At Nine’s 2022 Upfront presentation, the company announced that it was moving to further integrate the WIN national sales team into the Nine sales structure following its change of regional affiliate to WIN earlier this year.
The changes will be effective from July 1, 2022 and will give marketers and agencies one aligned and more integrated team, making it easier to brief and buy Nine’s television audiences across Australia.
“The future of television is total television. The combination of live linear audiences in metro and regional Australia combined with live streaming and on-demand audiences increasingly, bought using the new VOZ total TV measurement,” said Michael Stephenson, Nine’s chief sales officer.
“Total TV bought by TV buyers to maximise reach and build awareness at the top of the marketing funnel, and 9Now bought by digital buyers to increase consideration and conversion using our first-party data in the middle and bottom of the marketing funnel.”
In order to make buying Nine’s total TV audience easier, the company announced that it has started to develop its buying technology, Nine Galaxy, for regional TV.
“For the first time, agencies and clients will be able to buy live linear TV audiences on Nine all across Australia, in combination with our on-demand and live streaming audiences in 9Now, in one transaction to maximise reach,” said Stephenson. “Guaranteed audiences, no shortfalls and no makegoods. We just deliver 100 per cent of what the agency bought.
“Reach your customers in our premium environment, in metro and regional Australia, across every platform and every screen, using VOZ measurement and Nine Galaxy automated tech. There’s no need to do it the old-fashioned way anymore.”
Stephenson highlighted the significance of these announcements and underlined Nine’s ongoing commitment to make transacting total TV easier and more efficient.
“Buying total TV using Nine Galaxy is just easier. It takes less time, and it guarantees your audience delivery. Advertisers should be placing at least 60-70 per cent of their off-peak and multi-channel TV buys through Nine Galaxy. It’s more efficient and it gives you a better result,” he said.
The Upfront also saw the announcement that Nine will move towards a CPM-based trading model for total TV campaigns bought using Nine Galaxy.
The company promised that it will give agency partners direct access to live availability for Nine’s linear, live streaming and on-demand television inventory, and provide agencies with self-service access and API integration into Nine Galaxy.
Nine Galaxy first launched in 2017, automating and guaranteeing audiences on all off-peak and multi-channel TV inventory. In 2018, Nine opened the platform to make it possible to book linear TV and BVOD in a single transaction. In 2021, it also opened up Nine Galaxy for radio inventory.
As part of the changes, Nine will also be moving to a CPM-based rate card and away from fixed spot pricing for automated Nine Galaxy campaigns, making it even easier to plan and buy total TV campaigns across linear, live streaming and on-demand inventory.
“Moving to CPM-based pricing on off-peak and multi-channel TV inventory creates consistency with streaming and on-demand pricing which has always been traded against an agreed CPM. This makes buying total TV even easier with Nine,” Stephenson said.