Medium Rare’s Nick Smith on going full-service ‘by stealth’
News Corp Australia’s Medium Rare is perhaps best known for its custom publishing business. However, its managing director, Nick Smith, said the agency is growing a full-service content offering “by stealth”, which may just give existing players a run for their money.
The business is not short of industry recognition for its print works with big-name clients including Bunnings, Coles, Officeworks and Qantas. In last year’s Mumbrella Publish Award, Medium Rare took home four awards for its custom publications.
Nick Smith
Nevertheless, with custom publishing only a part of the offering, Smith said that Medium Rare now looks to be “in the nexus of creativity, content, technology and innovation”. He teased that he would rather complete the transformation “by stealth”, but the agency needs to be recognised for its well-rounded content offering.
“We want to change the image of the agency to be a full-service one, but we need to make sure that there is an ongoing sustainability of the print product as much as it can be,” he told Mumbrella.
“The amount of engagement that we saw from print still exists today. For example, on Qantas, you get on the plane, sit in one seat for an hour and a half, and probably will pick up that magazine five times in a flight.
“What we see for that product, particularly through advertising, is that it gets the best response, so we’ve got a commitment to our clients to keep those going.
“Our job is to make sure that we have a robust strategy for each client to still drive digital transformation, but keep that magazine as a value proposition.”
Smith said customers in particular categories will “always want a print magazine”, such as the retail space that Coles and Bunnings occupy, where a magazine is given at the end of a purchase like a gift.
“Because those particular brands have been doing it so long, the love for that print product still exists today, and it’s probably stronger than ever before, because of a lot of the traditional paid magazines are no longer around.”
L-R: Lisa Green and Genevra Leek
This month, the agency made two senior appointments for a couple of its most important publications. Lisa Green, who spent 13 years helming Australian House & Garden, joined as editor-in-chief of Bunnings magazine; and Genevra Leek, former editor-in-chief of Elle, took on the content director role for Qantas & Travel Insider.
Medium Rare is looking for talents at all places to bolster its increasingly diversified offering, Smith added. The agency just added a new client innovation team, working on strategies such as sustainability and trade.
There are also existing subsidiaries including Rare Studios for multimedia production, Rare Creative for short-term content campaigns like Qantas Loyalty, and Storyation, which is structured to play to different-sized budgets.
Smith said that at the end of 2023, the culture it manages to build would be a measurement of success for Medium Rare.
“What we are doing is attracting a whole new breed of expertise, which has not normally been associated with us – whether that’s in brand strategy, creative strategy, creative execution, multimedia execution, audio and video, you name it.
“Apart from our success in not just building the content of our existing clients, but bringing on a whole new lot of clients, I think getting the image out of it being a great place to work, and that if you choose to come to Medium Rare you’ve got a great future in this industry – that’s what we are most proud of.”
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Darcy Song was a reporter at Mumbrella, covering media owners, adtech and social platforms. She left in October 2023.
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