Nine Radio ends 25-year partnership with Australian Traffic Network as it rolls out new advertising packages
Nine Radio has ended its 25-year relationship with the Australian Traffic Network with the announcement of a replacement commercial offering for its news, sport, weather, and traffic coverage.
Under the new offering, exclusive sponsorship will be available to advertisers on all bulletins across the network and throughout the day.
“Over the past six months we have been examining all parts of our business to best serve the needs of our listeners and our advertisers,” Nine’s managing director of radio, Tom Malone, said.
“We’ll be doing more live traffic and more local traffic, with dedicated reporters in each market, so the reports are faster and more accurate than anywhere else.
“And the advertisers will be getting a better experience too, each report will be preceded by a five-second brand credit, and then the client gets 30-second solus adjacency reinforcing the marketing message. We’re creating a premium environment to deliver cut through.”
Malone added that the new model means advertisers will only be able to buy spots directly from the Nine sales team.
“Commercially, it also means the only place advertisers can buy slots on one of our four talk radio stations, or three music stations, is through the Nine sales team,” he explained.
“We’ve built premium sponsorship packages across the day, and around the network, aligned with our key verticals of news, sport, weather and traffic.”
Nine radio stations 2GB and 3AW will lead the roll out, joined by other talkback stations 4BC, Five AA, and 6PR, and music stations 2UE, Magic, 4BH, and 6GT.
Last month, Nine completed a sales transformation which involved a number of redundancies, including the role of director of sales across radio, which was held by Penny Kaleta. It also featured multiple promotions, including Richard Hunwick being elevated to the role of director for sales for television and radio.
Hunwick said the new model offers a “powerful premium product” for marketers.
“We have tremendous success with our existing commercial strings, but in making these changes we are giving brands a different way of cutting through,” Hunwick said.
“Exclusive sponsorships in news, sport, weather or traffic can be tailored to the client and make an excellent complement to our existing suite of recorded ads and live reads.”
Also last month, Nine ended its syndication deal with Crocmedia citing a need to reduce its cost base in order to minimise “any impact on jobs or salaries” due to COVID-19.
Brittney Rigby was Mumbrella's deputy managing editor - news and analysis. She left Mumbrella in April 2021.
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Unlike Stevie Jacobs at breakfast on 2UE, I hope the Nine Radio traffic reports are not recorded the week before.
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As long as the traffic report is longer time wise than the ads, I’ll be happy.
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