Australia's Nine to Launch Data Business

Australian media giant Nine Entertainment is launching a new data services firm called Tipstone, to be launched in July through Nine's digital media agency Mi9.

Clients will use Tipstone's data to customise their own services, such as web sites; and will have access to a suite of reporting tools for measuring the effectiveness of digital properties and marketing activities.

Alongside Mi9's existing relationship with Experian Mosaic, Tipstone has partnered with Roy Morgan Research, to tap into the latter's Helix Personas psychographic and behavioural segmentation tool, to help media buyers and brand owners to reach their exact target audience.

Richard McLaren (pictured), who is MD of Data & Services at Mi9 and has been appointed Tipstone's founding CEO, says the firm can 'take a marketer's investment in customer insights and then use our own data to help them reach and have meaningful conversations with their customers.' He adds: 'Marketing teams don't need to solve some kind of big data riddle to take action; we think they know whom they want to talk to and what they want to say.'

Web sites: www.nineentertainment.com.au and www.mi9.com.au .