The Daily Aus, the social media-led Australian youth news outlet has unveiled a brand refresh as it plots to overseas expansions and more brand partnerships.
The title which launched six years ago, has grown to reach a total of 2 million users each month across all of its channels – with 85% of the audience aged under 30 years.
The refresh, undertaken by creative agency Hatrick House, aimed to take the youth news outlet from a start-up to a media company. The refresh rolled out this week across The Daily Aus Instagram, podcast, newsletter, and website.
Co-founder Sam Koslowski told Mediaweek the brand identity had not changed since he and co-founder Zara Seidler first created it using a colour generator when they first launched. The new visual identity aims to represent the brand’s growth from “Instagram page to a media company.”
“I wanted something that made The Daily Aus a bit surer of itself. Stronger, bolder, and stands out more. I think we’re doing stand-out work, and I wanted that to come across,” he added.
“I feel like we’re a little underestimated by the rest of the media market, agencies, and even sometimes readers. Now, we’re sure of who we are and what we stand for, and I want us to be. I want everyone’s attention to be focused on us. We’re ready for that pressure, and we’re ready for that attention,” he added.
Koslowski said he hopes the investment into their brand identity will see The Daily Aus continue to attract the attention of younger readers, particularly those in high school or their early university years and engage with the brand.
The refresh is also part of a strategy to engage new partners, similar to the brand’s recent partnership with the Australian Open.
“It’s been one of the biggest and best partnerships we’ve ever done. We’ve got plenty of activity this year with Nike and Up. I want them to feel proud to be visually working with us and have the polish of some of those big brands feel natural alongside our brand,” he added.
Koslowski said the outlet gives brands the opportunity to reach a large section of hard-to-reach Australians – 18 to 30-year-olds.
“Because we’re now one of the most trusted news brands in Australia, we can transfer some of that trust to our partners as well. That has costs and benefits.”
“The cost is that when we get a brand partnership wrong, and our readers don’t like who we’re partnering with, they’ll tell us and give us a lot of feedback. On the flip side, if they really enjoy what the brand has to say and value the way that we’ve shown up with the brand, they engage with the brand at unprecedented levels for both young people and digital news brands in Australia.”
In terms of the criteria for making the deal and what the outlet looks for in a partnership, Koslowski said that they are selective of the companies that work with them and want to ensure that they share the same ethics and values.
“We make sure that our entire editorial team is comfortable having their journalism alongside a brand spot, and it’s a full team decision.”
The Daily Aus is in its second year of partnership with Tennis Australia and the Australian Open. Koslowski said that the brief was to increase the familiarity of up-and-coming tennis stars with young Australians. The outlet profiled six players in really high-quality mini-documentaries and a wraparound campaign across its newsletters and podcasts, with a focus on introducing the players and making people want to go them play live.
“Across the six videos, we had 1.3 million views – that’s just that’s just on the videos, not on the newsletters or podcasts,” he said, noting the head of marketing at Tennis Australia called the campaign “one of the best collaborations” they’ve partnered on.
The Nike partnership saw the outlet create a bespoke offering with the sports brand during the Matilda’s run in the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, with a focus on doing its part to improve inequality in sports journalism.
“We partnered with them to run The Training Squad, which is an accelerator for young female sports journalists. We ran our first cohort last year and had five early 20s, aspiring female sports journalists. Four of them have landed full-time jobs in sports media from that program,” he said.
Koslowski revealed plans to take The Daily Aus global and is currently explores overseas opportunities.
“I think there’s a gap not just in the Australian market for what The Daily Aus does, but there’s a gap in a lot of other markets as well,” he said. “We want to test and experiment to see if other countries are interested in what we do as well.”
Back home, Koslowski said The Daily Aus aims to be the dominant player in youth media in Australia to keep their readers happy, increase audience growth, and increase revenue.
Koslowski also noted that from an editorial front, this year is about pushing their limits in the journalism they produce.
“The big thing for us this year is about pushing out limits in our journalism and starting to tell some more original stories that matter to young Australians and make headlines with the stories that we’re telling. I think we can be braver with that,” he added.
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Top image: Sam Koslowski