Over 300 marketers, planners, strategists, journalists, and publishers attended the NewsBrands Engage virtual conference which took place earlier this week.
The event was presented by Adrian Weckler from INM and Roisin Ingle, the Irish Times.
Attendees heard about the findings of new research from marketing effectiveness expert Peter Field which demonstrated how multi-platform news brands are delivering long terms business effects for brands. Together with NewsWorks Insight Director Denise Turner, Field presented the findings from the IPA Databank study which found that news brands are having a significant impact on key business drivers such as market share, pricing and profit.
In a separate session, a discussion on what does the demise of cookies means for publishers and advertisers featured Ciaran O’ Kane, CEO Wire Corp, Helen Beecher, Head of Digital, OMD, and David Fogarty, Digital Investment Director, Core.
The conversation highlighted that context and first party data will be of growing importance to advertisers and that this presents an opportunity for premium news publishers to come together to offer a ‘brand safe, walled garden’ for advertisers similar to the Ozone Project in the UK.
Also during the event, marketing managers Tara Clifford from Musgraves and Jana Solovjoa from Peugeot Ireland spoke about how they use news brands print and digital platforms to communicate their message. Clifford talked about how important trust and quality are to the SuperValu brand and why it is important to advertise on trusted news brands platforms. She went on to discuss their brand strategy and need to pivot at the onset of Covid-19. Noting that record audiences were consuming news during the pandemic, SuperValu used full page ads to deliver impactful messages to reassure and inspire their customers.
Solovjoa, meanwhile, talked about Peugeot’s sponsorship of The Irish Times Summer and Winter Nights online festivals. She described the challenge of reaching their audience during the pandemic and how the virtual festival was an innovative initiative, very well timed and a perfect match for their ABC1 audience. Post campaign research found that 72% of attendees had a more positive view of Peugeot following the events and 83% recalled that Peugeot was the festival sponsor.
Another session on the Future of News heard NewsBrands Ireland chairman Colm O’ Reilly talking about the need for a ‘level playing field’ with the tech platforms and the important role the Future of Media Commission and the government have to play in this.
In another session called The Story of a Generation: How News Publishers covered Covid, Sunday Independent editor Alan English, Irish Examiner political correspondent Aoife Moore, and Irish Daily Mail political correspondent Craig Hughes talked about how important it is to present facts in an era of fake news and explained why there will always be a need for quality journalism.
Speaking about the event, NewsBrands Ireland CEO Ann Marie Lenihan, said: This landmark conference for the media industry has come at a momentous time for news publishers globally and nationally. The digital advertising eco system is coming under increasing scrutiny in terms of regulation, privacy, and brand safety. Context is becoming increasingly important to advertisers and the event discussions demonstrated news publishers’ key virtues of effectiveness, engagement, influence, and trust and how they continue to be a powerful advertising medium in a multi-channel world.”
A recording of the above discussions will shortly be available on www.newsbrands.ie
