FAIRFAX SOLVES THE CONTENT QUESTION

Fairfax teams custom solutions with a content studio that can deliver them—and results.

Creating integrated multiplatform content strategies can be overwhelming and complex projects to embark upon for marketers. But Fairfax’s custom solutions team works in tandem with its content studio to streamline the process, both designing and delivering the product across platforms. It aims to create content that takes advantage not just of the publisher’s incredible reach into Kiwi homes – nationally through Stuff, the Sunday Star Times and a host of magazines, as well as regionally through its local newspapers and neighbourly.co.nz website – but its multimedia storytelling skills and community ties to identify the right kinds of people to tell those stories.

Like many media owners, Fairfax has been moving towards delivering custom in-house content solutions for advertisers for a while, but it’s within the last year that the company formalised its efforts and launched the Content Studio. Maria Ryan-young, who heads the studio as its creative content editor, says the move comes in “direct response” to the demands of the market but additionally reflects Fairfax’s view that custom content partnerships will be a major area of future growth. It also allows them to pull together a team of strategists, creators, producers, writers, designers and developers into a focused department.

The studio works closely with the custom solutions team, headed by Susana Leitao. Her team works with advertisers and their agencies to design bespoke solutions that can be cross channel, cross platform, white label or even those that sit outside Fairfax’s owned platforms. “It’s totally channel agnostic, so we’re producing the right creative solutions for whatever the client’s objective is,” Leitao says. “We can go back with media and channel recommendations as well as a creative solution to bring a client’s message to life in the right way for both that audience and for that environment.”

This kind of integrated approach has led to some great content partnerships. Take a look at these two examples.