ACM relaunches travel brand Explore
ACM has relaunched their marquee travel brand, Explore, having brought the leading travel destination in-house.
The relaunch sees Explore content expanded across ACM’s 14 daily mastheads, including The Canberra Times, Newcastle Herald and The Courier (Ballarat), a new website at exploretravel.com.au plus the ability to book holidays directly on the Explore website. The entire ACM digital network will publish Explore content alongside many of ACM’s 120 other mastheads.
Head of content and travel Kate Cox said: “Bringing Explore inhouse allows us to leverage the experience of ACM’s hundreds of journalists and editors from over 100 mastheads”.
Cox
“With the backing of Australia’s largest independent media publisher ACM, Explore is the one travel section talking to Australians in regional and satellite communities. Our audience is highly motivated to travel and place it at the top of their plans for the next 12 months,” said Cox.
ACM chief customer and marketing officer Paul Tyrrell said: “ACM has an engaged audience of 4.3 million people and now with the relaunch and investment in the Explore brand, we can deliver them even more exciting opportunities with immersive content across our entire network plus deals to match”.
“The combination of our incredible in-house editorial team who are producing inspiring content with the ability to collaborate with our commercial partners to create best in market consumer travel offers, that can be purchased on site, is a strong proposition for clients and readers alike”, commented Tyrrell.
Recent findings from the ACM Heartbeat of Australia study in partnership with the University of Canberra show significant differences between readers and non-readers, regional and metro and their propensity to travel. ACM readers are 30% more likely than non-readers to travel within Australia in the next 12 months and 11% more likely to travel overseas. Marketing trips and travel destinations to ACM readers means clients have a much greater likelihood of conversion compared to non-readers.
The study also shows that the desire to take a trip domestically is much greater amongst regional Australians with 78% intending to travel within Australia in the next 12 months vs 59% of people who live in Metropolitan areas.
ACM’s strength lies in connecting clients with regional audiences. ACM delivers high exclusive readership with 73% of ACM’s Saturday dailies audience not reading Fairfax’s Saturday titles The Sydney Morning Herald or The Age or News Corp Australia Sunday publications – which are core travel content days for these companies.
Experienced travel editor Sarah Maguire has been appointed to lead the Explore team, with Akash Arora appointed as deputy editor.
Arora
Maguire said: “We have had a great reaction from the industry and travel insiders and have so many exciting plans for quality content going forward, including more stories and special issues on everything from road trips to European specials to cruising. Explore will be a mix of storytelling about trips readers want to book right now and aspirational journeys to book later.”
Maguire
One of Explore’s key clients Kieran Walpole from Thump Media said: “Explore is an essential travel environment that helps our client Emerald Cruises connect with regional communities throughout NSW and Victoria, inspiring and informing audiences of the possibilities of where and when to travel”.
Walpole went on to say, “We’re excited about the editorial changes taking place and look forward to the opportunities the new Explore environment will provide our clients.”
The new Explore print section and website officially launched on 8 October.
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topics
ACM
ACM Heartbeat of Australia
Explore
Kate Cox
Newcastle Herald
Paul Tyrrell
The Canberra Times
The Courier (Ballarat)
travel
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