Mamamia shifts brand strategy as new content launched

Women’s media network Mamamia is working to have its cake and eat it, positioning itself as a scale publisher while shifting to a “house of brands” approach that allows it to more effectively build and monetise different audiences.

At Mamamia’s upfront event in Sydney Tuesday, the company launched new content aimed at Gen X women (45 to 60-year-olds), parents and travellers among other audiences. It also announced a “strategic shift” that it says will de-emphasise the Mamamia brand in favour of the individual content verticals.

“[In the past]  we’ve lent in really hard to the Mamamia brand, but we have incredibly powerful brands in You Beauty, Nothing to Wear, Out Loud, [and] that has created these smaller communities under the Mamamia umbrella,” Mamamia CEO Nat Harvey told Mumbrella in an interview before the event.

Nat Harvey in the Mamamia studio (Mumbrella)

“When I talk about these brands, they’re not one dimensional. They’ve got website activity, they’ve got social handles, they’ve got newsletters. They are a full ecosystem in themselves … you could almost call them mini publishers in themselves, even in terms of how we’ve structured the teams here.”

Harvey said that “Mamamia” had some limitations as a hero brand.

“When you think about younger audiences, even the name ‘Mamamia’ – some people still think it’s a parenting platform, or [they think] it’s an Abba platform.

“We’ve just recently rebranded True Crime Conversations and taken the Mamamia logo off it because we’ve seen some big opportunities in growing international audiences, but we didn’t want people in the UK or the US thinking it’s a podcast about murders in the Mamamia universe. It was limiting having just the Mamamia brand as the hero.”

When asked about the risk of fragmentation and lack of focus in the new “house of brands” era, Harvey points to a thorough audience and commercial vetting process. She said content teams are organised in hubs with individually tight focus.

Mamamia content slate 2025/26

In terms of the scale part of the strategy, Mamamia is calling itself “Australia’s largest independent publisher” and claims a monthly audience of 7.5 million women and 2 million men. In a previous interview, Mamamia told Mumbrella it had 1.2-1.5 million monthly podcast listeners, which would leave its newsletters, websites and social accounts to make up the rest of the numbers.

Harvey is upbeat about audience and commercial growth, with the network having recorded its biggest monthly podcast audience in May. She says that podcasts are responsible for “nearly half” the company’s revenue.

 ”The reason why we are growing is we’ve developed new content that has delivered really strong audience, and also [because we are operating] in underrepresented categories.

“If you look at health as an example, last year we launched Well. That brought in new advertisers to Mamamia. We’ve also seen that 57% of the women who have consumed Well content have gone and done something about their health … that’s the perfect blend of purpose [and] commercial opportunity … we do have so much opportunity for growth. We could write ten times the revenue we do now.” 

When Mumbrella challenges the revenue tough talk, Harvey laughs.

“We are still quite new in video … and there’s content pillars we don’t invest in at the moment … I’ll call out sport … so there are ways for us to grow … our returning customers are really strong because we deliver what we say we are going to.”

The presentation in the NSW State Library’s Auditorium kicked off with a dramatic voiceover as the lights dimmed.

“Right now, as you’re sitting here in the dark, your brands are out there in the world, fighting for their life. Second by second, click by click, they’re in a battle for attention against the backdrop of a trust crisis. Doing what you’ve always done won’t deliver the same results it once did, because while you were scrolling, the game has changed.”

Read further details on Mamamia’s AI strategy here.

Other announcements at the upfront were partnerships with social influencer platform Fabulate and video affiliate marketing platform Vudoo.

“ Being able to purchase directly from video is new for us,” Harvey said. “ I know the audience is primed for it … we’ve got the receipts of what the written articles do [in terms of affiliate marketing] that I’m really confident that’s gonna translate into video as well.”

In a bid to dent Harvey’s unrelenting positivity, Mumbrella asks what she thinks about on her bad days.

“Costs!” she says before going on. “Media is a very transient space, so keeping really good people in the media industry is something that I do worry about all the time … when you have a really strong team, I feel like nothing can stop you.

“When you’ve got a team with high turnover — the industry turnover is enormous — it just limits growth.”

Nat Harvey at the upfront (Mumbrella)

Industry reaction to Mamamia’s upfront was positive, with UM Managing Partner Lisa Hosking telling Mumbrella the women’s media network needed to find new audiences away from its current ecosystem.

“With 7.5m reach to women, they arguably have the formula right albeit an audience spread across multiple touchpoints,” Hosking said in a written response.

“Their loyal audiences will be key drivers of success for the new shows given the ability to cross promote and migrate. But attention and time is scarce, so they will need to be careful not to cannibalise and instead look to how to they will recruit outside of their audience ecosystem. As Bill Gates famously coined ‘content is king’ but as we all know every king needs a distribution Queen.”

EssenceMediacom head of investment Sydney, Katherine Pochroj, told Mumbrella the event “didn’t disappoint” and that Mamamia had maintained its single-minded focus on Australian women.

The strategy shift to the “house of brands” was a formalisation of Mamamia’s existing approach.

“As advertisers, we haven’t seen them as a singular entry point for some time,” she said.

Pochroj attributed the enthusiastic audience response at the event to Mamamia’s CEO.

“Nat Harvey has a real energy and she can galvanise energy from the industry — she has warmth that translates to the audience.”

Other content announcements from the upfront:

• Expansion of The Spill including The Spill Morning Tea, Reality Recaps, and a “watch along” format
• This Is Why We Fight — therapy-based relationships podcast hosted by clinical psychotherapist Sarah Bays; launches October 2025
• Parenting Out Loud — hosted by Monique Bowley, with Amelia Lester and Stacey Hicks; out now
• Unleashed — Gen X ecosystem (podcasts, newsletters, social, events); launches early 2026
• Retreat — travel ecosystem; video-first across app/site/social/newsletters; travel contributor Paige Carmicheal; launches February 2026
• Eats — food ecosystem; video-first across app/site/social/newsletters