Nine launches self-serve platform for TV advertising, 9Voyager

In another initiative to meet advertiser's changing needs, Nine announced the launch of 9Voyager, a platform aiming to remove the barriers to entry into TV advertising for small to medium enterprise (SME). 

The self-serve automated buying platform has been built by Nine using proprietary technology to allow business owners of all sizes to access the power of television as an engine for sales and growth.

It follows the historic $4.2 billion merger between Nine and Fairfax last year. From 10 December, the Fairfax brand name was retired, with the new entity operating under Nine. The combined group will own the free-to-air Nine broadcasting network, Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian Financial Review, a majority stake in the Domain online retail site, streaming service, Stan, and a majority stake in radio network operator, Macquarie Media. 

9Voyager was first announced in October last year, and is built using 9Galaxy technology. It allows any SME to access advertising inventory on Channel9, 9Go, 9Gem, 9Life and digital video platform 9Now. 9Galaxy was launched in 2017 to offer advertisers greater certainty on their television campaigns by guaranteeing 100 per cent delivery of dynamic campaigns bought via the platform. 

Last year, the Australian broadcaster launched addressable advertising to the Australian market through 9Now, its broadcast video on demand (BVOD) product. This offering gives marketers cross-device targeting on video and be available through both direct sales and programmatic, via the Telaria platform. The media giant integrated Telaria’s platform with Adobe Audience Manager (DMP), claiming to be one of the first companies to do so. Nine also overhauled its data insights offering around key video products with the aim of giving marketers and agencies a far greater understanding of the audiences they are reaching through video products on digital properties, such as nine.com.au and 9Now.

Removing the barriers to TV entry

Nine’s chief sales officer, Michael Stephenson, said Nine conducted research to find out what SMEs saw as a driver for growth prior to launching 9Voyager.

“Advertising is the heart of that. The vast majority were already advertising via a self-serve platform, but on social. What they wanted was a self-serve platform for TV. However, the barriers to entry were the perceived cost of TV, and the idea of producing a TV commercial,” he told CMO. 

“So we created this product, which is easy to use and removes those barriers. SMEs can simply tell us who they’d like to reach, where they’d like to reach them, when, and how much they want to spend, and our system will create an automated advertising schedule, tell them how many people they’ll reach, and create roughly 200 advertising spots. 

“For $15,000, which is the minimum point of entry, we will also produce a TV commercial for them for free. We’ve partnered with 90 Seconds, a global video production company, with technology integrated into 9Voyager. Accessing over 12,000 creative and production partners around the world, we will shoot, produce and deliver a high quality 30-second commercial. 

“It’s been proven, through ThinkTV, TV and BVOD is the most powerful combination to drive sales in business. So we create this platform to allow SMEs to do it really simply.” 

9Voyager will give SMEs access to Nine’s premium, brand-safe inventory allowing them to reach the millions of Australians who access Nine’s content on live TV or on demand every week to grow their business. 

Ahead of 9Voyager launch, Nine established a specialist sales group Nine+ to create marketing and advertising solutions for SMEs using Nine’s television, digital and publishing assets including 9Voyager. Former APN Outdoor executive Tim Rose has joined Nine to lead the team.

Marketing academy 

Nine simultaneously launched the 9Voyager Academy, which consists of marketing workshops to help SMEs understand the role of marketing and advertising whilst giving them hands on demonstrations of 9Voyager. 

“The masterclass events will provide the knowledge to help grow their business by harnessing the power of TV advertising,” Stephenson said.

“Research showed people wanted to know more about this, so we created the academy for SMEs to give them insights into the role of marketing and advertising, the role of TV and BVOD in growth, and hands on experience with the 9Voyager product.” 

Nine will today launch a full cross platform marketing campaign across TV, digital, print, radio and social to promote 9Voyager, using Ian Healy as its first spokesperson.

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