News Corp Australia has further expanded its footprint in commercial content, boosting its stake in Visual Domain, the nation’s largest video content business, to 100 per cent.
Lead Image: Visual Domain co-founders Renece Brewster and Daniel Goldstein
“This deal adds to our fast-growing commercial content business, and specifically allows us to provide more outstanding video services to our existing clients,” said the company’s managing director, Commercial Content, Mike Connaghan.
The transaction will see News Corp Australia increase its stake in Melbourne-based business Visual Domain from 70 per cent.
“We first invested in Visual Domain three years ago because we recognised video was increasingly becoming a very important medium for not only News Corp Australia, but our clients too . Since that time demand for video advertising has grown some 27 percent,” Connaghan said.
“This momentum has continued to grow and we can better scale it now thanks to our growing suite of commercial content brands”.
The increased investment in Visual Domain is the latest strategic investment to further scale News Corp Australia’s commercial content business, following a similar move to take full control over Medium Rare in December 2022 and a stake in finance news and marketing site Stockhead in May 2022.
“Our portfolio of commercial content operations in the form of Visual Domain, Medium Rare, Suddenly and our internal creative agency Roller combined with our own audience networks and brands featuring market-leading first party data means we can service our clients with the best campaign solutions”.
Connaghan paid tribute to Visual Domain’s founders Reneece Brewster and Daniel Goldstein who will now step aside from their roles.
“Reneece and Daniel are great entrepreneurs who were among the first in the market to recognise video’s importance”.
“They have since helped literally thousands of Australian businesses tell their stories and build their brands, a legacy we are excited to build on”.
Connaghan said he was delighted that Visual Domain veteran Arna Toffolo would lead the business into the future and help build on its tier-one client base with clients such as National Australia Bank and MYOB.
“Arna has been key to Visual Domain’s success since coming on board almost a decade ago and is very well known in the market”.
“We have clear ambitions to further grow Visual Domain’s position as the leading commercial video agency in terms of size, client roster and revenue”.
The Visual Domain founders said they had created a great foundation for Visual Domain’s future success.
“When we launched Visual Domain in 2008 there were just the two of us and now we have grown to be an 80-person strong business with an award-winning team that really is the best in the business”.
