Seven West Media sales boss Kurt Burnette is projecting advertising sales of $60 million for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, which would be a record for the quadrennial event.
The appeal of live sport is increasing in the media marketplace, Mr Burnette said. While audiences for much of prime time continue to splinter, ratings for major sports events are either growing or holding their own.
“It does bring certainty in an uncertain world and that’s what advertisers are looking for. The third largest ratings event in Australia’s history was the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games.”
To tap into this viewing pattern, Mr Burnette is packaging Gold Coast 2018 with a raft of big events, enabling advertisers to buy across multiple opportunities, kicking off with the AFL grand final on September 30, 2017.
Packages also include the rugby league World Cup on home soil in October, the Melbourne Cup in November, the Australian Open in January 2018, the PyeongChang Winter Olympics a month later and Gold Coast in April 2018. “We’re going to market with the largest year of sport we’ve ever seen in the country, and certainly on one network,” Mr Burnette said. “We’re positioning it as the largest marketing platform in history.”