Tag Archives: fairfax digital

Fairfax launches new online ad unit: The Big Unit

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Fairfax Digital has launched a new ad solution across their network that allows advertisers to buy out an entire column of a page and embed interactive and downloadable content into the unit itself.

The product, dubbed Big Unit, allows advertisers to buy out the entire right hand column of pages that feature the redesigned format. Advertisers will be able to embed content such as social media and sign-up tools, videos, photo galleries, downloadable brochures and interactive maps.

Officially launching in February, trials have already taken place and Fairfax calls the results ‘strong’. “The Big Unit is a powerful new solution for our major advertisers and has already delivered strong results for key clients who have used the product prior to its official launch in February,” says Ed Harrison, commercial director at Fairfax Metro Media.

Major advertisers that have either already executed or committed to campaigns using the Big Unit include Tourism Queensland, Nestle (Toddlers Milk and Milo) and Samsung.

In an announcement about the new solution, Fairfax says the size and functionality of the ad unit made it possible to convey various messages in one ad format and feature video and scrollable image galleries that pop up into the centre on the screen when the viewer clicks on the ad.

Fairfax has likened the Big Unit to AOL’s Project Devil which launched in the US last year.

The video below is a demonstration of a Tourism Queensland campaign using the new unit.

If you can’t see the video below, please refresh this page.

Fairfax Digital says consumers choose entertaining ads

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In assessing the effectiveness of Fairfax Digital’s ‘Ad Selector’, research has found that three quarters of respondents chose an ad prior to letting it run automatically.

The Ad Selector is a function on Fairfax Digital’s website that provides consumers with a choice between three ads prior to viewing videos on the sites.

Of the 1,355 consumers surveyed:

  • 69% preferred online video adverts to standard non-video adverts
  • 43% of those who selected an advert chose it as they found the creative exciting and entertaining
  • 29% of those who selected an advert wanted to find out more after viewing the ad, and
  • 12% of those who selected an advert wanted to purchase the product after being exposed to the ad.

Ed Harrison, commercial director at Fairfax Digital said, “This survey reinforces our message that the creative is critical; advertisers need to think of their creative as a form of content that is seeking consumer engagement.”

Gillard crushes Rudd, online records

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Julia Gillard’s ascension to Prime Minister has smashed online records for Fairfax Digital properties, as well as nineMSN.

Fairfax Digital reported the Gillard traffic blew away both the Black Saturday Bushfires and Michael Jackson’s death. According to the media owner, smh.com.au recorded more than one million page impressions per hour for two consecutive hours between 9am and 11am.

smh.com.au saw 46% higher page impressions and 66% higher hourly unique browsers than on Black Saturday. Comparatively, TheAge.com.au saw 8% higher page impressions and 61% higher hourly unique browsers.

nineMSN is expecting four million unique hits by day’s end, which would break the previous record of 3.7 million achieved when Barack Obama won the US presidential election in 2008. The network served 300,000 live video streams, setting a record for its highest number in a single 24 hour period.

Jack Matthews, CEO of Fairfax Digital, believes today’s traffic indicates Australians now demand multimedia delivery of political information.

Memery, owned by Matt Granfield, Marketingmag.com.au guru blogger and Marketing magazine writer, leapt on the opportunity for a client’s promotional tour.

Volvo first to trial a mind map

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Fairfax Digital has launched a ‘mind map’ advertising unit, trialling Volvo Car Australia as its first client.

The unit will provide consumers with a platform to build brands online, assisting advertisers in telling their brand story. Each digital mind map is designed around the structure of a classic mind map showcasing a visual representation of thoughts to create greater association and memory.

Ed Harrison, commercial director of media at Fairfax Digital said “This is a great leap away from much of the bland, generic creative we so often see. This format immediately encourages a user to interact and explore the ‘map’ and, in the process, become truly engaged with the Volvo brand”.

By allowing consumers to interact with brands in a different way the ‘mind map’ execution hopes to move past product information and instead aims to provide advertisers with an ad unit that works to improve their brand amongst customers. It has the ability to convey both the client’s product information and relevant editorial content in an interactive manner.

The development of ‘mind map’ was carried out in collaboration with Volvo Car Australia, MindShare, SapientNitro and Bamboo Marketing. The mind map is now live across the homepages of smh.com.au, theage.com.au, Brisbanetimes.com.au and WAtoday.com.au.

Fairfax signs video content deal with Ten

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Fairfax Media has announced a partnership with Network Ten to gain access to the television broadcaster’s national news content.

The content deal will also provide additional opportunities for online advertisers through the Fairfax Digital network. Pre-roll and consumer-choice product Ad Selector will both be available to be used in conjunction with additional video content.

According to Fairfax, video content will be available through the digital news mastheads and will provide users with coverage from Ten to ‘further enhance the editorial content online’.

Fairfax production teams will also be able to cut and create their own stories using live raw footage from the Ten newsroom or file footage from its archives.

“This deal is the first in a significant shift for us as we look to expand video capabilities throughout our network of sites and create new opportunities for advertisers across our inventory,” said Jack Matthews, chief executive of Fairfax Digital.

Fairfax Digital’s head of video, Ricky Sutton, indicated access to news footage should extend the existing production capabilities of the company by an estimated 20%.

“We conducted a survey of our members, and more than 10,000 respondents sent a very clear message that they wanted to see more video across our websites. The relationship we’ve started with Network Ten is just the beginning of us really ramping up our online video offerings this year,” explained Sutton.

Aussies will pay for quality online content

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According to a global Nielsen survey, a significant number of Australians would be willing to pay for quality online content.

The survey polled 27,000 across 54 countries, 500 of which were Australian.

It found that although few consumers had paid for online content previously, 51% said they’d consider paying for online movies, 49% books and 46% professionally produced video (including TV).

With regard to consumer generated content, few would pay – 9% would said they’d pay to view blogs, 16% consumer-generated video and 14% social communities. Although more would consider paying for podcasts (24%), only 19% would do the same for music radio and even fewer – 11% – for news/talk radio.

Pay walls for online news has become contentious since News Corp began making serious noise about pay walls for online news. Only 1% had previously paid for internet-only news, 4% for newspaper content online. 68% of respondents said they would not consider paying for online newspapers in the future and 78% said the same regarding internet-only news sources. A third of the Australians polled were OK with greater advertising supporting online content costs. However, if they were paying for the online content, 75% said there should be no advertising at all. The same number felt their existing subscriptions should cover the online offering.

“Australian consumers have a much higher propensity to pay for content which they know has been professionally produced such as music, movies and games, and an overwhelming majority (74%) say that paid-for content would have to be significantly better than what is currently available for free online before they would consider paying for it,” said Mark Higginson, director of analytics for Nielsen’s online business in Australia.

“On the other hand, content which has been created by fellow consumers such as blogs or videos holds little value, in part due to the extent to which such content is readily available online for free and, as a result, we are seeing fewer instances where consumers are forking out. Consumers’ attitudes to paying for content are still quite fragmented and highlight just how discriminating Internet audiences can be when it comes to different types of content,” noted Higginson. “For anyone providing online content, these are tricky times and monetisation models will have to be flexible – content providers need to look at providing more, not fewer, options to supporting the cost of their content.”

Web publishers queried over inflated audience figures

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Australia’s biggest internet publishers are under the pump to have their websites audited after a report found evidence of inflated online audience measures.

A study released by the Audit Bureaux of Australia (ABA) found auto-refreshing of web pages could “double page impressions and more than quadruple session duration”, which are two key measures used by advertisers.

“Clearly the publishers have got legitimate concerns around the need to push out news. What the other titles have an issue about is that theres no rules around it,” explained ABA chief executive Gordon Towell.

According to a report in The Australian, many of the mastheads in News Limited’s Cumberland group have signed up to the web audit service launched in 2009 by the ABA.

However, the digital arms of News Digital Media, Fairfax Digital, Yahoo7, BigPond and Ninemsn have not yet agreed to have their sites audited.

The Media Federation of Australia has sent a letter to media buying agencies asking them to demand the websites from which they buy advertising be audited.

Radar search tool launched by Domain.com.au

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Domain.com.au has launched its Radar search tool in partnership with the Commonwealth Bank and Fairfax Digital.

Radar allows house hunters and renters to search according to the property’s proximity to community amenities, facilities and services: whether it’ s close to transport, primary schools, sporting facilities, childcare or restaurants.

House hunters also have the option to nominate the property features that are ‘important’ or simply ‘nice to have’, such as ensuites, security parking, internal laundry, or polished floor boards.

Tony Blamey, Domain general manager of key categories, Victoria publishing, commented, “Radar’s lifestyle search will provide our real estate agents with more highly qualified leads as well as a unique insight into the way-of-life wish-list, which underpins Australians property purchases.”

For real estate agents and property vendors, Radar will encourage more qualified potential buyers to inquire about each property.

It aims to:

  • Highlight a property’s particular features
  • Highlight the community amenities, facilities and services surrounding a property
  • Assist real estate agents in conveying the likely lifestyle of the buyer and renter given where the property is located, and
  • Move properties that would have otherwise been outside of a buyer or renters consideration set into consideration.

“As Australia’s largest home loan lender we are committed to using our expertise to provide home seekers with information that will help them make informed decisions about the property market. Radar allows home buyers to calculate a home loan and repayment scenario for individual properties, so buyers can truly assess whether it is in fact the ‘perfect’ home,” said Michael Cant, executive general manager retail products Commonwealth Bank.

Domain.com.au introduces iPhone app for house hunters

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Online property site Domain.com.au has launched a free iPhone application through the Apple iPhone App Store.

The app, which Domain says is the first of its kind in the country, will be directed at users who are searching for properties Australia-wide.

For real estate agents and property vendors, the app aims to offer greater exposure for property listings, particularly while house hunters are actively in the process of ‘pounding the pavements’.

The application will give users the ability to view property listings and photo galleries, shortlist favourite properties to view online or offline, check open for inspection times as well as auction dates and times, view mortgage calculations for each property, and contact the agent/advertiser directly from their iPhone.

This is Fairfax Digital’s first iPhone app developed in-house, created by the company’s newly-established ‘Future Services team’, which will be used to expand Fairfax Digital’s other sites, such as smh.com.au, theage.com.au and its online classifieds.

Anna Cicognani, chief product officer, Fairfax Digital, explained, “This first product from the Fairfax Digital Future Services team is a sign of things to come. We are actively investing in innovative technologies to meet immediate and future consumer needs, as well as add demonstrable value to our partners’ businesses.

The Domain app is free to download via Apple iTunes and the Apple App Store, though the real estate site indicated users may incur fees as per their standard mobile or internet network charges for ‘data retrieval’.

Fairfax relaunch National Times

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Fairfax Media has announced the relaunch of past-masthead National Times as an online version only.

Set for an August unveiling, nationaltimes.com.au will present Fairfax’s major political, policy and current affairs discussions in one place. Fairfax said it represented a significant journalistic expansion by the company.

In an effort to enable readers to participate, nationaltimes.com.au will include many interactive features. Fairfax Digital CEO, Jack Matthews, elaborated:

“We are committed to developing a dynamic and intelligent site that gives people a platform to participate in and enrich the national discussion.”

Matthews continued, saying The National Times was synonymous with thought provoking and intelligent journalism. He said that it informed and encouraged debate on important issues of the day and that that will be the commitment of the site.

The masthead has a significant pedigree; the print version (1971-1986) prompted several Royal Commissions. The paper published documents from the Costigan Royal Commission, accusing Kerry Packer of involvement in drug trafficking, pornography, fraud, money laundering and tax evasion. In a nod to this reputation, the online incarnation will feature a “Goanna” column, Kerry Packer’s codename in the paper.

In addition, nationaltimes.com.au will be published on smh.com.au, brisbanetimes.com.au and watoday.com.au.

Sydney Morning Herald’s Ultimate Traveller

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Background

In November 2008, smh.com.au relaunched their travel section as ‘Traveller’ in keeping with their print counterpart. The aim was for the online content to benefit from the print heritage and enrich the online offering with original features. The new section included tips, blogs and photo/video galleries on travel. Content was searchable by keyword, map, activity or holiday type.

This launch presented a promotional marketing opportunity for Traveller, The Sydney Morning Herald and smh.com.au. It would be Fairfax Media’s biggest ever integrated competition: Ultimate Traveller.

Brand: smh.com.au and The Sydney Morning Herald
PR Agency: Red Agency

Objective

Given the scope of the promotion, we set our objectives high:

  • Attract 30,000 new members to the network
  • Drive sales for The Sydney Morning Herald
  • Increase unique visitors/page impressions for smh.com.au
  • Grow brand Traveller brand awareness across both print and online channels, and
  • Increase subscriptions to smh.com.au’s Traveller newsletter.

Strategy

Every day in March a luxury holiday for two was given away to some of the worlds most sought-after locations such as New York, Paris, Bangkok, Italy and Barcelona. The prize package included airfares, accommodation, transfers, $2,000 spending money and luxury extras. The competition ran in conjunction with the Preferred Hotel Group, Qantas and Be Interactive.

The competition required readers of The Sydney Morning Herald or Sun Herald to find a daily code word in the paper and enter the competition online at smh.com.au/ultimate. This strategy encouraged consumers to engage with The Sydney Morning Herald and smh.com.au.

To drive further exploration of the site, readers could gain an additional entry by searching for a bonus code elsewhere on the site. The bonus entry was limited to one per day to preserve the incentive to purchase The Sydney Morning Herald.

Existing members of Fairfax Digital simply needed to login to enter and people who weren’t yet members needed to sign up – driving new members to the network.

Once consumers entered the competition, they were encouraged to spread the word and gain an additional three entries by inviting friends to enter, helping the campaign go viral. This element further increased the unique browsers and page impressions of smh.com.au.

Execution

In the lead up to the campaign launch, a promotional wrap-around banner was designed with images of the 31 prize locations to go around the Traveller liftout in The Sydney Morning Herald.

A competition microsite was developed that was highly visual and interactive – displaying various holiday destinations with the main visual focusing on the daily Ultimate Traveller destination.

A TVC was created that featured opulent, luxury destinations that The Sydney Morning Herald readers could escape to. The ads ended with a direct call to action: pick up the paper for your chance to enter. The visuals in the TVC and throughout all aspects of the campaign demonstrated the luxury destinations people could win trips to – appealing to Fairfax Media’s affluent demographic.

The TVC campaign was supported by radio live reads on the Australian Traffic Network, as well as print advertisements and cover page editorial pointers in The Sydney Morning Herald every day. Online ads ran on smh.com.au and an electronic direct mail was sent to a database of interested travellers residing in New South Wales. Search marketing was also part of the campaign including search words from the TVC and radio ads to capture people who picked up some of the campaign messages.

Results

The Ultimate Traveller campaign far surpassed all expectations and goals, achieving over 620,000 total entries during the promotional period, exceeding targets by 400%. The campaign attracted nearly 50,000 new members to the Fairfax Digital network.

The campaign demonstrated that Fairfax Media’s target audience identifies the traditional print version of The Sydney Morning Herald and online, smh.com.au, as one brand with a rich heritage and trusted reputation.