Boomtown Masterclass: WPP’s Katie Rigg-Smith urges marketers to rethink regional advertising

WPP AUNZ Chief Strategy Officer Katie Rigg-Smith has highlighted the importance of including regional Australia on clients’ media schedules at the first Boomtown Masterclass for 2025.

“We have a responsibility. It’s incumbent on us to spend our clients’ money wisely—and there’s a big opportunity and population out there. We need to make sure we’re considering regional,” Rigg-Smith told the audience at the first Boomtown Masterclass for 2025.

“Every single client wants us to unlock growth for them, and regional markets provide the critical mass and huge spending power to do just that. And so, we have to consider how you can unlock growth. The opportunity with regional media is that it offers this amazing way to engage a community that is localised and personalised to them while still getting critical mass and audience numbers.”

She also urged marketers and media agencies to overcome any bias relating to regional Australia and instead tap into its potential.

“Let’s lean into the bias,” she said. “We need to make sure that if there are budget cuts to a plan that we still consider priority markets across both metro and regional, and try our hardest to protect them as opposed to it being immediately assumed that regional markets should be the ones to be cut.”

Rigg-Smith was joined at the Masterclass by Sunrice Chief Marketing Officer, Tamara Howe and Talent Corp Director and Co-founder Ruth Thompson, with moderator Wade Kingsley, Founder of The Ideas Business.

Howe echoed Rigg-Smith’s comments on overcoming bias, pointing to Boomtown’s potential and ability to create a competitive advantage for brands.

“When I joined Sunrice, we didn’t have any regional media buying, so it’s one thing I put in place straight away. Most people who work on brands are based in the cities, and there’s a natural bias that ‘people are like us’ which can make us overlook these markets. But the growth potential is so significant that it really makes you wonder if we’re even investing enough in regional areas,” she said.

“In regional markets there’s a lot less noise, less saturation, less clutter. We know it’s very important that creative cuts through and attention’s harder to get, more than ever. But because there’s a lot less noise and saturation in regional markets, it’s easier to cut through more effectively and truly engage with customers.”

Thompson pointed to the metro migration to regional areas and how this influx is fundamentally changing the demographic profile and economic wealth in Boomtown.

“When we first talk about regional, clients often think it’s a market they don’t need to get to. But people are leaving the city and moving further out —and they still shop for groceries, holidays, cars. With fewer stations to cover, buying one or two regional markets gives you great reach along with creative integrations and cost-effective results,” she said.

“The shift isn’t just a trend, it’s real – it’s a fundamental change in how people are living, working, and spending. Brands that focus solely on metro are leaving money on the table. The assumption that regional consumers are harder to reach or don’t engage with brands is really outdated. They need to get on the bandwagon.”

Boomtown Independent Chairman, Brian Gallagher, said: “It’s a little-known fact that the 9.8 million Australians living in regional Australia is just 5% smaller than the combined populations of Sydney and Melbourne – which offers brands not only serious reach, but a far less cluttered market and a much greater opportunity to engage and connect with Boomtown.

“Our first 2025 Boomtown Masterclass was incredibly well received. We have earned a reputation for bringing some of the industry’s top leaders to the table to discuss why regional Australia represents an untapped market for advertisers – and why it’s delivering unparalleled campaign success.”

The next Boomtown Masterclass will be announced soon.

Since launching in 2019, the education series has trained more than 2,000 Australian marketing professionals on the benefits of Boomtown advertising. The masterclasses, combined with Boomtown’s ongoing education and campaign efforts, have helped to bolster regional advertising spend with the national regional advertising dollar share has increased almost 40% since the collective formed in 2019.