Foxtel appoints Mindshare to handle above the line media buying for Kayo and Binge
Foxtel’s Streamotion, which encompasses streaming platform Binge and sports streaming service Kayo, has appointed Mindshare to handle its above the line media buying, Mumbrella can reveal.
The subscription TV business confirmed that it has recently “consolidat[ed] media planning and buying across the group”. The new appointment does not disrupt Binge’s relationships with The Hallway, its creative agency, and Thinkerbell, which handles its PR.
The spokesperson added that both Kayo and Binge will continue to trade all digital media in-house.
Chief executive of Group M’s Mindshare, Katie Rigg-Smith, said the agency has “had a great relationship with Foxtel over six years, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to support them across the whole business.”
At last week’s upfronts event, Foxtel unveiled a new voice-controlled remote and platform for media buyers, Foxtel Xplore, which provides data from more than 8bn of Foxtel subscribers’ viewing events per month. CEO Patrick Delany told agencies and advertisers that, despite almost 300 redundancies and 140 stand downs this year, Foxtel has “almost slingshot out of it [COVID-19]”.
“We don’t just deliver dumb channels, we don’t just deliver dumb video on demand,” Delany said.
Foxtel Media’s chief executive, Mark Frain, meanwhile, suggested that “perhaps … Seven forgot that we’re also a major commercial player [at its upfronts]” and promised “we are more than a fourth line in a TV plan”.
“Our dear frenemies have made many big claims in the last few weeks, but at the end of the day, their broadcast TV information, still the main part of their business, is reliant on panel data and inference,” Frain said. “Ours are second-by-second, real time actions recorded on millions of digital set top boxes and devices.
“On Foxtel, your ads get noticed. After all, you could be one of up to 60 ads in an hour on free to air BVOD, or one of four on Foxtel Go. I know where I’d rather be.
“You could be part of the six minutes of commercial content an hour on Foxtel, or 14 minutes on free to air. As I said before, I know where I’d rather be. Your ad can appear at 15% screen coverage on Facebook, or 100% on Go and Kayo.”
The company also announced a freemium Kayo offering, starting with taking Supercars content out from behind the paywall. Last month, the sports streaming service rebounded to 600,000 subscribers after the pandemic’s initial impact on live sport, and therefore on Kayo’s subscription base.
The Hallway was appointed to Binge’s creative account a week after the SVOD [streaming video on demand] service launched in May – soon after Foxtel signed an exclusive, multi-year deal with HBO – to compete with streaming players such as Netflix, Stan, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and Apple TV+.
At the start of the year, Foxtel shifted its creative account from DDB Sydney to Saatchi & Saatchi. Special Group, meanwhile, handles Kayo’s creative.
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Brittney Rigby was Mumbrella's deputy managing editor - news and analysis. She left Mumbrella in April 2021.
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topics
Binge
Foxtel
Group M
Katie Rigg-Smith
kayo
Mark frain
Mindshare
Patrick Delany
Streamotion
The Hallway
Thinkerbell
WPP
