News Corp Australia’s digital marketing service News Xtend and Singapore Press Holdings have struck a deal to target the island state’s small and medium business market, the first time News Xtend has ventured into an overseas market.
NewsXtend is a digital marketing business that provides expert advice and know-how to small to medium businesses to market themselves digitally. Its marketing specialists work one-on-one with business owners to understand their specific market needs and create targeted digital campaigns to increase customer numbers.
Anthony Tan
Anthony Tan, deputy CEO, Singapore Press Holdings said: “As Singapore’s largest media network with a quality audience, we are happy to collaborate with News Corp Australia to take our comprehensive omnichannel offerings to the next level with News Xtend.
“With Singapore’s digital penetration at almost 90%, SPH is excited to provide businesses with an affordable and convenient digital marketing solution to help them achieve their desired results. With this new partnership, we are well-positioned to support SMBs by bridging the gap in the solutions available in our domestic market,” Tan added.
News Corp Australasia’s executive chairman Michael Miller said the partnership was a significant step for News Xtend, which has been one of News Corp Australia’s fastest growing businesses over the past five years and won international accolades for its digital marketing and customer service.
This partnership demonstrates News Xtend’s globally recognised and award-winning capability in running performance marketing campaigns,” Miller said.
“It also recognises our ability to innovate digitally and create digital businesses that are easily scalable.
“We’re now exporting our know-how by partnering with another media company that, like ours, has successfully transitioned to the digital landscape. This is exactly the space we want to play in. It’s a great acknowledgement that the investment we’ve made to grow and diversify our business is now being deployed by another media business in another region.”
Singapore’s SMB sector, according to PwC research, generates almost half of Singapore’s gross domestic product and accounts for 72 per cent of employment. Much of the sector is family owned.
News Corp Australia’s managing director for commercial product and platforms, Emma Fawcett said these factors made Singapore an obvious choice for expansion.
“Singapore’s explicit digital agenda places it among the region’s most digital savvy nations, which is something that extends to its small to medium business sector and is highly attractive to a business such as ours,” Fawcett said.
“The fact Singapore has important synergies to Australia in terms of industries and digital habits, language and a highly supportive environment for foreign investment are wonderful extras and, of course, Singapore’s status as a critical commercial hub for the entire region is an added bonus.”
The three-year partnership will see Singapore’s number one publishing group resell News Xtend’s services.
“We’ll be running campaigns for their customers that include advertising services such as search engine marketing, social media advertising, video and display advertising,” Fawcett said. “This will allow Singapore Press Holdings to open themselves to an entirely new customer base and also allow them to meet more of the needs of their existing customer base.
“We will also be providing marketing services such as call tracking. This will be packaged up into simple, outcome-focussed solutions designed to make it easy for customers to achieve meaningful business results that they can measure.”
Fawcett said an important part of News Xtend’s competitive advantage was the platform’s customer-centric approach.
“We carefully select the services and channels that deliver the best and most cost effective outcomes for the customer,” she said.
“It’s how we consistently deliver better outcomes for our customers, by combining the very best of our media business, our data and digital assets – and now Singapore Press Holdings – with the best of other media channels and services, powered by the best people, tech, analytics and machine learning.”
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Top Photo: Emma Fawcett