Reality subscription video on demand service (SVOD) Hayu has no concerns over the growing popularity of Australian reality shows and rival platforms as it continues to grow its subscriber base.
Unable to disclose exact numbers, the platform touts Australia as one of its best-performing markets when it comes to viewer engagement, with subscriber growth now a triple figure percentage year-on-year.
Despite the growing popularity of reality TV in Australia, with Nine's Married at First Sight setting benchmark numbers for broadcast video on demand (BVOD) viewing, Hayu MD Hendrik McDermott doesn't see it as competition.
Speaking to AdNews, McDermott says Hayu's strategy differs from the traditional networks in Australia, that are more focused on developing their own content rather than aggregating and distributing reality TV to other markets.
"We don't view any types of reality TV as competition for us. What it's doing is increasing the market for people wanting to watch the programming," McDermott says.
"In just about every market we are present in, the reality TV genre is seeing rapid growth and it's present in every form of viewing, whether that be free-to-air, pay-TV or people's subscription services."
McDermott says where Hayu is having an impact is by taking popular reality TV show formats and giving them greater exposure in other markets.
Last year, he says the platform had "tremendous success" in launching Love Island Australia into Canada, a strategy he believes will continue as Australia's reality content output continues to grow.
While the SVOD market becomes increasingly more crowded, with the likes of Netflix, Stan, 10 All Access already in Australia, and now news of Apple and Disney launching their own platforms, Hayu feels it is in a unique position to thrive.
"This boils down to our price point of $6.99 a month. We've done a lot of research on this and there's a very good reason as to why we have opted to price ourselves quite keenly," McDermott says.
"We want to position ourselves as a complementary service so that if you subscribe to other SVOD services in market, you can easily add Hayu to your content mix without feeling you are doubling your monthly spend."
Further subscriber acquisition
Hayu VP of marketing Richard Howard says that the platform will continue to "go really big" with its localised marketing push.
He says the business is taking a dual advertising approach when it comes to the Australian market, with a local team focused on developing targeted campaigns, while also leaning on its global team to drive subscriber growth through social platforms.
"We know that we need to have a localised approach to it but at the same time, we have centralised digital activities as well. So for us, it's currently about striking the right balance," Howard says.
"We are making our brand relevant and localised to Australian demo and consumer but lots of our digital activity, whether that's digital acquisition or from our CRM perspective, we can manage centrally and that currently makes sense for us."
Howard says Hayu currently has a 60/40 split when it comes to Australian advertising, with 40% of its marketing budget going towards 'traditional' advertising such as TV, radio and outdoor.
The brand has had strong success with this method so far, with Mediacom handling the platforms local media account. Since launching in Australia, Hayu has now reached 40% brand awareness, a benchmark Howard says it has for every market it enters.
"One of the key strengths for the Australian market is they're really receptive to talent, so when we bring talent over here we see corresponding interest in their relevant program and we will remain focused on continuing that," Howard said.
"It's all really now about a healthy mix of some good old traditional above-the-line advertising, a solid mix of digital activity and then a strong layer of PR over the top of it as well."
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