In honour of B&T‘s upcoming 30 Under 30 Party (sorry, Awards) we decided to chat to Boomtown, one of the sponsors for this year’s event, about why the collective signed on as a sponsor this year.
With the shortlist announced, B&T wanted to understand why sponsoring the awards is important to Boomtown, why young people are important in adland and why events like 30 Under 30 are a vital piece for attracting and retaining talent.
Boomtown represents the 8.8m people living in regional Australia, one of the largest and fastest growing markets. The collective exists to help media buyers and brands rethink regional advertising and discover why this is a market where brands can boom.
Boomtown is powered by companies such as Prime Media Group, Southern Cross Austereo, TRSN, WIN Network, Australian Community Media, Imparja TV, News Corp AU, and oOh!media.
Below, we chat to Prime Media Group group GM sales and marketing Dave Walker to get his take on why Boomtown signed on as a partner, and why he hopes it will be an ongoing partnership.
On why Boomtown decided to come on as a 30 Under 30 sponsor, and why sponsoring the event important to the Boomtown collective, Walker said it helps bring awareness to what Boomtown is trying to achieve, while also supporting the younger talent in the industry.
“Boomtown is an Australian first collaboration that represents the 8.8 million people living in regional Australia. Its aim is to shine a light on the benefits of advertising in regional Australia across multiple platforms and channels. Only 10 per cent of national media budgets are spent regionally, despite 36 per cent of the country’s population living there and Boomtown seeks to redress that imbalance.”
He continued: “So we thought we’d do something about it. And we really wanted to talk to lots of different stakeholders. So we’re talking to marketers, we’re talking to strategic planners, but more importantly, we thought we needed to talk to some of the younger people.
“Every day, Boomtown is challenging the media and marketing industries to rethink regional advertising. So, supporting initiatives as B&T 30 Under 30 helps us bring awareness and support the younger talent in the industry.
“And, at Boomtown, we aim to continue engaging with young adland high achievers. So much of our activity in market has been focused on changing perceptions of those starting their media/advertising careers. We believe strongly that those starting their careers will be the ones who bring about change in the regional media landscape.”
On how Boomtown champions youth in the industry, Walker said Boomtown has a range of plans this year to inform and challenge how younger talent in adland view regional Australia.
He said: “Boomtown has some exciting plans this year to keep challenging perceptions among young talent in media agencies and national brands about advertising in regional Australia.
“The Boomtown collective, in partnership with MFA, is set to launch a new education initiative for young media buyers designed to arm the industry with the knowledge and tools to understand and book regional media.”
“Not a lot of people invest in education and it’s expensive for agencies and clients to invest in educating their younger people coming through and growing up in our industry. So we saw that as an opportunity and you know, we talked to the MFA about it and they’re more than happy to work with us to facilitate in what we would consider being a major education piece.”
He added: “The collective is also committed to making the regional landscape easy to plan and buy and access to information is key. In partnership with Nielsen and RDA research, we’ll be launching a free industry portal that will provide detailed information on the regional media landscape and its consumers.”
On why he believes young people are important to the industry, Walker said: “Young people are the foundation of the industry and tomorrow’s leaders and decision-makers. They are the future of the industry. They bring value to all their organisations and it’s always good to remember everyone starts somewhere.”
And speaking to why events like 30 Under 30 and recognising the achievements of the industry’s young people is so important, he said: “We believe that recognising the achievements of those starting out in our industry, and it’s important to recognise and reward all good work.”
Walker concluded: “Hopefully it’s the start of an ongoing partnership. We saw this as a great opportunity to work with B&T and it’s an important initiative for the whole industry. We look forward to it being successful and continuing to tell the story of Boomtown and the opportunities it creates.”
