Mi3 Audio Edition

‘ESG is facing its GDPR moment’: From 1 Jan European regulations will ‘change the game’ on global sustainability reporting – lawsuits, jail time have C-suite ‘freaking out’, marketing reined-in

Spreadsheets are not going to save the planet. The threat of jail time might. “The world is facing enormous challenges, the clock is ticking, we are in an emergency,” says Ari Alexander, VP and GM, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud. Yet most businesses are all over the place when it comes to their environmental data. That makes it calculating where they are at nigh impossible, “let alone where they are going.” But regulators in the US and Europe are mobilising to make environmental reporting data as robust as financial data – and new standards will have profound implications for businesses globally. They can no longer hide, says Alexander, and the regulation is moving away from product-based carbon footprinting to enterprise-wide. As a result, marketers are already pulling back from green claims, with CPG giant Unilever being sued in Europe, per Alexander. He thinks it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

‘ESG is facing its GDPR moment’: From 1 Jan European regulations will ‘change the game’ on global sustainability reporting – lawsuits, jail time have C-suite ‘freaking out’, marketing reined-in

Spreadsheets are not going to save the planet. The threat of jail time might. “The world is facing enormous challenges, the clock is ticking, we are in an emergency,” says Ari Alexander, VP and GM, Salesforce Net Zero Cloud. Yet most businesses are all over the place when it comes to their environmental data. That makes it calculating where they are at nigh impossible, “let alone where they are going.” But regulators in the US and Europe are mobilising to make environmental reporting data as robust as financial data – and new standards will have profound implications for businesses globally. They can no longer hide, says Alexander, and the regulation is moving away from product-based carbon footprinting to enterprise-wide. As a result, marketers are already pulling back from green claims, with CPG giant Unilever being sued in Europe, per Alexander. He thinks it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

33:20

EP295 - S1

25 Sep 23

Work from home changed out of home audiences… for good: How Stan, luxury and lifestyle advertisers are cleaning up in Sydney as a result – QMS has the data to prove it

QMS landed the City of Sydney deal – one of the biggest contracts in Australian advertising history – in June 2020. Then Covid changed commuter patterns seemingly forever. Work from home initially left outdoor media companies sweating, not least QMS’s private equity owners Quadrant, given the scale of outlay required to build an entirely new City of Sydney network. But total audiences are now back to 2019 levels, out of home is powering and major advertisers reckon the shake-up is working in their favour. Stan CMO, Diana Ilinkovski, says the firm is getting a broader leisure-commuter mix within the 2.6m weekly sets of city eyeballs, enabling it to drive subscriber growth despite consumer belt tightening. Plus, the network’s digital flexibility means it can be far more agile in its messaging, targeting and creative optimisation. Bigger, brighter screens, per Ilinkovski, also boost cut-through – and QMS now has the in-day data to prove when, where and who those ads are hitting. Alongside lifestyle and entertainment, QMS Executive General Manager Mark Fairhurst says luxury advertisers are piling in, with the firm opening up a new batch of kiosk assets to further tap that literal rich vein. Plus its 3D screens are expanding – and Fairhurst reckons neither Sydney-siders nor advertisers will be able to miss what QMS calls ‘3DOOH’. Flight Centre is already on board, Maybelline is literally pushing product out of the screen and into the street and Ilinkovski hints Stan Sport may soon be kicking some 3D goals.

Work from home changed out of home audiences… for good: How Stan, luxury and lifestyle advertisers are cleaning up in Sydney as a result – QMS has the data to prove it

QMS landed the City of Sydney deal – one of the biggest contracts in Australian advertising history – in June 2020. Then Covid changed commuter patterns seemingly forever. Work from home initially left outdoor media companies sweating, not least QMS’s private equity owners Quadrant, given the scale of outlay required to build an entirely new City of Sydney network. But total audiences are now back to 2019 levels, out of home is powering and major advertisers reckon the shake-up is working in their favour. Stan CMO, Diana Ilinkovski, says the firm is getting a broader leisure-commuter mix within the 2.6m weekly sets of city eyeballs, enabling it to drive subscriber growth despite consumer belt tightening. Plus, the network’s digital flexibility means it can be far more agile in its messaging, targeting and creative optimisation. Bigger, brighter screens, per Ilinkovski, also boost cut-through – and QMS now has the in-day data to prove when, where and who those ads are hitting. Alongside lifestyle and entertainment, QMS Executive General Manager Mark Fairhurst says luxury advertisers are piling in, with the firm opening up a new batch of kiosk assets to further tap that literal rich vein. Plus its 3D screens are expanding – and Fairhurst reckons neither Sydney-siders nor advertisers will be able to miss what QMS calls ‘3DOOH’. Flight Centre is already on board, Maybelline is literally pushing product out of the screen and into the street and Ilinkovski hints Stan Sport may soon be kicking some 3D goals.

28:39

EP294 - S1

21 Sep 23

’15 versions of creative for multiple platforms is not marketing…it's just operations’: How Salesforce APAC CMO Leandro Perez’s 100-plus team is selling AI to the world - and applying it to reinvent their marketing roles and remits

After a wild week at Salesforce’s global jamboree in San Francisco, the tech giant’s full flip to generative AI was relentlessly hammered home. Like most, the heat is on APAC marketing boss Leandro Perez and his 100-plus regional marketing team to walk the talk, applying Salesforce’s new AI-powered capabilities to his own operation. Perez claims it’s working – from freeing up masses of time to iterate social posts on different platforms, to summarising Slack meetings, driving thousands of personalised iterations and interactions on its website, notching up to 80 per cent engagement rates on email campaigns – and potentially turning customer service teams into sales teams - at least partially. But Perez insists all those productivity gains won’t see teams hollowed out. “We never have enough people to do what we need to do anyway, especially if you have big visions from brand to demand.” Creating 15 versions of a social post and scheduling it “isn’t marketing” anyway, he says, “it’s just operations work. So I personally am not getting any pressure to reduce as a team.” Perez says the major B2B firms he’s speaking with all proffer similar lines. If anything, says Perez, generative AI gains mean he can ask for greater resource – because he can prove to leadership that marketing is powering through greater workloads, in turn driving sales growth. And APAC is Salesforce’s fastest growing market globally. Here’s a few insider learnings from a company selling AI to the world. And where B2B marketing is headed next.

’15 versions of creative for multiple platforms is not marketing…it's just operations’: How Salesforce APAC CMO Leandro Perez’s 100-plus team is selling AI to the world - and applying it to reinvent their marketing roles and remits

After a wild week at Salesforce’s global jamboree in San Francisco, the tech giant’s full flip to generative AI was relentlessly hammered home. Like most, the heat is on APAC marketing boss Leandro Perez and his 100-plus regional marketing team to walk the talk, applying Salesforce’s new AI-powered capabilities to his own operation. Perez claims it’s working – from freeing up masses of time to iterate social posts on different platforms, to summarising Slack meetings, driving thousands of personalised iterations and interactions on its website, notching up to 80 per cent engagement rates on email campaigns – and potentially turning customer service teams into sales teams - at least partially. But Perez insists all those productivity gains won’t see teams hollowed out. “We never have enough people to do what we need to do anyway, especially if you have big visions from brand to demand.” Creating 15 versions of a social post and scheduling it “isn’t marketing” anyway, he says, “it’s just operations work. So I personally am not getting any pressure to reduce as a team.” Perez says the major B2B firms he’s speaking with all proffer similar lines. If anything, says Perez, generative AI gains mean he can ask for greater resource – because he can prove to leadership that marketing is powering through greater workloads, in turn driving sales growth. And APAC is Salesforce’s fastest growing market globally. Here’s a few insider learnings from a company selling AI to the world. And where B2B marketing is headed next.

26:06

EP293 - S1

18 Sep 23

‘Decade of growth ahead for native content’ as brands move beyond ineffective repurposed ads and spreadsheets to reach 18m Australians; Luke Spano and Tim Duggan on standardising, scaling and media diversity mandates

The world “hates ads”, reckons Avid Collective boss Luke Spano. But high dwell times and engagement rates suggest they like native content. Marketers know this, but native content has been fragmented and highly manual, akin to insertion orders pre-programmatic. With little standardisation and patchy reporting metrics it couldn’t scale. While the likes of Taboola and Outbrain have hooked major publishers, they have “dirtied” native content’s reputation, per Spano. He suggests they are largely just repurposed ads. Avid Collective is bidding to fix all that. Locally, the firm has landed deals with the likes of Destination Gold Coast and ANZ-owned Cashrewards working with publishers from The Guardian and The Daily Mail through to Urban List and The Betoota Advocate as part of a 140-strong publisher network and platform that Spano claims reaches 18 million Australians, from students to boomers. It’s moving the needle for brands, says Spano, because those publishers along with Avid’s strategists create bespoke content they know will land with their audiences, not filler. Digital Publishers Alliance chair Tim Duggan spent years explaining native to marketers after founding Junkee. Avid’s platform would have cut dead time. But some of the 55 publishers in his alliance are piling in – eyeing major upside from native content over the next decade as marketers seek cost-efficient growth and greater media diversity as part of ESG mandates. Agencies are buying-in, per Spano, driving 70 per cent of spend on the platform. He’s aiming for 80-90 per cent by next year. After that Avid Collective aims to go global.

‘Decade of growth ahead for native content’ as brands move beyond ineffective repurposed ads and spreadsheets to reach 18m Australians; Luke Spano and Tim Duggan on standardising, scaling and media diversity mandates

The world “hates ads”, reckons Avid Collective boss Luke Spano. But high dwell times and engagement rates suggest they like native content. Marketers know this, but native content has been fragmented and highly manual, akin to insertion orders pre-programmatic. With little standardisation and patchy reporting metrics it couldn’t scale. While the likes of Taboola and Outbrain have hooked major publishers, they have “dirtied” native content’s reputation, per Spano. He suggests they are largely just repurposed ads. Avid Collective is bidding to fix all that. Locally, the firm has landed deals with the likes of Destination Gold Coast and ANZ-owned Cashrewards working with publishers from The Guardian and The Daily Mail through to Urban List and The Betoota Advocate as part of a 140-strong publisher network and platform that Spano claims reaches 18 million Australians, from students to boomers. It’s moving the needle for brands, says Spano, because those publishers along with Avid’s strategists create bespoke content they know will land with their audiences, not filler. Digital Publishers Alliance chair Tim Duggan spent years explaining native to marketers after founding Junkee. Avid’s platform would have cut dead time. But some of the 55 publishers in his alliance are piling in – eyeing major upside from native content over the next decade as marketers seek cost-efficient growth and greater media diversity as part of ESG mandates. Agencies are buying-in, per Spano, driving 70 per cent of spend on the platform. He’s aiming for 80-90 per cent by next year. After that Avid Collective aims to go global.

41:46

EP292 - S1

14 Sep 23

Even a shrink couldn’t fix media agencies’ narrow mindset: Why Dave Gaines ditched GroupM to build Media by Mother, takes no mark-ups on media buying – “just data entry” – KPIs staff on learning, planning Apac launch

After two decades at GroupM, Dave Gaines quit to launch Media by Mother, an offshoot of creative London hotshop Mother that he reckons may ultimately be subsumed by its progeny. A major frustration with the WPP-owned business, per Gaines, was the inability for swathes of its people to think laterally, critically and stay curious. He hired a shrink to try and fix the problem, and then tried to take a creative-agency led approach to media within WPP. Ultimately, neither worked. Now Media by Mother staff – many liberal arts grads – are KPI’d to read, listen and learn outside of their current remits to better understand the bigger picture. If they do, they get up to 15 per cent more salary. If they don’t, “there are plenty of other places they can work.” The agency doesn’t make any money from trading media, “the money flows through their pipes, not ours”, and Gaines says media buying is a misnomer: “it’s just data entry”. Meanwhile, he reckons those arguing over Recma billings rankings are bald men fighting over a comb: “If you think scale is important, you don't know how an auction works.” After hitting its five-year growth targets in two years, Media by Mother is now planning an Apac office, and a Naked 2.0 model – except with execution, which Gaines reckons was Naked’s downfall. Its precise Apac location will be determined by finding curious, T-shaped contextual operators. He reckons Australians are better at that than US peers… but it’s a low bar.

Even a shrink couldn’t fix media agencies’ narrow mindset: Why Dave Gaines ditched GroupM to build Media by Mother, takes no mark-ups on media buying – “just data entry” – KPIs staff on learning, planning Apac launch

After two decades at GroupM, Dave Gaines quit to launch Media by Mother, an offshoot of creative London hotshop Mother that he reckons may ultimately be subsumed by its progeny. A major frustration with the WPP-owned business, per Gaines, was the inability for swathes of its people to think laterally, critically and stay curious. He hired a shrink to try and fix the problem, and then tried to take a creative-agency led approach to media within WPP. Ultimately, neither worked. Now Media by Mother staff – many liberal arts grads – are KPI’d to read, listen and learn outside of their current remits to better understand the bigger picture. If they do, they get up to 15 per cent more salary. If they don’t, “there are plenty of other places they can work.” The agency doesn’t make any money from trading media, “the money flows through their pipes, not ours”, and Gaines says media buying is a misnomer: “it’s just data entry”. Meanwhile, he reckons those arguing over Recma billings rankings are bald men fighting over a comb: “If you think scale is important, you don't know how an auction works.” After hitting its five-year growth targets in two years, Media by Mother is now planning an Apac office, and a Naked 2.0 model – except with execution, which Gaines reckons was Naked’s downfall. Its precise Apac location will be determined by finding curious, T-shaped contextual operators. He reckons Australians are better at that than US peers… but it’s a low bar.

51:59

EP291 - S1

11 Sep 23

Taking retailer media up the funnel, how $305m for Olympics rights may prove cheap, why media buyers are wrong about Stan ads, and TV’s 10 per cent audience boost

Media buyers this week applauded Nine’s retailer media launch – but wanted more detail. They always do. Sales chief Michael Stephenson and CMO Liana Dubois unpack it here, alongside Nine’s bid to take the fight to Meta, Google and TikTok with a self-serve AI-powered ad platform aimed squarely at Australia’s 2.5 million small businesses currently spending $1.5bn a year on “less efficient” social video. For big advertisers, Nine is bringing all its data, reach and assets to bear as it fires the starter pistol on a decade-long Olympics run, with new ‘9Tribes’ or segments being created from 20 million signed in users and new ways to match. Dubois is backing the games to drive major audience growth – and help convert light and lapsed viewers to heavy long-term users. Either way, she says Australia’s population will be at 30m by 2032, which means TV, and every other media channel, has 3.5m more eyeballs to aim for – and user experience will determine winners. Media buyers at Nine’s Upfront also warned the network is making a “big mistake” by not following the likes of Netflix and Foxtel into SVOD advertising. Stephenson insists they are wrong.

Taking retailer media up the funnel, how $305m for Olympics rights may prove cheap, why media buyers are wrong about Stan ads, and TV’s 10 per cent audience boost

Media buyers this week applauded Nine’s retailer media launch – but wanted more detail. They always do. Sales chief Michael Stephenson and CMO Liana Dubois unpack it here, alongside Nine’s bid to take the fight to Meta, Google and TikTok with a self-serve AI-powered ad platform aimed squarely at Australia’s 2.5 million small businesses currently spending $1.5bn a year on “less efficient” social video. For big advertisers, Nine is bringing all its data, reach and assets to bear as it fires the starter pistol on a decade-long Olympics run, with new ‘9Tribes’ or segments being created from 20 million signed in users and new ways to match. Dubois is backing the games to drive major audience growth – and help convert light and lapsed viewers to heavy long-term users. Either way, she says Australia’s population will be at 30m by 2032, which means TV, and every other media channel, has 3.5m more eyeballs to aim for – and user experience will determine winners. Media buyers at Nine’s Upfront also warned the network is making a “big mistake” by not following the likes of Netflix and Foxtel into SVOD advertising. Stephenson insists they are wrong.

47:13

EP290 - S1

7 Sep 23

Tabcorp customer chief Jenni Barnett stems digital haemorrhage to snappier rivals; bins bad media deals, restructures teams, now gunning for 10x conversion via ‘personalisation to context’

Since leaving Telstra to take on a wide-ranging c-suite role at Tabcorp – spanning product, data and data science, customer experience and personalisation, brand, marketing and sponsorship with revenue responsibility – Chief Customer Officer Jenni Barnett has hit the turf running. The betting firm was haemorrhaging customers to digitally-savvier, free-spending rivals like Sportsbet and Ladbrokes. One year in, she’s stemmed the flow after launching a new app and migrating nearly a million customers within months to make the Spring Racing Carnival, driving ten updates since and KPI-ing the whole firm on digital revenue share. Customer experience is the key battleground per Barnett – and she’s front-running regulation and pulling Tabcorp out of daytime TV. To reel-in rivals she’s undertaken a sweeping overhaul of the marketing, digital, data and product teams and their capabilities – and pushed talent to develop quickly. Game on.

Tabcorp customer chief Jenni Barnett stems digital haemorrhage to snappier rivals; bins bad media deals, restructures teams, now gunning for 10x conversion via ‘personalisation to context’

Since leaving Telstra to take on a wide-ranging c-suite role at Tabcorp – spanning product, data and data science, customer experience and personalisation, brand, marketing and sponsorship with revenue responsibility – Chief Customer Officer Jenni Barnett has hit the turf running. The betting firm was haemorrhaging customers to digitally-savvier, free-spending rivals like Sportsbet and Ladbrokes. One year in, she’s stemmed the flow after launching a new app and migrating nearly a million customers within months to make the Spring Racing Carnival, driving ten updates since and KPI-ing the whole firm on digital revenue share. Customer experience is the key battleground per Barnett – and she’s front-running regulation and pulling Tabcorp out of daytime TV. To reel-in rivals she’s undertaken a sweeping overhaul of the marketing, digital, data and product teams and their capabilities – and pushed talent to develop quickly. Game on.

40:52

EP289 - S1

4 Sep 23

Retail media goes upmarket: David Jones CMO targets auto, travel, lifestyle brands in premium tilt, touts 5.4m high-end shoppers across stores, online and open web as crunch-resistant customers keep spending

David Jones’ new retail media business wants brand budgets – both from the suppliers it already works with as well as wooing marketers across travel, automotive and lifestyle. CMO James Holloman is backing shopper data from 5.4 million premium David Jones customers – and the ability to hyper-target them across DJs stores and digital assets as well as across the open web – in a plan to woo marketers to spend with its new Amplify media unit. Years in the making, Holloman needed to convince powerful merchandising teams to cede control of how they strike deals with suppliers while building a tech stack from scratch and centralising control of its sprawling assets. Now the marketing-run Amplify has its own P&L and great management expectations. Jonathan Hopkins, whose firm Sonder helped value DJ’s assets and develop the media business, says the average department store retailer in Australia could make $34m annually from media. But that’s the average, and DJs is top-end, with 55m annual store visits and 110m hits to its website. It’s loyalty data-powered offsite media revenue could be significant but Holloman’s not putting a figure out there, and shies away from any suggestion it’s a ‘Cartology for premium shoppers’. “It’s early days,” he says. “But we’ve got ambitious targets.” Here’s how Australia’s oldest retailer got into the newest, fastest-growing media game in town – and where it’s headed next.

Retail media goes upmarket: David Jones CMO targets auto, travel, lifestyle brands in premium tilt, touts 5.4m high-end shoppers across stores, online and open web as crunch-resistant customers keep spending

David Jones’ new retail media business wants brand budgets – both from the suppliers it already works with as well as wooing marketers across travel, automotive and lifestyle. CMO James Holloman is backing shopper data from 5.4 million premium David Jones customers – and the ability to hyper-target them across DJs stores and digital assets as well as across the open web – in a plan to woo marketers to spend with its new Amplify media unit. Years in the making, Holloman needed to convince powerful merchandising teams to cede control of how they strike deals with suppliers while building a tech stack from scratch and centralising control of its sprawling assets. Now the marketing-run Amplify has its own P&L and great management expectations. Jonathan Hopkins, whose firm Sonder helped value DJ’s assets and develop the media business, says the average department store retailer in Australia could make $34m annually from media. But that’s the average, and DJs is top-end, with 55m annual store visits and 110m hits to its website. It’s loyalty data-powered offsite media revenue could be significant but Holloman’s not putting a figure out there, and shies away from any suggestion it’s a ‘Cartology for premium shoppers’. “It’s early days,” he says. “But we’ve got ambitious targets.” Here’s how Australia’s oldest retailer got into the newest, fastest-growing media game in town – and where it’s headed next.

32:24

EP288 - S1

28 Aug 23

Lessons from billion dollar Barbenheimer: Brands to rethink IP marketing, merch as Hoyts, Val Morgan bosses say marketers scrambling for ‘next ten Barbies’ - Kia, AAMI, Chemist Warehouse win big

The experts at Hoyts and Val Morgan didn’t see it coming quite as it did. Hoyts CEO Damian Keogh says he was “laughed out of the room” for suggesting Barbie would take $35m at the Australian box office. It will do double that – meaning Margot Robbie’s not the only one in the pink. Kia, AAMi, Chemist Warehouse, Modibodi and Nintendo aside, marketers are kicking themselves for being equally blind to the opportunity. Now Val Morgan’s phone is ringing hot with advertisers “asking what are our next ten Barbies”, per MD Guy Burbidge. He and Keogh have a good idea what they are. They think the lesson for brands is to think earlier and smarter about IP marketing. Meanwhile, Barbenheimer has brought lapsed cinema audiences back to screens – 15 per cent hadn’t been for a year, per Hoyts 2.5 million member loyalty data – auguring well for a year in which the box office is powering back to the billion dollar mark. Plus, says Burbidge, cinema’s investment in attention data is having a “significant” revenue impact as marketers seek mass cultural alternatives to sport. Here’s the next big screen bets they think marketers should be laying over the next 12 months.

Lessons from billion dollar Barbenheimer: Brands to rethink IP marketing, merch as Hoyts, Val Morgan bosses say marketers scrambling for ‘next ten Barbies’ - Kia, AAMI, Chemist Warehouse win big

The experts at Hoyts and Val Morgan didn’t see it coming quite as it did. Hoyts CEO Damian Keogh says he was “laughed out of the room” for suggesting Barbie would take $35m at the Australian box office. It will do double that – meaning Margot Robbie’s not the only one in the pink. Kia, AAMi, Chemist Warehouse, Modibodi and Nintendo aside, marketers are kicking themselves for being equally blind to the opportunity. Now Val Morgan’s phone is ringing hot with advertisers “asking what are our next ten Barbies”, per MD Guy Burbidge. He and Keogh have a good idea what they are. They think the lesson for brands is to think earlier and smarter about IP marketing. Meanwhile, Barbenheimer has brought lapsed cinema audiences back to screens – 15 per cent hadn’t been for a year, per Hoyts 2.5 million member loyalty data – auguring well for a year in which the box office is powering back to the billion dollar mark. Plus, says Burbidge, cinema’s investment in attention data is having a “significant” revenue impact as marketers seek mass cultural alternatives to sport. Here’s the next big screen bets they think marketers should be laying over the next 12 months.

23:01

EP287 - S1

21 Aug 23

‘Monumental gains’: SCA chief marketer Nikki Clarkson on how broadcaster bet the farm building new customer platform from zip to 1.5m users, collapsed exec silos and forced new marketing skills beyond brand comms

Just about every B2C business is trying to build superglue stickiness into their user platforms. Nimble start-ups, at least prior to the big VC squeeze, were the poster children, leaving big legacy firms foundering in their wake. But SCA’s pivot to uber app Listnr is a standout exception, reinventing its digital audience business and building a new brand from scratch – pretty much all in-house. Launched mid-Covid in a bid to see off local incursion from the likes of Apple, Spotify and iHeart, Listnr has already powered past 1.5m signed-up users. Now SCA is using the logged-in data – alongside a new martech stack and digitally upskilled marketing department – to move the needle across acquisition, retention and engagement, while giving advertisers sharper incentive to spend. CMO Nikki Clarkson said the pivot required the entire business to suspend traditional thinking – from finance, sales, marketing, content, distribution, research and tech – without dropping the ball on its day-to-day game. Then the business had to go through a major systems overhaul while learning the language of tech and customer experience. But she says the pay-off and ROI is already landing, with marketing alone making “monumental gains” by aligning sharper digital tools with brand-building assets. Her takeout for those planning mass audience transformations? Go broad or go home.

‘Monumental gains’: SCA chief marketer Nikki Clarkson on how broadcaster bet the farm building new customer platform from zip to 1.5m users, collapsed exec silos and forced new marketing skills beyond brand comms

Just about every B2C business is trying to build superglue stickiness into their user platforms. Nimble start-ups, at least prior to the big VC squeeze, were the poster children, leaving big legacy firms foundering in their wake. But SCA’s pivot to uber app Listnr is a standout exception, reinventing its digital audience business and building a new brand from scratch – pretty much all in-house. Launched mid-Covid in a bid to see off local incursion from the likes of Apple, Spotify and iHeart, Listnr has already powered past 1.5m signed-up users. Now SCA is using the logged-in data – alongside a new martech stack and digitally upskilled marketing department – to move the needle across acquisition, retention and engagement, while giving advertisers sharper incentive to spend. CMO Nikki Clarkson said the pivot required the entire business to suspend traditional thinking – from finance, sales, marketing, content, distribution, research and tech – without dropping the ball on its day-to-day game. Then the business had to go through a major systems overhaul while learning the language of tech and customer experience. But she says the pay-off and ROI is already landing, with marketing alone making “monumental gains” by aligning sharper digital tools with brand-building assets. Her takeout for those planning mass audience transformations? Go broad or go home.

36:13

EP286 - S1

14 Aug 23

Lion’s ex-CMO, now Chief Growth Officer trailblazes with company-wide IT budgets and strategy, M&A, marketing and innovation agenda; Anubha Sahasrabuddhe sets 500-day target to flip IT culture to customers

Tectonic movement is reshaping blue chip marketing with remits expanding by the day. Coles and IAG replaced the CMO role with Chief Customer officers. ANZ CMO Sweta Mehra was last month promoted to Managing Director of ANZ’s Everyday Banking business. But Lion’s latest move tops the lot for adventure. Anubha Sahasrabuddhe in February became Chief Growth Officer at the $3bn drinks firm. The former Mars global marketing chief has responsibility for marketing, M&A plus enterprise-wide transformational innovation beyond new product development. Just to make things more interesting she’s also been handed responsibility for IT and technology. Which means the CMO is now effectively CTO, CIO and CDO to boot. Lion CEO Sam Fischer, former APAC chief at Diageo, is backing Sahasrabuddhe to deliver. She’s given herself and her team 500 days to move the needle and reengineer the company’s culture, including IT, entirely around the customer. “If we can't demonstrate sufficient progress, then we can't justify our existence,” says Sahasrabuddhe. “The days are ticking.” This podcast is as wide-ranging as the remit. Tuck in.

Lion’s ex-CMO, now Chief Growth Officer trailblazes with company-wide IT budgets and strategy, M&A, marketing and innovation agenda; Anubha Sahasrabuddhe sets 500-day target to flip IT culture to customers

Tectonic movement is reshaping blue chip marketing with remits expanding by the day. Coles and IAG replaced the CMO role with Chief Customer officers. ANZ CMO Sweta Mehra was last month promoted to Managing Director of ANZ’s Everyday Banking business. But Lion’s latest move tops the lot for adventure. Anubha Sahasrabuddhe in February became Chief Growth Officer at the $3bn drinks firm. The former Mars global marketing chief has responsibility for marketing, M&A plus enterprise-wide transformational innovation beyond new product development. Just to make things more interesting she’s also been handed responsibility for IT and technology. Which means the CMO is now effectively CTO, CIO and CDO to boot. Lion CEO Sam Fischer, former APAC chief at Diageo, is backing Sahasrabuddhe to deliver. She’s given herself and her team 500 days to move the needle and reengineer the company’s culture, including IT, entirely around the customer. “If we can't demonstrate sufficient progress, then we can't justify our existence,” says Sahasrabuddhe. “The days are ticking.” This podcast is as wide-ranging as the remit. Tuck in.

45:42

EP285 - S1

7 Aug 23

'We’re going all in’: SXSW’s biggest tribes are brands, marketing, tech as Sydney gig aims for Southern hemisphere creative, innovation super event; Seven plots biggest overhaul of Upfronts format in decades with full-week SxSW program

Uber launched at South by Southwest, as did Twitter, Pinterest and Foursquare. Billie Eilish was discovered as an unsigned 14-year old. Mumford and Sons first made their name at the creative-tech-culture jamboree in Austin, Texas. In three months time the world will learn whether the powerhouse event can replicate itself outside of the Lone Star State. SXSW Sydney MD, Colin Daniels, is backing Sin City to deliver – with the likes of futurist Amy Webb, Coachella co-founder Paul Tollet and Slack co-founder Cal Henderson joining “titans of every industry” across tech and innovation, music, games and screens. He says every one of its 70 featured speakers would likely be the keynote at any other event. No wonder circa 500 brands are keen to get involved – which is one of the reasons Seven West Media is going large, partnering with SXSW Sydney and planning to spring a very different kind of upfront during the week-long festival. Chief Revenue Officer, Kurt Burnette, said getting the investment over the line was a “difficult conversation”, but he’s backing the play to position the network at the heart of the creative-tech nexus and change perceptions. CMO Mel Hopkins will have a big hand in shaping what that looks like. No pressure then.

'We’re going all in’: SXSW’s biggest tribes are brands, marketing, tech as Sydney gig aims for Southern hemisphere creative, innovation super event; Seven plots biggest overhaul of Upfronts format in decades with full-week SxSW program

Uber launched at South by Southwest, as did Twitter, Pinterest and Foursquare. Billie Eilish was discovered as an unsigned 14-year old. Mumford and Sons first made their name at the creative-tech-culture jamboree in Austin, Texas. In three months time the world will learn whether the powerhouse event can replicate itself outside of the Lone Star State. SXSW Sydney MD, Colin Daniels, is backing Sin City to deliver – with the likes of futurist Amy Webb, Coachella co-founder Paul Tollet and Slack co-founder Cal Henderson joining “titans of every industry” across tech and innovation, music, games and screens. He says every one of its 70 featured speakers would likely be the keynote at any other event. No wonder circa 500 brands are keen to get involved – which is one of the reasons Seven West Media is going large, partnering with SXSW Sydney and planning to spring a very different kind of upfront during the week-long festival. Chief Revenue Officer, Kurt Burnette, said getting the investment over the line was a “difficult conversation”, but he’s backing the play to position the network at the heart of the creative-tech nexus and change perceptions. CMO Mel Hopkins will have a big hand in shaping what that looks like. No pressure then.

33:32

EP284 - S1

31 Jul 23

Cookies again? Google’s global hegemony measuring 100m-plus websites faltering amid corporate governance concerns in privacy, data ownership; Brands, tech, advisors weigh-in on measurement meltdown

Tightening privacy regimes around the world are forcing Google to change the way it tracks and measures web traffic across the majority of the globe’s estimated 100m sites on the open web. That’s forced Google’s Universal Analytics to be swapped out with an entirely new product knowns as GA4. The problem is it’s a mess for most. And it's a likely marker for what’s to come in Australia - companies in Europe, and even the US, are pulling out of Google'snear-ubiquitous [and once free] analytics platform as marketers fumble with new tools, unable to quickly pull key reports, historical comparisons and insights. Many are raging against the big Google data-swiping machine as European regulators enforcing stricter rules on how people’s data is used, stored and transferred and dishing out big fines over GDPR breaches. Some of the big questions hovering over Google’s new analytics products include whether they’re fully privacy compliant, particularly if Google is feeding its vast global advertising business via sample data carved out from website owner data, most of whom are only now discovering they don’t own or often see all their real audience behaviour. In France, about 80 per cent have reviewed their analytics, per Piano’s global analytics chief Marie Fenner, and “about 60 per cent” have switched". That scenario may soon repeat in Australia as data privacy rules are beefed-up. Scentre Group performance marketing lead Jason Elk thinks the shake-up threatens Google’s analytics dominance and by proxy its broader business. Matomo CRO Dion Blair, agrees. “Right now, unlike any time in the past 15 years, we're seeing the choice [businesses are making for analytics] is potentially not the big behemoth.” With Google shutting off Universal Analytics a few weeks ago, here’s what marketers locally and globally are likely to face.

Cookies again? Google’s global hegemony measuring 100m-plus websites faltering amid corporate governance concerns in privacy, data ownership; Brands, tech, advisors weigh-in on measurement meltdown

Tightening privacy regimes around the world are forcing Google to change the way it tracks and measures web traffic across the majority of the globe’s estimated 100m sites on the open web. That’s forced Google’s Universal Analytics to be swapped out with an entirely new product knowns as GA4. The problem is it’s a mess for most. And it's a likely marker for what’s to come in Australia - companies in Europe, and even the US, are pulling out of Google'snear-ubiquitous [and once free] analytics platform as marketers fumble with new tools, unable to quickly pull key reports, historical comparisons and insights. Many are raging against the big Google data-swiping machine as European regulators enforcing stricter rules on how people’s data is used, stored and transferred and dishing out big fines over GDPR breaches. Some of the big questions hovering over Google’s new analytics products include whether they’re fully privacy compliant, particularly if Google is feeding its vast global advertising business via sample data carved out from website owner data, most of whom are only now discovering they don’t own or often see all their real audience behaviour. In France, about 80 per cent have reviewed their analytics, per Piano’s global analytics chief Marie Fenner, and “about 60 per cent” have switched". That scenario may soon repeat in Australia as data privacy rules are beefed-up. Scentre Group performance marketing lead Jason Elk thinks the shake-up threatens Google’s analytics dominance and by proxy its broader business. Matomo CRO Dion Blair, agrees. “Right now, unlike any time in the past 15 years, we're seeing the choice [businesses are making for analytics] is potentially not the big behemoth.” With Google shutting off Universal Analytics a few weeks ago, here’s what marketers locally and globally are likely to face.

01:05:36

EP283 - S1

24 Jul 23

‘No hallucinations’: NAB, Tabcorp, Accenture Song on 'applied AI’ - less ‘possible', more ‘pragmatic’ use cases first; NAB flags AI creative surge for 500m personalised messages but brands warned on mindless messaging, CX usurping media for brand building

NAB CMO Suzana Ristevski is a touch emphatic after just completing a three-year, $45m grinding overhaul of the bank's marketing technology systems that has seen 95 per cent of the tools used by the marketing team switched out - a Pega decisioning engine and Tealium's customer data platform are among the new line-up. Now NAB is ready for the AI stuff. Ristevski acknowledges “inflicting a lot of pain” on the bank’s marketing team in the tech transformation and there’s more to come but "more exciting" as NAB works to embed machine learning and generative AI to deliver personalisation at scale that isn’t just “sending out rubbish”. She’s already sent out 10x more comms, now circling at 500m. But the bank is acutely aware of the risks posed by AI – and the strategy goes all the way up to the top. Tabcorp is onto its third in-house generative AI program and the creation of a centralised unit, Next Labs, to experiment - the problem with the other two was that they lied, or suffered “hallucinations”, per Chief Data & Analytics Officer Amy Shi-Nash. But Tabcorp can’t risk plugging into things like ChatGPT. The Monkeys and Accenture Song ANZ boss Mark Green, meanwhile, is back from Cannes where the AI banter was redlining on a "moral crisis" crisis for creativity, not dissimilar to the previous metaverse hype cycle. Green’s not worried. He reckons he’s slipped Accenture Song Global Creative Chair Nick Law an idea “that’s as good as any we’ve ever created” with generative AI at its core - and he says the client briefs are coming in from all angles. New York-based Law thinks there are new AI risks which will undermine the fascination and effectiveness of personalisation - namely, tonnes of mediocre messaging that will be created under the guise of 'right person, right time', unleashing a sea of sameness. NAB's Ristevski agrees.

‘No hallucinations’: NAB, Tabcorp, Accenture Song on 'applied AI’ - less ‘possible', more ‘pragmatic’ use cases first; NAB flags AI creative surge for 500m personalised messages but brands warned on mindless messaging, CX usurping media for brand building

NAB CMO Suzana Ristevski is a touch emphatic after just completing a three-year, $45m grinding overhaul of the bank's marketing technology systems that has seen 95 per cent of the tools used by the marketing team switched out - a Pega decisioning engine and Tealium's customer data platform are among the new line-up. Now NAB is ready for the AI stuff. Ristevski acknowledges “inflicting a lot of pain” on the bank’s marketing team in the tech transformation and there’s more to come but "more exciting" as NAB works to embed machine learning and generative AI to deliver personalisation at scale that isn’t just “sending out rubbish”. She’s already sent out 10x more comms, now circling at 500m. But the bank is acutely aware of the risks posed by AI – and the strategy goes all the way up to the top. Tabcorp is onto its third in-house generative AI program and the creation of a centralised unit, Next Labs, to experiment - the problem with the other two was that they lied, or suffered “hallucinations”, per Chief Data & Analytics Officer Amy Shi-Nash. But Tabcorp can’t risk plugging into things like ChatGPT. The Monkeys and Accenture Song ANZ boss Mark Green, meanwhile, is back from Cannes where the AI banter was redlining on a "moral crisis" crisis for creativity, not dissimilar to the previous metaverse hype cycle. Green’s not worried. He reckons he’s slipped Accenture Song Global Creative Chair Nick Law an idea “that’s as good as any we’ve ever created” with generative AI at its core - and he says the client briefs are coming in from all angles. New York-based Law thinks there are new AI risks which will undermine the fascination and effectiveness of personalisation - namely, tonnes of mediocre messaging that will be created under the guise of 'right person, right time', unleashing a sea of sameness. NAB's Ristevski agrees.

52:28

EP282 - S1

17 Jul 23

Penfolds-Treasury Wines lauds creative, media together for its in-house agency Splash, now going global: one year old, 20 people, 400 projects, same marketing budget but doing more, better, faster – mostly

When Elsa Beaumont was tapped last year by Treasury Wines Estate – home of the mighty Penfolds – the former exec at global hot shops like Mother and Big Spaceship, and her colleague Ben Oliver, who’s running Treasury’s internal media unit at Splash, were worried. Could they beat all the warnings that come from agencies when brands try to go in-house with capabilities all previously outsourced: talent is hard to attract and keep stimulated, burnout is a high risk and any cost benefits would be shortlived. Burnout risk turned out to be true but the talent, quality and volume of work is rocking, they say – and now Splash is preparing for a global rollout across Treasury Wines’ international markets. The upside is faster turnarounds, tighter links with marketing teams and better output than what was possible by just using agencies. And in the case of media, Oliver is chasing down transparent digital media buys and practices that he never quite got in life before Splash.

Penfolds-Treasury Wines lauds creative, media together for its in-house agency Splash, now going global: one year old, 20 people, 400 projects, same marketing budget but doing more, better, faster – mostly

When Elsa Beaumont was tapped last year by Treasury Wines Estate – home of the mighty Penfolds – the former exec at global hot shops like Mother and Big Spaceship, and her colleague Ben Oliver, who’s running Treasury’s internal media unit at Splash, were worried. Could they beat all the warnings that come from agencies when brands try to go in-house with capabilities all previously outsourced: talent is hard to attract and keep stimulated, burnout is a high risk and any cost benefits would be shortlived. Burnout risk turned out to be true but the talent, quality and volume of work is rocking, they say – and now Splash is preparing for a global rollout across Treasury Wines’ international markets. The upside is faster turnarounds, tighter links with marketing teams and better output than what was possible by just using agencies. And in the case of media, Oliver is chasing down transparent digital media buys and practices that he never quite got in life before Splash.

48:12

EP281 - S1

3 Jul 23

ANZ CMO Sweta Mehra: ‘There’s only so far you can go with paid media’ – why ANZ is investing heavily in its owned media assets; 85 million impacts a month across ANZ channels triggered a ‘mindset shift’ for marketing team

After ANZ CMO Sweta Mehra commissioned owned media specialists Sonder to conduct a valuation and audit of the media assets the bank owned and managed, her big discovery was that circa 85 million impacts a month, mostly from ANZ customers, were under leveraged by the business. Now ANZ’s marketing team think first about their owned channels before developing paid media briefs. New content hubs coupled with ANZ’s two year investment overhauling its tech and personalisation capabilities, for example, has seen “up to a tripling of conversion rates”, says Mehra. Sonder Co-Founder Jonathan Hopkins says ANZ also has a big upside in acquiring new customers from its owned media assets, not just better cross-selling of products to existing customers."ANZ have screens outward facing in most branches around the country - in some cases they can also do customer acquisition."

ANZ CMO Sweta Mehra: ‘There’s only so far you can go with paid media’ – why ANZ is investing heavily in its owned media assets; 85 million impacts a month across ANZ channels triggered a ‘mindset shift’ for marketing team

After ANZ CMO Sweta Mehra commissioned owned media specialists Sonder to conduct a valuation and audit of the media assets the bank owned and managed, her big discovery was that circa 85 million impacts a month, mostly from ANZ customers, were under leveraged by the business. Now ANZ’s marketing team think first about their owned channels before developing paid media briefs. New content hubs coupled with ANZ’s two year investment overhauling its tech and personalisation capabilities, for example, has seen “up to a tripling of conversion rates”, says Mehra. Sonder Co-Founder Jonathan Hopkins says ANZ also has a big upside in acquiring new customers from its owned media assets, not just better cross-selling of products to existing customers."ANZ have screens outward facing in most branches around the country - in some cases they can also do customer acquisition."

36:58

EP280 - S1

29 Jun 23

Return of the Chief Customer Officer – the CMO’s new boss: Coles, IAG latest blue chips on board with broader remits and revenues; Inghams, MyCar, Hipages log their progress

Coles and IAG have joined the march to install Chief Customer Officers into roles that were either previously at least partly the domain of CMOs or now have marketing as a reporting line. But what does a CCO do? Is it job title semantics or is the mission sweep broader? And where does this new executive species come from? Three Chief Customer Officers from Inghams Group, Hipages and MyCar, the overhauled Kmart Tyre & Auto, breakdown their agenda and why their firms opted for the role – and in Inghams case, why everything starts with “balancing the bird”.

Return of the Chief Customer Officer – the CMO’s new boss: Coles, IAG latest blue chips on board with broader remits and revenues; Inghams, MyCar, Hipages log their progress

Coles and IAG have joined the march to install Chief Customer Officers into roles that were either previously at least partly the domain of CMOs or now have marketing as a reporting line. But what does a CCO do? Is it job title semantics or is the mission sweep broader? And where does this new executive species come from? Three Chief Customer Officers from Inghams Group, Hipages and MyCar, the overhauled Kmart Tyre & Auto, breakdown their agenda and why their firms opted for the role – and in Inghams case, why everything starts with “balancing the bird”.

48:31

EP279 - S1

26 Jun 23

Standout brand, agency media work unveiled in MFA Awards: Lego, NRMA, Defence Force, Mars, Suncorp, Dell, Netflix, Campari lead shortlist; Initiative, EssenceMediacom, OMD top agency haul

The Media Federation of Australia unveiled a hot shortlist of the brands and agencies delivering the best work and business impact in media for 2023, with Lego, NRMA, Campari’s Aperol, Netflix and Suncorp among those leading the finalists tally. About 30 advertisers and 20 agencies made the cut of finalists with three marketers among the judging line-up for the 2023 MFA Awards joining Mi3 to unpack why some entries got their likes - and laments. Arnott’s CMO, Jenni Dill, Unilever’s Director of Digital Marketing, Media and Commerce, Sarah Sorrenson and Deakin Business School’s Adjunct Professor and former CMO at Coles and Tourism Australia, Lisa Ronson, reveal their collective observations and scorecards (well some of them) on the standard of work in the past year.

Standout brand, agency media work unveiled in MFA Awards: Lego, NRMA, Defence Force, Mars, Suncorp, Dell, Netflix, Campari lead shortlist; Initiative, EssenceMediacom, OMD top agency haul

The Media Federation of Australia unveiled a hot shortlist of the brands and agencies delivering the best work and business impact in media for 2023, with Lego, NRMA, Campari’s Aperol, Netflix and Suncorp among those leading the finalists tally. About 30 advertisers and 20 agencies made the cut of finalists with three marketers among the judging line-up for the 2023 MFA Awards joining Mi3 to unpack why some entries got their likes - and laments. Arnott’s CMO, Jenni Dill, Unilever’s Director of Digital Marketing, Media and Commerce, Sarah Sorrenson and Deakin Business School’s Adjunct Professor and former CMO at Coles and Tourism Australia, Lisa Ronson, reveal their collective observations and scorecards (well some of them) on the standard of work in the past year.

38:09

EP278 - S1

19 Jun 23

Digital 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.

Digital 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.

37:31

EP277 - S1

15 Jun 23

Strange 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.

Strange 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.

46:02

EP276 - S1

13 Jun 23

‘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.

‘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.

58:05

EP275 - S1

5 Jun 23

The 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.

The 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.

39:43

EP274 - S1

1 Jun 23

From 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.

From 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.

29:07

EP273 - S1

29 May 23

IAG’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.”

IAG’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.”

31:21

EP272 - S1

25 May 23

Double 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.

Double 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.

01:09:48

EP271 - S1

22 May 23

How 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.

How 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.

36:37

EP270 - S1

18 May 23

Arnott’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.

Arnott’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.

37:47

EP269 - S1

15 May 23

Why 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.

Why 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.

47:47

EP268 - S1

8 May 23

Brand 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.

Brand 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.

54:11

EP267 - S1

1 May 23

How 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.

How 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.

01:02:10

EP266 - S1

17 Apr 23

‘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.

‘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.

36:29

EP265 - S1

3 Apr 23

Yahoo’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.”

Yahoo’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.”

50:10

EP264 - S1

30 Mar 23

'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.

'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.

45:41

EP263 - S1

27 Mar 23

Three 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.”

Three 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.”

39:06

EP262 - S1

23 Mar 23

Dream 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.

Dream 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.

42:19

EP261 - S1

20 Mar 23

Halve 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.

Halve 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.

47:53

EP260 - S1

13 Mar 23

‘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.

‘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.

51:47

EP259 - S1

6 Mar 23

SCA 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.”

SCA 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.”

40:40

EP258 - S1

2 Mar 23

Stack 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.

Stack 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.

34:25

EP257 - S1

27 Feb 23

‘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.

‘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.

39:17

EP256 - S1

23 Feb 23

Thinking 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.

Thinking 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.

26:20

EP255 - S1

20 Feb 23

‘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?

‘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?

51:19

EP254 - S1

13 Feb 23

‘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.

‘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.

47:25

EP253 - S1

6 Feb 23

From 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.

From 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.

55:38

EP252 - S1

30 Jan 23

Mexican 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.

Mexican 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.

39:24

EP251 - S1

23 Jan 23

Re-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.

Re-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.

44:00

EP250 - S1

15 Dec 22

The 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.

The 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.

54:58

EP249 - S1

1 Dec 22

‘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.

‘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.

01:01:35

EP248 - S1

28 Nov 22

QMS’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.”

QMS’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.”

25:37

EP247 - S1

28 Nov 22

‘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.

‘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.

44:20

EP246 - S1

24 Nov 22

Moving 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.

Moving 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.

37:42

EP245 - S1

21 Nov 22

‘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.

‘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.

38:48

EP243 - S1

14 Nov 22

Shoppable 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.

Shoppable 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.

28:32

EP242 - S1

10 Nov 22

The ‘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.

The ‘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.

52:17

EP241 - S1

7 Nov 22

Sonic 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.”

Sonic 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.”

48:30

EP240 - S1

3 Nov 22

Telstra 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.

Telstra 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.

44:03

EP239 - S1

31 Oct 22

Big 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.”

Big 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.”

22:42

EP238 - S1

27 Oct 22

Beyond 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.

Beyond 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.

46:37

EP237 - S1

24 Oct 22

Last 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.

Last 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.

48:37

EP236 - S1

20 Oct 22

Confessions 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.

Confessions 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.

49:18

EP235 - S1

17 Oct 22

Why 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”.

Why 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”.

34:55

EP234 - S1

13 Oct 22

After 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.

After 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.

43:23

EP233 - S1

10 Oct 22

Colgate-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.

Colgate-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.

41:49

EP232 - S1

6 Oct 22

Conquering 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?

Conquering 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?

50:23

EP231 - S1

3 Oct 22

Salesforce 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.

Salesforce 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.

51:33

EP230 - S1

26 Sep 22

‘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.

‘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.

54:02

EP229 - S1

21 Sep 22

Woolies, 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.

Woolies, 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.

42:24

EP228 - S1

19 Sep 22

Full 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.

Full 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.

32:52

EP227 - S1

15 Sep 22

The consumer mindset is ‘what can I cut out of the budget?’’: Entertainment, travel, food budgets face crunch – GroupM CEO Aimee Buchanan, PCA CMO Claire Williams and Macquarie professor Jana Bowden on planning for soaring interest rates

What happens when you put a marketing and consumer behaviour professor on the mics with a Chief Marketing Officer and the boss of a large media buying group to work out what might happen to media audiences and buyer behaviour as we tumble out of Covid and stumble into an economic downturn? The consumer mindset is inflationary, confidence is down, and wallets are likely to shrink considerably. There has been “revenge spending in spades” within entertainment, travel and food – but that may be about to grind to a halt. GroupM ANZ CEO Aimee Buchanan, Premium Content Alliance CMO Claire Williams and Jana Bowden, Professor of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour at Macquarie University, unpack the outlook for marketers, media owners and agencies.

The consumer mindset is ‘what can I cut out of the budget?’’: Entertainment, travel, food budgets face crunch – GroupM CEO Aimee Buchanan, PCA CMO Claire Williams and Macquarie professor Jana Bowden on planning for soaring interest rates

What happens when you put a marketing and consumer behaviour professor on the mics with a Chief Marketing Officer and the boss of a large media buying group to work out what might happen to media audiences and buyer behaviour as we tumble out of Covid and stumble into an economic downturn? The consumer mindset is inflationary, confidence is down, and wallets are likely to shrink considerably. There has been “revenge spending in spades” within entertainment, travel and food – but that may be about to grind to a halt. GroupM ANZ CEO Aimee Buchanan, Premium Content Alliance CMO Claire Williams and Jana Bowden, Professor of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour at Macquarie University, unpack the outlook for marketers, media owners and agencies.

31:48

EP225 - S1

8 Sep 22

CMOs at Kia, Nestlé, Tourism Australia and CMC Markets debate if ex-agency marketers do it differently, or better – and why

Those that have crossed the agency-brand divide – in either direction – say agencies can be a little narrow in their understanding of marketing’s full business remit but more often than not, agency experience delivers sharper and faster results. Kia marketing boss Dean Norbiato was “getting stale” before taking a pay-cut to head agency-side. But it brought fresh perspective to move the needle when going back brand-side with the carmaker. Tourism Australia CMO Susan Coghill started out handing agency briefs to Steve Jobs, and preparing to duck flying smoothies. She prefers to hire agency people for their dynamism and creative thinking. Nestle’s Anneliese Douglass thinks agencies tend to be braver than corporates, but taking ownership of P&L is a heavy responsibility. CMC Markets APAC marketing boss Liam Loan-Lack, a former lawyer, thinks the marketing world should follow legal precedent and drop the brand-agency division altogether. His advice to agency execs mulling the switch? Accept that the best and boldest ideas are often trumped by those easiest to sell internally – and forget about having more control. “It’s not easier, and if anything there is less control.”

CMOs at Kia, Nestlé, Tourism Australia and CMC Markets debate if ex-agency marketers do it differently, or better – and why

Those that have crossed the agency-brand divide – in either direction – say agencies can be a little narrow in their understanding of marketing’s full business remit but more often than not, agency experience delivers sharper and faster results. Kia marketing boss Dean Norbiato was “getting stale” before taking a pay-cut to head agency-side. But it brought fresh perspective to move the needle when going back brand-side with the carmaker. Tourism Australia CMO Susan Coghill started out handing agency briefs to Steve Jobs, and preparing to duck flying smoothies. She prefers to hire agency people for their dynamism and creative thinking. Nestle’s Anneliese Douglass thinks agencies tend to be braver than corporates, but taking ownership of P&L is a heavy responsibility. CMC Markets APAC marketing boss Liam Loan-Lack, a former lawyer, thinks the marketing world should follow legal precedent and drop the brand-agency division altogether. His advice to agency execs mulling the switch? Accept that the best and boldest ideas are often trumped by those easiest to sell internally – and forget about having more control. “It’s not easier, and if anything there is less control.”

39:58

EP224 - S1

5 Sep 22

Crazy crypto: Why Nine’s Pedestrian Group is going counter-trend to launch blockchain, Web3 site for younger set amid crypto crash – 20% are already invested but main media coverage too binary

In the midst of a cryptocurrency crash, Nine-owned Pedestrian Group, which has one of the largest 18-35 year-old audiences in the country, has launched its blockchain, Web3 and crypto publication, The Chainsaw. Pedestrian knows 20 per cent of its readers are already invested in crypto or non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and has trawled the globe for its launch team, some from deep in the blockchain underground. The Chainsaw will cover the business and culture of Web3 – and Pedestrian CEO Matt Rowley says there’s ample advertiser opportunity. Financial and tech brands are circling. There’s also potential for the ‘holy grail’ of publishing – integrated microtransactions and commerce, as well as high value subscriptions. For the moment, Head of Editorial Sam Howard, back from Silicon Valley, is set on building The Chainsaw’s readership and community.

Crazy crypto: Why Nine’s Pedestrian Group is going counter-trend to launch blockchain, Web3 site for younger set amid crypto crash – 20% are already invested but main media coverage too binary

In the midst of a cryptocurrency crash, Nine-owned Pedestrian Group, which has one of the largest 18-35 year-old audiences in the country, has launched its blockchain, Web3 and crypto publication, The Chainsaw. Pedestrian knows 20 per cent of its readers are already invested in crypto or non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and has trawled the globe for its launch team, some from deep in the blockchain underground. The Chainsaw will cover the business and culture of Web3 – and Pedestrian CEO Matt Rowley says there’s ample advertiser opportunity. Financial and tech brands are circling. There’s also potential for the ‘holy grail’ of publishing – integrated microtransactions and commerce, as well as high value subscriptions. For the moment, Head of Editorial Sam Howard, back from Silicon Valley, is set on building The Chainsaw’s readership and community.

35:35

EP223 - S1

30 Aug 22

Commbank, Salesforce, ServiceNow CMOs: Talent crunch turning as layoffs rise; Budgets and brand building hold for now; B2B sector hunts B2C marketers with future skills pitch

What do Australia’s top marketers with B2B remits see ahead? Commbank’s Jo Boundy, Salesforce’s Leandro Perez and ServiceNow’s Caroline Raj debate how the talent crunch may be set to flip, why B2B marketing has the data and analytics skills B2C marketers want and how they’re resisting more demand generation activity as the economy slows - for now.

Commbank, Salesforce, ServiceNow CMOs: Talent crunch turning as layoffs rise; Budgets and brand building hold for now; B2B sector hunts B2C marketers with future skills pitch

What do Australia’s top marketers with B2B remits see ahead? Commbank’s Jo Boundy, Salesforce’s Leandro Perez and ServiceNow’s Caroline Raj debate how the talent crunch may be set to flip, why B2B marketing has the data and analytics skills B2C marketers want and how they’re resisting more demand generation activity as the economy slows - for now.

38:59

EP222 - S1

22 Aug 22

‘Two million customer journeys a day': McDonald's Chief Customer Officer Chris Brown on surging 1.6m loyalty members, plant-based meat trials, consumer spending volatility and flipping his career from global agency brands

McDonald's’ Chief Customer Officer Chris Brown is less than two years into his first brand-side role after leading DDB New York and IPG’s R/GA and already he says his scope and understanding of marketing, customer and business impact have broadened dramatically. He took one of the country’s biggest marketing roles in late 2020 and has overseen a successful loyalty program launch and a new brand platform focusing on value, while maintaining the Australian business’s reputation as a global innovator – it created the McCafe brand back in 1993 and was the first market to do salads . Brown is working hard to shield Maccas from growing economic volatility, hoping to convince the two million-odd Aussie customers who walk through the doors of a franchise each day that it is a valued part of their lives, whatever else may be happening. Improving tech, new products and appealing to ‘flexitarians’ are on the agenda.

‘Two million customer journeys a day': McDonald's Chief Customer Officer Chris Brown on surging 1.6m loyalty members, plant-based meat trials, consumer spending volatility and flipping his career from global agency brands

McDonald's’ Chief Customer Officer Chris Brown is less than two years into his first brand-side role after leading DDB New York and IPG’s R/GA and already he says his scope and understanding of marketing, customer and business impact have broadened dramatically. He took one of the country’s biggest marketing roles in late 2020 and has overseen a successful loyalty program launch and a new brand platform focusing on value, while maintaining the Australian business’s reputation as a global innovator – it created the McCafe brand back in 1993 and was the first market to do salads . Brown is working hard to shield Maccas from growing economic volatility, hoping to convince the two million-odd Aussie customers who walk through the doors of a franchise each day that it is a valued part of their lives, whatever else may be happening. Improving tech, new products and appealing to ‘flexitarians’ are on the agenda.

36:51

EP221 - S1

15 Aug 22

Measuring attention without eyeballs: Commercial radio bids to benchmark audio attention via panels, surveys, memory – and make it tradeable

Australia’s commercial radio players are diving into the advertising attention economy, building an in-depth study to understand attention levels in audio that, until now, have been lacking while audio visual media – TV and video – stole a lead. But how do you measure attention without eyeballs? “We get asked every single day how audio fits in,” Amplified Intelligence CEO Karen Nelson-Field says. Nelson-Field and Southern Cross Austereo’s Sales Insights lead Abi Wallis explain the research, due to land in October, which they say will lead audio being added into the attention planning and buying mix. The ultimate aim is tradeable audio attention.

Measuring attention without eyeballs: Commercial radio bids to benchmark audio attention via panels, surveys, memory – and make it tradeable

Australia’s commercial radio players are diving into the advertising attention economy, building an in-depth study to understand attention levels in audio that, until now, have been lacking while audio visual media – TV and video – stole a lead. But how do you measure attention without eyeballs? “We get asked every single day how audio fits in,” Amplified Intelligence CEO Karen Nelson-Field says. Nelson-Field and Southern Cross Austereo’s Sales Insights lead Abi Wallis explain the research, due to land in October, which they say will lead audio being added into the attention planning and buying mix. The ultimate aim is tradeable audio attention.

17:15

EP220 - S1

11 Aug 22

Danny Bass: Dentsu’s media future, consulting shift, business transformation; Australia unattractive to overseas talent, industry must look elsewhere; Net zero or ad effectiveness debate; ‘Aggressive’, tight media market in H2 2022, 2023

It’s been a big few months for Danny Bass. The former Mediabrands, GroupM and News Corp exec resigned from Snap to focus on his Berry Hill Farm property, which then flooded – multiple times. Now, he’s joined Dentsu as CEO of Dentsu Media. Dentsu isn’t the beast it once was, having taken a turn towards tech and consulting services in the past few years. Bass unpacks the advantages and challenges facing the group, which is “and always will be” a media company, while exploring agency culture, remote working, talent shortages, the net zero push and the future of holdcos.

Danny Bass: Dentsu’s media future, consulting shift, business transformation; Australia unattractive to overseas talent, industry must look elsewhere; Net zero or ad effectiveness debate; ‘Aggressive’, tight media market in H2 2022, 2023

It’s been a big few months for Danny Bass. The former Mediabrands, GroupM and News Corp exec resigned from Snap to focus on his Berry Hill Farm property, which then flooded – multiple times. Now, he’s joined Dentsu as CEO of Dentsu Media. Dentsu isn’t the beast it once was, having taken a turn towards tech and consulting services in the past few years. Bass unpacks the advantages and challenges facing the group, which is “and always will be” a media company, while exploring agency culture, remote working, talent shortages, the net zero push and the future of holdcos.

36:12

EP219 - S1

8 Aug 22

No Covid re-run: Social market researchers on consumer mood say 70% tightening belts; young men stressed, midlife crisis at 30 – but 24% free-spending so category discounts not required; plus ‘lipstick effect’ at play

Social market researchers think the deepening cost of living crisis will play out very differently to Covid. But there are parallels with previous bust cycles. The “lipstick effect” comes into play, and certain categories – homeware, the everyday luxury of branded goods – will probably hold up. But home renovations could end up consisting of nicer taps than a whole bathroom suite. While the young, pensioners and the squeezed middle are talking about cutting back, a quarter of the population are comfortable, can play the system and will keep spending – and brands and retailers shouldn’t think about discounting to that cohort. For the broader population, brands and retailers need to communicate price hikes honestly and effectively – or lose community trust earned during Covid, fast. SCA’s Jasmine Beech, Roy Morgan’s Michele Levine and qualitative consumer researcher Neer Korn unpack what’s coming own the track – as far as anyone can tell.

No Covid re-run: Social market researchers on consumer mood say 70% tightening belts; young men stressed, midlife crisis at 30 – but 24% free-spending so category discounts not required; plus ‘lipstick effect’ at play

Social market researchers think the deepening cost of living crisis will play out very differently to Covid. But there are parallels with previous bust cycles. The “lipstick effect” comes into play, and certain categories – homeware, the everyday luxury of branded goods – will probably hold up. But home renovations could end up consisting of nicer taps than a whole bathroom suite. While the young, pensioners and the squeezed middle are talking about cutting back, a quarter of the population are comfortable, can play the system and will keep spending – and brands and retailers shouldn’t think about discounting to that cohort. For the broader population, brands and retailers need to communicate price hikes honestly and effectively – or lose community trust earned during Covid, fast. SCA’s Jasmine Beech, Roy Morgan’s Michele Levine and qualitative consumer researcher Neer Korn unpack what’s coming own the track – as far as anyone can tell.

50:13

EP218 - S1

1 Aug 22

Marketing's $400bn bottom line: Brand Finance chief on Woolies, NRMA surge, Milo losing ‘iconic’ status; marketers turning to brand valuations to woo CFO, boost budgets – but still left out of M&A brand value, future cashflow conversations

Nestle’s Milo brand is in danger of losing its status as an iconic brand in Australia, Brand Finance Managing Director Mark Crowe says, unpacking the leaders and laggards in the latest Top 100 most valuable brand rankings, where 66 brands rose and 22 fell. But brand value and strength are more than just 'soft metric' leaderboards – they’re being leveraged in hard financial terms by CFOs and CEOs in M&A negotiations and Crowe thinks marketers should be brought into those deals much earlier. A case in point, he says, is that analysts hungry for future cashflow indicators are driving demand for brand valuations. Meanwhile agencies and marketers have woken up to the fact they can demonstrate their direct impact on a brand by measuring the change over time – a major factor in NRMA landing the 2021 Grand Effie.

Marketing's $400bn bottom line: Brand Finance chief on Woolies, NRMA surge, Milo losing ‘iconic’ status; marketers turning to brand valuations to woo CFO, boost budgets – but still left out of M&A brand value, future cashflow conversations

Nestle’s Milo brand is in danger of losing its status as an iconic brand in Australia, Brand Finance Managing Director Mark Crowe says, unpacking the leaders and laggards in the latest Top 100 most valuable brand rankings, where 66 brands rose and 22 fell. But brand value and strength are more than just 'soft metric' leaderboards – they’re being leveraged in hard financial terms by CFOs and CEOs in M&A negotiations and Crowe thinks marketers should be brought into those deals much earlier. A case in point, he says, is that analysts hungry for future cashflow indicators are driving demand for brand valuations. Meanwhile agencies and marketers have woken up to the fact they can demonstrate their direct impact on a brand by measuring the change over time – a major factor in NRMA landing the 2021 Grand Effie.

39:49

EP217 - S1

25 Jul 22

ANZ CMO Sweta Mehra: ‘Taking a demotion the best thing I’ve ever done’, how to bridge tech-brand skills gap to stay ahead; martech shake-up paying off, personalisation powering conversions

Ten years into a data-analytics career, ANZ CMO Sweta Mehra pulled a u-turn and took a demotion to learn brand marketing from the ground up. She says it’s the smartest move she ever made, with marketers in narrow swim-lanes at risk of obsolescence. Mehra says ANZ’s push to bridge the skills gap within its own four walls via self-built Brand Academy and Marketing Masters programmes have shielded it from increasingly attritional talent wars while future-proofing the business – and she has a few tips for those wondering how to get ahead in marketing. Meanwhile, the bank’s martech stack overhaul and bid for personalisation at scale is starting to move the needle, with conversion rates heading north, and ‘nudge theory’ doubling saving rates. With economic headwinds incoming, Mehra expects pressure to pull different levers. But she thinks budgets, for now, are safe.

ANZ CMO Sweta Mehra: ‘Taking a demotion the best thing I’ve ever done’, how to bridge tech-brand skills gap to stay ahead; martech shake-up paying off, personalisation powering conversions

Ten years into a data-analytics career, ANZ CMO Sweta Mehra pulled a u-turn and took a demotion to learn brand marketing from the ground up. She says it’s the smartest move she ever made, with marketers in narrow swim-lanes at risk of obsolescence. Mehra says ANZ’s push to bridge the skills gap within its own four walls via self-built Brand Academy and Marketing Masters programmes have shielded it from increasingly attritional talent wars while future-proofing the business – and she has a few tips for those wondering how to get ahead in marketing. Meanwhile, the bank’s martech stack overhaul and bid for personalisation at scale is starting to move the needle, with conversion rates heading north, and ‘nudge theory’ doubling saving rates. With economic headwinds incoming, Mehra expects pressure to pull different levers. But she thinks budgets, for now, are safe.

48:49

EP216 - S1

18 Jul 22

Everything is awesome: Aussie expat Nicole Taylor on leading LEGO’s 400-strong in-house agency, global agency partner review, content factory booming, indies delivering best ideas

Aussie expat Nicole Taylor jumped ship from managing international creative firms to lead LEGO’s in-house agency, which has 400 people around the world, a content factory, and powerful creative, digital and production capabilities. Now, she’s leading a review of the company’s agency roster – and is very positive about the strengths of indies. “I love the fact that they're not thinking of a P&L outcome,” she says. They just want the best thinking and ideas. LEGO is flying, posting record profits and sales in 2021 and outstripping major rivals Mattel and Hasbro. Taylor, who started in Sydney AGENCIES in the late 90s, says in-housing can work wonders – speed is key, and businesses are starting to recognise the benefit of having creativity close by. Creatives are now in high demand among corporates, who see financial incentives to different thinking.

Everything is awesome: Aussie expat Nicole Taylor on leading LEGO’s 400-strong in-house agency, global agency partner review, content factory booming, indies delivering best ideas

Aussie expat Nicole Taylor jumped ship from managing international creative firms to lead LEGO’s in-house agency, which has 400 people around the world, a content factory, and powerful creative, digital and production capabilities. Now, she’s leading a review of the company’s agency roster – and is very positive about the strengths of indies. “I love the fact that they're not thinking of a P&L outcome,” she says. They just want the best thinking and ideas. LEGO is flying, posting record profits and sales in 2021 and outstripping major rivals Mattel and Hasbro. Taylor, who started in Sydney AGENCIES in the late 90s, says in-housing can work wonders – speed is key, and businesses are starting to recognise the benefit of having creativity close by. Creatives are now in high demand among corporates, who see financial incentives to different thinking.

36:49

EP215 - S1

11 Jul 22

Toyota’s ‘humility’ problem and big fix: An Australian brand makeover expands across 17 Asian markets to tackle next gen perceptions that rivals are snappier, louder, more innovative on mobility’s future

Australia is Toyota country and holds similar clout and market dominance across 17 key markets in Asia. But there were looming clouds on the horizon that Toyota’s APAC execs could see would pose a near-future challenge for the region’s leading carmaker. Toyota’s “humility” around innovation and the future of mobility risked being too conservative and out-voiced by more aggressive, louder rivals attempting to own these new greenfield areas - and Toyota knew its next generation customers were being lured. Here’s how Toyota’s APAC VP of Sales and Marketing, Jerome Louis, and an Australian firm, Houston, mapped and delivered a four-year program to unify, for the first time, 17 highly-autonomous countries, all with their own market positionings, brand strategies, taglines and imagery, with a sweeping and unified overhaul of Toyota’s brand positioning and architecture. It’s an instructive case study in not having a fixed plan at the get-go but letting each of the markets discover and create a new positioning and suite of brand assets together – “Move your world”. Here’s how it happened.

Toyota’s ‘humility’ problem and big fix: An Australian brand makeover expands across 17 Asian markets to tackle next gen perceptions that rivals are snappier, louder, more innovative on mobility’s future

Australia is Toyota country and holds similar clout and market dominance across 17 key markets in Asia. But there were looming clouds on the horizon that Toyota’s APAC execs could see would pose a near-future challenge for the region’s leading carmaker. Toyota’s “humility” around innovation and the future of mobility risked being too conservative and out-voiced by more aggressive, louder rivals attempting to own these new greenfield areas - and Toyota knew its next generation customers were being lured. Here’s how Toyota’s APAC VP of Sales and Marketing, Jerome Louis, and an Australian firm, Houston, mapped and delivered a four-year program to unify, for the first time, 17 highly-autonomous countries, all with their own market positionings, brand strategies, taglines and imagery, with a sweeping and unified overhaul of Toyota’s brand positioning and architecture. It’s an instructive case study in not having a fixed plan at the get-go but letting each of the markets discover and create a new positioning and suite of brand assets together – “Move your world”. Here’s how it happened.

50:15

EP214 - S1

4 Jul 22

Retailers using DOOH as targeted catalogue, Woolworths, Coles, Myer piling in – QMS on wider City of Sydney launch, 100% ad verification guarantee, digital v static debate

Digital out of home screens are the new retail catalogue, as the likes of Woolworths, Coles, Myer and JB HiFi place specific offers and sales depending on the weather, temperature and location. “It's basically a really flexible, tailored, measurable, targeted, third party guaranteed position,” QMS CEO John O’Neill says. Dan Murphy’s, for example, targets red wine messages for cold weather, white wine for hot and champagne for celebrations. “They do a really good job,” he adds. In the digital v static debate, O’Neill says digital reigns – it is the butterfly to static’s caterpillar. There’s a 63 per cent higher neuro impact factor with digital, QMS’ Chief Strategy Officer Christian Zavecz says. The OOH industry has agreed to verify 60 per cent of campaigns per hour, but QMS, two months from opening its City of Sydney contract to new clients, is staking its credentials on a 100 per cent guarantee. “We’ve gone out on a limb,” O’Neill says. “We think it’s really important.”

Retailers using DOOH as targeted catalogue, Woolworths, Coles, Myer piling in – QMS on wider City of Sydney launch, 100% ad verification guarantee, digital v static debate

Digital out of home screens are the new retail catalogue, as the likes of Woolworths, Coles, Myer and JB HiFi place specific offers and sales depending on the weather, temperature and location. “It's basically a really flexible, tailored, measurable, targeted, third party guaranteed position,” QMS CEO John O’Neill says. Dan Murphy’s, for example, targets red wine messages for cold weather, white wine for hot and champagne for celebrations. “They do a really good job,” he adds. In the digital v static debate, O’Neill says digital reigns – it is the butterfly to static’s caterpillar. There’s a 63 per cent higher neuro impact factor with digital, QMS’ Chief Strategy Officer Christian Zavecz says. The OOH industry has agreed to verify 60 per cent of campaigns per hour, but QMS, two months from opening its City of Sydney contract to new clients, is staking its credentials on a 100 per cent guarantee. “We’ve gone out on a limb,” O’Neill says. “We think it’s really important.”

24:11

EP213 - S1

30 Jun 22

Cannes unplugged: Suncorp’s Mim Haysom, Yahoo’s Rachel Page, Thinkerbell’s Adam Ferrier and LinkedIn’s Matt Tindale on incoming headwinds, rebalancing ‘techification’, Ryan Reynolds and the push for 'pragmatic purpose'

Cannes unplugged: Suncorp’s Mim Haysom, Yahoo’s Rachel Page, Thinkerbell’s Adam Ferrier and LinkedIn’s Matt Tindale on incoming headwinds, rebalancing ‘techification’, Ryan Reynolds and the push for 'pragmatic purpose'

Cannes unplugged: Suncorp’s Mim Haysom, Yahoo’s Rachel Page, Thinkerbell’s Adam Ferrier and LinkedIn’s Matt Tindale on incoming headwinds, rebalancing ‘techification’, Ryan Reynolds and the push for 'pragmatic purpose'

Cannes unplugged: Suncorp’s Mim Haysom, Yahoo’s Rachel Page, Thinkerbell’s Adam Ferrier and LinkedIn’s Matt Tindale on incoming headwinds, rebalancing ‘techification’, Ryan Reynolds and the push for 'pragmatic purpose'

28:06

EP212 - S1

27 Jun 22

Harrods built a media business that paid for its entire marketing function – other retailers, telcos, convenience, petrol chains next

In 2003, the billionaire former owner of Harrods, Mohamed Al-Fayed, tasked Guy Cheston with building a media business for the department store. By 2015, the luxury store’s media worked so well it paid for everything else. “Initially, this media sales or the owned media division was really just a little tiny element of the trade marketing team,” he says. “Harrods had set up its own in-house media division, which was funding the entire marketing function of the store.” It went from £1m to £22m in a bit over a decade, and then went skyward. Not every brand is Harrods, but those that nail owned media can make serious cash. First step: Valuing what’s available.Jonathan Hopkins, Founding Partner of owned media consultancy Sonder, says the reaction tends to be: “‘Wow, I didn't realise we were sitting on a $150 million worth of own media’… Once it's given that dollar amount and valuation, it changes the way that the business views the channels,” he says. “When you’re talking about profit margins of 80 to 90 per cent, CEOs and CFOs are going to stand up and take notice.”

Harrods built a media business that paid for its entire marketing function – other retailers, telcos, convenience, petrol chains next

In 2003, the billionaire former owner of Harrods, Mohamed Al-Fayed, tasked Guy Cheston with building a media business for the department store. By 2015, the luxury store’s media worked so well it paid for everything else. “Initially, this media sales or the owned media division was really just a little tiny element of the trade marketing team,” he says. “Harrods had set up its own in-house media division, which was funding the entire marketing function of the store.” It went from £1m to £22m in a bit over a decade, and then went skyward. Not every brand is Harrods, but those that nail owned media can make serious cash. First step: Valuing what’s available.Jonathan Hopkins, Founding Partner of owned media consultancy Sonder, says the reaction tends to be: “‘Wow, I didn't realise we were sitting on a $150 million worth of own media’… Once it's given that dollar amount and valuation, it changes the way that the business views the channels,” he says. “When you’re talking about profit margins of 80 to 90 per cent, CEOs and CFOs are going to stand up and take notice.”

41:17

EP211 - S1

23 Jun 22

Google rockets to top slot in ‘experimentation’ tech in Australia as A/B testing morphs beyond digital media, ad campaigns: Coles, Deloitte Digital unpack the e-comm, digital next wave

Election and fundraising strategists for former US President Barack Obama accidentally invented the now booming “experimentation” industry which takes the ubiquitous A/B testing concept to new levels – and business is going large. Personalisation has got too much attention and corporate investment at the expense of experimentation, say Deloitte Digital Partner Nima Yassini and Coles’ Fallyn Lowe, Product Manager for Growth and Optimisation. They outline what’s next, including Google’s rapid rise to the top in experimentation software ahead of Adobe and Optimizely.

Google rockets to top slot in ‘experimentation’ tech in Australia as A/B testing morphs beyond digital media, ad campaigns: Coles, Deloitte Digital unpack the e-comm, digital next wave

Election and fundraising strategists for former US President Barack Obama accidentally invented the now booming “experimentation” industry which takes the ubiquitous A/B testing concept to new levels – and business is going large. Personalisation has got too much attention and corporate investment at the expense of experimentation, say Deloitte Digital Partner Nima Yassini and Coles’ Fallyn Lowe, Product Manager for Growth and Optimisation. They outline what’s next, including Google’s rapid rise to the top in experimentation software ahead of Adobe and Optimizely.

53:50

EP210 - S1

20 Jun 22

Cannes conundrum: Why ESOV isn’t working: Peter Field, Karen Nelson-Field and Orlando Wood warn the ad industry faces a triple jeopardy threat as effectiveness rulebook ripped up

Three leading global authorities on advertising effectiveness are worried enough about the efficacy of advertising and the impact it has on business results that they have joined forces to present new data and observations in Cannes next week on why a triple jeopardy threat is a clear and present danger to the global industry. They go so far as to call for an overhaul in how advertising award shows like Cannes reward what is deemed the world’s best work. Advertising effectiveness supremo Peter Field, attention economy pioneer Karen Nelson-Field and creativity maestro Orlando Wood warn that ad effectiveness, ESOV and mental availability created by advertising for a brand is crumbling. The ESOV principle – spending more than rivals to gain extra share of voice relative to market share to outplace competitor sales – no longer applies. Get the lowdown before it is presented to a global audience in Cannes next week. The trio argue there is a fix.

Cannes conundrum: Why ESOV isn’t working: Peter Field, Karen Nelson-Field and Orlando Wood warn the ad industry faces a triple jeopardy threat as effectiveness rulebook ripped up

Three leading global authorities on advertising effectiveness are worried enough about the efficacy of advertising and the impact it has on business results that they have joined forces to present new data and observations in Cannes next week on why a triple jeopardy threat is a clear and present danger to the global industry. They go so far as to call for an overhaul in how advertising award shows like Cannes reward what is deemed the world’s best work. Advertising effectiveness supremo Peter Field, attention economy pioneer Karen Nelson-Field and creativity maestro Orlando Wood warn that ad effectiveness, ESOV and mental availability created by advertising for a brand is crumbling. The ESOV principle – spending more than rivals to gain extra share of voice relative to market share to outplace competitor sales – no longer applies. Get the lowdown before it is presented to a global audience in Cannes next week. The trio argue there is a fix.

42:06

EP209 - S1

13 Jun 22

How Suncorp, Leo Burnett flipped an advertising brief to a long-range marketing investment in a (real) street of climate change-ready homes, influenced national policy and drove a 38% lift in enquiries, surge in brand consideration

Marketing is a dirty word for some – look no further than the ‘Scotty from Marketing’ jab. But Suncorp has spent three years building, quite literally, a powerful response to that. Its One House campaign last year and recent Resilience Road activation are entirely marketing-funded and led research projects that are changing the way Queenslanders build disaster-proof homes. And what’s more, the campaign is flowing through to Suncorp’s bottom line, driving a 38 per cent rise in enquiries and more than 100,000, four-minute-long website reads. As CMO Mim Haysom and Leo Burnett Chief Customer Officer Amanda Wheeler explain, there’s more to come.

How Suncorp, Leo Burnett flipped an advertising brief to a long-range marketing investment in a (real) street of climate change-ready homes, influenced national policy and drove a 38% lift in enquiries, surge in brand consideration

Marketing is a dirty word for some – look no further than the ‘Scotty from Marketing’ jab. But Suncorp has spent three years building, quite literally, a powerful response to that. Its One House campaign last year and recent Resilience Road activation are entirely marketing-funded and led research projects that are changing the way Queenslanders build disaster-proof homes. And what’s more, the campaign is flowing through to Suncorp’s bottom line, driving a 38 per cent rise in enquiries and more than 100,000, four-minute-long website reads. As CMO Mim Haysom and Leo Burnett Chief Customer Officer Amanda Wheeler explain, there’s more to come.

32:42

EP208 - S1

6 Jun 22

Out of home creative in Australia ‘lagging’: Nike, Twitter, Jetstar flying as QR code, animation, anamorphic screen tech lands, blurring digital, social, PR, outdoor lines

When done well, OOH smashes it. Local brands have been lagging, but the smart ones are learning from the likes of Nike, driving a “creative revolution” in digital out of home, reckons Neil Ackland, oOh!media’s Chief Content, Marketing and Creative Officer. While tech like QR codes, 3D animation, location data and anamorphic screens can drive huge results, “There’s a difference between what is available that creatives can use and then what’s actually coming through the pipeline,” he says. Jetstar ran a QR code-based campaign in Melbourne and reached 6 million people with press coverage. Nike and Twitter are trying innovating creative – then sharing the campaigns on social to drive more engagement. Ackland says oOh! has launched a creative department, Poly, to reverse the lag. “We have to show brands through action how to deliver great out of home creative,” he says.

Out of home creative in Australia ‘lagging’: Nike, Twitter, Jetstar flying as QR code, animation, anamorphic screen tech lands, blurring digital, social, PR, outdoor lines

When done well, OOH smashes it. Local brands have been lagging, but the smart ones are learning from the likes of Nike, driving a “creative revolution” in digital out of home, reckons Neil Ackland, oOh!media’s Chief Content, Marketing and Creative Officer. While tech like QR codes, 3D animation, location data and anamorphic screens can drive huge results, “There’s a difference between what is available that creatives can use and then what’s actually coming through the pipeline,” he says. Jetstar ran a QR code-based campaign in Melbourne and reached 6 million people with press coverage. Nike and Twitter are trying innovating creative – then sharing the campaigns on social to drive more engagement. Ackland says oOh! has launched a creative department, Poly, to reverse the lag. “We have to show brands through action how to deliver great out of home creative,” he says.

32:18

EP207 - S1

2 Jun 22

WPP global CMO Laurent Ezekiel, ANZ lead Rose Herceg on bringing other networks into $4bn ‘open source’ Coke account, peak complexity, consolidation end game – and proving Sorrell wrong

Brands and agency holdcos are restructuring for efficiency. But WPP says it’s done with post-Sorrell surgery and out the other side, proving the former CEO wrong in the process. Its “open source” integrated set-up landed the $4bn global Coca Cola account and means other rival agencies and non-WPP partners can tap into WPP’s platform for Coke. It could prove a template for consolidation plays to come, per global CMO Laurent Ezekiel. WPP ANZ’s Rose Herceg is equally bullish on the holdco’s growth prospects after overhauling leadership and smashing an unwieldy list of business units into nine networks; she says both staff and clients are “loving” a story simple enough to articulate. Ezekiel meanwhile reckons the marketing industry is past “peak complexity”… until the “untapped” metaverse arrives. But he’s unapologetic for the daunting privacy challenges industry faces, and shrugs off concerns around Big Tech’s dominance, given the growth he suggests the platforms are driving.

WPP global CMO Laurent Ezekiel, ANZ lead Rose Herceg on bringing other networks into $4bn ‘open source’ Coke account, peak complexity, consolidation end game – and proving Sorrell wrong

Brands and agency holdcos are restructuring for efficiency. But WPP says it’s done with post-Sorrell surgery and out the other side, proving the former CEO wrong in the process. Its “open source” integrated set-up landed the $4bn global Coca Cola account and means other rival agencies and non-WPP partners can tap into WPP’s platform for Coke. It could prove a template for consolidation plays to come, per global CMO Laurent Ezekiel. WPP ANZ’s Rose Herceg is equally bullish on the holdco’s growth prospects after overhauling leadership and smashing an unwieldy list of business units into nine networks; she says both staff and clients are “loving” a story simple enough to articulate. Ezekiel meanwhile reckons the marketing industry is past “peak complexity”… until the “untapped” metaverse arrives. But he’s unapologetic for the daunting privacy challenges industry faces, and shrugs off concerns around Big Tech’s dominance, given the growth he suggests the platforms are driving.

54:14

EP206 - S1

30 May 22

B2B talent ‘hunger games’ as brands in-house analytics, tech, digital upskilling to cover shortfall, raiding B2C guns and ‘boomerangs’ as business-consumer marketing lines blur

It’s the “hunger games” out there in the B2B talent wars. Software firm ServiceNow’s solution? In-house training. It’s the best way to get good analytics people, Head of Marketing Caroline Raj says. “Everybody is dipping into everybody’s pool at the moment,” she says. It has been a tough two years. Of the 140,000 marketing and advertising people in Australia, 20,000 have moved jobs in the past 20 months, per LinkedIn’s Prue Cox. Agency churn has increased by 50 per cent in the past year – off a high base. Average marketing tenure is now a mere 1.4 years. “That’s quite terrifying,” Telstra’s Kelly Tyson says. She’s not seeing that at the telco, which works hard on culture, but the talent pool is tight. The market for B2B savvy, IT and tech-literate marketers is running hot.

B2B talent ‘hunger games’ as brands in-house analytics, tech, digital upskilling to cover shortfall, raiding B2C guns and ‘boomerangs’ as business-consumer marketing lines blur

It’s the “hunger games” out there in the B2B talent wars. Software firm ServiceNow’s solution? In-house training. It’s the best way to get good analytics people, Head of Marketing Caroline Raj says. “Everybody is dipping into everybody’s pool at the moment,” she says. It has been a tough two years. Of the 140,000 marketing and advertising people in Australia, 20,000 have moved jobs in the past 20 months, per LinkedIn’s Prue Cox. Agency churn has increased by 50 per cent in the past year – off a high base. Average marketing tenure is now a mere 1.4 years. “That’s quite terrifying,” Telstra’s Kelly Tyson says. She’s not seeing that at the telco, which works hard on culture, but the talent pool is tight. The market for B2B savvy, IT and tech-literate marketers is running hot.

48:37

EP205 - S1

26 May 22

Seven pizzas a second: Domino’s CMO Adam Ballesty on brand building in scaled QSR, breakneck pace in creativity and campaigns, baking purpose into pizza, taking fight to Maccas and KFC, acquisition trumping retention, and why owning drivers will win delivery app battle

Adam Ballesty spent most of his career building big brands at spirits business Diageo only to join retail-focused Domino’s in mid-2021, steering a team of 60 through the tail end of a global pandemic. The sector's pace is mind-boggling, he admits. Food aggregators like Uber Eats and Menulog account for the majority of Domino’s orders and were non-existent three years ago. The likes of McDonalds and KFC are powerful competition and are driving culture. Ballesty’s new agency team are hoping to take the QSR battle royale directly to them, while baking purpose as a key ingredient in the company. In the meantime, he's fielding calls from franchisees asking for the TV ad schedule so they can prepare for the inevitable demand spike.

Seven pizzas a second: Domino’s CMO Adam Ballesty on brand building in scaled QSR, breakneck pace in creativity and campaigns, baking purpose into pizza, taking fight to Maccas and KFC, acquisition trumping retention, and why owning drivers will win delivery app battle

Adam Ballesty spent most of his career building big brands at spirits business Diageo only to join retail-focused Domino’s in mid-2021, steering a team of 60 through the tail end of a global pandemic. The sector's pace is mind-boggling, he admits. Food aggregators like Uber Eats and Menulog account for the majority of Domino’s orders and were non-existent three years ago. The likes of McDonalds and KFC are powerful competition and are driving culture. Ballesty’s new agency team are hoping to take the QSR battle royale directly to them, while baking purpose as a key ingredient in the company. In the meantime, he's fielding calls from franchisees asking for the TV ad schedule so they can prepare for the inevitable demand spike.

43:04

EP204 - S1

23 May 22

‘We can recognise 16m individuals’: News Corp claims united CDP, 13 data partners, high match rates compete with Big Tech, commerce integrations ahead

News Corp has reached the level of Big Tech, Client Product MD Pippa Leary says, uniting its famously independent business units – publishing, Foxtel and REA Group – to create a pool of 16-million audience IDs. A consumer could watch Kayo, browse News.com.au, look at property on RealEstate.com.au, and News Corp can link them all, Leary says. The “arms race” of just having big numbers is over. “Claiming a big number is one thing, but actually, if you don't have a lot of daily active users and you do not have high match rates, it's actually quite meaningless,” she says. Using 13 data partners, including crucial IDs and location data from Near, News reckons it can achieve high match rates with brands and – in stark contrast to Big Tech – share more of those insights with brands. “All of [those IDs] have consent attached to them to be shared and to be matched,” Suzie Cardwell, GM Client Product and Strategy, says. News is now pushing hard for one click transactions within content, including video.

‘We can recognise 16m individuals’: News Corp claims united CDP, 13 data partners, high match rates compete with Big Tech, commerce integrations ahead

News Corp has reached the level of Big Tech, Client Product MD Pippa Leary says, uniting its famously independent business units – publishing, Foxtel and REA Group – to create a pool of 16-million audience IDs. A consumer could watch Kayo, browse News.com.au, look at property on RealEstate.com.au, and News Corp can link them all, Leary says. The “arms race” of just having big numbers is over. “Claiming a big number is one thing, but actually, if you don't have a lot of daily active users and you do not have high match rates, it's actually quite meaningless,” she says. Using 13 data partners, including crucial IDs and location data from Near, News reckons it can achieve high match rates with brands and – in stark contrast to Big Tech – share more of those insights with brands. “All of [those IDs] have consent attached to them to be shared and to be matched,” Suzie Cardwell, GM Client Product and Strategy, says. News is now pushing hard for one click transactions within content, including video.

36:09

EP203 - S1

19 May 22

Growth hacked: Old tricks new again as ‘growth hacking’ fails, tech yields plummet, start-ups build brand to compete - Canva going big on billboards

Growth hacking was once a favourite term of the Silicon Valley crowd instead of marketing, fuelling the meteoric rise of early tech pioneers like PayPal, Tesla and Amazon. But there’s a fascinating blurring going on, where once successful growth hacks are starting to falter – “failing miserably”, in the words of one-time growth hacker and services marketing advisor Jonathan James. Instead, tech companies – think Canva – are turning to out of home, television, and other traditional media. In most verticals, there’s increased competition, meaning start-ups are rediscovering the need to have a “brand”. Traditional marketing smarts and brand talent are increasingly sought-after, and what’s old is becoming new again.

Growth hacked: Old tricks new again as ‘growth hacking’ fails, tech yields plummet, start-ups build brand to compete - Canva going big on billboards

Growth hacking was once a favourite term of the Silicon Valley crowd instead of marketing, fuelling the meteoric rise of early tech pioneers like PayPal, Tesla and Amazon. But there’s a fascinating blurring going on, where once successful growth hacks are starting to falter – “failing miserably”, in the words of one-time growth hacker and services marketing advisor Jonathan James. Instead, tech companies – think Canva – are turning to out of home, television, and other traditional media. In most verticals, there’s increased competition, meaning start-ups are rediscovering the need to have a “brand”. Traditional marketing smarts and brand talent are increasingly sought-after, and what’s old is becoming new again.

34:10

EP202 - S1

16 May 22

Val Morgan and cinema winning attention battle; Amplified Intelligence data finds 80 per cent active attention, zero decay; Nab, OMD, Hatched, on where next; Nelson-Field on why sprint for ‘dirty’ attention CPMs risks everything

Nine last month claimed massive active attention for BVOD ads playing on mobile devices, 72 per cent for a 30-second commercial, per Amplified Intelligence’s study. But Karen Nelson-Field’s data is in for Val Morgan – and it suggests cinema blows other channels out of the water for active attention, with zero decay across the entire ad. As attention metrics pick up major attention globally, Nelson-Field is just back from a World Federation of Advertisers conference, warning marketers not to let themselves get gamed by those touting cheap, “dirty” attention CPMs while brushing off naysayers briefing against the march of attention metrics. Locally, the likes of NAB want to bring attention data into econometric modelling; agencies are already using it to reweight channel spend and show marketers that their share of voice models could be way, way off.

Val Morgan and cinema winning attention battle; Amplified Intelligence data finds 80 per cent active attention, zero decay; Nab, OMD, Hatched, on where next; Nelson-Field on why sprint for ‘dirty’ attention CPMs risks everything

Nine last month claimed massive active attention for BVOD ads playing on mobile devices, 72 per cent for a 30-second commercial, per Amplified Intelligence’s study. But Karen Nelson-Field’s data is in for Val Morgan – and it suggests cinema blows other channels out of the water for active attention, with zero decay across the entire ad. As attention metrics pick up major attention globally, Nelson-Field is just back from a World Federation of Advertisers conference, warning marketers not to let themselves get gamed by those touting cheap, “dirty” attention CPMs while brushing off naysayers briefing against the march of attention metrics. Locally, the likes of NAB want to bring attention data into econometric modelling; agencies are already using it to reweight channel spend and show marketers that their share of voice models could be way, way off.

40:28

EP201 - S1

9 May 22

Shift happens: PHD Global CMO says marketers buried in reporting instead of growth generation, risk obsolescence as marketing function restructures for next wave of gaming, influencer, commerce, decisioning disruption

Chris Stephenson, global CMO of media agency Network PHD, thinks the marketing community has a weird and massive blindspot around gaming. That may be because they are buried in admin rather than doing actual marketing. Per PHD’s latest research study, 1,700 marketers around the world say their biggest time allocation is spent on reporting, not strategy, innovation and idea development. Those unable to shake off administrative shackles risk being overtaken by a marketing function overhaul now fast approaching – at least according to the group’s new book, ‘SHIFT: a Marketing Rethink’. In the short-term, it forecasts that key marketing and media roles will span influencer programmatic teams, game commerce, clean room development teams and decision scientists through to ‘layer designers’, VR world designers and ‘brain-computer interface developers’ in the mid- to long-term. Within 20 years we could see ‘quantum simulation developers’ “simulating the entire media universe” for brands. But for now, Stephenson thinks those rushing headlong into the metaverse and Web3.0 are barrelling into the trough of disappointment.

Shift happens: PHD Global CMO says marketers buried in reporting instead of growth generation, risk obsolescence as marketing function restructures for next wave of gaming, influencer, commerce, decisioning disruption

Chris Stephenson, global CMO of media agency Network PHD, thinks the marketing community has a weird and massive blindspot around gaming. That may be because they are buried in admin rather than doing actual marketing. Per PHD’s latest research study, 1,700 marketers around the world say their biggest time allocation is spent on reporting, not strategy, innovation and idea development. Those unable to shake off administrative shackles risk being overtaken by a marketing function overhaul now fast approaching – at least according to the group’s new book, ‘SHIFT: a Marketing Rethink’. In the short-term, it forecasts that key marketing and media roles will span influencer programmatic teams, game commerce, clean room development teams and decision scientists through to ‘layer designers’, VR world designers and ‘brain-computer interface developers’ in the mid- to long-term. Within 20 years we could see ‘quantum simulation developers’ “simulating the entire media universe” for brands. But for now, Stephenson thinks those rushing headlong into the metaverse and Web3.0 are barrelling into the trough of disappointment.

50:29

EP200 - S1

2 May 22

‘Big difference between 1,000 Corollas and 1,000 Ferraris’: Why ThinkPremiumDigital argues platform audience reach is a poor proxy for effective attention – especially on digital video

There’s a fundamental flaw in how advertisers approach the concept of “platform audience reach”, ThinkPremiumDigital says, and the argument goes like this: advertisers care about audiences, but despite large user numbers – the audiences aren’t always paying attention. And yet, a platform’s reach often dictates a brand’s investment level. “Somebody on the platform doesn’t mean they saw an ad,” ThinkPremiumDigital General Manager Venessa Hunt says. MediaScience’s CEO Dr Duane Varan looked into this, finding it took five hours of social video to reach one minute of effective audience exposure. Conversely, it took just 12 minutes for premium video. “You cannot assume all exposures are equal,” Dr Varan says. MediaCom’s Client Partner, Lynsey Mogridge, says clients are open to this, they’re already planning on sales, not just reach or CPMs. Foxtel Media Director of Customer Engagement, Toby Dewar, says this research “talks to the old tradition, which is: context matters.”

‘Big difference between 1,000 Corollas and 1,000 Ferraris’: Why ThinkPremiumDigital argues platform audience reach is a poor proxy for effective attention – especially on digital video

There’s a fundamental flaw in how advertisers approach the concept of “platform audience reach”, ThinkPremiumDigital says, and the argument goes like this: advertisers care about audiences, but despite large user numbers – the audiences aren’t always paying attention. And yet, a platform’s reach often dictates a brand’s investment level. “Somebody on the platform doesn’t mean they saw an ad,” ThinkPremiumDigital General Manager Venessa Hunt says. MediaScience’s CEO Dr Duane Varan looked into this, finding it took five hours of social video to reach one minute of effective audience exposure. Conversely, it took just 12 minutes for premium video. “You cannot assume all exposures are equal,” Dr Varan says. MediaCom’s Client Partner, Lynsey Mogridge, says clients are open to this, they’re already planning on sales, not just reach or CPMs. Foxtel Media Director of Customer Engagement, Toby Dewar, says this research “talks to the old tradition, which is: context matters.”

47:11

EP199 - S1

28 Apr 22

Australian marketers flatlining on data and digital capability and losing CX remit: Coles Sam McLeod, ex-Woolies X exec Willem Paling on why and what next

Skills and capabilities across digital marketing, CX, data and analytics have flatlined in Australia over the last three years according to a study of more than 200 marketers. If the data is right, brands are delusional about the skills they have versus what they need, while half the market has either been stripped of CX responsibility, or never had it to start with. Fresh from a decade in the UK, Coles GM of Brand, Digital and Design Sam McLeod thinks Australia is way behind the data-to-insight curve. Willem Paling has just left Woolies X and Cartology and says marketing must present itself as greater than the ads or promotional function if it is to regain the CX remit. Teresa Sperti, whose firm Arktic Fox is behind the Marketing State of Play study, thinks ANZ’s marketing team and Kate Young have set the standard when it comes to equipping teams with the skills now sorely required. But there’s a big chunk of the market that needs a plan, pronto.

Australian marketers flatlining on data and digital capability and losing CX remit: Coles Sam McLeod, ex-Woolies X exec Willem Paling on why and what next

Skills and capabilities across digital marketing, CX, data and analytics have flatlined in Australia over the last three years according to a study of more than 200 marketers. If the data is right, brands are delusional about the skills they have versus what they need, while half the market has either been stripped of CX responsibility, or never had it to start with. Fresh from a decade in the UK, Coles GM of Brand, Digital and Design Sam McLeod thinks Australia is way behind the data-to-insight curve. Willem Paling has just left Woolies X and Cartology and says marketing must present itself as greater than the ads or promotional function if it is to regain the CX remit. Teresa Sperti, whose firm Arktic Fox is behind the Marketing State of Play study, thinks ANZ’s marketing team and Kate Young have set the standard when it comes to equipping teams with the skills now sorely required. But there’s a big chunk of the market that needs a plan, pronto.

47:39

EP198 - S1

25 Apr 22

Digital winners – how beauty giant MECCA is nailing loyalty while Coles, Woolies and Cotton On are making brand purpose pay: Salesforce VP Jo Gaines

The hottest topic in the digital market, Salesforce’s Jo Gaines reckons, is loyalty. And she has two words for brands not delivering personalisation, killer experiences, and a rewarding value exchange: ‘Watch out’. “They really expect you to know all of that,” she says. Competitors are likely circling. Beauty giant MECCA is nailing it, and there are smaller businesses emerging that are looking at partnerships to deliver similar experiences. Likewise, Gaines says, purpose-driven organisations are seeing fundamentally better returns, and the work by big corporates during disasters isn’t going unnoticed. “People are going to Woolies and Coles, they're going to Bunnings, they're relying on companies like Cotton On,” she says. “They are front and centre in the community. They are holding the community together.” These are some of the latest shopping trends in 2022.

Digital winners – how beauty giant MECCA is nailing loyalty while Coles, Woolies and Cotton On are making brand purpose pay: Salesforce VP Jo Gaines

The hottest topic in the digital market, Salesforce’s Jo Gaines reckons, is loyalty. And she has two words for brands not delivering personalisation, killer experiences, and a rewarding value exchange: ‘Watch out’. “They really expect you to know all of that,” she says. Competitors are likely circling. Beauty giant MECCA is nailing it, and there are smaller businesses emerging that are looking at partnerships to deliver similar experiences. Likewise, Gaines says, purpose-driven organisations are seeing fundamentally better returns, and the work by big corporates during disasters isn’t going unnoticed. “People are going to Woolies and Coles, they're going to Bunnings, they're relying on companies like Cotton On,” she says. “They are front and centre in the community. They are holding the community together.” These are some of the latest shopping trends in 2022.

33:23

EP197 - S1

21 Apr 22

‘No excuses’ for not having audio devices all day: SCA says dynamic ads, smart speakers, long sessions and high ‘we’re not Facebook’ iOS opt ins fuelling massive digital audio growth

Digital audio is growing at about 35 per cent year-on-year, and is now north of $150 million, Southern Cross Austereo’s Chief Sales Officer, Brian Gallagher, reckons. And as digital audio grows, so too are the learnings. For one, smart speakers make up 20 to 30 per cent of the total audience, and those people are listening for hours at a time. Two in every three dollars spent with SCA are buying direct insertions – just one third are programmatic ads. And agencies are still splitting audio and digital teams. There’s more growth ahead, Gallagher says. “At this stage of the history of the development of audio, there are absolutely no excuses for not having some form of audio product with you at every stage of your day,” he says. Jonathan Mandel, SCA’s Head of Digital Sales and Ops, says the network’s LiSTNR app has passed all expectations gaining trust and consumer opt in on Apple iOS devices.

‘No excuses’ for not having audio devices all day: SCA says dynamic ads, smart speakers, long sessions and high ‘we’re not Facebook’ iOS opt ins fuelling massive digital audio growth

Digital audio is growing at about 35 per cent year-on-year, and is now north of $150 million, Southern Cross Austereo’s Chief Sales Officer, Brian Gallagher, reckons. And as digital audio grows, so too are the learnings. For one, smart speakers make up 20 to 30 per cent of the total audience, and those people are listening for hours at a time. Two in every three dollars spent with SCA are buying direct insertions – just one third are programmatic ads. And agencies are still splitting audio and digital teams. There’s more growth ahead, Gallagher says. “At this stage of the history of the development of audio, there are absolutely no excuses for not having some form of audio product with you at every stage of your day,” he says. Jonathan Mandel, SCA’s Head of Digital Sales and Ops, says the network’s LiSTNR app has passed all expectations gaining trust and consumer opt in on Apple iOS devices.

38:36

EP196 - S1

12 Apr 22

Can Australia’s richest man, Andrew Forrest, save contextual & diverse audiences and indie media frozen out by Facebook & Google as Big Tech’s $200m pay-off silences Big Australian Media

Some have labelled as futile the “WaitingOnZuck" news freeze mounted by 40 independent Australian publishers three weeks ago to protest Facebook and Google’s dismissive and arrogant treatment of smaller, independent media publishers under the Federal Government’s globally acclaimed Media Bargaining Code legislation. But a street fight engineered by independent media, and intervention by the philanthropic foundation of billionaire Fortescue Metals founder, Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, to lead a collective bargaining agreement forcing Big Tech to reverse dismissive, stalling tactics, may just have shifted the winds…and delivered blue chip brands a lesson in what to do when their audiences, and tech stack, are all but monopolised by global platforms.

Can Australia’s richest man, Andrew Forrest, save contextual & diverse audiences and indie media frozen out by Facebook & Google as Big Tech’s $200m pay-off silences Big Australian Media

Some have labelled as futile the “WaitingOnZuck" news freeze mounted by 40 independent Australian publishers three weeks ago to protest Facebook and Google’s dismissive and arrogant treatment of smaller, independent media publishers under the Federal Government’s globally acclaimed Media Bargaining Code legislation. But a street fight engineered by independent media, and intervention by the philanthropic foundation of billionaire Fortescue Metals founder, Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, to lead a collective bargaining agreement forcing Big Tech to reverse dismissive, stalling tactics, may just have shifted the winds…and delivered blue chip brands a lesson in what to do when their audiences, and tech stack, are all but monopolised by global platforms.

38:47

EP195 - S1

11 Apr 22

Healthier returns: Contextual, location-powered pDOOH targeting healthy youth without insurance via dynamic creative moves needle for NIB, sets ‘new industry benchmark’

NIB is reinventing itself, looking to reach young types not necessarily into health insurance – rather than the 45 per cent of Australians who already have a policy. It ran 20 different messages, influenced by location, targeting gyms and supermarkets on programmatic digital out of home screens with Val Morgan Outdoor. “Rather than focusing on advertising that talks to a joining offer, it was more about who NIB is as a brand,” Marketing Manager Mitch Leman says. That meant reminders to eat healthily, walk further, or exercise longer. It took time but was worth it. With Yahoo location data, VMO’s facial analytics, postcode-level third party data, it hit a “sweet spot of programmatic”, MediaCom’s Nick Thomas says – and he didn’t even work on the campaign. Yahoo’s Andrew Gilbert, Essence’s Katie Rooney and VMO Managing Director Paul Butler unpack NIB’s campaign – and why it’s delivering healthier returns.

Healthier returns: Contextual, location-powered pDOOH targeting healthy youth without insurance via dynamic creative moves needle for NIB, sets ‘new industry benchmark’

NIB is reinventing itself, looking to reach young types not necessarily into health insurance – rather than the 45 per cent of Australians who already have a policy. It ran 20 different messages, influenced by location, targeting gyms and supermarkets on programmatic digital out of home screens with Val Morgan Outdoor. “Rather than focusing on advertising that talks to a joining offer, it was more about who NIB is as a brand,” Marketing Manager Mitch Leman says. That meant reminders to eat healthily, walk further, or exercise longer. It took time but was worth it. With Yahoo location data, VMO’s facial analytics, postcode-level third party data, it hit a “sweet spot of programmatic”, MediaCom’s Nick Thomas says – and he didn’t even work on the campaign. Yahoo’s Andrew Gilbert, Essence’s Katie Rooney and VMO Managing Director Paul Butler unpack NIB’s campaign – and why it’s delivering healthier returns.

37:33

EP194 - S1

7 Apr 22

Browse

Mi3 Audio Edition

Mi3 Audio Edition

More from

Season 1

‘ESG is facing its GDPR moment’: From 1 Jan European regulations will ‘change the game’ on global sustainability reporting – lawsuits, jail time have C-suite ‘freaking out’, marketing reined-in

‘ESG is facing its GDPR moment’: From 1 Jan European regulations will ‘change the game’ on global sustainability reporting – lawsuits, jail time have C-suite ‘freaking out’, marketing reined-in

Work from home changed out of home audiences… for good: How Stan, luxury and lifestyle advertisers are cleaning up in Sydney as a result – QMS has the data to prove it

Work from home changed out of home audiences… for good: How Stan, luxury and lifestyle advertisers are cleaning up in Sydney as a result – QMS has the data to prove it

’15 versions of creative for multiple platforms is not marketing…it's just operations’: How Salesforce APAC CMO Leandro Perez’s 100-plus team is selling AI to the world - and applying it to reinvent their marketing roles and remits

’15 versions of creative for multiple platforms is not marketing…it's just operations’: How Salesforce APAC CMO Leandro Perez’s 100-plus team is selling AI to the world - and applying it to reinvent their marketing roles and remits

‘Decade of growth ahead for native content’ as brands move beyond ineffective repurposed ads and spreadsheets to reach 18m Australians; Luke Spano and Tim Duggan on standardising, scaling and media diversity mandates

‘Decade of growth ahead for native content’ as brands move beyond ineffective repurposed ads and spreadsheets to reach 18m Australians; Luke Spano and Tim Duggan on standardising, scaling and media diversity mandates

Even a shrink couldn’t fix media agencies’ narrow mindset: Why Dave Gaines ditched GroupM to build Media by Mother, takes no mark-ups on media buying – “just data entry” – KPIs staff on learning, planning Apac launch

Even a shrink couldn’t fix media agencies’ narrow mindset: Why Dave Gaines ditched GroupM to build Media by Mother, takes no mark-ups on media buying – “just data entry” – KPIs staff on learning, planning Apac launch

Taking retailer media up the funnel, how $305m for Olympics rights may prove cheap, why media buyers are wrong about Stan ads, and TV’s 10 per cent audience boost

Taking retailer media up the funnel, how $305m for Olympics rights may prove cheap, why media buyers are wrong about Stan ads, and TV’s 10 per cent audience boost

Tabcorp customer chief Jenni Barnett stems digital haemorrhage to snappier rivals; bins bad media deals, restructures teams, now gunning for 10x conversion via ‘personalisation to context’

Tabcorp customer chief Jenni Barnett stems digital haemorrhage to snappier rivals; bins bad media deals, restructures teams, now gunning for 10x conversion via ‘personalisation to context’

Retail media goes upmarket: David Jones CMO targets auto, travel, lifestyle brands in premium tilt, touts 5.4m high-end shoppers across stores, online and open web as crunch-resistant customers keep spending

Retail media goes upmarket: David Jones CMO targets auto, travel, lifestyle brands in premium tilt, touts 5.4m high-end shoppers across stores, online and open web as crunch-resistant customers keep spending

Lessons from billion dollar Barbenheimer: Brands to rethink IP marketing, merch as Hoyts, Val Morgan bosses say marketers scrambling for ‘next ten Barbies’ - Kia, AAMI, Chemist Warehouse win big

Lessons from billion dollar Barbenheimer: Brands to rethink IP marketing, merch as Hoyts, Val Morgan bosses say marketers scrambling for ‘next ten Barbies’ - Kia, AAMI, Chemist Warehouse win big

‘Monumental gains’: SCA chief marketer Nikki Clarkson on how broadcaster bet the farm building new customer platform from zip to 1.5m users, collapsed exec silos and forced new marketing skills beyond brand comms

‘Monumental gains’: SCA chief marketer Nikki Clarkson on how broadcaster bet the farm building new customer platform from zip to 1.5m users, collapsed exec silos and forced new marketing skills beyond brand comms

Lion’s ex-CMO, now Chief Growth Officer trailblazes with company-wide IT budgets and strategy, M&A, marketing and innovation agenda; Anubha Sahasrabuddhe sets 500-day target to flip IT culture to customers

Lion’s ex-CMO, now Chief Growth Officer trailblazes with company-wide IT budgets and strategy, M&A, marketing and innovation agenda; Anubha Sahasrabuddhe sets 500-day target to flip IT culture to customers

'We’re going all in’: SXSW’s biggest tribes are brands, marketing, tech as Sydney gig aims for Southern hemisphere creative, innovation super event; Seven plots biggest overhaul of Upfronts format in decades with full-week SxSW program

'We’re going all in’: SXSW’s biggest tribes are brands, marketing, tech as Sydney gig aims for Southern hemisphere creative, innovation super event; Seven plots biggest overhaul of Upfronts format in decades with full-week SxSW program

Cookies again? Google’s global hegemony measuring 100m-plus websites faltering amid corporate governance concerns in privacy, data ownership; Brands, tech, advisors weigh-in on measurement meltdown

Cookies again? Google’s global hegemony measuring 100m-plus websites faltering amid corporate governance concerns in privacy, data ownership; Brands, tech, advisors weigh-in on measurement meltdown

‘No hallucinations’: NAB, Tabcorp, Accenture Song on 'applied AI’ - less ‘possible', more ‘pragmatic’ use cases first; NAB flags AI creative surge for 500m personalised messages but brands warned on mindless messaging, CX usurping media for brand building

‘No hallucinations’: NAB, Tabcorp, Accenture Song on 'applied AI’ - less ‘possible', more ‘pragmatic’ use cases first; NAB flags AI creative surge for 500m personalised messages but brands warned on mindless messaging, CX usurping media for brand building

Penfolds-Treasury Wines lauds creative, media together for its in-house agency Splash, now going global: one year old, 20 people, 400 projects, same marketing budget but doing more, better, faster – mostly

Penfolds-Treasury Wines lauds creative, media together for its in-house agency Splash, now going global: one year old, 20 people, 400 projects, same marketing budget but doing more, better, faster – mostly

ANZ CMO Sweta Mehra: ‘There’s only so far you can go with paid media’ – why ANZ is investing heavily in its owned media assets; 85 million impacts a month across ANZ channels triggered a ‘mindset shift’ for marketing team

ANZ CMO Sweta Mehra: ‘There’s only so far you can go with paid media’ – why ANZ is investing heavily in its owned media assets; 85 million impacts a month across ANZ channels triggered a ‘mindset shift’ for marketing team

Return of the Chief Customer Officer – the CMO’s new boss: Coles, IAG latest blue chips on board with broader remits and revenues; Inghams, MyCar, Hipages log their progress

Return of the Chief Customer Officer – the CMO’s new boss: Coles, IAG latest blue chips on board with broader remits and revenues; Inghams, MyCar, Hipages log their progress

Standout brand, agency media work unveiled in MFA Awards: Lego, NRMA, Defence Force, Mars, Suncorp, Dell, Netflix, Campari lead shortlist; Initiative, EssenceMediacom, OMD top agency haul

Standout brand, agency media work unveiled in MFA Awards: Lego, NRMA, Defence Force, Mars, Suncorp, Dell, Netflix, Campari lead shortlist; Initiative, EssenceMediacom, OMD top agency haul

Digital 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

Digital 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

Strange 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

Strange 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

‘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

‘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

The 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

The 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

From 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

From 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

IAG’s Zara Curtis on why NRMA flicked footy and rugby sponsorship, put the money into cricket and cinema – and drove massive brand gains

IAG’s Zara Curtis on why NRMA flicked footy and rugby sponsorship, put the money into cricket and cinema – and drove massive brand gains

Double 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

Double 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

How 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

How 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

Arnott’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

Arnott’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

Why 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

Why 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

Brand 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

Brand 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

How 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

How 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

‘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

‘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

Yahoo’s new team, new mission: Yahoo Australia execs unpack the global restructure and the “why and what” of a new, simplified game plan

Yahoo’s new team, new mission: Yahoo Australia execs unpack the global restructure and the “why and what” of a new, simplified game plan

'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

'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

Three 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

Three 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

Dream 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

Dream 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

Halve 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

Halve 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

‘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

‘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

SCA 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