A gazilian good reasons for Google to partner with SCA

Last week Southern Cross Austereo formed a historic collaboration with Google.  

The move means SCA becomes a Premium Sales Partner (PSP) of the global search marketing leader – a first for the Australian radio industry.

The relationship sees SCA’s 1000+ strong metro and regional sales team representing Google products alongside their existing market leading radio, TV & digital assets. 

For clients, says SCA Digital Sales and Operations Director James Bayes, the agreement ensures a truly integrated approach to radio and search can be executed in a single transaction for the first time. “Clients are looking for media partners who understand their business and can bring to the table a broad range of skills and solutions to help with their marketing needs. What makes this relationship unique is it’s the first time in Australia a client has been able to achieve a consolidated radio and search solution within the one conversation.”

There’s no plan for Google to sell radio ads but research shows a natural correlation between Radio campaigns and Google search results. With consumers six times more likely to look for a specific brand online if they’ve heard it advertised on radio*, the partnership is a significant and logical step for both businesses.

“Google have a number of other Google AdWords Premier SME Partners (PSPs) in Australia but this is the only relationship they have with a radio broadcaster,” says Bayes, “It’s a partnership we’ve invested hundreds of hours and over 8 months work in developing, refining and implementing. We’re very happy to be the only radio broadcaster to be working with Google in this space, it’s a significant point of difference for our direct business. No other Australian radio broadcaster can offer the same degree of integration with Google AdWords.”

As SCA has become one of the country’s fastest growing digital publishers, this partnership with Google highlights the huge progress the company has already made to transform its business and redefine the way clients and brands connect with their audiences.

Apart from offering SCA clients more options in one buy, the partnership provides for a new revenue stream. “SCA are providing clients with expert campaign management, reporting, optimisation and insights as part of each AdWords campaign. A campaign management fee is applied to recognise the strategic support, implementation and management we provide,” says Bayes. 

Alex Storey, Google Head of Channel Sales ANZ said: “The Google AdWords Premier SMB Partner Program connects Google’s trusted and experienced AdWords partners like SCA with small- and medium-sized businesses that want expert help in to reaching consumers searching online, often after they’ve heard a radio or TV campaign. SCA, as a PSP, offers expertise, experience, and end-to-end customer service so business owners can focus on running their businesses. We couldn’t be more excited to kick off this great partnership with SCA.”