Australia Post launching retail media network
Australia Post is launching its first in-store retail media network, in partnership with oOh!media’s retail marketing arm, reo.
The network will initially launch across 60 Victorian locations, with reo handling the media sales.
Aimee Dixon, general manager enterprise brand and retail marketing at Australia Post, explained that “leveraging our physical footprint” will allow the carrier to “expand the value we deliver to businesses across Australia.”
Neil Ackland, chief retail media officer at oOh!, tells Mumbrella the screen network is a “powerful opportunity for brand marketers to connect with a broad and diverse audience in a trusted retail environment.”
Picture: (L to R) Neil Ackland, chief retail officer, reo; Aimee Dixon, general manager enterprise brand and retail marketing, Australia Post; Barry McGhee, general manager, reo.
This new venture will be a welcome revenue stream for the beleaguered postal service, which delivered an $88 million loss during the last financial year after clawing back from a $200.3 million deficit in 2022-23.
At the time, CEO Paul Graham warned of the “irreversible challenges” confronting Australia Post, including “the decline of letters and the shift from over-the-counter transactions to digital services” but also noted that “simplifying our business, removing complexity and cost, driving efficiencies and careful expense management, have driven the improved financial performance for the year.”
In FY24 Australia Post delivered 250 million fewer letters, a 12.9% fall from the prior year. In addition, Graham cautioned that the ever-increasing costs of compliance, security, and safety means its banking service, Bank@Post is “heading towards losses over the medium term unless our bank partners provide additional funding.”
Australia Post is hamstrung by the Australian Postal Corporation Act 1989 which imposes a number of outmoded rules on the postal service, including a mandated speed on the delivery of letters — a burden that cost $447 million during the 23-24 financial year — as well as a regulation that requires at least 4,000 post offices in Australia, with 2,500 of these in rural and regional Australia.
During the 22-23 Senate estimates, Graham bemoaned the pre-internet regulations, saying “it makes no sense for Australia Post to keep the same number of post offices where there is a clear oversupply and where customers are simply not using the service.”
He pointed to inner-Melbourne suburbs Camberwell, which is serviced by 84 post offices in a 7.5km radius.
“The number of post offices in our major cities is not sustainable or sensible,” he said. “We are required by regulation to operate a network larger than all the supermarkets combined – it’s easier to buy a postage stamp than a loaf of bread.”
With a new retail marketing play, Australia Post is now hoping to turn a bug into a feature.
Ackland tells Mumbrella that a combination of “high foot traffic, extended dwell times, and a strong physical presence nationwide,” means marketers can deliver “targeted, contextually relevant messaging at moments when customers are highly engaged and receptive.”
Ironically, Australia Post’s vast physical footprint, which Graham has been rallying against for years, may prove to be its saving grace.
A network “larger than all the supermarkets combined” sounds like music to a brand marketer.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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Australia Post needs to improve its core business operations. My parcel has been processed 18 times, traveling from NSW to South Australia and back to NSW, and is now sitting at Regency Park in South Australia again.
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Tell Australia post to STOP CLOSING down our post offices which are an essential service to our community! Focus on what you are supposed to do! Australia Post is a joke!
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Australia Post needs a complete restructure. It should not longer be a business that operates to make a profit, but instead become a government service that is paid for and subsidised.
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So AusPost will extend its already ridiculously long customer wait times—what it calls “dwell”—to shove yet more unwelcome advertising before unwilling customers’ beleaguered eyeballs.
How will it compete with the phone everyone holds in their hand as they wait 20–30 minutes for the privilege of dropping off a parcel to a surly agent for overpriced delivery?
Just another reason not to visit a post office.
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I fear we’re not far off having ads inserted into our dreams, with a paid option for an ad-free experience. This timeline truly is the worst.
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This is probably Australia Post’s third attempt at in-store digital media. Definitely not the first!
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A really bold move from oOh media’s Reo team, Aus Post network, are they serious? Lame, just another way to get a screen count up!
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A really bold move from oOh media’s Reo team.. an Aus Post network, are they serious? This seems backwards and just a way to get screen count up, as a media buyer I have no interest in this network.
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