From a small newspaper business to a global corporation! Find out how this company expanded its reach! [Monday: Marketing Marvels]
It all began in 1923, when a small newspaper business opened in Australia.
Back then, the main focus of the company was publishing anti-union propaganda.
Who would’ve thought that as years go by, this business would grow into a multinational corporation that comprises some of the world’s most iconic brands in the media industry?
… and not only that!
The company grew from a newspaper business to an enterprise that offers a wide range of services such as digital real estate, news and information, and book publishing!
Any ideas about the company we’re referring to?
It’s…
News Corporation!
News Corporation is a multinational mass media and publishing company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content.
The company operates primarily in the US, UK, and Australia, and its content is distributed and consumed worldwide.
How did News Corporation grow its business and network throughout the years, especially in the US?
One way is through News America Marketing (NAM).
NAM is one of News Corporation’s most valued assets in the marketing services industry for brands, retailers, and technology innovators.
In 2019, the company announced it reviewed the strategic options for NAM to allow greater focus on News Corporation’s primary pillars, particularly the creation and distribution of premium content and the global digital real estate services.
According to Robert Thomson, Chief Executive of News Corporation,
“We believe this strategic review will result in enhanced shareholder value, as we seek to streamline our company, with the aim of greater transparency and profitability.”
Thomson also said that NAM has transformed from being one asset that focused on newspaper inserts to one of the leading in-store marketing companies in the US.
In other words…
With its extensive access to first-party shopper data, close relationships with consumer goods companies, and placements in thousands of retail stores, NAM has the ability to track shopper journeys between customers and some retailers.
This allows News Corporation’s brand partners to target the right people in the right place and at the right time!
At present, NAM has in-store marketing media options in over 60,000 stores in the US and Canada and reaches households across the country through nearly 2,000 publications.
What else does News Corporation’s marketing arm offer?
NAM also has digital solutions to turn shoppers into a brand’s loyal customers through mobile cash back apps, retailer load-to-card programs, and print-at-home couponing.
Thanks to the business’s digital media network, NAM not only helps enhance News Corporation’s reputation but also connects other brands with their target audience through email, programmatic display, social media, and video!
Aside from NAM, News Corporation also expanded its network through a multimedia brand strategy.
How?
In 2019, the company announced 24 data, content, and advertising initiatives aimed at delivering more effective and targeted multimedia campaigns for brand marketers.
These initiatives included the UnrulyEQ+, a new data-powered tool for consumer insights that combines data from News Corporation’s video platform Unruly with audience-targeting platform News Connect.
UnrulyEQ+ allows advertisers to test and optimize video content for emotional impact, identify key triggers for a desired audience, and match these details with News Connect’s data to build audience segments who are most likely to engage with a campaign.
Ricky Chanana, Managing Director for Unruly Australia and New Zealand, said this strategy is particularly beneficial for Australian marketers.
According to him,
“UnrulyEQ+ combines the entire suite of UnrulyEQ insight and optimization products with valuable News Connect data for targeting. The fact that we can apply that targeting not only across the News Corporation Australia network but also the entire Unruly network as well, this is really going to blow some minds.”
Here are the other initiatives included in News Corporation’s multimedia brand strategy:
- NewsCast – A portfolio of new podcast series devoted to sports, travel, food, fashion, and true crime documentaries.
- Code Block – An advertising bidding that provides opportunity to secure category exclusivity across News Corporation Publishing for its coverage of a chosen sports code such as AFL, NRL, cricket, motorsport, and racing.
- News Connect – An expanded catalog of News Connect customers, incorporating key categories such as food (Food Connect), travel (Escape Connect), sports (Fan Connect), communities (Local Connect), and prestige (Prestige Connect).
- News Connect SelfServe – A new self-serve targeted digital booking capability for clients.
- Trusted By – A new short-form video offering from photography studio Suddenly Productions.
Additionally, News Corporation made two strategic partnerships for News Connect―the first one with Skyscanner, a travel search company, and the second one with Near, a geo-targeting company.
Regarding these partnerships, News Corporation’s Executive Chairman Michael Miller said,
“By combining the smarts of data and technology with the creativity of our trusted content, we are showing clients how they can work with us and our engaged audiences to deliver better outcomes for their brands.”
Here, we can see that News Corporation is taking giant steps not only to expand its reach but also to help other businesses deliver effective campaigns.
In the past five years, News Corporation has recorded revenues of:
- USD 8.3 billion in 2016
- USD 8.1 billion in 2017
- USD 9.0 billion in 2018
- USD 10.1 billion in 2019
- USD 9.0 billion in 2020
Based on the numbers above, we can see that the strategic review of NAM and the multimedia brand strategy are good moves by the company because it recorded the highest revenue in 2019 so far!
News Corporation’s Earning Power: Valens Research vs. As-reported numbers
News Corporation (NWSA:USA) makes for a great case study that we come back to regularly. One great reason?
The company has proven itself to be a better earning power generator than investors might think.
So, how well has NWSA been growing its business in the past years?
The research doesn’t lie—nor do the results. Earning power (the blue bars) continues to show results higher on average than what traditional databases show.
The blue bars in the chart above represent NWSA’s earning power (Uniform Return On Assets). NWSA has seen generally robust profitability. Its Uniform ROA ranged from 9% to 12% in the past nine years, or an average of 11%. Uniform ROA is at 9% in 2020.
The global ROA is just 6%.
The orange bars are the company’s as-reported financial information. If you relied on these numbers, you will see a company with understated profitability. As-reported ROA (return on assets, a measure of earning power) only ranged from 1% to 2% in the past seven years. Its as-reported ROA in 2020 was only at 2%, which is 4 times lower than its 9.2% Uniform ROA in 2020.
That’s what you’ll see in Yahoo Finance, Google Finance, and most other databases.
As home to some of the world’s trusted media brands, News Corporation is dedicated to delivering value to its customers and shareholders with “premium products and services that inform and inspire.”
With passion, principles, and purpose as its guide, the company strives to educate and entertain people all over the world.
News Corporation’s goal?
To “enlighten the present, inform the future, and make a positive impact on employees, shareholders, customers, audiences, and communities!”
About The Dynamic Marketing Communiqué’s
“Monday Marketing Marvels”
Too often, industry experts and the marketing press sing the praises of some company’s marketing strategy
…Only for the audience to later find out that their product was a flop, or worse, that the company went bankrupt.
The true ROI in marketing can’t be separated from the business as a whole.
What good is a marketing case study if one can’t prove that the company’s efforts actually paid off?
At the end of the day, either the entire business is successful or it isn’t. And the role of marketing is always paramount to that success.
Every Monday, we publish a case study that highlights the world’s greatest marketing strategies.).
However, the difference between our case studies and the numerous ones out there, is that we will always make certain that the firm really did generate and demonstrate earning power worthy of study in the first place (compliments of Valens Research’s finance group).
By looking at the true earnings of a company, we can now rely on those successful businesses to get tips and insights on what they did right.
We’ll also study the greatest marketing fails and analyze what they did wrong, or what they needed to improve on. We all make our mistakes, but better we learn from others’ mistakes—and earlier, rather than later.
Hope you found this week’s marketing marvel interesting and helpful.
Stay tuned for next week’s Monday Marketing Marvels!
Cheers,
Kyle Yu
Head of Marketing
Valens Dynamic Marketing Capabilities
Powered by Valens Research
www.valens-research.com
