Nova announces retail media play with Scentre Group at intimate ‘Infronts’ event

Nathan Jolly

March 12, 2026 11:17

Nova announces retail media play with Scentre Group at intimate ‘Infronts’ event

Sarah Cohen, Nova Sydney's commercial director, sells the retail/radio hybrid dream to a crowd of advertisers at Nova's Infronts event (Mumbrella)

Nova has partnered with Scentre Group, owner of Westfield shopping centres, on a retail media play that will see cross-channel sales collaboration between the groups.

Nova and Brandspace, the retail media division of Scentre Group, will collaborate on campaigns that span radio, podcasts, digital retail media displays, social media, and activations in Westfield shopping centres.

The partnership was announced on Wednesday afternoon during the network’s “Infronts” event in Sydney, which was MC’d by Joel Creasey, and attended by the entire Sydney-based cavalcade of hosts from both Smooth and Nova.

After Creasey warmed the crowd up with a slideshow of photos from his past followed by a smattering of Kyle and Jackie O jokes — the highlight: his declaration that he bought a diamond-encrusted microphone from “a blonde woman” at a garage sale in Clovelly –the company’s executives got down to business.

Creasey gets the wind-up (Mumbrella)

After Nova’s chief commercial officer Nicole Bence reiterated the industry’s recent collaboration on a unified Audio ID — as presented at CRA Heard conference last month — and other executives touted various aspects of the business, Sarah Cohen, Nova Sydney’s commercial director, announced the Brandspace partnership.

It will allow agencies and brands to plan integrated campaigns across audio and Westfield retail media, with bookings able to be made through either sales team.

The system won’t involve joint sales teams or a new retail media network, with Nova handling the audio and Brandscape the retail and experiential aspects

Scentre Group owns and operates 42 Westfield centres, which it says draw 540 million annual customer visits.

“From a single brief, brands now can unlock the eyes and ears of more than 15 million Australians, tap into the influence of some of the country’s most trusted creators, and really harness the impact of Australia’s number one cultural, lifestyle and retail destinations,” said Cohen.

She presented a hypothetical roll out for Cadbury around Valentine’s Day, using Nova podcaster Osher Günsberg — and his long association with romance and roses through his hosting role on The Bachelor franchise — as the face and voice of the campaign.

(Note: this example was presented by Cohen as reality, in the past tense, despite being purely theoretical.)

“Every great campaign, for us, starts with the same question. It’s not, ‘what do we want to say?’ But ‘who do we trust to say it?’ … Because the right creator doesn’t just deliver the message. They’re the one that makes it stick. They make it believable.”

“So from there, we built a platform. Welcome to the Love Academy. Chocolate has always been how people say the thing when words don’t quite cut it. We met that insight with an idea. We gave it a name, we gave it a voice, and we gave it a world to live in. Osher Günsberg: Australia’s unofficial professor of modern romance – helping listeners decode love language one Cadbury bar at a time.

Osher Günsberg, theoretical Cadbury spokesman, being interviewed by event MC Joel Creasey at Nova’s Infronts event (Mumbrella)

“The idea launched across Nova’s live and on-demand content. The listeners called in, they shared their stories, but this time we didn’t stop at audio. Through our relationship and partnership with Brandspace, the Love Academy popped up inside Westfield centres. High traffic, high engagement, highly branded, right at the point of purchase. We made it personal, on site.

“Shoppers could send an Osher-trained AI love note to someone special with a personalised Cadbury bar, so it did the talking for them. It guaranteed social amplification beyond the point of activation. And, for the love of more sweet moments and shareable content, of course, Osher appeared live [in Westfield centres].

“We captured that content and that activation, and created video, social and audio storytelling across Nova Entertainment’s ecosystem. And those insights from thousands of messages appeared back in centre, amplified across the large digital screens and the shopper panels in proximity to Coles and Woolworths.”

Cohen said the beauty of this campaign is that it’s one simple idea — The Love Academy — operating across multiple touchpoints and mediums.

“From the initiation of the idea, to the activation to the amplification, [it was] one brief, one partner doing all of the heavy lifting.”

One of these Nova stars could be the face and voice of your next campaign. Clockwise from bottom left: Ricki-Lee Coulter, Kate Ritchie, Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli, Ryan ‘Fitzy’ Fitzgerald, Tim Blackwell, Joel Creasey, Chrissie Swan, Jack Charles (Mumbrella)

Cohen described this as “a connected ecosystem where creators, platforms and partnerships work together to move people from attention to action”.

“A combined retail and audio network performing at its peak, powered by Westfield, Smooth and Nova. That’s unmatched scale. [Plus] access to podcast communities and creators Australians already trust. That’s true influence.

“An ecosystem that moves with your audience from the morning commute to the retail destination where they buy – a full circle moment.

“Giving you reach, influence, trust and purchase. This is far beyond just buying media spots.”

Now THAT’s branding

In a media release issued shortly after the presentation, Nova’s chief commercial officer Nicole Bence said the collaboration is “a direct response to what brands are asking us for: simpler, more connected solutions that deliver measurable results”.

“We want the case for investing with us to be easy and irrefutable. It’s certainly no secret that audio and retail media are powerfully complementary mediums from a performance perspective, so this is the natural next step for us.”