On Monday, News Corp Australia unveiled a series of new innovations at its annual D_Coded event, held in Sydney’s Entertainment Quarter.
This was the company’s fifth digital marketing event for advertising, marketing, and media executives, with announcements covering new partnerships, new ways for people to buy, and a new total commerce offering.
Mediaweek spoke to News Corp’s Managing Director, National Sales, Lou Barrett, about some of the highlights of the 2023 D_Coded event.
See Also: D_Coded 2023: Every announcement from News Corp
From Shoppable Video to Vertical Video
When sifting through the announcements from the 2023 D_Coded event, it becomes clear that so much of this year’s total commerce solution is an evolution of News Corp’s shoppable video that was announced at the 2022 event.
“It’s not just shoppable video anymore, it’s so much more than that,” says Barrett. “Whether it’s video, whether it’s an app, whether it’s a piece of branded content, whether it’s editorial – that’s what the total commerce solution is all about. For us, this it’s all about content and commerce.”
As part of this evolution, News Corp has made it easier for consumers to buy straight from the company’s digital platforms with the launch of a mobile first Vertical Video Platform.
The new Vertical Video Platform has been created using a technology stack that takes its cues from video platforms, pulling all of the content together into a swipeable, clickable, shoppable, and interactive video experience.
“It’s about the user experience,” says Barrett. “So much of the usage around video now is on a mobile phone, so we have to have a mobile first strategy. I think that that is the most powerful storytelling device of all, and when you have a look at how good it looks in vertical video on your phone it inspires audiences to engage and actually transact with those messages.”
Lou Barrett at the 2023 D_Coded event
The launch of Intent Connect
One of the biggest announcements of D_Coded 2023 was the rebranding of News Connect to Intent Connect, a move that Barrett says is “about finding the intended buying patterns of consumers.”
The difference is slight, but significant. The new look Intent Connect is powered by the company’s Commercial Customer Data Platform, enhancing the company’s first-party content consumption data with data from Foxtel Group and REA Group. The customer segments have also been lifted from 3,500 to 5000.
“In the past, we’ve focused on past behaviours. Now we’re analysing billions of behavioural signals and using enhanced data science capabilities to turn that into a prediction,” says Barrett.
“Once we’ve found those high intent audiences, and we’ve inspired them to engage and transact, they can do it right from the point of inspiration. Whether that’s through a video or an ad, or whether it’s a piece of branded content, or even editorial or images – they can do so right from the point of inspiration.”
Behind the Intent Connect is a new data partnership with Westpac DataX – a first for Australian publishing. Westpac DataX provides insight into more than 12 million customers and six million daily card transactions through aggregated, de-identified data.
“The fact that we’re going to have this data partnership with Westpac will give us insights that no one else has got around intent, I think that is huge,” says Barrett.
“Having that intent data from Westpac is the key, and we’re the first people to jump on board with them. I think it gives us a bit of a competitive advantage.”
Partnering with Adgile
Another significant announcement came in the form of News Corp’s investment in an Omnichannel Attribution Suite. The new capability covers every part of the funnel, and is powered by a new partnership with video effectiveness platform Adgile. Speaking about the partnership, Barrett says that the Adgile team were the ones to approach News Corp.
“We found that there were some really interesting stats that they were seeing, and that’s when we decided to partner with them and get them to do this effectiveness work. People come to you all the time, but when we saw a partner like this, who other parts of the industry are working with and are well recognised, we thought ‘okay, this is good, we need to partner with these guys’.”
In the time since working with Adgile, the results that have come through have well and truly caught the attention of News Corp – and Barrett predicts it will “create a little bit of chatter in the market” – by measuring News Corp’s premium video next to platforms like BVOD.
“ThinkTV has been very active in using Adgile to prove the effectiveness of BVOD driving outcomes, so we thought we would measure how our short form videos stack up. They stack up really well.
“Our News Corp premium video delivers 1.4 times the unique reach that BVOD does, it delivers 1.5 times the web traffic, and really importantly it delivers 1.6 times the conversions.
“It’s huge, because it actually means that we can prove that we can convert – and we can convert very effectively. That’s big for us, and the fact that these people are so well recognised in the industry gives it credibility as well.”