Mi3 Audio Edition

On average, a large Australian business can unlock $82m annual revenue from its owned media – physical and digital, according to Sonder. The biggest brands could theoretically book $500m. They won’t go that far, but banks, telcos, airlines and consumer packaged goods brands shouldn’t fear ‘tattooing the baby’ – putting other brands on their own, per the firm. Bu...

ASX-listed ‘gig economy’ platform Airtasker ramped up after selling equity to Seven West Media, “one of the best moves in our history,” says CEO Tim Fung. But that deal ended in March and now he must repeat the trick – while trying to go global – without big media budgets. Fung’s backing Airtasker Listings, its latest iteration, to drive product discovery...

Kellogg’s Australian Marketing Director Lucie Wolstenholme has never written humour into an agency brief but says it can do wonders for audience engagement – think Yellow Pages’ ‘Not Happy, Jan’ and BigPond’s ‘Too many rabbits in China’. “It’s a fine art to use humour without falling offensive or flat,” she says. Only a fifth of ads...

Publishers are getting their backsides handed to them by agency groups because the agencies have moved almost entirely away from relationship-based decision making. They may not be leading negotiations, but the data natives are calling the shots.  According to media ecologist and MediaVillage founder, Jack Myers, perhaps only “small data” that unlocks relevant insight can sav...

After three years throwing jabs at erstwhile rivals, Sir Martin Sorrell finally admits he couldn’t change WPP fast enough. He says public company structures doom the holdcos to failure, hobbling their ability to change direction at the requisite speed. Meanwhile, he blasts WPP AUNZ’s attempts to effect change, suggesting the London-controlled group will remain ‘’rudderless&...

Publishers and programmers believe audiences are more purpose-driven than ever and are pushing hard to reflect greater diversity within their slates. Yet "reach trumps morality every time" when it comes to buying TV ads, according to Innocean Australia CEO Jasmin Bedir. 10 ViacomCBS National Creative Director Michael Stanford and Eureka Productions Head of Entertainment So...

Long reluctant to fund industry metrics, advertisers are finally putting their hands in their pockets in a bid to cut out “10 per cent plus” of wasted media spend globally. They are bankrolling a single source pilot for cross-media measurement and Australia has pledged to “fast follow” the UK-US lead on what has been dubbed Project Origin.  The upshot will be “se...

Digital marketers have forever resisted the idea that premium digital content exists, due mainly to a two-decade obsession with online direct response tactics. But a groundbreaking research study shows some “premium" sites and content are 2.5x more impactful on memory for brand messages than “run of internet”. GroupM’s Claire Butterworth and Dentsu’s Patrick Darcy say...

If people don’t come back to the office, culture suffers – and Australian businesses already appear to have a major culture problem, according to Professor Karl Treacher, with nine in ten workers saying they are happier at home. Workers have had a taste of flexibility and freedom – and while some are desperate to get back to the buzz of office structures, not everybody is buying-...

City of Sydney's street furniture network will be 70% digital and boast sustainable materials and “green roof” design features to rival Amsterdam and London as global “connected city” leaders.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ad fraud is “the ultimate white collar crime” and is woefully underestimated and reported, according to NY-based digital marketer Augustine Fou. He thinks it could be more lucrative for criminals than even the international drugs racket: There is no product to move, hardly any risk of getting caught, and little punishment for the few that do. Yet marketers don’t seem to care. As...

By 2025 former Denstu ANZ CEO Simon Ryan figures two communications holding companies will be gone from the Australian market, a huge shift to “brand commerce” will be well underway - where every brand engagement with a consumer carries an opportunity to buy - and RyanCap will be aligned with either a private equity play, a public listing or another strategic equity partner. &ldqu...

The mega industry trend for consolidation, scale and efficiency in the $15bn Australian ad market is counter to consumers driving to niche and narrow content. Starcom CEO Nick Keenan dukes it out with three young indie media groups - backed by high-profile investors making headway in a tough market.    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. See omnystudio.com/listener for p...

Volvo is out of petrol and oil engines and about to launch vegan leather; The Guardian is banking on progressive-leaning audiences for ad growth from purpose-led brands and former Danone China and US CEO Lorna Davis predicts 50% of Big Four audit firm revenues will be from Environment and Social Governance (ESG) compliance. Here’s the fast update on brands and purpose.       S...

“Ditch the pitch” protagonist Mat Baxter has warned agency reviews are getting worse globally, citing P&G’s extended media payment terms as a case in point. Many companies, though, “abuse the pitch process” he says. Baxter’s comments come as Australia’s peak advertiser and media agency industry bodies roll-out of a “world first” initiative...

Here comes digital audio’s revenue J-curve. Just as BVOD for TV networks created new possibilities for advertisers in targeting and tracking compared to broadcast, local and national advertisers are awakening to the top, mid and lower marketing funnel options that a booming digital audio advertising market  is spawning - now upwards of 5 million users. Dozens of advertisers are piling i...

Ask Amber Collins or Mim Haysom to name the best new product or service that’s won them over as a customer or consumer - not a marketer - and it’s podcasts. Ask Mim Haysom about loyalty programs and she admits she’s “a marketer’s worst nightmare”. Meanwhile Amber Collins' favourite  brands include Cotton On, Kmart and Chemist Warehouse, thanks to teenagers....

Jo Horgan, co-founder of the 100-store and online beauty juggernaut Mecca Brands opened her flagship store - and the biggest beauty retail space in the Southern Hemisphere - last November in the iconic Sydney CBD Gowings building when Covid was in full swing and CBDs were shopping wastelands. But custom is booming at pre-Covid levels and bricks and mortar is powering. Here’s how the beauty b...

The Iconic’s CMO Alexander Meyer says the digital commerce pureplay realised two years ago its heavy reliance on two platforms - Google and Facebook - was high-risk and needed a fix. Tourism Australia’s head of digital strategy and transformation, Paul Bailey says huge learnings for Australian marketers can already be found in China for a post-cookie world and ADMA’s regulatory a...

A huge econometrics study of 60 Australian brands with $23bn in sales and $400m in media spend across GroupM’s portfolio has surprised even the heavy-hitting Marketing and Econometrics Professor at Monash University, Peter Danaher. TV advertising is renowned for driving long-term demand but Professor Danaher says an econometrics study commissioned by ThinkTV across 10 sectors – includi...

An international beta trial which benchmarks consumer attention across different media channels and screen types from Australia’s Professor Karen Nelson-Field has seen dozens of media agency networks, media owners and advertisers around the world sign up. Perhaps the biggest sign though that change is coming fast is from the UK where Facebook has all but said it now acknowledges the need for...

SCA CEO Grant Blackley says Silicon Valley tech players are raving about the company’s just launched LiSTNR platform as “world-beating” - it bundles broadcast radio brands and content with livestreaming, podcasts and new music formats in a personalised, logged-in user experience. Blackley, SCA’s Chief Content Officer Dave Cameron, and Digital Audio GM, Grant Tothill predict...

The default position for many companies in an economic downturn is to play the discounting and fire sale card - or to deploy more performance based marketing and messaging tactics. But as this panel of social scientists, marketers and ad agency bosses discuss, there’s a lucrative segment of the population that are high-discretionary spenders called NEOs who don’t behave or buy like tra...

The stoush between Big Tech and Big Media over content payments has relegated another ACCC inquiry into media agencies and adtech to an industry wasteland. But by August, the ACCC will make final its recommendations to the Federal  Government and could upturn much of the data and advertising supply chain. Five leading Australian and international industry execs break down why the ACCC’s...

In this two-part series, a stellar panel of international and Australian industry leaders break down the ACCC’s Digital Advertising Services Inquiry. Although sidelined by the clash between Big Tech and Big Media over the media bargaining code, the ACCC’s “other” inquiry is loaded with potentially industry-bending implications for marketing, brands, media, tech and agencies...