Mumbrellacast

This week, Foxtel's new entertainment streaming service Binge opened a competition for TV fans to write reviews of its content with the opportunity for it to be published across News Corp Australia's titles. In light of the thousands of redundancies made in publishing over the last four months, the competition hasn't been received well. The Mumbrellacast team debates whether this is exploitative o...

Adland made a lot of noise this week: Ben Shepherd resigned from CHE Proximity, Kieran Moore left WPP AUNZ, and Ad Standards released its list of the most complained about ads of the year so far. Interpublic sold off another Australian agency to its boss with Richard Curtis taking ownership of Futurebrand five months after Ben Lilley bought McCann. Is this the indicator for something bigger to com...

This week, Junkee Media's co-founder Tim Duggan joined the Mumbrellacast to chat about the week's news and his new book Cult Status. First up, do you see a golden wattle or a golden COVID? That was the question posed to the marketing industry this week when Australia's new brand was revealed. What is it about logos that attracts so much criticism? Why, as Duggan says, are Australians are our own w...

It was a sad week for the ABC. Up to 250 job cuts, the loss of ABC Life and the 7:45 news broadcast. Shadow minister for communications, Michelle Rowland, joined the Mumbrellacast and weighed in on the implications these cuts will have on Australia's media landscape and its access to diverse and regional content. Some big moves took place in media agency-land, including Hearts & Science acquiring...

This week on the Mumbrellacast: the job ad creating waves throughout the industry. What started as Dr Mumbo diagnosing problematic language in an ad for a “senior executive assistant / office manager / professional governess” at Ultimate Edge Communications, became an industry discussion about discrimination and burnout. Mumbrella's Vivienne Kelly goes behind the scenes on her interview with Aleis...

In this week's Mumbrellacast, the team asks has Australia's media industry missed its Me Too moment? The topic comes about after it was announced NOW Australia, the organisation created by Tracey Spicer to assist victims of workplace sexual harassment and indecent assault, is shutting down. The team looks back on 2018, the promises made and allegations revealed, and analyses what went wrong. The A...

This week, Marc Fennell dropped by the Mumbrellacast to talk about his latest podcasting venture with Audible, Nut Jobs. He describes his adventures in the USA to explore the illegal nut trade, explains Audible's interest in storytelling, and ponders if there really is a podcast for everything? Over in adland, a couple of big leadership changes took place. Wunderman Thompson CEO John Gutteridge an...

It's been called the darkest day in Australian media - News Corp has closed 100 print titles, with 14 to close permanently and what is speculated to be near 1,000 job losses. The Mumbrellacast team breaks down the social, political and financial implications these closures will have on regional areas and wonders what the future is for the industry. The Hallway CEO, Jules Hall, revealed on Mumbrell...

Just days after celebrating its second birthday, 10 Daily announced it would be closing at the end of this week. It is another sad piece of news for the industry, but despite an email from Ten boss Beverley McGarvey saying it was part of a wider strategic move from Viacom CBS, the Mumbrellacast team can't help but wonder if the closure is shrouded in COVID-19 revenue struggles. Also in publishing,...

In this week's bumper edition of the Mumbrellacast, the team bids farewell to 2GB's breakfast radio king, Alan Jones. From the on-air announcement of his retirement, the cultural and commercial impact he had on radio, and the comments of support from Nine's managing director of radio Tom Malone one question must be answered: did he jump, or was he pushed? Ten's chief content officer Beverley McGar...

This week saw WPP AUNZ lift the bonnet at its annual general meeting, but don't worry about new CEO Jens Monsees. Despite the fact he stepped into the leadership role just before a global pandemic, he promises Mumbrella's Brittney Rigby he's 'doing fine', even facing a potential $10m loss for the group from H1 CY20. Foxtel hung on to the exclusive rights to HBO's content in Australia. It's a massi...

Straight off the back of revealing the acquisition of Red Engine SCC, entrepreneur and creative chairman of McCann Worldgroup Australia, Ben Lilley, joined the Mumbrellacast to discuss his industry homecoming. Lilley discusses his return to McCann as its owner, his long-term acquisition strategy, and whether a creative classic, like 'Dumb Ways To Die', will emerge in the near future. Across the in...

This week on the Mumbrellacast, the team reflect on the state of Australia's media industry after it sank to 26th place on the World Press Freedom Index for 2019. Following the raids on the ABC headquarters and News Corp Australia journalist Annika Smethurst and the closure of AAP newswire, is Australia's reputation as a respected home of democratic journalism at risk? The week in adland saw indus...

Masterchef is 'Back to Win' and back with a vengeance in the TV ratings. Was it the lack of MAFS? The familiar faces on screen? COVID-boredom? Or, just the perfect storm for Ten to take out the colossal win? The team chats through how no one came close to guessing the 1.268m metro viewers launch on Easter Monday, and the pay off from Ten's programming decision. Also in TV, the team was joined by N...

This week saw the ultimate game of chicken being played by Bauer Media and Pacific Magazines. Rumours had it that Bauer was ghosting Pac Mags over its impending $40m acquisition. Pac Mags took Bauer to court, then told the ASX 'Everything is fine'. 24 hours later the deadline for the sale was pushed back a month. The Mumbrellacast team discusses what is really going on. And, as is the sad reality...

It was another big week in the media and marketing industry: print was the latest victim of the coronavirus-economy, more pay cuts and redundancies were rolled out, April Fools’ Day was cancelled and Easter, would you believe, is on the horizon. This week Mumbrella investigated the rights and responsibilities media employees have when it comes to protecting their incomes. With job and pay cuts con...

It's been the hardest week the modern media and marketing industries have ever seen. Media owners and agencies are fighting to protect their staff and businesses as COVID-19 has brought Australia to a standstill. Redundancies, forced leave, pay cuts and trading halts: is the industry that is meant to lead in creativity being creative enough [...] The post Mumbrellacast: Media's most difficult week...

This week's Mumbrellacast comes to you from three different suburbs of Sydney (and San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge) as the team has started working from home and experimenting with recording video conferencing. Content director Tim Burrowes and editor Vivienne Kelly chat through the Mumbrella events that have been postponed over the next six months as [...] The post Mumbrellacast: COVID-19, gov...

This week's Mumbrellacast comes to you from the lunch hour at Mumbrella's Travel Marketing Summit, when the team sat down to talk through the week of media and marketing. Ten CEO and Viacom CBS ANZ VP, Paul Anderson, announced he was stepping down, with his role not to be replaced. Chief content officer, Beverley McGarvey [...] The post Mumbrellacast: Ten goes without a CEO, ABC topples Kyle and J...

This week on the Mumbrellacast, head of Telum Australia and New Zealand David Skapinker joins reporter Brittney Rigby and head of Mumbrella's professional division Damian Francis to weigh in on the closure of the Australian Associated Press (AAP). The trio discuss the implications the shuttering will have on the wider industry, and how media owners [...] The post Mumbrellacast: How the AAP's closu...

Mumbrella's outgoing co-founder and CEO, Martin Lane, makes a very special appearance on this week's Mumbrellacast just one month out from moving on to his next project. Martin reveals the worst decision he made at Mumbrella, the process of building and selling businesses and how the media, marketing and advertising industries have changed over the [...] The post Mumbrellacast: There's a lot going...

This week Wavemaker CEO Peter Vogel joined the Mumbrellacast to talk through the media agency's focus for 2020, the 'fresh eyes' of WPP AUNZ CEO Jens Monsees, and the energy new clients such as Mondelez bring to the agency. Vogel also joined the team to talk through the news of the week, including the new [...] The post Mumbrellacast: Peter Vogel on Wavemaker and WPP, the future of Seven and the A...

This week, it was 'revealed' that the industry was at risk of becoming a 'predominantly male, middle-aged, white workforce'... which was not particularly shocking. The Mumbrellacast team breaks down why the gap between men and women in this industry remains so significant, and what the data tells us. Plus, News Corp execs declared cricket was [...] The post Mumbrellacast: The industry's pay gap an...

This week saw the each of the commercial TV networks launch a tentpole reality program, marking the start of the 2020 ratings battle. In a move that surprised none of the Mumbrellacast team, Nine's Married at First Sight has come out on top, meanwhile Seven's revamped My Kitchen Rules has not proved the competitor it [...] The post Mumbrellacast: Reality wars begin, Ben Lilley's back at McCann, an...

This week the Mumbrellacast team picks apart MLA's Australian-but-not-Australia Day lamb ad. They discuss whether the Cambridge Analytica scandal is still relevant for the campaign's 'Lambalytica' play on words, who the campaign was targeted at and the motivations behind MLA's push for a 'summer campaign' rather than its traditional Australia Day ad. The promised battle [...] The post Mumbrellacas...