Nine’s The Block locks in biggest number of commercial partners to date
Nine has confirmed its biggest list of commercial partners to date for renovation series The Block including Mitre 10 renewing its sponsorship a tenth time.
The major partners for this year’s series include Mitre 10 – The Block’s longest serving partner – McCafe, Stayz, Domain, Youfoodz,Centrum and Volkswagen.
National and local sponsors include Carlton & United Breweries, Industry SuperFunds, RACV, HBF Home Insurance, and Revolution Roofing.
The Block returns this Sunday.
Lizzie Young, Nine’s group content strategy director, told Mumbrella: “When you’ve got returning sponsors that have been there for so many years, it really just demonstrates that it does as a show, impact their business outcomes.
“We know people are obsessed with property in this country, and all of the categories that we’ve got really play into that, and I think when you’ve got such a clear message, it really does do a serious amount of grunt work for them.”
This year, The Block’s sponsorship by McCafe will include a digital series on 9Now, while Centrum’s partnership will include a bespoke digital content series.
Young was unable to disclose the details of McCafe’s digital series.
Young said the way this year’s series is formatted – with five family homes set to be built – has added more elements to the show, thus more content.
“That’s the thing about The Block, it constantly reinvents itself, so we’ve gone from apartment buildings to houses, and there’s no greater Australian dream than having your own patch of dirt, with a house on it an it taps into that national obsession.
“The more elements to a show, the more content you can extract from it. That’s absolutely true, and there’s always more ways to connect with the audience through digital and social, and we see time and time again, the audience cannot get enough of a room reveal and then checking through all the imagery with each and every room.
“When you’re talking about houses of this scale, there’s just going to be so much of that content,” she said.
Young could not disclose the details of the digital series or the bespoke content series.
However, she said the integration of brands across Nine’s digital platforms was definitely something which attracted brands to the show.
“It is fantastic that we can galvanise millions of Australian around a television screen at 7.30pm every night of the week, but what we can also do is touch them during the day, because they are on their phones, on their social feed and they see something pop up and then they look at that content, and go onto the official website of The Block to check out the gallery of the room reveal from the night before and we can show them something else that we haven’t actually seen in the show, which is a digital content extension.”
Young: “The more elements to a show, the more content you can extract from it”
“Just being able to move them around and touch them at all different times at day is exactly what we are trying to do and expand our audience footprint that way.”
She added consistency was another key reason brands were attracted to the program.
“It is that classic multi-night co-viewing must watch television content but it also exists on other platforms but it really does capitalise on the digital and social space and I also think it’s a really strong brand that clients can take into their own ecosystem and actually get great value out of it.”
Asked whether she had concerns about other programs, including Ten’s Survivor and Seven’s Hells Kitchen, Young remained confident The Block would reach large audiences once again.
“Our view is that The Block is the strongest piece of Australian content on television for this quarter, without question and really confident in its ability, and we’re not concerned by what we are seeing on other channels.”
Young added: “It’s coming off this amazing heritage of what The Block delivers to start with, and then we’ve got the biggest version of The Block, we’ve had, coupled with the fact it’s had an amazing platform in Australia Ninja Warrior to launch it, and so I think what you see is you are going to see is really great outcomes from an audience and brand perspective.”
The Block will premiere this Sunday, July 30.
