It’s been 12 months since Reddit expanded into Australia, home to the platform’s fourth-largest user base. To celebrate, Reddit is unveiling its newest brand marketing campaign, ‘Find your people’ in Australia – the first for the region.
Mediaweek spoke with Reddit’s market director for Australia, David Ray, about blowing out the candles for the platform’s first Australian Cake Day.
David Ray
Since launching, Reddit’s local team has tripled in size, and that team has certainly been busy. Ray says that the lasy 12 months have been “fantastic.”
“The biggest thing has been discovering where it is that Australians are connecting on Reddit and the sort of things that they’re interested in.
“One of the overarching learnings we’ve found is the love that people have for the areas that they’re interested in. The other one is the great connection with local Australian audiences.”
Launch years are busy no matter what is happening in the world, but with an election held in May, the Reddit team had its work cut out for it. Ray says that he’s proud of the work that the platform put into the 2022 election.
“In the last year we’ve had the election. In an environment that can be very partisan when talking about politics, r/australianpolitics in particular became a place where conversations that went on were really high quality.
“There were over 40 candidates from every major political party participating in Ask Me Anythings (AMAs) and directly connecting with voters. We had things like the Electoral Commission do an AMA the day after the election was called – perfect timing to encourage people to register to vote and make sure the details are up to date.
“On top of that, the first media partner for Reddit in Australia was The Betoota Advocate. We hosted a four week Reddit Talk live Q&A series that really sifted through the most important topics.”
The Betoota Advocate
Find Your People campaign
Featuring creative by R/GA Australia as well as media strategy and buying led by Initiative, ‘Find your people’ will reach Australian audiences through the region’s first-ever national out-of-home, digital and audio campaign that reflects Reddit’s diverse and unique communities across Australia. The national campaign draws attention to the special and distinctive interests shared among Australians, in communities such as r/magpies and r/australia.
“The campaign itself is designed to highlight the great local connections that we have, and also how it is that the communities themselves can be interconnected,” says Ray. “We have a bit of a running joke – one of our campaign pieces is about bike commuting, magpies, and Australia. We’re demonstrating, in a really heartfelt way, what it is that these communities are about. On top of that, with marking our first year, it’s about reflecting on those achievements and where we’re headed.”
The campaign will appear across out-of-home placements in major cities including Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Perth as well as on radio, podcast and digital channels throughout the country.
“It’s running over a 20 week period, so we’re going through December. We want people to engage with us over a longer period of time, we want to expose more of the great communities that are relevant – whether they’re large and small – to really allow people to understand where the quality of the experience can be.”
What Reddit means for brands
The last 12 months have also seen Reddit enter into a number of big-name partnerships.
Global brands like Dell and Xbox ANZ join Australian brands including neobank, Up, Finder.com.au, and Coles Supermarkets as some of Reddit’s advertisers who are activating campaigns to reach Reddit’s growing audience in Australia.
The Australian Football League partnered with Reddit by becoming the world’s first sports league to create personalised AFL-themed Reddit Avatars, allowing fans to showcase their footy colours on Reddit throughout the 2022 men’s AFL season. Over 700,000 users around the world saved AFL-themed content to their Reddit Avatar profiles, which enabled them to build their own profile Avatar with the guernseys of their favorite AFL club.
AFL Reddit avatars
When it came to Australian digital bank Up, they wanted to increase awareness of their banking products among Gen Z audiences. By targeting technology, gaming, music, and finance communities, Up saw a 51% month-over-month increase in ad-driven conversions through a combination of four front-page takeovers and promoted posts.
Looking Ahead
With a year under its belt, Ray says that the platform is only just getting started
“It’s really about doubling down on what we’ve done so far and continue to offer more local, relevant, engaging coversations for Australians. It’s supporting our moderators throughout every one of our subReddits and providing them with the tools to ensure that they’re continuing to provide the best quality experience they can as their communities grow. Further, it’s about building more consumer touchpoints for new and existing Redditors on and off the platform.
“We continue to get feedback from our audience about what they think can improve it as well. Moderators and our Redditors are very, very passionate. They love Reddit, they give us feedback, and we act on that feedback.”