Earlier in 2023, Mediaweek announced the Sales Team of the Year, an initiative to highlight some of the high-quality work done in the industry.
Each month, a media sales team will be selected by a rotating panel of judges as the nominee for that particular month, culminating in 12 nominees by the end of the 12 months. The judges will be assessing each team on criteria such as proactivity, strategy and execution, and client and agency relationship management.
The 12 nominees will then all go into the running to be named Mediaweek’s Sales Team of the Year.
The winners for August are The Brag Media’s sales team.
The Brag’s sales team have onboarded over 20 new clients in CY23, and works with major names like Myer, Toyota, and the Government of South Australia.
To celebrate the win, Mediaweek sat down with Jessica Hunter (general manager of partnerships) and Joel King (chief operating officer).
Jessica Hunter and Joel King
Looking back at the successes of the last 12 months, King says that one of the biggest highlights has been The Brag’s investment in the sales team – including the appointment of Hunter in May.
King: “When you’re a growing business, one of the first priorities is to build great products. Then you build a great support team, a campaigns team, and then have the products to sell. After that’s been achieved, you have to build a great sales team that can sell those products. Jess has come in and been really effective, and as COO, it’s a great relief to have a very effective leadership.”
Even though she’s only been in the role for a few months, Hunter said that a lot of the excitement of her time with the business has come from the evolution and expansion of the brand.
Hunter: “I am proud to have seen our business transform from a music network to Australia’s largest youth publisher, with 10 million monthly visitors. This has allowed us to expand our client base from music and entertainment to luxury, automotive, tourism, gaming, FMCG, and fashion, driving double-digit revenue growth.
“I’m proud of our team for educating the market on our audience reach and capabilities over the last few months. It’s been rewarding to see the shift in perception and briefs coming through. Clients now see what I saw when I joined The Brag Media: a team that is passionate about delivering exceptional campaigns that are both creative and effective in delivering client outcomes.”
As for what is driving the growth, Hunter says that the secret is “the team’s profound understanding of youth culture and client strategy.”
Hunter: “Our team has their finger on the pulse when it comes to youth marketing, and the unique ways to engage them. When we receive a client brief, we’re not afraid to challenge it if we believe there’s a better way to reach their target audience.
“We have a proven track record of success in delivering effective youth marketing campaigns. This comes down to our in-house creative studio that delivers cutting-edge campaign concepts, as well as an events team with 15 years of experience, and a sales team that is passionate about our mission and continuing The Brag Media’s success.”
It’s one thing to bring clients on board, but it can be a whole other ball game making sure that they want to stay. The pair say that client retention is a major focus for The Brag Media’s team, with the results of that attention to detail paying off.
King: “We have a really incentivised campaign and studio team that are very client-focused on the deliverables. We also KPI them and bonus staff on achieving 100% of campaign deliverables. There’s a very strong culture of ensuring that the client is first, but the content has to succeed and be perfect – there’s a delicate balance.”
Hunter: “We are proud of our 47% brief conversion rate in this fragmented market, but our 90%+ client retention rate is what drives our passion. We are committed to this retention strategy as we grow our client base. This means providing an excellent response to each brief, delivering the campaign as promised, and communicating with clients weekly.
“We are always transparent, optimising to KPIs, and demonstrating how we have achieved the desired outcomes. We also share key learnings on how we could have improved the campaign and what we need to do next. This 360-degree approach is what allows us to retain clients.”
Looking ahead, the team will be focusing their attention on continuing the growth of the business in 2024. For the sales team in particular, Hunter says that “it’s really about having a focused sales strategy.”
Hunter: “We are doubling down on content, events, and experiential campaign solutions that drive sociability because this is what we’re seeing clients want in the post-COVID world, and what works best to engage youth today. Expect to see not only the Rolling Stone Awards – which also just took place in New Zealand – but you’ll see us activate at SXSW, you’ll see even more Variety CMO Dinners, bespoke client events, and potentially a few music tours & festivals.”
King: “From a business perspective, we’ve had really excessive growth over five years. In 2024, we’re just trying to be very proactive and have our products and our events calendar planned out, our PR marketing strategy planned out, and to also continue to develop more partnerships with global publishers.
“We’ve had strong investment in the sales team which will continue. We’re also going to really invest in our own publishers in 2024 – we’re hiring senior staff for that division at the moment. We think that there’s a great business opportunity there now that we have such a strong sales division, and that we can be confident to invest in our owned assets.”
See Also: Mediaweek’s Sales Team of the Year: And the first month’s winner is…