B&T Awards 2020 is just around the corner (we can almost smell the delicious catered dinner and endlessly flowing booze!) And, our Awards night would not be possible without the unwavering support of some of our most loyal sponsors, including the legends over at Boomtown.

With the shortlist part one and part two announced, B&T wanted to understand why sponsoring the Awards is important to Boomtown, why now more than ever it’s important to recognise adland’s talents, and what 2021 will look like for Boomtown and regional Australia.

Below, we chat to Prime Media Group group GM sales and marketing Dave Walker (pictured) to get the lowdown.

Why have you come on board as a sponsor of the B&T Awards 2020?

We’re always looking to support industry initiatives, and this came as a perfect opportunity, particularly given the new category [best regional media campaign] that we’re sponsoring. It’s important to recognise and acknowledge creativity and hard work, and the people in our industry doing things differently and standing out. Sponsoring the awards was a great way to do this, and also an opportunity to shine the spotlight on regional Australia and Boomtown.

Why is now, more than ever, an important time to recognise the talent in our industry?

We are all working through very challenging times and different working environments. Because of this, getting recognition and acknowledgement for work is probably a bit different to what it used to be. So this is a chance to focus on the people doing great work during these challenging times. We’re all living in a virtual world, so this is a great way to bust out of that and recognise our talented industry.

How has regional Australia been impacted by COVID?

Like the rest of the country, Regional Australia has had its challenges with COVID.  Yet now it seems things are turning around.  Of course, it’s a little bit different in regional Victoria, but it’s starting to open up. Western Australia has been business as usual within the state for some time.

As the borders begin to reopen and with International travel off the agenda we are seeing a big increase in domestic travel.  Australians have saved over $60b dollars by not travelling overseas this year.  Much of this will be spent on consumables and a significant amount on domestic travel in regional Australia. So now more than ever before is a good time to increase investment in Boomtown.

What will 2021 look like for Boomtown? 

We’ve just launched our education programme, the NGEN PLUS Boomtown Masterclass.  This was developed to assist media planners, buyers and marketers to upskill their knowledge of regional markets.

Launching before the end of the year is the Boomtown Hub – an industry portal that will provide everything you need to know to effectively plan advertising campaigns in Boomtown.

In 2021 Boomtown will continue to focus on education with our masterclasses expanding into face to face sessions and to a wider group of people. We will continue developing our portal and invest in more case studies, which will prove the benefits and return on investment for brands investing into Boomtown.

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.