The Seven Network is finally poised to fulfil the ambitious promise it introduced at last year’s Upfront event. Phoenix touted as a transformative, total TV trading platform, is set to go live on March 2, 2025.
After months of anticipation, the platform aims to reshape media planning and buying across metropolitan, regional, and digital platforms, offering advertisers a holistic view of audience engagement. Developed in strategic partnership with Databricks, a leader in AI technology, Phoenix is Seven’s response to the rapidly evolving ways audiences connect with content.
The Journey of Phoenix: From Announcement to Launch
At last year’s Upfront, Phoenix was presented as a revolutionary system that would redefine media buying in Australia. It consolidates the reach and audience of Seven’s content across both linear and streaming channels, allowing brands to invest in capital cities, regional Australia, and digital media all in one. Total TV campaigns bought through Phoenix will also feature real-time effectiveness reports to “give transparency and scalable insights for action,” according to the company.
However, the journey wasn’t entirely smooth, as the launch timeline was delayed to ensure the technology met Seven’s exact standards. “The delay has only added to the anticipation as Seven fine-tuned the technology to ensure it would meet, and perhaps exceed, industry expectations,” said Katie Finney, Seven’s national television sales director.
Finney emphasised that despite the delay, the core offering of Phoenix remains unchanged. “It’s been on the roadmap to deliver what it’s going to deliver, and we are still the first to be able to transact, Metro, regional and digital,” she explained. “There’s no other player right now where you can transact buying audiences across regional free-to-air television.”
One of the most eagerly awaited features of Phoenix is its inventory flexibility. The platform integrates inventory across Seven’s entire ecosystem, from prime-time television to digital platforms. This enables high-value slots for advertising across a unified framework while allowing Seven to retain some segments for traditional purchasing models.
Phoenix is designed to offer advertisers a streamlined media buying experience that combines insights across metro, regional, and digital content. According to Finney, the platform’s core advantage lies in its ability to enable total TV audience trading across all devices. “Phoenix will really accelerate our optimised audience buys, having a single view of client using VOZ and incremental reach,” she explained. “At the moment, we’re building out all of our schedules that we do transact on a converged buy quite manually. If clients want to transact that way, they’ll be able to do it at scale.”
A central feature of Phoenix is its real-time effectiveness reporting, which provides detailed insights beyond standard reach and frequency metrics. This tool offers transparency and granularity in performance metrics, allowing advertisers to measure the true impact of their campaigns. The platform is committed to delivering more effective campaigns and easing the trading process for advertisers, with reporting tools designed to provide certainty over outcomes. “The measurement tools in Phoenix are based on audience, reach, frequency and delivery,” Finney noted.
Phoenix’s AI-driven audience insights are set to enhance advertisers’ value through optimised campaign delivery and quicker media trading processes.
Phoenix introduces flexible trading models that prioritise audience metrics over traditional channel-based buying. This shift toward a converged trading system gives advertisers the freedom to allocate budgets across different audience segments—whether metro, regional, or digital—enabling them to reach audiences wherever they engage within Seven’s content ecosystem.
REDiQ4U: Seven’s Vision for Predictive Audience Insights
In tandem with Phoenix, Seven is launching REDiQ4U, a data intelligence platform designed to elevate the predictive power of its data capabilities. REDiQ4U leverages AI technology to provide advertisers with predictive audience insights, enabling brands to optimise campaigns with accurate forecasts of future audience behavior. Building on Seven’s existing 7REDiQ platform, this new feature offers 28-day audience predictions with a remarkable 95% accuracy, marking a significant advancement in data-driven advertising.
Andrew Brain, Seven’s Director of Data and Growth, believes REDiQ4U represents a breakthrough in data intelligence. “With REDiQ4U, advertisers gain access to a user-friendly, transparent platform that delivers granular insights to inform or validate audience and consumer sentiment,” Brain said. Drawing from partnerships with data sources such as Ticketek, Coles360, and VISA, REDiQ4U accesses a robust pool of over 14 million verified Australians, making it one of the most comprehensive predictive analytics tools available.
REDiQ4U goes beyond prediction, serving as a powerful tool for campaign planning by providing actionable insights into consumer preferences and behaviours. Leveraging over 3,000 real-world and digital data points, the platform bridges the gap from basic demographics to detailed predictive audience insights, allowing brands to optimise campaigns with precision typically available only in post-campaign analysis.
“It’s about giving access to the portal so our agency and clients can actually log on themselves,” explained Finney. “Previously, we provided reports and transacted that way, but now we’re putting REDiQ4U directly into the hands of our partners. It’s all about insights, understanding our audiences better, and helping partners connect with them by learning from consumer behaviour in our ecosystem and beyond.”
REDiQ4U has undergone extensive testing, initially launching with a “next seven days” prediction model that achieved over 90% accuracy. This model has since been expanded to cover a full 28-day prediction window, incorporating both live and on-demand content. For advertisers, this provides essential, data-driven precision for campaign planning and budgeting.
“It’s about understanding user behaviour within our ecosystem,” Finney explained. “We analyse when and how people are tuning into shows, and if we see a drop in viewership, we can use performance marketing to target and bring viewers back. We’re also using AI to personalise the platform, so if you’re a fan of ‘The Front Bar,’ that content might be front and centre for you on Seven Plus. Similarly, if you’re into drama, shows like ‘Suits’ will be featured on the homepage, while heavy viewers of ‘The Rookie’ will see that interface. It’s all about delivering audiences and ensuring consistent engagement on the platform.”
Together, Phoenix and REDiQ4U demonstrate Seven’s commitment to a forward-thinking approach in media and advertising. These platforms work hand in hand to give brands a unified view of their audience across various touchpoints and the ability to anticipate audience needs, adjusting campaign strategies in real-time. Seven’s Group Managing Director, Digital, Gereurd Roberts, remarked, “Phoenix brings together the massive reach and audience of Seven’s screens for brands to invest in across capital cities, regional Australia, and digital, making every marketing dollar go further.”
REDiQ4U complements this by providing advertisers with predictive insights that support informed decisions, bridging the gap between retrospective data analysis and future-focused planning. With REDiQ4U, Seven moves beyond traditional analytics to offer brands a clear and actionable view of what’s ahead.
Looking Ahead: A Unified, Data-Driven Future
Phoenix and REDiQ4U reflect Seven’s ambition to lead in total TV trading and predictive audience insights. Together, these tools empower brands to target, engage, and optimise their campaigns with a higher degree of accuracy and confidence. For the media industry, this signals a major shift toward holistic audience engagement and a data-driven approach to content monetisation that bridges traditional broadcast and digital.
For advertisers looking to gain an edge in an increasingly complex media landscape, Phoenix and REDiQ4U are set to offer the tools to not only keep pace but to lead the way into a new era of audience-driven media trading.
As Phoenix prepares to launch, the industry will be closely watching how well Seven executes its vision.
