Bauer Media launches play for $80bn European digital advertising market

Bauer Media is entering the marketing and sales services space in a bid to win a slice of Europe’s $80bn digital advertising sector.

Bauer CEO Yvonne Bauer. Picture: Austral

Bauer Media Group is looking to grab a slice of the $80 billion digital advertising market in Europe by moving into the marketing and sales services space.

In a statement issued by the family-managed business from its headquarters in Hamburg, Bauer said it will focus on the small and mid-sized enterprises market, providing clients marketing communication and lead generation via a portal that enables tracking, control and performance analysis.

“This addresses a clear and sizeable market opportunity; the European market for digital advertising amounted to roughly €50 billion ($80bn) in 2018 with a strong growth trajectory,” Bauer said in the statement issued Monday night Australian time.

Bauer said the new offer provides “a good strategic fit” with its existing business, which consists of more than 700 magazines, 400 digital products and 100-plus radio stations.

Veit Dengler, member of the Bauer executive board, said “publishing will remain the backbone of the company” but it is looking for “compelling opportunities to complement” its core operations and boost growth.

“This process first started in 2006 with the acquisitions of RMF, a Polish radio station, and has continued with the recent acquisition of leading online comparison portals across Europe,” he said.

“Building marketing and sales services for SMEs marks a new milestone in executing against this strategy.”

Bauer has enlisted the help of Sunrise System, a search engine optimisation company based in Poland, to provide “a nucleus for the new service offering.”

Bauer’s Australian division — which sold its Money magazine to Rainmaker Group for an undisclosed sum last week — wasn’t immediately available to comment on the plans for the local market.