Above and beyond: how to extend a media brand

A new wave of media brand extensions means more opportunities for advertisers, says Bauer Media’s advertising lead, Richard Dunmall.

We’ve recently seen an increase in media brand extensions and I believe this is in part due to an increasing demand for live events and experiential offerings, as well as the ever growing explosion in the digital landscape.

Any business interested in achieving growth will consistently look at how they can extend the reach of its brand and strengthen its point of engagement with its target customers. As such, UK media owners are increasingly investing in their brands to extend the commercial offerings to advertisers – a trend which looks set to continue as we head towards 2015.

Let’s look at the growth in demand for experiential consumer experiences first. This is demonstrated by two major launches in recent weeks – the Good Housekeeping Institute and the Guardian’s new membership scheme.

Good Housekeeping magazine wanted to create something that took their audience further than just the news stand this year, launching the new Good Housekeeping Institute in Soho. As well as giving a home to all its ‘tried and tested’ activity, it allows readers to enter into the demonstration kitchen and take part in cookery classes, giving them a fully immersive Good Housekeeping experience.

Hearst’s thinking behind the brand extension is to create an experience for consumers that went beyond just advertising, instead interacting with readers in a totally new and different way. In doing so, they have created a unique opportunity for commercial partners to benefit.

The Guardian also recently launched its new ‘Guardian Membership’ programme, allowing readers to take part in Guardian-run events and activities. Membership packages are scalable, but it aims to bring readers closer to the Guardian, as well as help monetise its global audience and again, create unique opportunities for its commercial partners.

The dynamic nature of the digital landscape is also allowing media owners to expand their original brands much more quickly. One of the areas of the media industry that this is very prominent is radio, with the digital radio landscape continuing to grow both in audience size and number of brands.

We’ve seen this with KISSTORY, which launched last year. It has been such as success with listeners that as part of our national radio strategy last month, we announced it will launch onto DAB digital radio across several cities across the UK. KISSTORY used to be a one-hour show on Kiss FM, but it is now a hugely successful station in its own right, delivering a new exciting audience for our advertising partners.

Another example is Absolute Radio 80s, which recorded an impressive 1.43 million listeners in last week’s Rajar results – a figure that takes it not far off the main Absolute Radio station.

This strategy of brand extension also applies to our local stations in the ‘Place’ portfolio. With our in-depth knowledge of our audiences, we’ve taken the step to extend each of the local stations into three properties, providing services specifically geared towards both younger and older audiences, as well as the leading central station, offering advertisers a more simplified and scalable brand proposition.

Outside of radio, ITV have demonstrated similar thinking with the recent launch of their ITVBe channel. This has allowed them to target a new female-focused audience with reality and lifestyle programmes, whilst also focus ITV2 around entertainment properties.

All of these new brand extensions present new opportunities for advertisers, allowing them to target their priority audiences in different ways.

However, it doesn’t just have to be the extension of an existing media brand. In some cases, media owners can go even further and partner with a brand to create an entirely new property.

GoThinkBig is a collaboration between O2 and Bauer to create a digital hub of information on work experience opportunities, career advice and contacts. It is a brand in its own right and I’m proud to note it is celebrating its 2nd birthday this month. The project has been a runaway success, with high engagement rates from 18-24 year olds, and has provided an entirely new outlet for O2 to use to reach one of their target audiences.

On the other end of the scale, some brand extensions have proved over the years that they have the longevity to continue in their own right. We have just celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Q Awards – a property which has proved its value to advertisers year after year. For the 25th awards, it was Sony Xperia who led the advertisers on board, resulting in them being the category sponsor of two awards – Q Best New Act and Q Innovation In Sound – as well as a co-branded logo and signage at the event.

The UK media landscape is a dynamic place, reflecting the ongoing change in consumer behaviour and evolving to meet their needs for content whenever, wherever and however they want it. The signs for 2015 are that media brands will continue to extend the ways they reach and engage with audiences, providing, in turn, new opportunities for advertisers.