News Corp bolsters its social media firepower

News Corp Australia has struck an exclusive deal with US group Polar to use its technology.

Neil Robinson, managing director of digital solutions at News Corp

News Corp Australia has bolstered its digital advertising firepower against social media players Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by striking an exclusive deal with US group Polar to use its technology.

Polar’s social display technology will allow News Corp’s advertising clients to run social media ads across its news, entertainment and food websites, which are trusted and safe.

News Corp has already run more than 100 social display campaigns across its websites for brands including Chemist Warehouse, Sanitarium, Amazon, Latitude Financial, Australia Post and Tommy Hilfiger, resulting in engagement levels eight times higher than standard display formats.

Neil Robinson, managing director of digital solutions at News Corp, said the exclusive use of Polar’s social display technology, which it has been testing for 18 months, will give the company an advantage over its publishing rivals.

“Social media, for all its failings, and brand safety has actually created new standards and really effective formats, and so we’re picking up on that kind of trend. And then bringing those formats to the trusted web, which is our news brands and our environment,” he said.

News Corp will use the social display technology together with its own data platform, News Connect, which allows more than 2000 audience segments to be targeted. It will also better measure and analyse the results of the digital campaign.

Mr Robinson said News Connect connects with 10.8 million Australians each month, delivering clients the ability to target their ads more effectively.

“We’re now able to use that technology and targeting capability to overlay the format, so we really think we’ve got three very strong reasons that this is going to work very well for our clients, produce far better results for their business and give them an option against Facebook,” he said.

Mr Robinson said News Corp’s publications provide a safe environment for brands, which can’t be guaranteed on social media, and the trial has proved popular with its ad customers.

“They like it because it’s an alternative option to having to put those formats into a toxic social environment.”

“They’re voting with their wallets right now. There’s a huge uplift in demand, and that’s largely driven by the fact that they have better responses than social media.”

Mr Robinson said the use of Polar’s social display technology provides “a great opportunity to shift social (media) budgets.”

“How far we shift them is one thing, but we also see it as supplementary to our existing display format so there should be an uplift there too.

“In terms of dollar figures, we’re conservative whilst we’re in a tough market but it gives us another option to extend to advertisers and at the end of the day that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Mr Robinson said the ad market has “definitely stabilised” after a tough start to the 2020 financial year.

“It is a significant game changer for us, and I know everyone uses that word but the fact it is exclusive, the fact that we’ve going data overlay, and the fact that we’re leveraging the brands that we know are really, really well engaging the consumers.”

News Corp also uses Polar’s social display technology in the UK.