Nine appoints first chief data officer

Nine has appointed Suzie Cardwell as its first chief data officer, with a remit to grow data use across the media group.

Nine chief data officer Suzie Cardwell.

Cardwell's appointment, which starts in July, is the latest step by Nine as it pushes to better utilise first-party data, grow its targeted advertising capabilities and compete with global platforms for the digital video market. 

Cardwell will be the single point of accountability for data for Nine, covering governance, strategy and planning.

She will report to Nine’s chief digital officer, Alex Parsons. 

Cardwell's "extensive experience and strong leadership in data strategy and planning in the media market makes her the ideal candidate to drive our data strategy,” Parsons said in a statement. 

“We believe that her expertise will play a pivotal role in optimising our operations and enhancing our consumer and commercial engagement across all of our digital platforms.”

Cardwell said Nine "has a huge existing data asset, and I am excited to leverage its potential to drive innovation, enhance consumer experiences and fuel business growth. 

“I look forward to contributing to Nine’s digital transformation journey.”

Nine’s chief executive officer Mike Sneesby said in the company’s 2022 annual report that “whilst much progress has been made, we are still at the early stage of our data journey."

“Whilst we now boast a pool of more than 20 million unique signed-in users, it is the 16 million people who engage with our network every month, across our mastheads and broader publishing platform, streaming on 9Now or Nine Radio, who drive the revenue opportunity.”

The report said the “opportunity to gather data and intelligence on user habits and preferences…is two-fold.

“Firstly, it enables the analysis of content consumption – what works and what doesn’t and with whom – helping to support future content and product investment; and secondly, it enables the delivery of more relevant advertising.”

Investments in Nine’s analytics capabilities outlined in the report included introducing single-sign-on (SSO) to its digital entertainment services and deploying VirtualOz - a ratings tool for integrating broadcast viewing on TV sets with connected devices into a single database with de-duplicated user stats. 

“During the year, Nine Radio introduced single sign-on for its digital audiences. Around 27 percent of Nine’s audience are now streaming Nine Radio, and the introduction of Nine’s SSO will enable data and analysis of audience composition and preferences, underpinning subsequent growth in digital revenues.”

The report also said that Apple making it harder for apps to track users’ behaviour and Google’s plans to phase out third-party cookies positioned Nine to compete with global platforms for targeted advertising revenue. 

“Nine’s key opportunity is to gain an increasing share of the overall digital video market, estimated currently to be more than $3 billion and dominated by YouTube (Google) and FaceBook (Meta)," it said.

Cardwell has worked in media, digital and data roles for more than 20 years; most recently she was at Scentre Group -  the owner of Westfield shopping centres - for six months as its head of customer data product. 

Before that, she worked at News Corp for five years where her titles included general manager of data commercialisation and general manager of client product and strategy. 

Cardwell also worked at Foxtel between 2013 to 2017, first as its head of platform advertising innovation and then as its digital partnerships and product development director.