The new sponsorship approach

Nine's Today Show is playing "the long game" according to its news and sponsorship leads, as the return of "prodigal son" Karl Stefanovic and a refreshed cast get underway with their plans to bring back audiences and tap into younger viewers.

Despite ailing ratings woes, Nine remains committed to its revamp and says the show will continue to play to the key advertising demos, the 25-54-year-olds, in the short-term.

Nine head of Powered, Liana Dubois, claims the show remains "second to none" when it comes to audience engagement, adding that a major part of the sponsorship strategy is having the cast more deeply involved in brand integration.

"The way in which the show and the cast are working with advertisers this time around is in a deeper fashion, with all of them now looking to understand exactly what the brands are trying to achieve," Dubois says. "They are also working closely with them on 'commercial editorial' elements of the show, without crossing any barriers that they shouldn’t."

"In terms of the sponsorship opportunities, we are now taking a lot more of a flexible and nimble approach to it, and by having the cast aligned with our strategy on a stronger level, it’s going to yield more for the brands involved."

Nine's more overtly commercial aproach was evidenced by Stefanovic himself, who on stage during Nine's official launch event for the show, claimed he was "ready to work with brands" this year and that the show was "open for business".

The host poked fun at the "ageing" audiences attracted to the likes of rival programs such as Sunrise and ABC Breakfast and suggested that a younger viewership meant he and the cast could push the envelope with less fear of reprisal.

"We don't hold back and it's a bit more on edge. The younger audiences are the quickest to turn and the quickest to sample and I think through the consistency of our content they will stay with us," Stefanovic says.

"It's a great demographic for us [the 25-54s]; it's a high spending demographic and we are right smack bang in the middle of that."

Not shaken by ratings 

So far, Today is consistently behind Sunrise since returning this year and has suffered some losses to non-commercial counterpart ABC Breakfast. Yet Nine director of news and current affairs, Darren Wick, says there is little concern about the show's future and that it will be given time to build.

He says there is no "simple click of the fingers" that will bring the show's ratings up in a short burst of time and, like any news and current affairs programming, it's about taking it "slow and steady" with a focus on a solid content spine.

"There are various marketing strategies that we may [use] to move the needle. But the only real way we are going to get audience growth is through consistency," he says. "In regards to the ratings, there are no great expectations to be above where we were initially [before the relaunch]. We’re not even two months in and barely through the first quarter."

"First and foremost we’ve got to make sure that the on-air team is comfortable, as this can be a pressure cooker situation at times. We need to ensure that it is all underpinned by relevant and solid content."

Wick says the indicator of success for a show like Today isn't always tied in with how the ratings are performing, it's also about segment interest and audience engagement.

"We do skew younger compared to the likes of the Sunrise team and ABC Breakfast, so it will take time to get the audiences back on-board. When we are getting increased traffic, phone calls and inquiries about a segment, that’s how we will know when we are doing better," Wick says.

However, Wick says the show's approach to content will still be heavily geared towards total people and will leave the conversation around demographics to Nine's sales divisions.

"That’s important to sales and that is how they will tackle their side of things, but in news and current affairs, we don’t do that and we need to focus on total people. If we get the demos along the way, that’s an added bonus," he says.