t watch it on linear TV, they’ll definitely tune into 9Now.”

Sam Buchanan, CEO, IMAA (Independent Media Agencies of Australia): “Nine's upfronts were a comprehensive showcase of why they are the biggest in the land. It had its usual emotive montages set to powerful music and deep voice-overs.

“There was a patriotic feel to the showcase anchoring with its positioning of Australia’s media company and Australia belongs here. There was also an interesting live cross to the UK to get a sense of what takes to bring the Queen’s coverage to life

“The event also highlighted Nine Now’s streaming advancements in full HD and 50fps, "send to phone ads" and the NTN traffic offering.

“Nine announced the return of audience favourites including The Block, Married at First Sight, Lego Masters, and Love Island and the Australian Open, and the market will love the tried and tested model. There was also a raft of impressive new shows and a local reality content play with My Mum Your Dad, Big Miracles, Australia’s Most Identical Twin, The Summit, and Gordon Ramsay Food Stars Australia.”

Brittany Crowley, PHD Australia Group investment director: Nine’s proposition ‘Australia belongs here’ provides an emotive platform for the network to connect audiences with quality content in a data led way, across platforms, wherever and whenever.

“With the base of a strong content line up extending from new; ‘my mum, your dad’ and ‘The summit’ to returning; ‘The Block’ and ‘MAFS’ favourites, underpinned by a strong sport and news slate, it positions the network as a key partner for advertisers to connect with Australians in 2023. While there were not a lot of big new initiatives, Nine delivered a strong proposition and played to their strengths.

“They demonstrated evolution and understanding of what their audiences want and how to connect brands via relevant content, data led solutions and a greater focus on their digital offering across 9now, stan and their wider Nine entertainment offering, with recognition of how audiences and media consumption is shifting.

“9Now's ‘start over’, print text to audio conversion, NTN and their digital ‘front page’ and wider ad insertion capabilities are a few ways they have enabled this.

“With one of the largest data pools in the country extending across a vast digital ecosystem, this gears Nine to gain strong insight into the habits and trends of audiences and connect advertisers with these audience at the right time and in the right way.”

Jessica Longley, Wavemaker client & marketplace director: "Australia Belongs Here is Nine’s statement of purpose moving into 2023, with television, publishing & audio a strong focus.

"Strong cross-platform opportunities are required across the media landscape with Nine the perfect partner to facilitate due to their strong cross-channel portfolio. Nine has responded to this challenge firstly with an exciting opportunity for advertisers to run rich media and video advertising within the digital version of the key mastheads (SMH, The Age & AFR) and secondly, an opportunity to further integrate into traffic with the launch of NTN (News Traffic Network). This gives the opportunity for advertisers to own traffic updates across audio, digital as well as the Today Show.

"With BVOD continually on the rise, 9Now has provided further opportunity to reach additional live audiences with both the new Summer Release and ‘Start Over’ feature ensuring additional eyeballs are placed on not only the content, but also on ads, allowing stronger results for our clients.

"In terms of programming, we can expect Nine’s key formats to continue to deliver reliable audience deliveries across all key demos (The Block, MAFS, Lego Masters etc). As always, with new programming offerings, it will be interesting to see how the new content performs across Nine (e.g. Warnie 2023, Gordan Ramsay’s Food Stars, The Summit), and Stan Originals (e.g. Bali 2002)." 

Chris Parker, CEO, Awaken: "Belonging was the theme and Nine's 2023 line-up looks to deliver across key demographics and platforms with the big titles that draw in the audiences, and everyone finally gets ‘start over’ on Nine Now.

"What was most appealing to us are the advertising advancements for 2023, in particular the Nine Traffic Network, programmatic audio, digital ads in papers and interactive BVOD ads - all of which will add another layer to tactical campaigns.

"I really love the introduction of audio across all  articles for accessibility. I can see a future of people curating their own listen lists with a broader mix of people for programmatic audio, particularly across the AFR.

"Nine does have an incredible amount of first party data and it is great to see it being offered with attention measurements on Powered.
 
"Overall while the big drawcords, MAFS, The Block, Lego Masters, NRL, etc all belong on Nine, these advertising announcements are what have been missing."

Daniel O’Brien, managing director, Frontier Australia: “Overall, it was a very impressive showing from Nine. While there wasn’t a stack of new announcements, particularly advertiser or ad format related, they certainly reiterated their position as one of the leading media publisher giants in Australia.
 
"Spruiking 20 million+ registered users, 10 million+ monthly actives and a heap of quality, reliable content in the pipeline for next year, the future looks bright for Nine. As always, how brands navigate everything Nine has to offer will be the challenge, but there's no denying audiences are there for the taking." 

 

Amy Dasciano, general manager – Media, Enigma: "The Nine Upfronts for 2023, doubled down on showcasing Nine’s depth and breadth of audiences and platforms, advancements around data capabilities and new advertising formats, all of which bring new opportunities for advertisers and media buyers.

"Targeting audience segments at scale, in brand safe environments, continues to be a focus for a lot of our clients, and there are advantages for us to partner with one network to provide a multi-channel approach.  

"The depth of their returning TV content was solid, and I was delighted to see new locally produced content in the pipeline for 2023. I personally can’t wait for My Mum, Your Dad.  Their continued focus around their news product,  the ongoing investment into Brisbane Times, and regional areas for local news content is evident and should be applauded.

"The upgrades for 9now’s “start over” feature will draw more audiences to stream live TV through a connected device. Growing this segment of the market is a core opportunity, with smaller advertisers becoming more comfortable and confident to spend in this environment. Not forgetting what all TV buyers have been waiting for the ‘Shoppable’ moments within the CTV environment, which can now be bought on household location data. Only time will tell if the experience is seamless enough for consumers to genuinely want to interact.

"New announcements around addressable radio ads for live streaming and the NTN Traffic brand, will provide advertisers the ability to secure cross platform opportunities and deliver their messaging in more tactical and targeted environments."

Stephen Leeds, CEO, The Media Store: "It was a Good old fashioned Upfront - full of content, new and returning, but this time across multi-platform, and Nine addressed all genres - news, sport, property, food. 
 
"If they get the sales pitch right, and clients are prepared to think differently about share of spend, then Nine’s multi-platform offering could reap commercial rewards that no other media company can offer,
 
"They offer scale, are truly data driven, and offer addressable solutions TODAY.

"Apart from content, there were technology developments that will be welcomed: target audiences for audio via programmatic, digital versions of print mastheads all accepting advertising was a missed opportunity but now available, 9 Now accepting ads in full HD, and the 'start over' feature with unskippable ads were some new features.

"Nine's 20 million signed in users with 10 million monthly active users is impressive, and provides scale for addressable audiences."

 

Louise Bermingham, Mindshare Digital Director – Investment: "What an event – Nine had everyone captivated from the beginning to end throughout the 2023 upfront.

"They showed a consistent theme of new and reliable content along with building on the established technology and data.

"A highlight of the announcements for us and advertisers, was Nine’s announcement of a complete transformation of the User Interface of Nine Now. This not only supports a seamless user experience with the likes of a ‘start over’ button, but also provides new opportunities for advertisers through interactive shoppable ads on the biggest screen in the home.

"Nine Traffic Network is a great addition to the product suite allowing our advertisers to reach users in premium content, at high reach across audio, television and digital. 

"With new advertising opportunities across the downloadable SMH and The Age, comes exciting digital opportunities for brands to integrate in a multitude of ways at scale in premium environments.  

"Nine’s nod to purpose and their new proposition “Australia Belongs Here” aligns closely to our Good Growth ambitions at Mindshare, and will resonate strongly with our clients. However, as a leading publisher in the Australian landscape with depth and breadth of reach as well as rich Australian content, there’s greater opportunity to drive into purpose and DEI&S further."

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