Sales teams from both companies will work together on relevant briefs allowing them to provide clients with ideas driven by bespoke content that can exist on a variety of platforms. talkSPORT and sister title Sport magazine will also look to use Future’s editorial expertise when covering game content across their brands.
The partnership will offer games publishers a single point of access to unlock solutions across a variety of platforms and brands in the talkSPORT and Future portfolios. Future claims to be the only games media owner with reach across print, online, covermounted discs, on-console editions and events, and comprises major multi-media brands including CVG, GamesRadar, Edge and PC Gamer. talkSPORT offers brands both on-air and online creative advertising solutions, as well as print media with talkSPORT’s sister title Sport magazine.
Together, Future’s gaming portfolio and talkSPORT reach nearly eight million adults. Future’s games portfolio reaches over two million people in the UK every month through print, tablet magazine purchases and web traffic, whilst talkSPORT has 3.2 million listeners every week. Sport magazine is the largest sports magazine in the UK and available in both print and iPad editions.
talkSPORT.co.uk has seen increased growth, reaching a record 2.66 million unique users at the beginning of 2012. While research suggests that over 50% of the UK population play video games, 78% of talkSPORT listeners say that they play video games regularly and there are clear correlations between sports fans and gaming fans - football game FIFA 12 is the UK’s best-selling sports game ever.
Kurt Edwards, Commercial Director of talkSPORT, says: “Future is the expert in gaming and delivers high volume gamers in scale. And with our mass market offering across a number of platforms, we believe together we can offer compelling solutions to advertisers.”
Rob Elms, Advertising Sales Director for Future, adds: "Combining our expertise in the entertainment industry with talkSPORT's extensive reach amongst young men, allows us to offer cross-platform, integrated solutions with broadcast scale and depth of engagement."
