Leading Australian digital media company, Inception Digital, has added Australia’s fastest-growing lifestyle destination, The Urban List, to its impressive stable.
Founded by Susannah George (pictured below) in 2011, The Urban List has proved itself a fierce leader in the consumer-led content strategy market, with its stylish disciples currently standing at 1.2 million unique visitors per month across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.
Interestingly, two of its rapidly expanding sections are health and beauty, areas Inception Digital is well versed on, with the ink barely dry on the contracts it won from Mi9, Primped and The Wedding Club.
“In the next 12 months you’ll be seeing a lot more beauty, travel and fashion-related content,” Susannah George, The Urban List’s director and founder, told B&T. “And it’s been audience led. We’ve experimented with that content over the last six months and seen a huge uptake from it.”
Since its inception, The Urban List has sky-rocketed past its main rivals by around 25 per cent, and Inception Digital commercial director, Guy Burbridge (pictured below), said the brand opportunities offered by the lifestyle site demonstrates the shift that has taken place in digital media.
“It’s one of those businesses that in our line of work you don’t pass up,” he told B&T. “Great audience, real challenger brand; the spirit fits very well with what we do at Inception. And those matches are what you’re looking for when you’re taking on those establishments in the market.
“We have based our business model on a network play for modern digital times. What that means is we concentrate on working with quality partners, delivering great commercial solutions with scale. The Urban List delivers on all those aspects, cementing our position as the leading independent sales business in Australia.”
Recently there has been a seismic shift of companies switching from conglomerates such the Mi9s and Yahoos of the world to the independent, smaller, more nimble operations like Inception Digital, and this latest hook-up means the formidable partnership will offer a new level of brand engagement, catering to the brand marketer’s increased appetite for content-led solutions, video integration and social media activation.
“Since we started Inception Digital,” added Burbridge, “we have been fastidious about choosing partners who complement our vision, bringing real value to our extensive partnership network. In practical terms this means our focus is on publishers with the nimble ability to not only compete with the established players, but allow us to lead the market in content and amplification.
“Throughout our business, we’re looking to work with the exciting challenger brands that absolutely understand the new digital world isn’t just a display inventory play. But can also demonstrate that they know and understand their audiences better than anyone else.”
Because of The Urban List’s explosive growth, The Urban List’s George says it’s imperative to make sure they’re not just expanding geographically, but also building the audience base through more diversification with content.
“It’s incredibly important to me that we maintain our culture and relationships with readers,” she said, “and the quality and diversity of our content as we grow.”
