Val Morgan Digital

Our Branded Content Editor Jackson Langford has flexed his editorial muscles to launch a new music column on The Latch called The Deep Cut 🎵 This column answers a need and clear desire from audiences for original, Australian music content. Each month, Jackson (who prior to his role at VMD spent a decade as a music editor) will be analysing a different issue facing the Australian music industry, speaking to insiders, artists and more, to help pull back the curtain on the scene. Each column will also spotlight his recommendations of five new Australian songs and five upcoming Australian tours to help our readers discover their new favourite acts, and inspire them to support our local music scene however they can. Tell us what you think or if you have an upcoming tour or artist you think we should support.

Promotion alert! 🔥 Diana Demetri joined the Val Morgan Digital team during the LADbible Group acquisition and has been instrumental in delivering best-in-class outcomes for our clients. Diana was recently promoted to Group Client Solutions Manager and is implementing new initiatives and processes across our global youth publishing brands. "It's been an amazing journey for the VMD business this year with big growth strategies and opportunities that I'm excited to be a part of. We've implemented new initiatives like Greenlight across our global brands to ensure we continue to deliver the best client service and experience. I'm really looking forward to taking on this new role and supporting the team to achieve their goals and help bring our campaigns to life." — Diana Congratulations, Di!! WE ❤️ YOU!

Drumroll please... Our Campaign of the Month is Here! 🥁🥁 Last month, we partnered with Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand and Involved Media during Deadpool & Wolverine release weekend to help launch the CAANZ Make Epic Things Happen campaign. The purpose of the campaign was to shift younger generations perceptions about accounting and highlight the epic possibilities a career in accountancy can offer. Why we loved it? ✔️ Creative use of our channels, utilising Fandom as a Val Morgan Cinema extension ✔️ We utilised full site buy outs to run on the same dates to extend the campaign across BuzzFeed, LADbible and POPSUGAR ✔️ The Make Epic Things Happen cross-platform campaign leveraged the synergy of these various channels A big congrats to the team who brought this campaign to life. Agency and Client: Involved Media, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, Jenn Reid, Bethany Giles Account Executive: Stephanie Shabo & Calvin Ranford-Mills Client Solutions: Ben Foyster Campaign Coordinator: Eura Jun

✨✨Sohan Judge, our Director of Social & Platforms is back again to share some social wins of the week (last week, specifically).✨✨ "On SPORTbible, Sportlight returns to form with a Wests Tigers takedown that accumulated 67k cross platform views! Slaying Bryce Webster!   The Latch’s Deep Dive series is growing, with this explainer by our regular contributor Kriti Gupta on why Burning Man is in its flop era hitting over 100K cross platform views!   On TastyOz we published another cob loaf recipe – this time it’s nachos cob loaf – nice one Tanika Douglas! Stay tuned next week for our Instagram soft launch too 😉.   On POPSUGAR, this Barry Keoghan carousel reached over 1 million people and our coverage of FKA Twigs’ Skullet reaching over 600k people with over 500 comments, but you'll have to go direct to our page to see that one that popped off!   BuzzFeed’s coverage of fast food news continues to be a winner, with this update on Wingstop getting over 242K views. Well done Zara Meier!"

Promotion alert! 🔥 Bernice Corral joined the VMD and VMO team at the start of 2023 as our Vertical Content Producer, updating our VMO screen content to ensure the content is not only updated in real time to reflect breaking news, but also contextually relevant in each environment. Alongside leading our VMO content, she's been creating viral social content and grown POPSUGAR's social followers by 44%. Bernice has just been promoted to Content Producer & Designer to reflect the incredible work she does across our different platforms. We asked Bernice about her hybrid role and how she thinks about reaching Gen Z audiences. “The best way to speak to and reach a Gen Z audience is by meeting them where they’re at as digital natives. Gen Z especially value authenticity, so understanding internet culture and creating a distinct tone of voice through our content is something I take very seriously. Content that talks to the audience like we’re one of them versus above them is the best way to create trust and build a loyal following.   I’m eager to grow my skillset within the ever-changing media landscape and learn from my peers — doing so across a range of brands I’ve been a fan of for years and creating content that I’m proud of is an extra plus!” Congratulations, Bernice Corral!  

We know cost of living is impacting everyone right now and our audience is hungry for the best deals in the lead up to key shopping and retail periods 🛍️. Father's Day is only 17 days away and it's one of those key retail periods we know our audience won't skip (who can resist the urge to splurge on the most important father figure in their life?!). You can utilise our first party data platform to plan and create custom audience segments to reach the right high value audiences at scale across BuzzFeed, LADbible, POPSUGAR, Fandom and The Latch. Get in touch with Liam O'Meara Jack Meldrum Jemima Courtney Julia Willing Brian Florido for investment packages that will help you reach our audiences that are primed to shop across key categories in the lead up to Father's Day.

Promotion alert! 🔥 Cassandra De Francesco has been with VMD since 2021 but her journey at the HOYTS Group actually began WAY back in 2012 when she worked part time at HOYTS EQ for almost 9 years. Cass joined the Val Morgan Digital team as a Client Solutions Coordinator when we had half the brands and half the campaigns. In a few short years she's implemented first-to-market brand solutions, activations, produced podcasts, video campaigns and everything in between — and she has just been promoted for a second time to Client Solutions Manager. Congratulations Cass! "It's been wild to witness VMD's growth since I joined the team 2.5 years ago, and I feel privileged to continue to deliver exceptional client services in my new role." — Cassandra De Francesco

Your inbox is a sacred space, and earning a spot in there is reliant on great content. Our Head of Content and Audience Ben Tyers has been focused on building out our owned audiences, segmenting our newsletter audience and delivering epic results. Open rates have increased by 12% and CTR by 15%. Readers are seeking more intentional content experiences, and we're showing up by helping them regain control over the content they consume and building out our communities of passionate audiences. Tell us — what are your favourite newsletters? And what are your thoughts on digital publishers on Substack? 📨

Early travel data from the ABS says that 1.56m Australians travelled internationally in June — a 14.7% increase on the year prior ✈️✈️. Now we can't say for certain, but it feels like the constant stream of travel content on Instagram and TikTok is inspiring more and more Aussies to escape winter. Partner with Val Morgan Digital to tap into our Community+ offering, powered by Audigent. Utilise our first-party data to reach high value audiences at scale, who are in market to travel to Americas, Europe and Asia. We're launching exciting new travel initiatives on The Latch over the coming weeks to help our audiences plan their 2025 adventures. Reach out to the team to learn more: Liam O'Meara Julia Willing Mark Smith Jack Meldrum Jemima Courtney Brian Florido

We're so excited to share Val Morgan Digital has been shortlisted for three Mumbrella Publish Awards. 🔥 Publishing Company of the Year 🔥 Sales Team of the Year 🔥 Publish Leader of the Year - Amanda Bardas A huge testament to the hard work our team (past and present!) put into building our brands — LADbible, BuzzFeed, Tasty, POPSUGAR, SPORTbible, Fandom and The Latch every single day. Congratulations to all finalists! #MumbrellaPublishAwards #Mumbrella