ARN appoints HT&E-owned Emotive as creative agency

Australian Radio Network (ARN) has announced it has appointed Emotive to lead its creative output across its brands including KIIS, Pure Gold, The Edge and iHeartRadio.

ARN’s parent company Here, There & Everywhere (HT&E) is the majority shareholder in Emotive, a creative agency which launched in 2015 helmed by former Brand New Media managing director and CEO of MCM, Simon Joyce.

Upon its launch it was backed by APN News & Media, which has since been rebranded to HT&E.

Its foundation client was ARN’s iHeartRadio, however it has since worked with brands outside the ARN family including Audible, Optus, HelloFresh, Google, Modibodi and Pernod Ricard.

Despite HT&E selling off or shutting down many of its non-audio assets in recent years – including selling outdoor street furniture business AdShel to oOh!media, and closing down Gfinity Esports – it maintains its majority share in Emotive.

ARN, however, has worked with other creative agencies over the years, including Sydney creative agency Joy and BWM Dentsu Melbourne.

A Jase & PJ TVC by BWM Dentsu Melbourne, the ARN marketing team and the duo themselves (post continues below video)

Now, however, Emotive will lead ARN’s brand strategy and campaign work nationally.

CEO of ARN Ciaran Davis said he was delighted to be formalising the partnership.

“Their dedication to convention breaking ideas and unique expertise in the production and dissemination of compelling content, is perfectly aligned to our ambition to be Defining Audio for our audiences and commercial clients alike,” he said.

Lauren Joyce, chief strategy and connections officer at ARN and no relation to Simon, said the alignment between the two operations was clear.

“We engaged Emotive to help evolve our brand strategy a few months ago and it quickly became apparent that the synergies between our ambitions and their expertise was a good match. Our goal is to maximise the thing we do so well on air every day – emotionally connect with audiences – in our marketing efforts and Emotive’s combination of strategic clarity, creative vision and emotional science makes them the right partner to help us do this,” she said.

Simon Joyce, meanwhile, highlighted the opportunity.

“Few brands are lucky enough to have a large, engaged audience, that are actually waiting to hear from them. With ARN there’s a unique opportunity to further ignite conversation and shape culture across Australia, and that’s got the whole Emotive team really excited about creating some stand out work.”