A Newscorp Australia campaign urging readers to ‘Back Australia’ delivered pageviews, poll votes and comments… and also helped the publisher move advertisers towards bigger, multiplatform spends.
In an INMA ideas blog, the publisher’s Zac Skulander and Renee Sycamore say the response was immediate. “Within the first week, we generated 1.6 million article pageviews, 138,000 poll votes, 6.8 million social reach, 5.9 million newsletters sent, and 7,700 reader comments.
“Australians weren’t just seeing the campaign; they were actively participating in it.”
The ‘Back Australia: It’s good for all of us’ campaign had been built around a simple goal: unite audiences and advertisers around national economic pride, job creation, and consumer empowerment.
Skulander and Sycamore say there had been a consistent signal from Australians, who genuinely wanted to support local businesses, but were confused abut what actually counted as ‘Australian-made’, where they could find these products, and whether they could afford to choose them.
“Australians wanted to do the right thing; they just needed help understanding how,” they say.
Twelve major brands – Harvey Norman, Australian Made Campaign, Westpac, Bunnings, Coles, TechnologyOne, REA Group, Cadbury, R.M.Williams, Qantas, Vodafone, and BHP – saw the opportunity and committed.
The campaign ran across the entire News Australia entire network and was structured around three content pillars:
-consumer guidance: practical advice on how everyday spending choices support Australian jobs, sustainability, and economic resilience;
-community impact: compelling stories demonstrating how businesses are making a difference in the community; and
-expert insights: analysis from industry leaders and policymakers on strengthening Australian manufacturing and driving policy reforms.
“What made it work commercially was that we moved partners away from buying individual ad placements toward integrated, multi-platform investment,” they say. “Partners committed to digital display, branded content, native articles, video, newsletters, social and print, creating a cohesive presence that audiences actually engaged with.”
The launch was supported with a coordinated marketing and PR campaign to ensure national visibility from day one. “The goal was to build something that felt authentic and meaningful,” they say.
The multi-brand model proved that shared purpose can drive individual brand value. But the real validation came from independent YouGov data measuring actual behaviour change. Australians exposed to Back Australia showed a 15 per cent higher future intent to prioritise Australian-made purchases than those who weren’t exposed.
The proportion committing to buy Australian products ‘always or wherever possible’ increased by seven per cent, while those saying ‘most of the time’ increased by eight per cent.
Confidence in identifying Australian-made products rose by nine per cent. And critically, the proportion of Australians ‘very likely’ to change their spending increased by ten per cent.
“These weren’t just attitude shifts; they represented genuine purchase intent that directly benefited our commercial partners, Skulander and Sycamore say.
The success of phase one has led to the launch of phase two in the coming months, with renewed partner commitment and expanded reach.
“Back Australia proved that when you lead with audience insight, build authentic editorial content, and bring the right partners together around a shared purpose, you can drive both commercial growth and meaningful impact.
“It’s now our blueprint for how multi-platform, multi-client initiatives should work.”
Zac Skulander is general manager, national product and partnerships for state and communities, for News Corp Australia, while Renee Sycamore is general manager, client growth and experience.