Pedestrian Group, Australia’s largest youth-focused publishing group, has announced its key plans for 2020 at its bi-annual Fun Fronts events – the first since its acquisition of American Express Openair Cinemas in September.
The event, which was held in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney for a record number of clients (more than 500 people attended across the three cities), highlighted the vast array of opportunities across its six sites and cinema.
Matt Rowley, CEO of Pedestrian Group, said: “Fun Fronts are always a highlight in our diary because they give us the chance to prove how much appetite the industry has for a spicy idea. This round is no exception and is made even more exciting by the fact that we’re able to demonstrate the power and differences in the Pedestrian Group audiences, in-depth, for the first time.”
Vanessa Lawrence, Publisher of Pedestrian Group, added: “We have a better grasp of what makes the audiences of our six distinct sites tick than ever before thanks to insights and really, really vocal readers who tell us what they do and don’t want. The content you’ll see from us in the coming six months and beyond is reflective not only of what we know will resonate but ideas that will create the best integration opportunities for our awesome partners.”
The 2020 slate of ideas Pedestrian Group has taken out to market for sponsorship include the below:
PEDESTRIAN TV
Next year, Pedestrian TV (PTV) will launch ‘Econom-Ex’, an initiative which will see PTV pay for readers’ breakups.
With stats showing the average break-up costs $5,000 or more, PTV wants to help and that’s where Econom-ex comes in. In the spirit of new beginnings, PTV will invite newly single readers to nominate themselves as most deserving of a break-up fund by submitting a funny video via the hashtag #shitmyexsays for the chance to have their breakup paid for by PTV.
To cap off the campaign, PTV will partner with Openair Cinemas to throw an outdoor dating event-cum-romcom movie night in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Titled “The Ex-change”, readers will be invited to bring their unsuitable-but-still-suitably-nice ex to the event and swap them with someone else’s former flame. A marketplace will also be set up, where readers can sell the stuff their ex-partner left behind.
2020 will also see PTV launch Pop On, Pop Off, Australia’s first pop culture bus tour which will transport PTV readers to iconic landmarks in and around Melbourne – from Fountain Gate to Split Point Light House and Brighton Secondary College. The trip will finish with a screening of episodes from Australian iconic TV shows at a pop-up cinema on St Kilda Beach, hosted by Openair Cinemas.
And next year will also see PTV live up to its ethos of delivering the news differently through the introduction of NEWS INK, a weekly news programme where a host will explain the biggest story of the week to a PTV reader, all while they’re inked with a tattoo designed to reflect that same story. Designed by a different tattoo artist each week, at the end of the year, there will be a total of 52 tattoos documenting the big stories of the year all on one PTV reader.
PTV readers will also have the chance to have their say on the story of the week via a NEWS INK Facebook Group where they’ll be able to vote for the story of the week and what the tattoo could be.
BUSINESS INSIDER
In 2020, Business Insider will launch a two-day ticketed event called F.I.R.E Festival – a festival dedicated to “Financial Independence, Retire Early” – a community focused on chasing a debt-free lifestyle, high savings and smart investing with a vision to retire by 35. Attendees of the festival will hear ground-breaking saving, investing and fortune-building tips from the mouths of young guns who could already retire.
Next year, BI will also launch a video and podcast series called You Made Millions How?, which will spotlight the small-to-medium business success stories its readers have never heard of. They’ll discuss the strategies and shortfalls of their business models and give readers a template for their own future success.
POPSUGAR
In 2020, Popsugar will launch The Mother Load – an initiative designed to offer support and help for the next generation of mums. From choice to conception, to challenges and changes, Popsugar will lend a supportive hand with honest personal essays written by real women and high-profile mums, myth-busting interviews with health and wellness experts and product recommendations from the group’s team of editors.
Popsugar will also create an online “mother’s group” via a Facebook group called Breasties – a space to share concerns and ask questions in a judgement-free zone.
Popsugar will also be continuing to focus on health and fitness in 2020. With inclusivity at its core, Popsugar will launch You Can Fit With Us, an initiative designed to bring positivity around health and fitness to life. Popsugar will partner with Openair Cinemas for a series of ticketed nighttime health and fitness events where attendees will be invited to stretch and sweat their way through a workout as the sun goes down before a lineup of Popsugar fitfluencers and wellness warriors who represent a range of body types take to the stage to talk about everything from taking on trolls to mindful eating.
This experience will be supported by fitness guides for the couch potato to the marathon runner, healthy recipes, activewear edits, and even a personalised gym finder.
KOTAKU
Gaming site Kotaku will kick off an initiative called Develop-her, designed to spotlight the most kickass female game developers in Australia. Kotaku readers will be invited to nominate rising stars, all of whom will be profiled across Kotaku, before a panel of female judges chooses one worthy nominee to receive a sizeable grant that goes towards bringing her next awesome idea to life.
Kotaku’s Develop-her hub will also house a series of Ted X-style talks with experienced local and international developers to empower the next-gen of game-makers at the same time.
2020 will also see a first for Kotaku – clients will be invited to gamify their brand, bringing it life in fun, inventive and creative way that cannot be achieved through traditional advertising.
Byte Club will imagine a brand’s product as the hero of an 8-bit, arcade-style game. Kotaku will work with developers to create mods for existing games or create games from scratch to embed within native content and other parts of the Kotaku ecosystem. Kotaku wants to create new and exciting associations between brands and one of the largest and hungriest demographics in Australia: gamers.
GIZMODO
As Australia’s leading tech site, next year Gizmodo will celebrate 20 emerging leaders who see the world from outside of the box – the game changes, the innovators, the brilliants minds of our generation.
2020 Visionaries will be capped off with an event series called 2020 Academy where Gizmodo’s info-hungry audience can learn first-hand from the minds of the future.
LIFEHACKER
Lifehacker is the ultimate authority on optimizing every aspect of its readers’ lives. Now, Lifehacker is asking its readers to share their niftiest shortcuts with the world for the chance to win bragging rights as Australia’s Next Top Lifehacker.
The campaign will be driven by user-generated content as Lifehacker calls on 30-second video entries of peoples’ best shortcuts – from cutting up a pineapple in 10 seconds to separating egg yolks using nothing by a water bottle – which will be submitted to a hub where readers will vote for their favourite before a winner is announced.