Mumbrellacast

In this week's Mumbrellacast, Hal Crawford, Tim Burrowes, Nathan Jolly, Eleanor Dickinson and Abe Udy dig into the new legislation that will require streaming services, such as Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime, dedicate 10% of their total local expenditure to Australian content. You can get up to speed with the proposed law here. Isn't it great: Australian screen production just won a $300m+ lott...

29 October 2025 In this week's Mumbrellacast, Hal Crawford, Tim Burrowes and Nathan Jolly discuss ARN's packed upfront. Having taken over the Star Casino in Sydney, the radio network announced a slew of new content. Check out Nathan's breakdown here. Yesterday, leaders of the Australian publishing industry gathered for Mumbrella's Publish conference. Nicholas Gray, News Corp Australia's MD and pub...

22 October 2025 In this week's Mumbrellacast, Hal Crawford, Tim Burrowes, Nathan Jolly and Abe Udy discuss Mumbrella's widespread changes as part of a larger project to bring Mumbrella and Unmade content together on the one platform. We also look at Seven West Media's upfront event in Sydney, which features the launch of a partnership with Westpac to link 7plus advertising and real-world sales, an...

17 October 2025 In this very special episode of the Mumbrellacast, the show has moved from its headquarters in Glebe to the sunny halls of SXSW Sydney. Last night, it was Nine's turn to wow advertisers and agencies with its 2025 Upfront. The broadcaster's played it safe, continually reassuring the crowd that it has everything they need to market themselves effectively. And despite the lack of fres...

8 October 2025 Last week, marketing luminary Mark Ritson published an article for Mumbrella about Qantas, arguing that the airline's low trust scores haven't done anything to hurt it financially. In the same piece, Ritson poked the Roy Morgan bear, saying that the research organisation's views on brand trust need "to be taken with a massive dose of salt" — Roy Morgan's CEO Michele Levine responds...

2 October 2025 Southern Cross Austereo and Seven West Media’s proposed merger is fascinating: a power move or alliance between two disrupted businesses? We go over the merger’s details to determine which company’s culture — TV or radio — will dominate. Last week, Mumbrella ran a story on the redundancy crisis that has struck the marketing and media sector in recent times. One of the leaders we spo...

24 September 2025 This week: Yesterday's Remade event put retail media under the microscope. In separate sessions, Zitcha's Alberto Vergara shared his theory that impulse buying is going to be destroyed by AI agents, and Jonathan Hopkins of Sonder and Commbank's Patrick Crowley dove deep into Commbank's journey of building its own retail media network. So, does retail media have a bright future? M...

18 September 2025 Expert marketer Mat Baxter rolled out a tattoo luxury skincare line, Skingraphica, after finding that popular cosmetic brands didn't supply products specifically for tattoo skincare. He spoke with Hal about the new venture, and revealed the unorthodox marketing practices he's going to deploy for it. Meanwhile, Mumbrella360 2026 has been officially announced. "Catalyst" is the the...

11 September 2025 Youtube marked its 20th birthday by gathering 600 industry personnel in Sydney and dazzling them with its own version of a TV upfront. The video streaming platform shared its latest products with the crowd, and Hal was there to see if it was all worth it. The latest radio ratings are in, and Nine Radio climbed back in Melbourne. Kyle and Jackie O have also gained some ground in t...

4 September 2025 The bosses of the Australian TV industry flooded Canberra this week to lobby the government for tax relief and to put an end to gambling ad restrictions. Tim was there too, and he's here to share all the details of the event - and the conversations he had with the industry's most powerful people. Upfronts season has finally arrived and SBS is the first out of the gate. We discuss...

28 August 2025 Nine's finances for FY2025 were released this morning, and the combined weight of the Olympics, Stan and Domain helped the media organisation stay upright. But should Nine be celebrating? Meanwhile, rivals ARN and SCA have released their own financial results, while rumours of Nine being interested in buying SCA continue. Nathan is here to break down the numbers and share what SCA C...

Media and publishing group Hardie Grant has made a major investment in the communications space, acquiring PR agency Keep Left. We discuss if Hardie Grant made the right move, and what prompted Keep Left to sell after 23 years. The country's sole independent newswire, Australian Associated Press, has struck a deal with Google to feed its news into the Gemini app. Does the deal make sense? Meanwhil...

Global performance consultancy Ebiquity oversees US$160 billion of advertising spend for the majority of the world's top brands. CEO Ruben Schreurs sat down with Mumbrella's Hal Crawford for a wide-ranging interview that ran the gamut from agency disruption, to advertiser news avoidance, Elon Musk, outdoor, the rise of Publicis and a personal attack on Schreurs that almost cost him his life.

SBS has announced that its managing director, James Taylor, is gearing up to leave the broadcaster after 13 years to become the boss at Ooh Media. But is it the right move for both the outdoor company and the long-time media leader? And who should replace him? At the same time, Seven released its full-year financial results, and the numbers are sobering. We dissect them to see where the business l...

6 August 2025 Dentsu ANZ dropped a bomb this morning, revealing that its CEO Patricio De Matteis is leaving the business with the company's New Zealand boss, Rob Harvey, stepping in as his replacement. We discuss what this means for the holdco. News Corp released its full-year financials, and despite declining revenue for its Australian operations, the media giant's results are strong. Hal dissect...

30th July 2025 Over the weekend, Google ramped up the under-16s social media ban fight by sending at letter to the Australian government with legal claims for exemption (which it has just officially lost). We analyse Google's arguments to see if the tech juggernaut has a case or if it's shouting at a wall. Hal interviews executive director of media and data at Spinach Advertising Ben Willee about...

23 July 2025 The restructure of Omnicom's Oceania operations has dominated the trade press this week, particularly with the confirmation that Nick Garrett will be returning to lead the new organisation. Is Omnicom just aligning with the rest of the industry or is there something different afoot here? Meanwhile, Nathan spoke with ARN's chief audience and content officer, Lauren Joyce, about FM stat...

16 July 2025 Southern Cross Austereo's chief content officer, Dave Cameron, is leaving the business after three decades, and with the network recently selling its regional TV licence and doubling down on an 'all about audio' ethos, it's made us wonder: Did he jump or was he shown the door? This week has also seen the publication of independent studies from TRA and Cubery that capture what ads Aust...

14 July 2025 During the Covid pandemic, a serious accident left Naked Communications Australia co-founder Mat Baxter with serious injuries, forcing the agencyland leader into 12 weeks of recuperation — while trying to fill his role of chief executive officer at global consultancy Huge in New York. But the tragedy became a cornerstone moment for Baxter, who now holds an equity stake in Tmrw, a disr...

9 July 2025 The Commonwealth Bank has the industry and consumers talking about its latest ad campaign. But it's not just the 90-second whirlwind of a TVC featuring cars, several Matildas, and even a biplane that has captured people's attention — it's the 'Australian first' media strategy leveraging a 48-hour roadblock across BVOD. We break down the work to answer what everyone's asking: how effect...

2 July 2025 As of yesterday, the South Australian government has banned junk food advertising on its own properties, a move that advertising bodies are none too happy about. Lauren breaks the situation down — and reveals the South Australian government's sharp jab back at advertisers. Meanwhile, Cloudflare, an internet backend provider, is moving to default blocking of AI bots scraping websites. S...

25 June 2025 After months of battling the ABC in court on the grounds that she was unfairly dismissed from her radio gig over her views on Israel and Gaza, the Federal Court ruled in favour of journalist Antoinette Lattouf. What did the judge say and what does the verdict mean for the ABC? Overseas in the United States, the FTC officially approved Omnicom's acquisition of IPG — a deal that will cr...

In this special interview edition of the Mumbrellacast, Hal Crawford speaks with VP of Hubspot Media Jonathan Hunt about ways of finding an audience in a world that has become a lot tougher for content creators. Hunt covers Linkedin's recent push for video and how it has created an opportunity, Reddit as a traffic source, and an AI workflow that can increase subs to newsletters.

18 June 2025 Telstra and creative agency Bear Meets Eagle On Fire won the Film Craft Grand Prix at the 2025 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. It's one of the most prestigious awards in adland — Lauren breaks down the win and shares an update on other awards the Australian industry has secured. Clemenger Group's changing of the guard continues with the announcement that its CEO Les...

Former Fairfax CEO and Free TV Chair Greg Hywood has moved out of the media world for the first time in 50 years. Mumbrella editorial director Hal Crawford talks with Hywood at length in this interview edition of the Mumbrellacast, covering Hywood's career, the nature of journalism and journalists - and, intriguingly, his view on whether the Nine Fairfax merger he engineered seven years ago has wo...