New digital sites for Better Homes and Gardens and New Idea

The digital products rollout at Pacific Magazines continues with the launch of two new online destinations for two of Australia’s biggest multimedia brands – Better Homes and Gardens and flagship New Idea.

Peter Zavecz, CEO, Pacific Magazines, said: “This is the next phase in the evolution of two of the country’s biggest multiplatform brands. With a top-rating television show, 2.6 million magazine readers, a social audience of 1.2 million touchpoints, a growing live events business and now a newly revamped digital experience, the total audience footprint of the Better Homes and Gardens brand remains unparalleled.

“New Idea’s rapid social and digital growth has seen the brand outpace its competitors to reach new heights as the country’s biggest-reaching cross-platform celebrity brand. Our new flagship digital product will now supercharge this impressive lead.”

The creation of the new sites follows a renewed digital commercial partnership between Pacific Magazines and Yahoo7, with Pacific now overseeing creative, content and overall management of its websites and Yahoo7 exclusively providing in-stream advertising on all Pacific digital products.

ALSO: BH&G “is certainly one of the most powerful media brands in the country,” says editor Julia Zaetta

Betterhomesandgardens.com.au launches with a new visual identity, a rich user experience and new content verticals of home (decorating), craft, garden, food, DIY, renovating, Better You (Beauty) and Shop. The site will feature new exclusive videos, new recipes and the latest trends and tips.

Gereurd Roberts, commercial director and general manager food, family and home, said: “Better Homes and Gardens is already Australia’s biggest media brand. Now we will light it up and amplify the brand’s multiplatform experience with our new mobile first, video-driven digital product.

“The brand’s scale and reach across valuable consumer categories including home and food delivers data and insights which fuel our content creation – to ultimately improve returns for advertisers and the user experience alike.”

New Idea (newidea.com.au) also unveiled a fresh visual identity, with easy-to-navigate functionality and new content verticals of celebrity/royal news, real life, lifestyle and food. New content will include fast loading galleries, content snacking and video. Both new sites include integration with social channels, spanning Facebook Live, Facebook Instant Articles, YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat and Apple News and 7Live streaming from the Seven Network.

ALSO: New Idea editor Louisa Hatfield reveals the four face on the cover that sell issues

Roberts continues: “New Idea is one of the top 10 most engaged Facebook communities in the country*. Our Facebook community grew by 120% in the last 12 months and now counts more than one million fans, while in the last seven days alone New Idea’s content reached more than 12 million people**."

Design and development of the new products from the ground up by the in-house digital team Pacific Magazines, led by Darren Kerry, head of digital and innovation: “These two launches complement Pacific’s market-leading position in website design, user experience and functionality."

Sources:
* Facebook 13 May-19 May
** Top 30 Pages by average engagement (average of the seven day figures taken from January 1 to December 31, 2015). theonlinecircle.com