Today sees the launch of Emotive, an independent content marketing business founded by Simon Joyce, and backed by APN News & Media (APN). Emotive says it will bring a new model to the content marketing landscape by helping marketers inject emotion into content creation and guaranteeing that this content will be consumed by the right audience.

“Brands now more than ever need to embrace their role as publishers by creating desired owned content that is engaging, entertaining and works in harmony with paid media. We specialise in creating video and event content for brands that emotionally connects through entertainment culture. We know that emotion is the single most important motivator in purchasing decisions,” Joyce said.

Joyce firmly believes that the challenge for content marketing is finding the right audience.

“At Emotive we have developed a unique model that will allow us to not only guarantee our clients an audience, but the right audience. Our model starts and ends with the people who are actually consuming the content. We mix deep audience research and identification with innovative content strategy and pinpoint amplification. Essentially, we deliver content to people who we know will love it, find value in it and act on it.”

Emotive’s foundation client is Australian Radio Network’s (ARN) digital music platform, iHeartRadio. The partnership will involve a broad scope of work including the creation of a series of original music content programs for brands.

CEO of ARN, Ciaran Davis, said:“As part of ARN’s ongoing transformation, we’re excited to be working with Simon and the team at Emotive, who have proven digital and entertainment marketing success. We’ve had significant growth for iHeartRadio since launch and with the ongoing advancement of ARN’s digital and social properties, we feel it’s the perfect time to partner with Emotive on a dedicated content marketing approach.  We also believe that working with Emotive on iHeartRadio will inject a new level of focus and results for the platform.”

APN news and media CEO, Michael Miller said: “The rapid growth in content marketing expenditure provides great upside for Emotive. This new partnership is consistent with APN’s strategy of investing in growth categories and market leading companies. APN’s interest in Emotive will provide further integration and revenue benefits for all APN businesses and better results for our clients.”

Joyce said: “APN, which includes ARN and Adshel, represents the ideal partner for Emotive. It is a forward-thinking business with real momentum, and having access to the large scale audience APN can provide enhances content distribution and differentiates the Emotive offering. Importantly however, our independence gives us a clear mandate to target the right audience, wherever they may be.”

Joining Joyce at Emotive is former co-founder of Boom, Jamie Crick, who will lead the content amplification offering along with former Ensemble and Boom Natives executive, Charlie Leahy, as executive creative director.

Also joining the Emotive team is former MCM Entertainment CFO Ben Keep as chief operating officer, Alison Mitchell as marketing and activations manager, and Aimee Stewart as partnership director. Former Razorfish executives Matt Merryfull and Dan Leon Krause will join as CTO and digital design director respectively. A commercial director is set to be announced in the coming weeks.