As the global economy continues to recover post-pandemic, advertising budgets have been returning to full strength echoing the importance of marketers’ needs to stay top of mind. People are also now turning to trusted news sources for information more than ever, providing news brands with a unique opportunity to influence Australia’s attention and grow business outcomes for advertisers. This was the case when mortgage broking firm, Mortgage Choice partnered with News Corp Australia back in July this year.
In a recent case study, Mortgage Choice (owned by REA Group) relaunched the brand to Australia with a particular focus on the lucrative – but notoriously difficult to reach – under 35s demographic. The secondary demographic focus was 35-54s.
With interest rates rising 0.25 percentage points on Tuesday, and the housing market showing signs of cooling after record highs, potential buyers have been given a chance to get their foot in the door. Once people have selected a broker, they tend to stay with them – for Mortgage Choice, this meant that it was important to capture buyers early on in the home buying process.
With 85% of people under 35 trusting News Corp Australia’s brands more than any other media (Source: AdTrust Wave 3 research IPSOS November 2022), Mortgage Choice chose to leverage the company’s earned reputation and reach to get its message out.
The campaign – called You’re Never A Loan – went out across News Corp Australia’s network. Primarily targeting under 35s, it saw News Corp working to drive up awareness, consideration, and preference for consumers around the Mortgage Choice brand.
The key messaging of the campaign was driving home to under 35s, first home buyers, and home loan intenders that when they chose Mortgage Choice, they’re choosing a broker who is invested in their success.
The campaign went out across print and digital, making appearances in brands including The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, The Courier Mail, The Advertiser, news.com.au, and Vogue Australia.
The results of You’re Never A Loan’s impact were measured using Kantar AdEffect – the first study of its kind at News Corp Australia.
Overall brand health of Mortgage Choice was lifted +12% across the campaign period, with significant lifts across the full brand funnel and across Mortgage Choice brand perceptions. The combination of print and digital worked together to resonate with the core audience of 18-34s, overlapping to drive the impact of the campaign – creating a media multiplier effect.
Ryan Cooke, Ed Faith, Sarah Myers
Sarah Myers, general manager, audience & marketing at REA Group said: “We were looking to partner with a major publisher to relaunch the Mortgage Choice brand. Mortgage Choice has been a nationally recognised and trusted brand among Australians for over 30 years and the objective of the campaign was to accelerate national brand awareness and consideration.
“We turned to News Corp Australia to drive this new positioning of ‘You’re never a loan’ and ensure cut through with audiences. Our partnership exceeded our expectations, driving an increase in consideration of 8.7% for the target audience and significant uplift across the full brand funnel.”
Ryan Cooke, acting general manager national key accounts said, “This was a significant brand campaign for Mortgage Choice and an exciting brief to work with. Launching with big bold formats to get immediate impact across both digital and print followed by smart data solutions across our network we were able to engage and drive strong outcomes for Mortgage Choice, particularly against their core audience of 18-34s”
Ed Faith, general manager client strategy & solutions, Newsamp NSW & QLD said “Our confidence in the News Corp Australia brands to deliver outcomes was utterly validated through our third party measurement provider, Kantar, who proved that our cross-channel offering using our metropolitan mastheads and news.com.au were capable of delivering statistically significant brand uplifts amongst younger audiences and home purchase intenders. We’re thrilled with the outcome and the fresh perspective it provides for brands looking to effectively influence younger audiences using the combination of trusted print and digital media.”