
Mi3 Audio Edition
425 episodes — Page 4 of 9

S1 Ep 277Digital burnout, ad blindness and sick of brands talking purpose: The 5 million Australians marketers risk alienating – and how to make them share your Out-of-Home campaigns
Gen Z makes up 20 per cent of Australia’s population. There are more than five million of them – and they want very different things from brands. Purpose won’t cut it. They want action, locally and globally – and they are sick of nobody listening to them, per Chris Sanderson and Martin Raymond, founders of The Future Laboratory. They are also – aged between 11 and 26 – already wary of digital burnout. They’ve been bombarded with digital content their whole lives. Which means many are blind to the ads they’ve not already blocked. But not Out-of-Home: Out-of-Home is “so important for them [and to reach them] because Gen Z don’t see it as an intrusion,” per Sanderson. “They see it as a logical, seamless connection with their world of brand.” They are also making their purchase decisions in very different ways to previous generations – the pyramid and related funnel are now “circular”, reckons Raymond, with profound impacts for brands. Plus they say its time to stop “sneering” at the notion of crowd-sourcing aspects of ad campaigns – or at least getting far broader inputs, particularly when marketing on billboards, because Gen Z is all about community, collaboration, and commitment: “It guarantees the sharing of the campaign,” says Raymond. Off the back of a deep dive commissioned by JCDecaux, the two unpack what brands need to know about marketing to Gen Z.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 276Strange days: Two speed consumer economy messing with markets, marketers - value lines surge as does ‘premiumisation’ – Commbank iQ, Roy Morgan, AH Beard CEO Tony Pearson unpack what next and safest marketer bets
Mattresses selling for circa $3,000 are not typically a signal for how consumer spending is bending historical patterns but Tony Pearson, CEO at mattress maker AH Beard, is seeing two distinct consumer groups going in opposite directions. Sales of his premium lines in the $2-3,000 tier are holding strong just as his cheaper lines - from $600 - fell off a cliff in April. Meanwhile, mattress sales to hotels are soaring as even the cash-strapped masses keep spending on holidays and experiences – first hand evidence of the consumer spending divide mapped by Commbank-Quantium analysis of 7 million bank accounts playing out. But Pearson saw it all coming, because that’s exactly what Roy Morgan’s segmental database of NEOs, or ‘new economic order’ consumers, said would happen. Ross Honeywill helped pioneer the typology – the quarter of the population that earns more, and critically spends more. He says the NEOs are currently keeping Australia out of recession and with latest rate rises yet to hit home, Honeywill says brands must have a premiumisation strategy that targets NEOs, or risk pain. CommbankIQ innovation and analytics chief Wade Tubman agrees: Marketers without “stratified” or multi-layered brand strategies “might be starting to feel the walls are closing in.” Following clothing and household goods, Tubman says insurance extras and telco are next as pinched consumers wring out every last dollar to spend on experiences, which he suggests are becoming “the new essentials”. The good thing for marketers is that comms to NEOs deliver double duty, per Honeywill, tapping the aspirational but squeezed masses as well as those with money still to burn. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 275‘No personal data’: Chasing audience scale, ad exchanges, big tech targeting is publisher folly as media trust plummets, says Scire’s Chris Janz, Guardian’s Dan Stinton; No-tracking, contextual ads next growth wave
If Nine’s former publishing boss Chris Janz and The Guardian’s Managing Director Dan Stinton are right, there’s a storm brewing for the media establishment as frustration rises among the business, tech and innovation elite – and even the broader public – over what and how mastheads and journalists produce content. Chris Janz did the “deal of a career” when brokering the 2017 ‘unholy’ alliance with Google to sell Fairfax’s premium ads and audiences programmatically, reportedly for guaranteed annual revenues north of $40m. Now Janz has flipped entirely with VC-backed media challenger Scire: He says Scire won’t collect any personal data at all and thinks those relying on Facebook and Google for traffic, while trying to compete on data and tracking – areas in which News Corp, Nine and others have invested heavily – “are playing someone else’s game” and have already lost. The future of mastheads, he says, is all about trust and serving smaller, smarter segments with content they will, in some way, pay for. Either way, privacy regime changes will soon disrupt tracking-based ad-funded business models – and Scire isn’t going to do traditional advertising at all, per Janz. Outgoing Guardian Australia MD, Dan Stinton agrees on trust, contextual targeting and the push away from open exchange “direct response” advertising. The Guardian has slashed its reliance on open ad exchanges from half to a tenth of its ad business in five years under Stinton – reader contributions now make up more than half of revenues but ads are still growing at a fast clip. Stinton and Janz unleash on the new challenges facing the media establishment and the full force of AI scrape and lifts that are about to hit. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 274The future of total TV: Voz, the cross-network ‘BVOD Project’, Unilever’s 20 per cent reach gains and converged trading implications for marketers, agencies and TV networks
With Voz in market and the TV networks seemingly moving forward with a BVOD marketplace, agencies and broadcasters have renewed impetus to converge TV trading and buying and flick legacy systems. But ditching decades of behaviour is never easy. Perhaps the best example is what has been dubbed the Unilever trial, where the FMCG giant, agency PHD and Seven West Media used early Voz data to boost reach by 20 per cent while cutting audience duplication to four per cent by combining linear and BVOD. Alex Tansley, Head of Converged Audience Trading at Seven and PHD investment chief Joanna Barnes were key architects of that trial. They unpack what converged TV trading will look like in the next 12 months – and what that means for marketers, media agencies, TV networks and perhaps ultimately the pure-play streaming platforms now entering the advertising game.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 273From streaming boom to busted economics: Sony Pictures’ Stephen Basil-Jones and Hoyts’ Damian Keogh on the Hollywood studio streaming shakeout that has them all running back to cinema
During Covid, the big Hollywood studios played hardball with cinemas – rushing to take-on Netflix and Prime, feeding their own direct streaming plays, shortening releases windows, or cutting them out altogether. Sony was the streaming holdout. ‘We’re either going to look like the smartest person in the room, or the dumbest,” Sony Pictures local boss Stephen Basil-Jones told Hoyts CEO Damian Keogh. But facing spiralling losses on their streaming businesses, stars and directors in revolt and booming box offices, Basil-Jones says the studios have universally changed their tune. “They’re saying ‘We’re back, baby! We need you!’ Sony Pictures has avoided the dunce cap and Basil-Jones forecasts a “shake-out” and consolidation ahead for the streamers. Keogh thinks the studios will go back to making episodic series for their platforms – while channelling investment into A-grade films for cinema and increasing flexibility on release windows to maximise returns. It's a tale of content economics and consumer behaviour that runs almost diametrically to the ecom boom – and Keogh and Basil-Jones see another leg to come.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 272IAG’s Zara Curtis on why NRMA flicked footy and rugby sponsorship, put the money into cricket and cinema – and drove massive brand gains
NRMA’s data crunching suggested the brand would get more bang for buck by putting some of its sports marketing budget into entertainment. So it pulled out of The Broncos, unwound its Collingwood sponsorship and, flipping from a local club to national strategy, “made the biggest bet we’ve ever made on Cricket Australia,” per IAG Acting CMO, Zara Curtis. She recycled the remainder into cinema, last year “owning the top ten films” via Val Morgan category exclusivity, and using cinema first on the plan to launch longer-form versions of its ads, before pushing out shorter cuts to TV. Wise move, says Matt Sandwell at research firm The Owl Insights, because in a fragmented media landscape, “water cooler moments” are rare beasts. Per the firm’s research, sport is still the number one cultural connector and memory encoder. But it’s expensive and crowded. Cinema is number two – and can deliver better bang for buck. Esports, he says, are another cost-effective bet, along with live theatre, but don’t deliver at scale. Curtis says NRMA’s tracking proved the theory: “We saw 50 per cent more efficiency in driving a brand uplift across recognition and brand cut through recognition tracking at 55 per cent, branding at 84 per cent, and cut through at 46 per cent.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 271Double duty dilemma: Can a search or social ad build brand and drive sales now? Media execs, reformed growth hackers and ad effectiveness maestros duke it out – as ESOV critics have their say
Debate on whether brand campaigns can drive short term sales performance and vice versa – aka ‘double duty’ – is running as hot as the budget knives pressed to the CFO’s whetstone. News Corp’s Pippa Leary says market-wide short-termism is fuelling demand for performance ads to drive immediate results but double duty works – results for Moet has LVMH marketers popping their corks. Brand strategist James Hurman says brand campaigns can drive short-term sales, but that trying to make one ad to do both is “way harder” than just making two ads, so why try? Either way, using the same metrics for brand building and short-term sales “is like judging a fish by its ability to climb a tree,” per Hurman, “it’s always going to be a shit fish”. Rob Brittain says marketers only have themselves to blame: Few can articulate the difference between the two – nor why long and short need to work together – to CFOs under pressure for short-term sales. Meanwhile, he says marketers are getting the basics of ESOV wrong, ending up closer to double jeopardy than “difficult” to achieve double duty by wasting money on low attention channels. But partially reformed growth hacker turned growth advisor to companies up to $100m in revenues, John James, thinks ESOV is a flawed concept based on touting the benefits of being “the loudest person in the room” by those who “want to sell more advertising media to clients”. He also throws a jab or two at Ehrenberg-Bass ‘how brands grow’ thinking. Brittain can’t let either go unanswered. This one gets politely punchy. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 270How AI is hitting paid search, content strategies; where prices are headed; why Google is changing its LTV tune; and why interpreting media mix modelling requires human intelligence
Search and SEO is facing major disruption – with implications for brands across both performance media and mid-to-upper funnel content marketing. Google is countering the threat from Bing and ChatGPT with Magi, set to soft launch later this month. Billed as a “hyper-personalisation engine”, it will change how search works and the way content on websites needs to be written and structured, per Stephen Downward, Head of SEO at Atomic 212°. That’s on top of Google algorithm changes that call time on the days of 500 word blogs and average content. The key to ranking and traffic is now all about EAT: Expertise, Authority, and Trust – plus Google has added another E: Experience, which is why News Corp, alongside Atomic, created a vast trove of articles via masthead financial journalists to feed its new comparison site and take on Finder, says Downward. Within paid search, prices will continue to climb, per Atomic Head of Performance Media Sascha Bonomally, which is why Google’s new rhetoric is around amortising the cost of its upfront click to lifetime value. Either way, Bonomally thinks advertisers now optimising clicks to products with best margin are making a mistake.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 269Arnott’s sees double digit growth after private equity ownership and marketing overhaul; CMO Jenni Dill on bucking downturn, linking brand to P&L and landing a ‘Fellowship' spot with elite Marketing Academy-McKinsey CMO program
Three years ago Jenni Dill put a multiyear strategy plan to Arnott’s to management and board. The former McDonald’s CMO had been in the CMO gig at Arnott’s for 13 days. But Dill had just completed The Marketing Academy’s Fellowship course, which she says provided the clarity and confidence to speak business, not marketing – and to deliver a growth agenda at pace. It’s paying off. Despite the biggest spending squeeze in a generation, Arnott’s brands are powering. Tim Tams, Shapes and Vita-Weats sales are up double digits as Australians cut out restaurants but keep buying branded snacks and staples, resisting the siren call of supermarket’s own brands. Dill puts it down to brand re-investment after a decade of underspend, enabling her to link marketing spend directly to the P&L. She was also one of the first Australians to complete The Marketing Academy Fellowship program run by McKinsey that is launching in APAC this year for 20 elite CMOs - 10 Australian marketers could land in that group who want to be the next CFO, CEO or board member. Dill, along with Lisa Gilbert, CMO of the $20bn IBM managed services spinout Kyndryl, unpack what’s required and what the best of the best – today’s ‘super CMOs’ – will get in return.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 268Why Mel Hopkins left Optus for Seven CMO gig: Not putting 'lipstick on a pig’; Big transformation plan looms – sharpening marketing, hitching it to the P&L – and her take on the Optus cyber attack
Mel Hopkins says she hasn’t gone to Seven “to put lipstick on a pig”. The former Optus CMO says CEO James Warburton wants “total transformation” – and not just across ratings – so she’s hatched a four-point plan. Hopkins has also committed to linking Seven’s marketing activity and investment directly to earnings and the P&L “in real time”. Anything less, she says, “and I am failing to do my job”. That means growing both the brand and its equity as well the number of eyeballs tuning in as a destination – fast. Hopkins thinks Seven, particularly Seven Plus, can outpoint the streamers and reckons their ad-funded tiers may fizzle out as Covid-driven growth wanes. But just as Hopkins is finding media an entirely different world to telco – it’s way more complex than she realised – she says Seven’s media-focused marketing team must also “sharpen up” when it comes to “strategic marketing and advanced digital marketing”. Plus, Hopkins opens up on the Optus data hack, not sleeping for five weeks, but why living through the experience, in all probability, will pay off.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 267Brand equity blow-up: Ritson-backed Tracksuit eyes $8bn brand tracking market, Ipsos, Kantar, Nielsen disruption by linking brand equity directly to P&L; inks Mutinex deal
Here’s how two firms in different parts of the supply chain are upending legacy marketing practices. Tracksuit, a two year-old New Zealand-based brand tracking platform has slashed the cost, turnaround time, cred, and the role of brand – historically considered fluffy by the business community. The rapidly growing start-up has caught the eye of VC Blackbird, with Mark Ritson and Ascential, the firm behind Warc and Cannes Lions, also investors. Now it’s bidding to carve out a major slice of a market dominated by big global research firms like Ipsos, Kantar and Nielsen – and has just inked a partnership with fellow SaaS disruptor Mutinex. The two aim to align the in-market perceptions of a brand directly to the P&L while doubling the $4bn addressable brand tracking market. Crucially, the hardcore VC types are piling in not just as investors, but for their early stage startup investments to actually harness the tech to grow faster and more sustainably as growth hacking bites the dust and startups flip to brand investment that, amid far more sober money markets, must be quantified in hard financial terms. Tracksuit co-founder Connor Archbold and Mutinex CEO Henry Innis join Paul McIntyre on the mics. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 266How an ex-P&G US marketer ditched cohorts, personas and restrictive segmentation, blended Ehrenberg-Bass, Binet & Field textbooks word for word, landed biggest marketing budget in $7bn company’s history – and all KPIs are powering
It’s not often Australian and New Zealanders can teach the giant US market a thing or two but hear this one out: If you're one of those hard-nosed types who think all this marketing science and advertising effectiveness stuff is too rubbery – ESOV, mental availability, investing in brand to drive long-term demand over short-term sales – here’s some contrarian proof that might just change your mind. It’s a textbook case from a CMO who took a giant leap and deployed a whole suite of marketing's new and established thinking in one strategic gulp, rolling it out across a $7bn US healthcare brand and sweeping away pretty much everything that had gone before. It worked, massively. All growth KPIs for Douwe Bergsma, CMO of Georgia-based healthcare firm Piedmont, are busting upwards and the CEO handed him the biggest marketing budget in the company’s history to do it. Here’s how Bergsma, a former P&G marketer and current ANA board member, along with NZ-based brand and start-up strategist James Hurman, hatched a plan to do everything by the marketing science and effectiveness handbooks, sold it into the leadership team, brought every single one of its agencies into 20 marketing effectiveness briefings – and literally ended up with a runaway best seller. It’s the story of a Dutchman and a Kiwi taking Australian and UK marketing science to the US, and winning big. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 265‘The race is on’: Volvo boss Stephen Connor on why going all electric by 2026 will double sales, protect revenue – but poses tricky challenge for marketing, even with a bigger budget
Volvo Car Australia boss Stephen Connor has hit the accelerator on the carmaker’s plan to ditch combustion engines. He’s going all-in on electric vehicles (EVs) by 2026 – faster than any of its global markets. Volvo has deep sustainability commitments, pledging to become climate neutral across its supply chain by 2040. But Connor’s gone for first mover advantage for profit just as much as purpose, because by 2030 “every manufacturer in Australia will be standing on the mountain beating their chests about EVs”. By then, the market will be awash with technologically advanced electric cars. Hence Connor thinks brand will become the key differentiator – and he’s backing Marketing Director Julie Hutchinson to ensure Volvo builds a greater share of mind. "The race is already on," she says, with EV ad spend tripling last year. But the sprint to all-electric cars means major change ahead for dealers and retail operations (Volvo is about to launch a direct-to-consumer play) while a rapid rollout of new electric models requires new business models – including subscriptions – to scoop a new cohort of younger buyers. Here’s the plan. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 264Yahoo’s new team, new mission: Yahoo Australia execs unpack the global restructure and the “why and what” of a new, simplified game plan
There’s been just a little happening inside the $8 billion Yahoo business globally - and in Australia. The digital content and advertising business announced last month it would reduce its total workforce by 20 per cent but global CEO Jim Lanzone told Axios recently the layoffs were not about financial challenges. Rather it was an important strategic change. No longer is Yahoo pushing a “unified tech stack” to compete with Google or Meta. “We really had to take a hard look at the business and make the big decision to refocus and prioritise where we really succeed the most,” says John McNerney, Yahoo’s new Managing Director for Australia and Southeast Asia. “It was nothing to do with financial challenges or troubles in the advertising market but really instead about a strategic restructuring and refocus globally for long term success. We were trying to be the masters of everything, building a unified tech platform with DSPs and SSPs to compete against Google and Meta but we realised change was needed.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 263'Ethical personalisation’: How a leading CX, martech convert at Norths Collective is (finally) proving ROI on tech stack investment, not just campaigns; engagement rates rocketing over global norms; Lion hungry to tap its member app and loyalty program
Ask any marketer with CX and martech in their remit to prove the return on those investments and it can get a little awkward. But CFOs are increasingly asking the same question. Here’s a full and frank download from a marketer doing exactly that: assessing ROI on its customer experience strategy - on and offline - after going all in on Salesforce, just before the pandemic hit. Rob Lopez, GM of CX, Brand and Innovation at Norths Collective – which operates eight venues and clubs and two fitness centres across Sydney – has embarked on "Project ROI" to quantify its contribution to profit. Lopez already knows the transformation is working: engagement rates are through the roof thanks to what he calls “ethical personalisation” and the firm is able to attribute comms output to member action, digitally at least. Now it is digitising memberships to better understand offline – or in-venue – activity. The kind of insights it is delivering to the likes of Lion has the drinks giant smacking its lips to get inside the new app. Meanwhile, smarter data and analytics capability means Norths is de-risking its next phase of growth – because it knows the dollar value existing members can bring to new venues “before we even open the door”. Lopez has five tips for marketers embarking – or rethinking – their digital transformation strategies. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 262Three speed economy and ESG pressure: Top business editors on what rate rises and a $20k mortgage hit mean for consumer spending, retail and brand purpose
Australia will escape a recession this year but not a downturn, per Sky News Business editor, Ross Greenwood. But the impact of rate rises means the average mortgage payer is now $20k out of pocket. If fewer people move home, fewer white goods and consumer electronics get bought – creating a negative cycle and something of a two-speed economy as the squeezed middle and lower income households cut back. But the third of Australians with no mortgage cash in the bank are still spending, and luxury is booming as a result. Meanwhile, Western Australia is as ever forging its own path and younger consumers still spending, creating a three-speed national economy. But Buy Now Pay Later buttons “are taking a hammering” in WA, warns The West Australian's Business Editor Sarah Jane Tasker. “That raises some concerns about when the pay later kicks in”. Across the economy, the Federal Treasurer is talking up ‘values-based capitalism’, which will chime with brands putting purpose at their core. AFR economics editor John Kehoe thinks that trend is here to stay – though may be scuppered in the short-term should economic headwinds strengthen and cost hikes outweigh good intent. “But for the now, in the foreseeable future, people want governments and businesses involved in these sort of social and ESG causes.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 261Dream flight: How Virgin’s decimated marketing team launched an automated creative campaign with 80,000 'full funnel' ad variants, lifted revenues 30% but...brands will cede more control to Google, Meta under new privacy regime
The killer combination of Covid and voluntary administration decimated Virgin Australia’s marketing team to a handful but under its new private equity owners, Bain Capital, Virgin’s head of paid media, Ben Will, finally got to deploy a massively scaled and personalised programmatic ad campaign that he had been dreaming about for years – but it nearly cracked the Virgin team and its media and dynamic creative partners at PHD and Adylic in the process. It took months after launch to fine tune but they survived, ultimately lifted revenues 30% and won the MFA’s top award for real-time marketing for their efforts. But Will is worried new privacy laws will hand much of the control he currently has to "test and learn" to the walled gardens like Google and Meta, where their unknown tools and AI do all the optimisation without any visibility for advertisers. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 260Halve digital ad emissions in 12 months by culling adtech, binning outstream ads, swapping viewability for attention metrics and flicking junk ad inventory, says Scope 3’s Brian O’Kelley: Suncorp, NAB and AMI ask the curly questions
There’s an easy way to cut carbon emissions from digital advertising. Stop buying “crap” ads that “no human sees”, ditch “gamed” viewability metrics and instead buy on attention, never buy another outstream video ad, and cull the bloated programmatic supply chain, per Brian O’Kelley. The CEO of Scope 3, a global emissions measurement firm focusing on decarbonising digital media and advertising, knows how much waste lurks within that supply chain – the sprawling Lumascape – because he was in deep and early, founding AppNexus, which ultimately sold to ATT&T for $1.7bn. Even “turning off five to seven per cent of inventory gets you a 29 or 30 per cent reduction in carbon,” says O’Kelley. Publishers feeling the heat to decarbonise – GroupM and Mediabrands are talking about money moving next year – needn’t fear. He reckons they will see more cents in the ad dollar as the bad actors get punted. Marketers will also stop wasting billions of ad dollars while saving millions of tonnes of carbon. But marketers have to lead, because everyone else will follow the money. Suncorp CMO Mim Haysom, NAB Head of Marketing Planning & Performance, Tom Dobson, and Australian Marketing Institute CEO, Bronwyn Powell join Mi3 on the mics to ask the pointy questions on where next – and how fast. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 259‘Dark bars, A-list investors’: McKinsey, Virgin, Contiki, now me&u – how Australia’s top tech female leader Katrina Barry is chasing $250bn in global consumer spend, crunching bar and pub business models with more tech, less humans and much happier, higher-spending customers
Katrina Barry is Deloitte Tech's Fast 50 female leadership winner for 2022 and CEO of the globally ambitious Australian restaurant and pubs ordering app me&u, backed by a Hollywood style list of Australian names including Merrivale’s Justin Hemmes, Rockpool's Neil Perry, Uber Australia co-founder Mike Abbott and former Google ANZ and current Domain boss Jason Pellegrino. She's about a year into the role – me&u already controls about 70 per cent of large format hospitality venues in Australia and is now going global. Barry argues the little round device on bar and food tables is actually about business transformation, customer experience and, for venues, at least 30 per cent more orders if patrons don't have to wait for a negroni or a kale infused pheasant at the counter - or for a host. Hence, many venues are now creating dark bars as one tactic to improve customer experience and sales. Here’s why a little bit of tech in a pub or restaurant is transforming the economics of the hospitality sector - and customer happiness. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 258SCA pushes back on media agencies driving carbon agenda, eyes bigger slice of TV budgets for audio as inflation rises, reach tails off – and FMCG advertisers are getting the message
Southern Cross Austereo Chief Sales Officer Brian Gallagher has some contrarian views on the big push from agency groups to have media owners meet ESG and carbon neutral benchmarks as part of their annual ad deal negotiations. He also argues media buyers might be a little lost in the haze of numbers when audio platforms like Spotify bundle overall podcast audience numbers, which include SCA shows that Spotify can't commercialise. Gallagher says there's widespread misconception that they can. On the flip side, SCA Head of Ad Product, Jonathan Mandel are buoyed by the continuing surge of digital audio listening. At a market level, 9.4 million people are tuning in every week into the digital channel – the same number as broadcaster BVOD audiences. Mandel says there are major reach gains to be had for advertisers that take a slice of TV budgets: “If you're investing into a BVOD campaign, the studies we have developed show that if you put 15 per cent of that budget into digital audio, you can increase your reach and the overall reach curve by an additional 40 per cent.” Gallagher says the message is landing: “We've got FMCG advertisers onboard that have never advertised on radio before. I’m talking seven-figure commitments.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 257Stack wars – a new hope: Nine’s first Group CMO Liana Dubois says Nine consolidating martech, restructuring marketing in bid for growth, but budget ‘safe’; relishes competitive clash with former Optus turned Seven CMO Mel Hopkins
After five years of mergers and acquisitions, Nine’s first Group CMO Liana Dubois has hinted at an incoming major brand offensive as the former boss of the media group’s Powered division says the network will walk the talk on creativity. Seven months into the role, Dubois says Nine has de-siloed its marketing operation and the next surgical intervention is a major review of its disparate tech stack. While Nine’s latest results suggest cost efficiency is the name of the game across the business, Dubois says CEO Mike Sneesby is a "big believer in marketing-led growth". Perhaps her budget is safe for now. Either way, she says Nine has plenty of scale to harness across its vast owned assets, though how Australia’s data-privacy overhaul ultimately crimps those plans remains to be seen. Meanwhile, with former Optus CMO Mel Hopkins now Dubois’ opposite number at Seven, a new competitive tension is brewing as the networks battle shifting audience consumption and buyers holding out to see which way the chips fall. Dubois says it will be good for the category. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 256‘If you have to cut marketing spend, cut what’s not working’: Youi and PointsBet marketers plug into AI-powered brand equity model to link marketing investment directly to revenue
Two pointy questions everyone is asking: Is the economic crunch going to flip marketing plans and budgets this year? And what impact will budget cuts or a shift to performance marketing have on revenues and the P&L? Hard questions to answer. But Youi CMO Angela Greenwood and PointsBet digital strategy chief Calvin Cain are armed with better data not just to shield budgets from the axe – but to identify which cuts will have least revenue impact. Mutinex CEO Henry Innis says the SaaS platform’s brand equity product – which can quantify “brand equity, preference, salience, consideration metrics and output that to revenue” – goes one step further as rate rises start to bite. Cain says PointsBet is plugging in: “In wagering, marketing is one of the single largest P&L line items”, says Cain, and what can’t be linked to sales is usually first against the wall. Youi’s Greenwood says brand building and predictability of what it will return is “critical” as consumer spending, and price sensitivity, tightens.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 255Thinking outside the retailer media box: How Mars Petcare turned Amazon deliveries into a reach play, boosted Whiskas ecom sales 70 per cent, flipped search declines
Here’s an award-winning tale of how Amazon and Whiskas reinvented the ecom giant's cardboard delivery boxes as media – and a play centre for cats – in a bid to woo younger cat owners away from upstart challenger brands nibbling away at market share. They turned every medium and large size Amazon delivery box for two months (“low hundreds of thousands”) into branded cat castles, offices and… rollercoasters. They also wrapped in targeted ads across Amazon’s ad network, plus a branded DTC storefront. It worked, sending sales soaring 70 per cent, with afterburners for the rest of the year while flipping branded search declines into reverse. But there’s more meat in this can: Whiskas will this year launch a major brand overhaul designed to woo the under 45s amid a share war Mars Petcare Portfolio Marketing Director, Camille Shepherd, says has are distinct parallels with craft beer. She’s joined on the mics by EssenceMediacom’s Sophie Price and Michelle O’Brien.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 254‘I’ve never made a client cry’: Deloitte Digital Global CEO Sam Roddick’s mission with ex-ad agency boss Nick Garrett to copy Apple’s creativity, design and engineering for digital restructuring programs – and why the ‘majority’ still fail
During a recent high-level pitch to the CEO of a leading but unnamed global consumer packaged goods firm hunting 25 per cent growth in a mature category, “the eyes lit up” at the combined code, creative and culture components being proposed by the “cold, hard analytical” consulting firm Deloitte Digital, as Global CEO Sam Roddick recounts. The pitch involved a top Deloitte Digital team unveiling the blueprint for a new direct-to-consumer (DTC) business unit to deliver on the CEO’s ambitious growth remit. Roddick hopes it’s a benchmark project in-the-making as his firm accelerates to “mimic” Apple-like design and creative capabilities with engineering and systems prowess. The new ‘X’ factor for Deloitte Digital though is the nod to creativity and the business contribution it makes as a “value multiplier” for its industrial-grade customers. Part of Roddick’s global plan to help institutionalise creative thinking in the $16bn firm involves a former BBDO ad agency network CEO in Australia and New Zealand, Nick Garrett. But can the “cold, hard, analytical” firm really pull this one off? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 253‘Meteoric rise’: How tradie platform Hipages halved paid search and customer acquisition costs after brand investment; next a review of Nine’s The Block, upswing for content marketing, click rate optimisation, tech stack overhaul and…impress investors
Hipages Chief Customer Officer Stuart Tucker and VP of Marketing Nick Ellery say growing an online marketplace requires an entirely new suite of marketing and media capabilities to create and match demand and supply between households needing a tradesperson and tradies needing work - and it’s loaded with tension. They’ve got to build a B2C and B2B brand simultaneously and mange short-term demand volumes for two completely different customer sets in real time down to postcode level. That means more sophisticated data feeds to inform fast direct response media channel tactics like paid search when plumbers need work in Melbourne’s Hawthorn next week or household demand for sparkies in Sydney’s Hornsby is surging today. They’re quickly mastering brand and performance levers together and now adding to the “mid-funnel” with content. Here’s what Hipages is doing next after a three-year “transformational” investment building its brand that has slashed the reliance on paid search for new customers - although it remains a leading tactical strategy for the business. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 252From CFO to Chief Customer Officer: How a Wesfarmers exec handbraked finance career to become mycar’s CCO, dumped and relaunched a new brand and end-to-end CX remap – using a reinvented creative agency for CX and media
A former Wesfarmers CFO, of all people, led the cull of the Kmart Tyre & Auto brand after 50 years in market but took on the challenge to rebuild as mycar's Chief Customer Officer, tasking a creative agency, TBWA, with full service CX, media and brand transformation. It worked: sales are up 23 per cent, at least since 2020. Now under Adele Coswello mycar is positioning for another major transition – electric vehicles – while bidding to steal share from free-spending pure-play rivals such as Bob Jane T-Marts and Ultra Tune. It's dropped a retail, up-sell focus and gone all out for 'people first’ and building pop-up stores next to shopping centres, putting vans on the road to deliver mobile services, while putting tech into its garages that give customers a stream of their cars' vital signs – and what's being done to keep them healthy. Meanwhile TBWA chief Paul Bradbury says moving into CX and media and taking on the consulting giants is the shape of things to come.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 251Mexican standoff: Out-Of-Home sector hits agency slow lane on take-up for neuro impact versus attention metrics; Avenue C’s Pia Coyle implores buyers and sellers to get over pricing fear paralysis
Attention measurement has captured much of the ad industry’s focus in the past two years just as the out-of-home industry body, OMA, was well into its roadmap to apply a “Neuro Impact Factor” to thousands of individual digital and static screens. Neuro-Insight, the firm behind the measurement system, has among the most robust, academically peer-reviewed advertising science worldwide – initially developed by Professor Richard Silberstein and neuroscientists at Swinburne University’s Brain Sciences Institute to understand brain behaviour among ADD and ADHD children. Despite the science – real advertising science as its proponents argue – media agencies are dragging the chain on take-up, certainly versus emerging and scaled attention metrics. But here’s why the industry needs both and what should happen next according to Avenue C’s Pia Coyle, Neuro-Insight’s Peter Pynta and the OMA’s Grant Guesdon.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 250Re-engineering out of home: How The Guardian’s brand push drove JCDecaux to open its network to editors and set a global standard; where carbon-conscious brands are moving their ad dollars and why online pureplays are switching channels
Three months ago, The Guardian launched its first Australian brand campaign in a bid for double-digit audience increases – and ploughed its entire budget into one media partner. JCDecaux won the brief because it could deliver scale and the tech capability to enable real-time API feeds direct from the Guardian’s editors without any human intervention. But critically, because JCDecaux is also aligned on environmental, social and corporate governance, or ESG. Now both The Guardian and JCDecaux say they are winning significant new business on the back of green credentials, while the campaign is starting to move the needle. Meanwhile, the tech development work to deliver the year-long brand push has set a template for JCDecaux to lift and deploy globally. JCDecaux Chief Marketer, Essie Wake, and The Guardian Director of Growth, Jocelin Abbey, unpack the story behind the headlines on the billboards – and the strong parallels with the shift in strategy from pureplay online retailers to out of home formats.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 249The war on brand, the death of hyper-targeting and why marketers need to market to finance or see budgets slashed – B2B Institute, NAB and Mindshare on key trends for 2023 and beyond
Personalisation is possibly “the worst idea we have come across in digital marketing,” per B2B Institute’s John Lombardo – even Amazon can’t do it properly. “Find the biggest things that matter to the biggest group of buyers – that's the real commercial opportunity,” per Lombardo. He thinks 1:1 personalisation ultimately leads to a surveillance state. The downturn-induced swing back to performance over brand is another big mistake. “It’s survival, I get it … But you can't just keep on adding up the short-terms and expect some sort of long-term strategy.” Former performance purist, Maria Grivas, now CEO at Mindshare, thinks performance marketers are much maligned – and are targeting longer-term growth as well as immediate gains. The problem is that CFOs demand demonstrable growth metrics. That means marketing to finance, per Lombardo, should be the “most urgent” CMO 2023 agenda item, “otherwise we get our budgets cut”. Elly Bloom, Executive Marketing, Business & Private Banking at NAB, is doing just that, using market mix modelling (MMM) to demonstrate which investments are generating returns in hard business terms – and where to spend next. “It’s been invaluable”, says Bloom. Lombardo doubts econometric models can accurately prove where marketing is moving the needle – but thinks even demonstrating attempted due diligence to CFOs via MMM serves its purpose.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 248‘Tortuous transformation’: From Suncorp to News Corp – how former CMO Mark Reinke reinvented to lead consumer media and crack 1 million subscribers; new growth from ‘throwing out old media rules’ with AI, tech stacks, UX and a paying younger, restless set
The intense heat and conjecture coming on the subscription models of Netflix, Stan, Paramount+, Disney+ and beyond may, ironically, not cut so deep for battle-weary publishers if they keep moving fast with new bundled products, content, AI and UX. That’s Mark Reinke’s view, who moved from financial services to the media industry in 2019 and admits plunging into a baptism of fire – publishing is tough, News Corp to many even tougher. Under Reinke, News Corp has launched subscription puzzles, mindfulness and wagering sites, its first podcast series - crime - with Apple that is casting for a global subscription audience and a younger version of The Australian – The Oz - which looks more like Instagram and has attracted 500,000 younger readers since launching six months ago. News Corp’s Australian experience is matching – ahead in some areas – what is underway globally among publishers according to Tim Rowell, APAC boss of subscription platform Piano, which counts 3,000 media titles worldwide using its tech. Rowell says editors and journalists have seen many of their assumptions challenged about how audiences consume and behave with content – the old newspaper lifestyle sections are returning as new gold in rebundled digital subscription packs – and there are big lessons for brands, their advertising plans and content marketing investments. Heads-up: move faster, experiment more, repackage content, use AI to find smaller but lucrative emerging audiences and blow up assumptions. New rules are playing out.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 247QMS’s ‘world first’ outdoor attention pilot How Amplified Intelligence measures
QMS has carried out a world first outdoor attention pilot with Amplified Intelligence, aiming to train Artificial Intelligence to recognise audiences – not dogs – viewing assets like street furniture. After a feasibility study with Amplified Intelligence CEO Karen Nelson-Field last year, her team put cameras around assets to track gaze, recognise faces and even “pose estimation” to measure humans as opposed to cars, prams and dogs. “It is literally world first in this space,” says Nelson-Field. Outdoor attention is not necessarily fleeting – think people waiting for a bus. The aim, QMS’s Chief Strategy Officer Christian Zavecz says, is to understand outdoor assets and share that data with the industry. “It’s not about us versus them,” he says. “We've always had a major focus of moving from just eyeballs to influence and understanding what drives better results for our clients. It just made a lot of sense.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 246‘Hundreds of millions of dollars will move quickly’: Foxtel Media’s Frain, Razorfish’s Tonelli and Tubi’s Fitch on AVOD’s next battlegrounds of frequency capping, measurement and personalisation
Australia’s AVOD wars are heating up. Foxtel Media boss Mark Frain reckons “tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars” will move in the next 12-18 months. User experience will win, making ad loads and frequency capping a key battleground. Razorfish boss Jason Tonelli warns that presents a new problem for publishers: As users hop from one service to the other, how will BVOD and AVOD players collectively manage frequency capping? “That will be the next frontier”. Brands are hungry to test the waters, adds Tonelli, with early adopters lenient on measurement. But down the track, measurement will need to be robust. “Is it OzTam or not? That is a debate we have to have.” Foxtel’s Frain says sitting outside of OzTam hasn’t stopped Foxtel writing revenue on Kayo. Ultimately, per Tyler Fitch, head of Advanced TV & Partnerships at Tubi – which has amassed 50m AVOD subscribers – breadth of content, personalisation and UX will determine winners from losers. He thinks the former SVOD purists that once “scoffed” ad ad-funded models have some hard lessons ahead.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 245Moving the needle: NAB brand chief on how the bank ‘held the line’ in the face of anti-vaxxer ‘keyboard warriors’, turned their rage into brand and business growth – as JAB helped drive Australia out of lockdown
At the height of anti-vaxxer revolt, with protest boiling out on the streets, NAB decided to nail its colours to the flag and launch a pro-vaccine campaign – changing its name to JAB seven days after signing off the brief. A bold move for a risk-averse ASX-listed bank and NAB was bracing for blowback from “keyboard warriors”. Within hours, it arrived in spades. But the bank “held the line”, per NAB Head of Group Brand Faycal Ben Abdellaziz – and the stream of vitriol actually helped propel NAB JAB to go viral. What’s more, anti-vaxxers vowing to close accounts were largely all talk. Instead, NAB gained thousands of customers, while engagement rates and brand reputation metrics shot to multiyear highs, and played a role in Australia reopening weeks ahead of schedule. With a downturn likely, Ben Abdellaziz suggests JAB’s legacy is bravery and that the bank won’t let “an extremely vocal minority” water down its approach to bold work. NAB, he says, won’t be pulling back on brand spend either, whatever the economy throws up next.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 243‘We’re definitely seeing a pullback’: Pure-play online retailers squeezed as Covid bubble pops, digital ad costs ‘go through roof’, shoppers head back to stores; Alquemie-Mosaic chair plans physical stores for Surf Stich, tech stack overhaul to cross-sell General Pants, Lego, Noni B
Richard Facioni, chair of retail groups Alquemie and Mosaic Brands – with upwards of 1,000 stores and brands including Surf Stitch, General Pants, Lego Stores, Ginger & Smart, Noni B and Rivers – thinks ecom pure players may be in trouble. Shoppers have swung back to physical stores just as digital customer acquisition costs “are going through the roof”. If marketers turn off the taps, sales evaporate, which could spell danger for the likes of The Iconic and Adore Beauty. Versus last year, “we’re definitely seeing a pullback in online,” he says, with some brands back as much as 30 per cent. Meanwhile, retailers that stocked up to head off crunched supply chains may find themselves scrambling to offload in January as a “definite slowdown” bites. Facioni hates the word ‘omnichannel’, but says it’s the future of profitable retail – hence lining up a physical presence for $50m acquisition Surf Stich, currently an online pure-player. Fresh back from Dreamforce, Facioni’s helping steer both group’s commerce and ERP stacks, with a customer data platform likely to follow. He also predicts social commerce will be the next revenue frontier.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 242Shoppable video ‘flying off the shelves’: Early results from News Corp-Moet & Chandon test campaign – 10%+ purchase intent, 38%+ unaided brand uplift
News Corp’s new shoppable video format, which lets audiences buy without leaving the content, has been “flying off the shelves” across alcohol, beauty and consumer electronics, News’ data, video and product director Paul Blackburn says – and the trial with Moet & Chandon hasn’t even finished. “We have 14 other clients in flight, post-Moet,” he said, “and there’s a huge pipeline of other clients looking.” The format is part of News’ reengineering effort to unlock what McKinsey describes as ‘commerce media’ or ‘content media’ – a $50bn incremental goldmine buried within media companies. “We’ve always been really good at upper funnel, we’re really good – we’ve always been an amazing billboard,” News’ MD for Client Product Pippa Leary says. “Now we’re going to become a billboard and a shopfront.” The trial with Moet, with Kantar testing, has found a 10 per cent plus rise in purchase intent and a 38 per cent unaided brand awareness uplift.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 241The ‘anti-consultancy’: OMD CEOs prove naysayers wrong, set new direction with behavioural science, UX, CX first of ten new products in push to break agency mould – say rivals still conflicted on tech
When Aimee Buchanan jumped ship to archrival GroupM, the knives were out for OMD’s joint CEOs Laura Nice and Sian Whitnall. “The only way is down,” per one nameless exec. One year on, they’ve so far proved the doubters wrong, retaining Coles and landing the consolidated NSW Government account, where a new behavioural science unit helped nudge the business over the line. By 2025, they’re aiming to launch ten similar new products in a push to break the media agency mould, with CX and UX top of the agenda. Unlike some rivals, they’re uninterested in going toe-to-toe with the big consultants eating market share, while suggesting rivals remain conflicted on tech recommendations now driving a big chunk of their cash. They think a very different leadership style to the previous regime is now paying off, and have even accepted the so-called ‘twats’ model – staff mostly in Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays – is working.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 240Sonic weapons: Why Menulog is crushing Uber Eats and Doordash but nothing compares to Bunnings: SCA and Neuro-Insight on how to crush the competition through audio branding
The results are in: Bunnings’ 25-year-old bluesy melody is the country’s most effective audio brand, per Southern Cross Austereo’s 2022 Audio Logo Index. It “might as well be the national anthem”, SCA’s Matt Dickson says. But Menulog has raced up the ladder and is now second in the minds of 4,000 people surveyed. In a super competitive set against the likes of Uber Eats and Doordash, Menulog, using Katy Perry and Snoop Dog, has formed strong memory structures in consumers with audio. “We don't have the same amount of dollars or funding as some of the bigger competitors, so we're constantly trying to get that cut through, get that stand out,” Menulog’s Fiona Bateman says. “It’s a jungle out there,” Neuro-Insights’ Peter Pynta says. “If you strengthen your network… you can also, at the same time, simultaneously be weakening the competition's strength.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 239Telstra shakeup: Former CMO Jeremy Nicholas and new marketing boss Brent Smart chart their handover, debate creativity versus CX in brand building as Smart softens stance on ‘vanilla’ martech
Telstra’s top marketer Jeremy Smart has moved on to run the telco’s digital sales and service operations, handing the CMO baton last month to former IAG marketing boss Brent Smart. Both are still working side by side at Telstra. The remits of digital, CX, ecom and marketing are increasingly intertwined - Nicholas now has responsibility for the 80 per cent of Telstra’s customer sales and service engagements which start online. Nicholas says he was partly lured to the role because brands are “defined increasingly by their customer experience and increasingly that’s a digital experience.” On the flipside, Brent Smart in 2019 was one of the few marketers who publicly called out the tech platforms which power blue chip customer experience deployments by saying marketing technology, or martech, was quickly turning vanilla. His position is softening. Here’s the full lowdown from two execs with among the biggest marketing and digital CX remits in the country. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 238Big Tech pain is publisher gain: Briefs ‘absolutely flowing in’ at News Corp as unified, granular user data play delivers, social platform effectiveness falters
As massive economic headwinds and Apple’s app tracking privacy push bear down on social platforms like Meta’s Facebook, the likes of News Corp Australia – long under pressure from Big Tech’s data smarts and audience scale – are positioning as full funnel alternatives. And it’s working. News reckons its News Connect data platform can target audiences on a granular level based on their interests and reading habits across retail, FMCG, travel, auto, and more. “You name it, we can find intenders in those categories,” says News’ GM of Client Product and Strategy Suzie Cardwell. Upper funnel ads drove a 55 per cent in-store boost for one furniture brand, while an auto manufacturer saw double the dealership visits for those exposed to ads on News’ platforms compared to those who weren’t. Per Cardwell: “The briefs are absolutely flowing in.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 237Beyond retailer media: $3.9bn ‘owned’ media wave coming – telcos, banks, service stations, travel and utilities undercooked; Power shift from merchandise to marketing
Cartology has made the early running and noise in the bustling supermarket media category but ‘owned' media – that is, all media and audience assets controlled by a brand – is at least three times the size of the grocery and liquor sector. And ‘retail aggregators’ (think Officeworks, BigW, Myer and JB Hi-Fi) is nearly 20 per cent bigger than the grocery sector, according to Sonder via a new report, hot off the press. The firm calculates Australia’s owned media potential stands at $3.9bn – and 80-90 per cent margins have CEOs and CFOs licking their lips. That could alter the balance of power between marketing, sales and merchandise, and potentially change the dynamics between paid, owned and earned investment. Founding partners Jonathan Hopkins and Angus Frazer run the rule over five standout categories – grocery and liquor, aggregated retail, telco, petrol and convenience, and finance – which players may be next to market (hint, anyone with a loyalty programme) and the implications for Australian media market dynamics.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 236Last click strikes back: Bupa, Pet Circle marketers say inflation, cost cuts will push CMOs, brands down funnel – so brace for search-social price spikes, but here’s how to protect budgets
Last click attribution is back. Tightening wallets, soaring inflation and a VC focus on profitability over growth is prompting a return to the metric, which Pet Circle CMO Jon Wild reckons is the least bad of a range of “horribly flawed” attribution options. Pet Circle has 800,000 active customers and revenues in the hundreds of millions. “For far too long, I think our industry has been peddling reach and frequency and brand consideration,” Wild says. “These metrics are very hard to put in a spreadsheet.” And they don’t satisfy the C-suite when staring at one of the biggest lines in a P&L. Bupa’s performance chief, Clea Baker, says prices are due to jump in search and social – but she’s investing in media mix solutions to protect brand spend on the increasingly rocky road ahead. Atomic212’s James Dixon and Rory Heffernan outline how marketers can start sandbagging against rising waters of cost cuts.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 235Confessions of Marketing Academy alumni: KFC, BWS, Edelman and Broadsheet execs open up on their emotional, electrifying and raw takes on the program and why it works when others don’t
It’s not a normal forensic look at marketing sciences, agency structures or CMO tactics this week – instead we speak to four alumni of The Marketing Academy’s exclusive scholarship program. Only 30 people get accepted into the course each year and, without exception, all of them rave about it being electrifying, transformative, emotional and raw. But why? BWS’ An Le, KFC’s Warren Mo, Edelman’s Fern Canning-Brook and former Broadsheet director Skye Rugless detail how they changed before and after completing the program, what super chickens can teach about leading and why quiet leadership can be a big strength.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 234Why Paramount upended the ratings calendar, what billion-dollar global FAST channel play Pluto brings to market – and how advertisers can shift product and gain reach
Free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels are going to keep viewers in Paramount’s ecosystem watching for longer, the network has bet via its upfront last week, unveiling a wave of new partnerships, products, shows and – crucially – a longer content slate. While competitors roll out male-skewed audiences over summer, Paramount will run The Bachelors, following The Challenge in December. “It’s tactical – moving here when they go there,” EVP and Chief Content Officer Beverley McGarvey says. She’s eyeing early wins and a bigger share of budgets. With PlutoTV’s extra channels through 10 Play, advertisers – especially those embedded in shows – will see incremental reach as key viewers keep watching. And as well as a tonne more inventory around dedicated channels – MasterChef and Survivor channels for example, pulling in series from around the world – Paramount’s going back to the future, as those channels will be curated in a bid to keep audiences glued to the channel, and therefore the commercials. There’s also e-commerce through Twitter, viewers choosing their own ads, automated content recognition through Samba TV and dynamic ads. Sales chief Rod Prosser now has more wares to sell, and expects “big take up”.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 233After James Packer stoush, journo-turned Nine publishing boss James Chessell takes aim at rivals for running scared; plots news-lifestyle diversification play. Can a journo change his spots?
Journalists have long hated advertising and sales. Now Nine has a battle-hardened journo responsible for the P&L of its publishing division, perhaps the first hack to be entrusted with news media fortunes since John Hartigan chaired News Corp and John Alexander left the old Fairfax for the Packer camp. Chessell having already triggered James Packer in recent weeks, carefully espouses his views on News Corp’s corporate and editorial agenda, but jabs The Guardian for running “scared” of taking on risky, investigative stories. But can the one-time business journalist and masthead editor continue the renaissance of a sector once seen by many as flogging a dead horse? Chessell’s backing editorial integrity and trust to drive advertiser and subscription growth within news while plotting diversification into new turf, admitting Covid audience gains will likely drop off. Now straddling church and state, he agrees media sales is a “knife fight in a phone box”, but says Michael Stephenson and publishing sales chief Jo Clasby are killing it. Chessell knows financial markets gobbledygook inside out even if he’s not yet so savvy on ad market, adtech and marketing lingo. Here’s his plan.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 232Colgate-Palmolive CMO, Rip Curl CMO on new model loyalty, moving the needle with values-based growth, Destination NSW consumer marketing boss on $44bn demand-supply crunch
Forget demographics and traditional consumer segments, smart marketers are looking at how customers choose brands based on values – both lofty and personal, VMLY&R’s Ali Tilling reckons. For Rip Curl, it’s a community that loves surfing – CMO Michael Scott once arrived at an empty meeting room because almost everyone was out on the waves. He’s building “the largest and most engaged surfing community in the world” – it’s not a “transactional” loyalty program, but a membership. It’s sustainability for Colgate-Palmolive CMO Anthony Crewes, who is pushing past 80 per cent recyclable toothpaste tubes of the 50 million sold each year. The challenge now is getting consumers to actually recycle them. Destination NSW’s Kathryn Illy says new experiences are critical to the travel industry, once worth $44 billion to the state – now half that but bouncing back.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 231Conquering creative: Deloitte Digital Australian boss Esan Tabrizi on how marketers missed digital amid brand, advertising focus; 1,400-strong team; CX, personalisation lessons and the push for creativity
Agency executives have long dismissed the big consulting firms’ attempts to embrace creativity and creative services for their end-to-end professional services offerings, but Deloitte Digital is hard to ignore. It has 1,400 people across its operation, encompassing tech, customer experience, strategy, product, growth and more, and it has now arguably conquered creative – topping Campaign Brief’s The Work list earlier this year. Head of Deloitte Digital Australia Esan Tabrizi says advertising is not his team’s end game, but rather being a full-service provider of customer outcomes – which may include advertising – are his focus. But creativity and creative thinking is now at the top of Deloitte Digital's agenda. In this conversation, Tabrizi also unpacks how marketers missed the boat on tech over the past decade, leading to the rise of Chief Digital, Chief Customer and Chief Growth Officers. But the next generation of gun CMOs, he says, will be much more tech savvy, and won’t get caught up in the tech stack wars. And perhaps most interestingly, current CMOs can learn from government on CX and personalisation - who would have thought? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 230Salesforce and LinkedIn global brand chiefs doubleheader: Culling content by 30 per cent, ‘preparing a funeral for last click’, holding brand spend amid turmoil, raiding B2C talent – and why it’s better to be like Disney than Adobe or Microsoft
Salesforce has culled its content output by circa 30 per cent – and is seeing major results. It’s waging war on vanity metrics – and “preparing a funeral” for last click and last touch attribution, per EVP Global Brand Marketing Colin Fleming. The firm has just wrapped up Dreamforce, the annual global pilgrimage where users flock to be evangelised by the high priests of B2B. Circa 40,000 people flooded San Francisco last week, paying US$2,000 a pop to attend what is morphing into the Disneyland of business branding and product. Fleming makes no apologies for lifting B2C’s playbook, stating he’d rather borrow from Disney than rivals like Adobe, Microsoft and SAP. He and LinkedIn global VP, Marketing Solutions, Jim Habig say they plan further B2C talent raids in a bid to lift B2B beyond spreadsheets and rational arguments – and say brand investment is helping to win the creative talent war. Meanwhile Habig is also set to overhaul account-based marketing – or ABM – by linking up with one of the world’s most successful restaurateurs, Will Guidara. Both are adamant that they will not slash brand investment amid market turmoil.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 229‘Preparing for a big crunch’: Chair of iSelect, Endota Brodie Arnhold on fuzzy marketing investments, low accountability impacting CMO boardroom credibility, and why MROI is crucial through macroeconomic challenges
In the boardroom, the marketers’ numbers are likely the least trusted, Brodie Arnhold, Chair of iSelect, Endota, says. Why? It was a “cost line without the accountability”. In his experience, adding up the sales, PR, and marketing figures, “the company should have been about eight times the size it really was. That always left with this kind of funny feeling of mistrust,” he says. Hence, he’s invested in Mutiny, an Australian company shaking up how marketers use econometrics, with AI and cloud processing, to demonstrate return on investment. “Whoever can prove their budget’s worth is going to be the one who keeps it in a recessionary environment,” co-founder Henry Innis says. Marketers can turn procurement enemies into allies with the right data, TrinityP3’s Darren Woolley says.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 228Woolies, Suncorp, Woolmark, Bayer follow Hollywood's default to AI, automated virtual production and 'hybrid' in-housing, offshoring boom as brand content volumes surge 20x in five years
The revolution in content and production that is sweeping through Hollywood studios and streaming services is hitting marketing, and the surging content volumes that brands need to create for multiple channels and screens is up at least 2,000 per cent in the past five years, Richard Glasson, global CEO of WPP's booming production group, Hogarth, estimates. As marketer budgets come under increasing pressure globally, Hogarth is betting big on artificial intelligence, automated content and virtual production, tipping Woolworths, Woolmark, Suncorp and Bayer as winners among their stable of clients. Glasson says virtual production cuts costs – he wouldn’t say by how much – and will rapidly become “the default way of producing work” in both Hollywood and advertising, as CMOs manage content demands across more channels to reach an increasingly fragmented consumer base. How does a marketer begin to think about the metaverse or Web3 with no extra budget, for example? A mix of smart creatives, automation, offshoring and “modular” production is a solution, Hogarth Australia's CEO Justin Ricketts says. A recent campaign creating a blazing inferno and New York apartment in a single day in a Melbourne studio shows how it’s done.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

S1 Ep 227Full funnel, targeted OOH: City of Sydney network pushes activation and brand via 30 advertiser verticals powered by transaction and location data – but QMS needs buyers to change approach
3D out of home advertising, pop up events and experiences, and ‘treasure hunt’-style, interactive campaigns across multiple screens are a few of the ideas QMS is hoping to bring to its new City of Sydney furniture network. With Sydney weekly audience numbers back to 90 per cent of pre-Covid levels, the QMS’s QMS' GM – City of Sydney Jemma Enright and Chief Customer Officer Mark Fairhurst say the screens are full funnel marketing assets: If used well, they can build awareness and consideration via brand investment and trigger a purchase or action at the bottom. But that requires a shift in out of home buying approaches. There are 30 packs – an FMCG pack, alcohol pack and movie-goers pack, for example – and a bank of Nielsen, transaction and location data. They are looking to tie-up a big chunk of budget commitment upfront – and early demand suggests the network is not short of suitors.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.