News Corp has unveiled a series of data, content and advertising initiatives aimed at delivering more effective, targeted multimedia campaigns for brand advertisers.
The media conglomerate announced 24 initiatives at its annual showcase, Come Together, event this week.
These included UnrulyEQ+, a new data-powered tool for consumer insights which combines the proprietary emotional data from video platform, Unruly, with audience targeting platform, News Connect.
UnrulyEQ+ allows advertisers to test and optimise video content for emotional impact, identify the key triggers for a desired audience and match this data with News Connect data to build audience segments of viewers who are most likely to engage with the campaign.
Unruly managing director A/NZ, Ricky Chanana, said joining forces with the News Corp Australia family has unabled it to create a targeting product for Australian marketers.
“UnrulyEQ+ combines the entire suite of UnrulyEQ insight and optimisation products with valuable News Connect data for targeting. The fact that we can then apply that targeting not only across the News Corp Australia network, but also the entire Unruly network as well, this is really going to blow some minds,” he said.
News Corp Australia’s managing director of digital solutions, Neil Robinson, said marketing partners tell them they need safe, trusted environments to deliver their video content.
“They also need innovative targeting solutions for audiences that deliver on their marketing outcomes – awareness, consideration and action. UnrulyEQ+ delivers truly unified and qualified video targeting to engaged audiences in safe premium publisher environments. This marriage of capabilities means UnrulyEQ+ is uniquely positioned to deliver premium ROI,” he said.
News Connect combines audience demographic, behavioural and transactional data from 12 million Australians every month across News Corp Australia’s properties with transaction, search and behavioural data from selected strategic partners.
Other initiatives announced include NewsCast, a portfolio of new podcast series devoted to sport, travel, food, fashion and true crime; as well as Code Block: the opportunity to secure category exclusivity across News Corp Publishing for its coverage of a chosen sports code including AFL, NRL, cricket, motorsport and racing.
The group also debuts News Connect, an expanded catalogue of News Connect customers, incorporating the key categories of food (Food Connect); travel (Escape Connect); sport (Fan Connect) and communities (Local Connect), and prestige (Prestige Connect); along with News Connect SelfServe: a new self-serve targeted digital booking capability for clients; and Trusted By: A new short-form video offering from Suddenly Productions.
News Corp also announced greater sales collaboration with Multi Channel Network (MCN), the programmatic sales joint venture initially established between Foxtel, Fox Sports and Network Ten.Ten pulled out of the agreement at the beginning of this year.
Newsamp managing director national sales, Lou Barrett, said the company’s integrated client solutions capability, will now partner with MCN to trial the inclusion of Foxtel, FOX Sports and Sky News to deliver an all-of-business solution.
“With dedicated specialists embedded in Newsamp’s offering, clients will now receive the most highly integrated and creative multimedia campaigns,” Barrett said.
In addition, two new strategic partnerships for News Connect were announced: Skyscanner - a travel search company; and Near - a geo-targeting company, which together aim to enhance the quality of customer segmentation and targeting.
Newscorp executive chairman, Michael Miller, said the media giant is taking clients on a journey of exploration to show the new products created to deliver more effective campaign results.
“By combining the smarts of data and technology, with the creativity of our trusted content, we are showing clients how they can work with us and our engaged audiences, to deliver better outcomes for their brands,” he said.
The Come Together event, held in a custom built airport lounge in Sydney, guided guests through five immersive customer journeys to showcase how News Corp engages more Australians and connects its clients with more of its customers.
However, the event has come under fire from community interest groups, who plan to again protest the event today in response to perceived racism and extremist views being publicised by the media. The protests are being organised by GetUp, journalist, Alex Mckinnon, and feature speakers from Muslims Down Under.
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