“B2B done well has historically focused on supporting industries and companies. It’s been our guiding purpose at Prime Creative Media, and as a result our commercial model is remaining strong, even in these tough times.” Prime Creative Media CEO John Murphy explains why the B2B publishing industry will emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic stronger than ever before.
Australia’s largest B2B publisher, Prime Creative Media prides itself on specialising in integrated marketing solutions for companies in high-growth industries, such as mining, advanced manufacturing, transportation, food and beverage, infrastructure and resources, and commercial road transport.
In less than two decades, CEO John Murphy has built the company from humble beginnings to a team spread across Melbourne and Sydney managing more than 27 mastheads, 80+ digital platforms, and dozens of industry events.
In the last 12 months alone, the company has acquired five titles in addition to launching new products and increasing the frequency of others.
NPN Editor Lyndsie Clark caught up with Murphy to chat about the importance of building industry confidence, being flexible with clients, and the role that B2B publishers’ grounded reporting will play in helping companies recover from the crisis.
Lyndsie Clark: How are you making sure your content is relevant right now?
John Murphy: Our editors and journalists always work really closely with our industries and clients to ensure our content hits the mark and keeps people informed. We’ve made a concerted effort to focus on supporting businesses with resources to make it through the pandemic, and to look at the post-COVID world, to see their place within it. We’ve had record breaking engagement across the brands, which indicates we’re delivering what our readers need. We recognise the important role we can play in boosting industry confidence, so we need to strike the balance between being positive but also aware of the present challenges, and I think our editorial teams are doing a great job of getting that balance right.
LC: How are you working with your advertising/exhibiting clients to get through the pandemic?
JM: Tough times can really cement relationships or do the opposite, and we are doing everything we can to be proactive, get closer to our clients and do what we can to support those that are struggling. We’ve increased our own marketing investment, releasing a series of resources through our Engine Room to not only support the industries we serve but the marketing managers we work with.
We are completely committed to our clients and our industries and we have been reaching out at all levels of the business and doing what we can. We are sensitive to each individual business – some people need support with trading terms, others need us to help promote their new business initiatives through editorial.
LC: What is your message to your readers and clients during these times?
JM: We put out an early Message from our CEO to our partners back in March and we had a great response from our clients, and the communication hasn’t stopped since.
It’s important for us to be communicating the temporary nature of what we are going through and that the road to recovery is shorter for companies who continue to market and don’t do the marketing equivalent of pulling down the shutters.
We have thousands of clients and I’ve been reflecting recently on the ones that continued to advertise with us throughout the Global Financial Crisis and I am really pleased to say those companies are the ones that bounced back fastest and have gone on to great success. It makes a huge difference if clients are able to have that continuity of message in the market, so we are certainly encouraging that with clients and prospects at the moment.
Source : Target Media Services