


	IFRA XMA Cross Media Awards 2008 projects





	Company: Fairfax Business Media
	Project name: The Australian Financial Review “Key to Success”

	Topical category of the project

	A: Cross media campaigns for individual advertising customers

	General information about the publication

	For more than 50 years, The Australian Financial Review has been the authority on business, finance and political news in Australia. It has a reputation for independent, award-winning journalism and is essential reading for Australia’s business community Our readers have spending power, both in business and at home. They are affluent, well educated and difficult to reach through other media. Our audience demands a newspaper that adapts to their changing needs. The Financial Review meets these needs every day through innovative features and sections, covering every aspect in the life of a busy professional. In recent years, the Financial Review brand has extended into the online realm through the afr.com website. The Financial Review now offers a fully integrated advertising sales solution through a single sales point. Our website provides users with an even deeper insight into topical matters, and further analysis of issues by the Australian Financial Reviews’ award winning journalists. The Australian Financial Review; THE DAILY HABIT OF SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE

	Project description

	The title “Key to Success” was chosen because it encapsulates the over-riding theme of the section – how successful executives achieved their status.

	The basic idea of the project

	The basic idea of our advertising solution, The Key to Success, is to allow readers an insight into how industry leaders have risen to the top of their chosen profession: How they arrived at where they are today; the industry challenges they have faced; the career opportunities that have come their way; and their education choices through their youth and career. The advertising solution has met the objectives of capturing both target audience (businessmen with high socio-economic status aged 40-70 years) and advertiser interest, while increasing engagement with The Australian Financial Review Education section. The client brief to media was to align the BMW 5 Series with titles/sections that “people seek out to guide them in their business lives”. Their core business objective was about increasing the awareness of the BMW 5 Series within the Australian market, with the intent of selling vehicles. The Financial Review formulated the concept of publishing a monthly print section that profiled Australian corporate luminaries in a question and answer format. The profiles would provide a definitive snapshot of how these individuals have made their mark on Australian business. The section would be published across a double page spread with the lower half of the page devoted to advertising space for the BMW 5 Series. The creative was contextually linked to the Key to Success idea. The Key To Success print section would then be integrated with the Financial Review’s online platform afr.com. A tagline on the double page spread directed readers to visit afr.com for the full interview. A video showing the entire question & answer session was hosted on the homepage and the brand concept was integrated by the use of a mini-banner and a watermark logo. The mini-banner in turn drove traffic to BMW’s 5 Series site.

	Used media channels


	Newspaper		Online

The implementation

Once BMW had agreed to sponsor the concept, the editor created a list of Australian corporate luminaries to profile. Space was added to the Education section of The Australian Financial Review newspaper on the last Monday of each month to house these interviews, with the section increasing from 4 to 8 pages in total. The filming of the question and answer interviews then began.
The main extracts of each interview were published within the print Education section of the Financial Review. At the conclusion of the printed interview, readers were directed to visit afr.com to view the extended video version online.
The client created and supplied material to suit the space allocated both online and in print.
Being a new, innovative advertising concept, there were naturally some challenges that were presented in delivering to the standards that our audience come to expect from the Financial Review, including:
- What ad formats would complement the video without detracting from its editorial value?
- How to effectively position the video in a highly visible environment
- Integrating the video with the afr.com site and subsequently transitioning to a high-resolution player consistent with what users come to expect from afr.com
- How do we direct readers for The Key to Success section in the Financial Review to the video version on afr.com
The implementation of this project was a collaborative effort from a range of disciplines within the Fairfax Business Media group. Editorial accepted a new format for interviewing the selected subjects each month, while the advertising team worked together with the client and editorial to determine the most suitable model. Marketing drove audiences to the Key to Success campaign, with Multimedia providing in-depth interviews on AFR TV in a high resolution environment amongst the world’s best.

Image(s)

AFR001FBA30JUN08[1].jpg (4263 KB)

AFR001FBA30JUN0832.jpg (2888 KB)

Links

tv.afr.com/index.php?videoID=2880

Project results

This sponsorship (initially for 9 months) contributed to stock of 5 Series in Australia being selling out. As a result the sponsorship period was reduced to 5 months (February – June), providing the client with cost-efficiencies on their forecast spend.
The online component also received page views of up to double the network average.
Feedback has been positive, particularly with BMW producing an advertisement which created a great synergy between the editorial aim of the section and its sponsor.
From The Australian Financial Review, it has provided us with the structure to implement further contextual cross media solutions for clients.