A quick-fire download with ReachMedia Chief Customer Officer, Sam Saxton, on the latest in multi-channel marketing and a team who are knitting together the offline and online at a rapid pace.
So what’s going on over there at ReachMedia?
Not unlike lots of New Zealand companies right now we’ve got multiple projects on the go. Rather than a big bang transformation project, we’re delivering at pace through a constant evolution – far preceding Covid-19.
Our strategy is to develop the ReachMedia business into a true marketing solutions business. People have known us for ages in the letterbox space, but it’s really just one of the many marketing solutions we offer these days. We realised a number of years ago that we needed to build a business that marketers and business owners could use as more of a multi-channel shop for running campaigns. And those campaigns needed to address the way people shop – which is moving between the internet and their physical world dynamically, and at pace.
The model isn’t rocket science but it is unique. No-one else in New Zealand is combining digital and letterbox. It just makes so much sense – especially when both channels are so powerful in their own right.
And mobile advertising is part of that model?
Sounds like the cat’s out of the bag. Our mobile advertising has been operating in stealth mode for a while now and is now a key part of the package that we offer. Put simply, we know that over 60 percent of Kiwis already purchase from letterbox mailers. With mobile we can ring-fence that same neighbourhood and present our clients’ digital, or online proposition to those same households.
Businesses large and small are realising how much they need a strong online presence, but they’re often unsure how to bring the real world and the digital world together seamlessly. By blending the online and offline advertising models we are delivering on our clients ideal campaigns.
We’re already hiring and growing our team in this space. There are a lot of talented people out there who want in on this space for their own career so that’s working well for us!
Mobile advertising is nothing new though?
No, absolutely not. The new bit is combining it with an offline channel like letterbox. We’ve partnered with one of the world’s leading mobile advertising platforms in UberMedia – with the unique data sources and aggregation ability, we believe the product is second to none and really well-suited to the New Zealand market.
Plus, our ability to price bundle these two channels, as well as make this combo accessible and affordable for the New Zealand SME market is really well received by our customers. It’s exciting.
The other side to it that many people (who don’t run letterbox channel) are sometimes unaware of, is that letterbox itself has become such a targeted medium for marketing – with the ability to design strategies around types of customers and their buyer profiles. It made total sense to “give the people what they were asking for” – which is a true offline/ online picture.
We exist to create local marketing that builds businesses. I have always had a passion for NZ Inc and it’s this same passion that exists within ReachMedia that attracted me to the team.
What does the future look like?
Continued investment into customer journey marketing and accelerating our product development – working with agencies, CMOs and SMEs. Keep educating – especially in the SME market.
Small and medium-sized businesses are actively seeking relevant solutions for marketing and affordable ways to stay in business and drive revenue hard.
What about you? What spins your wheels about being at ReachMedia?
From the moment my feet hit the ground last year the flat white went flying! The team at Reach just haven’t stopped evolving.
I’m fully empowered to grow this business using my entrepreneurial skillset – a core part of the leadership approach of our CEO Struan Abernethy.
We know what we’re after, we’re tapped into customers and we’re not afraid to get creative on how to solve marketers’ problems. It’s a very cool environment.
For more information visit reachmedia.co.nz.
