The Seven Network is gearing up to work with serial entrepreneur Gary Vee and his company VaynerMedia.
VaynerMedia is a global creative and media agency, but touts its point of difference as “crashing culture”, rather than making ads. It offers creative, media, strategy and consulting, and has worked with the likes of TikTok, Tinder, Unilever, Diageo and PepsiCo.
Seven’s chief marketing officer Melissa Hopkins made the revelation at the exclusive Variety Australia CMO Dinner on Friday night, ahead of Vee’s headline address, while also detailing her plans to transform the company so it’s not just seen as a “content player”.
“Gary Vee, like how fucking amazing is he?,” she said to the room of CMOs.
“I’ve been super spoilt over the last three years to have had a number of interactions with him where I’ve learned and grown, but perhaps more actually, just been blessed with his generosity and his belief in paying it forward and karma, which, he very much did [when I was] at Optus. And when I started at Seven… [he also] gave up a lot of his personal time,” she explained.
“But I don’t know if a lot of people in the room know the full capacity of Vayner and VaynerMedia… What they can do for your business in growing revenue, building creativity and driving connections.”
Hopkins revealed she was releasing the news, despite the deal not yet being signed. Details were thus a bit light in terms of what the deal will entail, however, she did highlight her high hopes for the partnership.
“Seven is really, really, really super proud to be announcing tonight that we’re going to have an amazing strategic partnership with VaynerMedia here in Australia. And I know we have stiff competition globally, but I can’t wait… to ensure that we make this the strongest and best partnership that Vayner has ever had with a brand,” she said.
“Seven has a bold ambition to reshape how Australians interact and connect with its brand. We couldn’t be more proud to collaborate with Gary Vaynerchuk’s VaynerMedia to push the marketing boundaries and set new standards.”
Earlier in the evening, Hopkins flagged her plans to transform the media company’s brand positioning.
“I think the opportunity is to make Seven relevant again to Australians. So, for those of us old enough in the room, 20 years ago Seven was just as cool as a Google or a Meta. And we’d be quite happy to have the sticker on our laptops. It’s sort of lost that, and I think there is a real opportunity for us to become part of the fabric of Australia again, to really define ourselves as a brand, over and above our content. I don’t think many content players actually globally have been successful in doing that, but it really really excites me that I’m on the journey to do that with Seven,” she said.