‘The focus was simple – don’t over complicate’: Industry reacts to Nine’s Upfront
Nine hosted a lavish lunch in Sydney on Thursday and offered a simple proposition to advertisers: spend money with us, and you’ll reach 22 million Australians.
The network launched a number of different products that both simplify and expand their advertising reach – plus they’ve added commercials to Stan Sport, and snatched The Bachelor franchise to boot.
But what did the industry think about Nine’s 2025 Upfront?
Chris Nolan, founder and CEO of Principle Media Group
It was a stirring pitch from Nine for the power of Total TV. Chief sales officer, Michael Stephenson, provided a compelling offer to partner with Nine to prove the return on investment of Total TV – it was really well received in the room.
The introduction of sport into Stan is an interesting move for Nine. It offers a more premium viewing experience and ultimately the ability to trade across Nine assets, however it will no doubt depend on what sport inventory is made accessible as to its appeal for marketers.
The ability to connect real time audiences to sales data is something that we have seen in other offerings, for some marketers, this connectivity to purchase data will provide another entry point into understanding video influence on outcomes. In addition, good to see they are introducing connectors in addition to the Adobe CDP which will no doubt open up that opportunity.
Callum Wells, planning director, UM Australia
While Nine’s upfronts this year may not have had quite the same pomp as previous years, they did assert their footing as market leader across the full stack. In their own words, they assured the industry that working in their ecosystem gives access to 22 million Australians with a 95% reach.
Having this level of scale is fine and good, but how can brands access that scale? And can marketers justify spend in traditionally reach channels with tighter budgets?
The tone of the session was set in Nine’s positioning themselves as a growth partner to deliver Better Business Results, which really led to their big show of force leading into 2025: Scale backed by data, and media spend validation. Announcements were decidedly rationally-focused; there was a strong emphasis on Adobe-backed Customer Data Platform profile building with 1PD and 3PD mapping, and the expansion of Nine Tribes – all of which makes sense. More data equates to enhanced targeting across the funnel and access to multiple metrics to deconstruct and analyse performance.
One of the most important announcements was the partnering with a suite of clients, agencies, and MMM partners to independently determine the ROI of using Nine’s ecosystem. Frankly, this seems like the most sensible move as media spend becomes increasingly scrutinised where it previously hasn’t been directly attributable (i.e. mass reach channels). As spend has drifted down the funnel in recent years, Nine’s position is to start bringing it back to the top. This provides opportunity for clients that are more focused on outcome planning as opposed to sales-driven KPIs.
How would this benefit marketers and agencies?
For marketers and agencies, particularly those that might not yet be dipping the toe in to MMMs just yet, this level of validation is smart long-term method of justifying spend with Nine – notably, in broadcast. The benefit, then, is the ability to allocate spend with evidence of its impact on ROI. With the continuted expansion of data, the benefit becomes the ability to use a multitude of audience and behaviour signals across the funnel with profiles modelled off both 1PD and 3PD.
Lorraine Woods, chief investment and trading director, Atomic 212°
Nine’s upfront announcements were focused on what agencies and advertisers have been asking for around data and technology and a significant leap forward in measurement and attribution to deliver better business results. Nine’s advancements in tech and data are market leading and exciting, particularly with their partnership expansion with Adgile and DataCo, and their enhancements of 9tribes only strengthen an already impressive data stack.
As campaign effectiveness is constantly scrutinised, measurement, attribution and optimisation are critical to everything we do. Nine has addressed this head-on, creating sophisticated data led solutions for us to identify and reach our target audiences more effectively, but also allowing us to measure and optimise campaigns based on real results.
Their collaborative approach with MMM is particularly intriguing. It shows that Nine is truly committed to proving the effectiveness of their total TV product, willing to put skin in the game and invest in partnerships that provide measurable outcomes and hold Nine accountable. We will be very interested in working with them on this.
Advertising on Stan is finally here, albeit focused on sport for now. It’s a smart move by Nine. It’s a positive step toward reclaiming some of the revenue from the growing streaming platforms.
Really progressive and exciting is the launch of 9Galaxy+. The ability to manage campaigns and audiences across platforms and devices will be a game-changer. This, combined with the efficiencies 9Galaxy+ promises, will undoubtedly improve campaign performance and ROI.
Regarding programming, Nine showcased their significant suite of sports across Stan Sport and Nine including the Melbourne Cup, all the tennis majors and the British & Irish Lions rugby tour. For general entertainment they’ve made a focus of owning the early evening, with two big announcements being The Floor trivia game show and The Golden Bachelor.
The launch of the Good Food app will likely be well-received, offering exciting opportunities for brands in the food and lifestyle sectors to engage with a highly targeted audiences.
Taylor Fielding, CEO of TFM Digital
QSR and fine dining advertisers alike will be licking their lips at the Good Food app offering, as the industry has been needing something like this to help get people into restaurants, given the current market challenges – expect budget to come from other street press.
The single view of Nine’s customers through its CDP is useful, though many agencies will already do a lot of this through their own DSP and partners like Equifax, we’ve been effectively using ours for the past few years for clients. But I’m interested in the ‘9Predict’ finding audiences using AI, as well as ingesting our clients’ Salesforce data – a goal promised by other publishers but one which never quite meets expectations.
With the expansion of UCL and UEL formats, along with more sports and a focus on Rugby Union ahead of an upcoming home World Cup, Stan Sport is becoming more compelling for advertisers. We know Kayo works well from Foxtel and these are valuable audiences. The fact it’s across all inventory is great, it means it’s truly programmatic, so long as this doesn’t dial the CPM right up.
Tia McCann, group marketplace director at Wavemaker
Nine showcased the breadth and scale of their offering, with announcements around data, tech, AI, and programming. Highlights included the expansion of 9Tribes to ensure brands can reach hard-to-find customers, and the expanded capability of 9Predict to include 9Now inventory in 2025.
The best news of the day for the Buyers in the room was the announcement that from today, all of Nine’s inventory will be available in Galaxy, promising that makegoods with their Network will be a thing of the past for those who move to this buying model.
The launch of advertising on Stan Sport in 2025 was also an exciting proposition, with timing still to be announced, but much anticipation in the room for those of us who chase these valuable sporting audiences.
Keen to curb the shift of marketing budgets out of TV in recent years, Nine’s biggest announcement of the day was delivered by Nine’s Chief Sales Officer, Michael Stephenson. Stephenson pledged to put Nine’s money where its mouth is, with a significant investment in their Total TV project committing Nine will be the first media owner to publicly hold themselves to account, with independent, third-party verification of its return on investment across all advertising channels. With 14 partners already having pledged to come on board, the results of this could be a game changer for Nine and total TV.
With most of Nine’s established formats returning in 2025, noteworthy new programming included The Floor, an exciting and family-friendly new trivia format that has already taken off in other countries; The Golden Bachelor with Sam Armytage hosting; and a new drama series starring Rachel Griffiths called Madam.
The network’s Upfront took a different shape this year, hosted over lunch. A QR code on our menu was a clever way to link attendees to all the announcements and key information to take away conveniently.
Overall, Nine’s Upfronts presentation was impressive and covered a lot of ground. With massive reach and scale in the Australian market, they illustrated they are using technology and data to drive insights, as well as ensuring accountability, ease of reporting and transaction. The scale and investment in their Total TV project demonstrates leadership in market and the network’s desire to provide proofpoints to drive investment back into TV.
Clare Zappia, media director, Avenue C
The focus for Nine was simple: don’t over complicate. Focus on the key statement to land: ‘Nine delivers Better Business Results’. And this is exactly what they did. They did not have the bells and whistles of the previous years to dazzle and distract. Instead, they chose to centre on the huge audience opportunity that exists across their logged in subscriber base – 22 million across all Nine Entertainment Co properties. They focused not on what the upcoming show launches are, but instead on the success they’ve had by moving to a single audience view for their network and the first party data capabilities they have, as a result of the rich insights gained.
They also talked a lot about the power of Total TV and the myth in the industry that TV as a whole is in decline. Boasting 6% broadcast audience growth and a massive 40% BVOD growth, their challenge, as they identified it, was to invite reappraisal of their channels for marketers who have lost faith in the upper funnel and are focused only on the bottom-line performance numbers.
Nine’s aim was very clear – they want to take back share of budgets being lost to platform businesses and the way to do it is to prove their results. So, in a bold move the key announcement was that Nine will partner with Media Mix Modelling heavy weights to measure a selection of 14 major clients’ business results, utilising Nine’s suite of channels. Their aim is to put their money where their mouth is this year in order to claw back share, but without the Olympics behemoth in 2025 they may struggle to maintain growth.
Nine CSO Michael Stephenson
In amongst this push to prove out their offering, they peppered in a few key content highlights and moves for next year. This included the normal favourites returning such as The Block, MAFS, Travel Guides, LEGO Masters and the Summit, but with two new prime time players: The Golden Bachelor, a Bachelor spin off for lovers over 50 and The Floor, a new game show hosted by Roger Corser.
While Stan general entertainment content did not get announced for an ad-funded tier, Stan Sport will be getting ads from 2025. This will be Nine’s challenge to Foxtel and Kayo, and although the scale is small the audience will be engaged as they seek out content only available with the higher tier subscription. Whether the extra $15 premium to access Stan Sports becomes too high for some with ads introduced remains to be seen.
All of this, including Stan Sport will be able to be bought via converged trading and a single CPM, showing Nine’s intention to focus on their scale and access to eyeballs. All in all, a straight-forward and very focused presentation, however without the Olympics to stand on, as well as no new blockbuster programs launching in 2025, the key watch out will be if they can maintain their momentum and deliver on their promise to perform.
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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