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Welcome to the latest Mumbrellacast, not yet streaming live on Kick. And while we're on the topic of smooth segues, Melbourne-born, globally loved video game streaming platform Kick announced this week it will wade into the lucrative world of advertising. Given that Kick was built from the profits made from online casino Stake, which Kick's co-founders also launched, they seemingly understand the lure of easy money. Eleanor spoke to Kick head of growth and revenue Ryan Webb about the company's advertising play. This week Mumbrella ran an interesting opinion piece from Quiip agency's Larah Kennedy where she made the very good point that not every brand belongs on Reddit. (The same thing could be said for any social media platform; often the first time you become aware that a company even has a profile is when they get into hot water because a 19-year-old intern tweeted an offensive meme.) Kennedy writes that Reddit requires "heavy, active moderation and skilled community management". "If you venture into these spaces without investing in proper community governance, you open the floodgates to brand risk. Negative comments and controversy left to fester over a weekend can decimate years of painstaking brand building by Monday morning." Larah joins the podcast to explore this topic further. Also this week: the Albanese government announced it has finalised the News Bargaining Incentive legislation, and the changes it has made to the original draft have managed to upset both the major media companies -- who argue they were promised a larger slice of a larger pie -- and the smaller publishers, who argue the pie isn't being shared widely enough. Maybe Albo needs to wear his Joy Division shirt into parliament to distract the media... And we end the podcast with another heated quiz, in which nine audio stings (sound logos, jingles, whatever you wish to call them) are played, and we attempt to access long dormant recesses of our memory banks to recall which brands the stings are for. Here's a clue: Brian Eno's shortest-ever composition is featured here -- and Bowie had nothing to do with this one. Happy listening. Get the latest episodes here. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

A key moment in Christian O'Connell's new book Unscript happened backstage at last year's ARN Upfront event in Sydney. As he explains in this podcast interview with Mumbrella's Tim Burrowes, it was a high pressure situation. O'Connell had decided to present to the audience without the safety net of the autocue. To increase the pressure, he was about to welcome to the stage the two people whose time slot he was about to take over in Sydney -- Amanda Keller and Brendan Jones, who had been the regular breakfast voices on the station for 20 years. An unnamed ARN executive adds to the tension further, telling O'Connell: "This really needs to go well." O'Connell, presenter of the Gold FM breakfast show, now networked across Melbourne and Sydney, has published his latest book, Unscript: The Radical Act of Being Yourself, which is the reason for today's interview. He discusses the progress of his push into Sydney, which began with the crucible of introducing himself to his new audience the morning after the Bondi Beach terror attack. When the UK-born broadcaster first introduced himself to his Melbourne audience in 2017, he needed to win over the sceptics. He says: "The backlash at the time felt like it would never end. Professional underdog - I want to get it on my business card. I've always felt an outside on commercial radio. I get a lot of power from that." O'Connell is going through the same process again, with his ratings so far down in Sydney, compared to his predecessors Jonesy and Amanda. He says: "I look back and there were early signs that it was working. I can feel it again. I can see it, I can sense it. You can feel [the listeners] coming over one by one - that's how you build it." He also discusses his evolving team, including Pete Deppeler, a refugee from The Kyle and Jackie O show on sister station Kiis, where he aptly played the role of show clown. O'Connell wasn't interested in what he dubs "the cartoon character". "His next evolution is as an adult," he says of Deppeler. "He's in his 40s and trying to do something different." O'Connell also pushes back against those who describe his evolving format as zoo radio.  He says: "I do see it as a campfire. My job is to light the fire. I'm always trying to make radio less like radio." And there's an intriguing hint about what comes next: "There's a couple of opportunities for next year that would involve me going beyond Australia - not leaving Australia, not leaving ARN; this would be with ARN -- but doing stuff that's bigger than just Australia. Get the latest episodes here. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

Harvey Norman and Latitude Financial cop a $55m fine for misleading advertising Mutinex co-founder Henry Innis raises the alarm about how advertising measurement is influenced by who funds it. And we look  back on the Mumbrella Awards. Where did it all go right for Howatson+Company?

In this cross-post interview from the Spinoff's At Large podcast, Mumbrella's Hal Crawford speaks with Toby Manhire about the under-16s social media ban. Manhire is the NZ culture and news site's editor-at-large, and he wants to know whether the law is working, who's under investigation, and whether New Zealand should follow Australia's lead on the legislation.

Welcome to this week's Mumbrellacast, now available as a novella. This week has seen some major executive moves at the media companies. Nat Harvey went from Mamamia to Seven, former Seven revenue chief Kurt Burnette popped up at Vinyl Group, and Mia gave her son the good office.  Also, SCA presented its unique selling proposition to marketers at a mini-upfront delivered at breakfast-time with coffee and croissants; the bosses of News Corp, SBS, ABC, and Nine teamed up on stage at the Andrew Olle lecture to discuss the deals and battles with AI companies; and Mumbrella managed to help a creative get his Instagram account back after a dispute with Meta and FIFA, 'cos we're handy like that. Delivered piping hot, just like you ordered.  Get the latest episodes here. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

When Mumbrella sat down with the outgoing and incoming bosses of women’s media network Mamamia — Nat Harvey and Luca Lavigne, respectively — we were relishing asking the obvious question: how is a 28-year-old qualified to run a business? It turns out 28-year-olds, like all people, come in different configurations. As he explained in the interview, Lavigne is living at an accelerated pace. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

Welcome to the Mumbrellacast, now completely created with AI, auto-tune, monosodium glutamate, agent orange, and Styrofoam. This week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (or a very convincing robotic replacement) visited Sydney University where he announced he will establish an official Office of AI, which will be tasked with AI-related legislation, drafting new copyright protections, and basically saving the nation from digital invaders. Elsewhere on the podcast, we discuss how and why the most-played song on Australian radio over the past few weeks was (reportedly) created using AI; Vinne Schifferstein Vidal joins us to argue that agencies should not be selling AI platforms as a point of difference; and the heated debate is back -- and has very little to do with AI. We start the episode with Vinne's very solid argument that agencies are investing millions in AI platforms and marketing them as a competitive advantage … but there's a major hitch. She speaks with Hal Crawford about an issue that goes to the heart of agency strategy. And we remain on the absolute cutting-edge with news that '80s pop star Madonna has released her latest album, and she's back on the top of the Australian charts! But instead of one of her new tunes making waves, it's been a heavily AI-assisted dance cover of her 1989 hit Like A Prayer, released into the world by Brisbane DJ Josh Fawaz, that has captured the attention of Australian commercial radio. The belated 2026 answer to Madonna's prayer was blasted close to 2,000 times within a fortnight, and played more in that period than any other song released by human, robot, or animal. The song's success, and its embrace by Australian radio, has caused quite the furor, with many angry torch-bearers calling for AI-created content to either be disclosed, completely banned, or something in-between Lauren Joyce, who was previously the content boss at ARN, ignores all the controversy, and looks ahead to a future where AI-created songs will simply become another genre of music -- much like jazz, techno, rock, pop, or shoegaze-infused-dream-pop-plunderphonic-hauntology. And even though we managed to sort out most of the AI issues facing the country during the first few minutes of this podcast, Anthony Albanese also threw around a few solutions this week. To quote our PM: "Australian writers, musicians, artists and journalists must retain ownership and control of their work. Our laws will spell that out, plain as day." Like most political speeches, it seemed declarative, but didn't offer too much of substance. Plus, don't our copyright laws already cover copyright? Anyway, we get right into all of that. And to round out this bumper episode, we finally settle the old-age question: Can media companies be really good at more than one medium? Recently we’ve seen audio network SCA and TV network Seven merge and then tussle for power at the top, Nine sold its talkback radio division and bought a bunch of billboards, and radio network ARN started hosting singles cruises, pop gigs, and short-lived Friday arvo knock-off drinks with Eddie, Karl, and caller seven from Rooty Hill. So, can it be done? Tim and Hal battle it out primary-school-debate-style, a winner is declared, and next week should see some major media group mergers, or demergers -- depending on how convincing the respective arguments were. Happy listening! Get the latest episodes here. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

Welcome to the latest episode of the Mumbrellacast, where we quiz the PM on his predilection for Aussie popettes. Actually, we discuss Telstra's biggest PR disaster since the hazy, lazy days of 2018; look at Oztam's decision to take the official TV ratings measurement system to tender after a quarter-century with Nielsen; debate whether the NRL deal is worth the $5.3 billion being paid; and take a look at new commercials from Square, Mazda, and Mutti. This week, Ben Willee from Spinach joins us, and we resist the urge to delve into why his initials contain more syllables than his entire name. "Don't spin a story that you think will make us feel happy.” That's Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine's advice for Telstra's marketing folk, who failed to communicate promptly or properly after this week's catastrophic network outage. For a few dystopic hours on Wednesday morning, phone and internet access was unavailable to 25 million Telstra-connected devices around the country, which meant that many small businesses couldn't process card payments, trains ground to a halt, cars were locked in garages that were locked behind gates, traffic lights failed, people couldn't Uber, Milkrun, or make prank triple-zero calls, and Duolingo streaks were absolutely decimated. As Donald Trump sagely/stupidly pointed out a few weeks back, in the modern age "everything is computer". We all bemoan the control that Meta and Google wield in the information age, but Telstra are our real overlords, and they have been brainwashing us with catchy whistled Bee Gees tunes. After all, you can't google Google without internet access ... Speaking of internet access, Australia's TV ratings system has long been criticised for using outdated methodology in an increasingly data-rich world. How is it that overseas tech giants know our blood types, religious beliefs, and what Spice Girl we prefer (Geri) from our search histories, yet Oztam (a joint venture between Ten, Seven, and Nine) can't get a realistic read on how many Australians watch Home and Away at 7pm? Questions like this may be the reason Oztam is now looking for a new partner to drive its rating system, after 25 years with Nielsen. Legendary media analyst Steve Allen explains why this decision is long overdue. Now, to sports news. This week, the National Rugby League managed to squeeze an incredible $5.3 billion from Nine, Foxtel, and Sky NZ for the broadcast rights to the competition until 2034. Mathematically speaking, this equates to "a long time" that the networks are on the hook, and with gambling advertising money possibly drying up -- if you think it could never happen, remember the NRL used to be called the Winfield Cup -- Tim Burrowes and BW debate whether or not the deal was worth it. And to close out another bumper episode of the Mumbrellacast, we play some advertising, which is usually your cue to hit the 15-second skip button, but in this case the ads are part of the show. We review the latest campaigns from Square (starring Naomi Watts), Mutti (starring Sam Kerr), and Mazda (starring a choir with Californian-cult vibes). Simple, yeah? Okay, that's enough reading for you today - happy listening! Get the latest episodes here. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

Welcome to the latest Mumbrellacast, where unfortunately Karl Stefanovic won't be joining us this week. Instead, we'll make do with the freshest five-piece since Jackson 5: Abe Udy, Tim Burrowes, Eleanor Dickinson, Nathan Jolly, and Lauren Joyce. If you were wondering why you kept tripping over discarded calculators on your way to work this week, it's because Tuesday marked the end of the financial year -- which means Mumbrella can reveal the winners and losers on the Unmade Index, a Tim Burrowes invention which tracks all the publicly listed media and marketing companies on the stock exchange, and cruelly bundles them into judgmental groups based solely on their performance over the year. Despicable! Anyway, we chat about that. Tim Duggan co-founded pop culture website Junkee way back when Tiktok was still a Kesha song. This week, he fronted the National Press Club and took a club to the national press, arguing that the entire Australian media ecosystem needs to be protected with tax offsets, social media payments, AI royalties, and government ad money if it is ever going to move off the endangered list and onto the undangered list (not a direct quote). And this week, former Kyle and Jackie O boss Duncan Campbell did a media tour to promote his new single "It Wasn't Me ft. Shaggy", appearing on the Game Changers Radio and the Quarter Hour podcasts where he spoke freely about his time as a professional Kyle-wrangler -- and distanced himself from the 10-year contract and the decision to network the show into Melbourne. Lauren was Duncan's successor and adds more insider-baseball context to some of his comments -- before putting on a pair of debating gloves and duking it out with a remote Hal Crawford in this week's heated debate (cue sting)!!! Based on some of Duncan's comments about ARN management's tendency to handle Kyle with baby mitts, Hal and Lauren debate whether or not "on-air talent should be managed with a firm hand". Hal takes the affirmative, Lauren rebuts like the prodigious year-six third-speaker debating champ that she was/is, and everybody listening is the real winner. Enjoy!

Welcome to the latest episode of the Mumbrellacast. Today, we're joined by Tommy Robinson to discuss whether or not those bloody—oh wait, our lawyers have advised us to drop that segment, so we will instead start by discussing Karl Stefanovic's perfectly played-out cancellation from Nine. Today, after 20 years behind the Today desk, Karl Stefanovic has finally been axed by Nine, after months of ramping up the right-wing content on his independent video podcast The Karl Stefanovic Show until he hit breaking point with far-right agitator Tommy Robinson, who Karl openly declared his love for. What's next for Karl's career? Can he make his millions without falling into bed with a major media company? Who will replace Karl on Today? Will Karl's new ARN radio show with controversy-free pundit Eddie McGuire go live at 1pm tomorrow afternoon, as scheduled? Will it still be uploaded to 9now if it does? Has Karl pushed his public persona too far to be a safe bet for a Nine competitor looking to snap up a heavyweight free agent? Will advertisers go near him after this? Will the witches stop waving their wands at Nine? Will Karl have to pay for his own table at the Logies? These aren't rhetorical questions. We ask and answer them all. A decent portion of our listeners may be tuning in from Cannes Lions in France, as they take a break from the relentless champagne, sunshine, and trophies to check back in with what's happening back home. Matt Jones, founder of Four Pillars Gin, Mumbrella columnist, and intrepid traveller, reports back from his very first Cannes Lions and tries to make sense of it all. And finally, we look at the current race for the NRL broadcast rights, the most drawn out negotiations since Waco. It seems to be down to Foxtel and Nine, who are both trying to take the entire rights package, and box the other out, after 28 years of peacefully co-hosting the NRL. During the week, we asked whether Foxtel's bid for the prize is even legal, with the anti-siphoning laws dictating that free-to-air broadcasters need to have the first bite of the cherry when it comes to major sporting competitions. Today, we take this discussion even further, and debate whether the anti-siphoning laws should just be abandoned altogether. We flip a coin, take opposing sides of that coin, and fight it out, primary-school debate-style. No fourth speakers or rebuttals allowed! As with most debates, free speech is the real winner. Karl and Tommy will be very proud of us... Happy listening! Get the latest episodes here. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.  

Six years ago, Rob McFaul launched UK-based non-profit Purpose Disruptors with an aim to help the advertising and marketing industry move towards sustainability. Purpose Disruptors has just launched in Australia, with former OMD and Mindshare boss James Greet as its local boss. On this week's Mumbrellacast, Tim Burrowes speaks to McFaul and Greet about the non-profit's mission in Australia, and how changing the mindset around client briefs so they understand how climate change is impacting marketers, and how marketers are impacting climate change. Greet and McFaul said that most advertising clients aren't aware of the emissions impact their campaigns have on the environment. "Climate change and biodiversity loss isn't a future problem, it's right here, right now," Greet tells Burrowes. "It's a problem for businesses right here. All businesses are seeing a massive impact because of the impact of the climate crisis and biodiversity loss on their supply chains. That's happening now. Australians are feeling the impact of that through cost of living and increase in pricing on food and insurance and so forth. Which has to mean, if it's affecting consumers and all businesses now, it's got to be a problem for marketers. "The challenge we have here is that I still don't think many marketers understand that or see the connection yet, let alone actually understand what's the relevant way in which they can get involved." Greet said he was compelled to make a difference after realising he had spent the best part of four decades religiously following briefs for clients without thinking about the wider impact. "You suddenly realise the better I am at my job, the worse I'm making the stuff I really care about, which is nature and environment."

Welcome to a very radio-heavy Mumbrellacast, where we discuss Kyle Sandilands' big settlement with ARN, SCA's sacking of three regional breakfast show, and even attempt to take Pauline Hanson's side on an issue or two (actually, just one). Best of all, we are joined by Lauren Joyce, who spent some time inside ARN, dealing with some of Kyle's mad fucking detractors. We begin with Kyle Sandilands' settlement with ARN, which will see him take home $12m plus change, millions in advertising, and Smallzy's collection of Reeboks. It's hard to see who won, ultimately, aside from activist group Mad Fucking Witches. But, with Sandilands and ARN still in business through a revenue share agreement, will this public separation be enough to see the MFW back off ARN? Southern Cross Austereo is the latest media company forced into "rightsizing" as business-types call the sacking of humans. The newly merged media company has cancelled three of its regional radio shows as it looks to cut 250-300 jobs across the entire company, and save $150m. It's a big mission, but isn't regional breakfast radio the wrong area to look for savings, especially as the gulf between the monolithic tech giants, and local DJs discussing the weather between No Doubt tunes continues to grow wider? What has SCA lost by getting rid of its local talent? This week Google flew marketing legend Les Binet to Sydney where he revealed the secret to marketing. His take? The more you spend, the better your results. Not surprisingly, such a simplistic take received a little push back from the Mumbrella team. And finally, following Pauline Hanson's declaration that she would axe the SBS and use that money to invade Greenland or something, Hal Crawford and Tim Burrowes take opposing sides and debate whether the multicultural broadcaster should exist at all. Oh, and did we mentioned -- we've got an exclusive snippet of Kyle Sandilands talking about-- well, you'll just have to listen in. Happy listening! Get the latest episode every Thursday. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

On this week's Mumbrellacast, we dive into today's radio ratings and look at who will fill the Kyle-sized hole in the Sydney breakfast market, debate Vinyl Group's masterplan, and chat to Nicky Barton from Mutinex about why brands are cutting marketing spend to long term channels. We start with today's radio ratings, and the race to secure the Sydney breakfast radio crown now that Kyle and Jackie O are doing their broadcasts live from the Federal Court. Triple M, ABC Breakfast, Smooth, Nova, and Gold all enjoyed increases in audience share for the timeslot, with Nova's new breakfast duo Ricki-Lee Coulter and Tim Blackwell managing to net the station's best breakfast ratings in 17 years, and Christian O'Connell starting to build an audience in his newest market. Tim also shares some interesting info about the most-listened-to shows nationally, and finds that all that glitters may well be Gold. This week, Vinyl Group took over Pedestrian Group from Nine, and the licence for Time Out Australia and, according to CEO Josh Simons, did both deals for the price of a latte. It's the latest land rush for the aggressively minded media company, but does buying and bundling a bunch of once-hip, loss-making, youth-targeted media titles add up to a profitable business or are you just left with a stack of once-hip, loss-making, youth-targeted media titles? I guess we shall see. And finally, marketing effectiveness company Mutinex has released data that shows how Aussies brands are crowding into marketing channels that are already saturated, while cutting spend in those that build long-term memories, such as television, talkies, and the wireless. Mutinex head of marketing science Nicky Barton joins the Mumbrellacast to discuss the findings and to be peppered with a barrage of questions from Hal and Tim. Happy listening! Get the latest episode every Thursday. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

On this week's Mumbrellacast, Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine joins the team to discuss a variety of topics, including her company's latest survey, which saw Optus pass Woolworths as Australia's most distrusted brand -- quite a dubious honour, indeed. There's a Paul Kelly lyric: "To be good takes a long time, but to be bad no time at all." We saw that song play out when Qantas went from an untouchable Aussie icon to a national disgrace during the pandemic, and we've seen it happen to the once-sparkling reputations of Optus, Coles, and Woolworths over the past few years, which we discuss. We also look at the continuing downturn in advertising spend in Australia through the lens of the new Guideline SMI figures, and try very hard to find a bright spot amongst all the diving lines on dot graphs. This week, a friend of Mumbrella passed along an email from Elizabeth McIntyre -- the CEO of the Outdoor Media Association, a peak body that does exactly what its name suggests -- to her own board, blasting the country's largest outdoor media operator, Ooh Media, for making some dubious claims using OMA's Move measurement data. We love a good internal fight between stakeholders, so we unpack all the drama here. And speaking of drama, this week was meant to signal the deadline for networks to make their first bids for the National Rugby League broadcasting rights, and it could go one of several different ways. Will the league's chairman Peter V'landys get the record deal he has been bleating about for several years? (Spoiler: He probably won't). Will Seven swoop in and take the two biggest footy codes? Will Nine box out Foxtel? Will Foxtel box out Nine? Will an American streaming service take a punt on a sport that calls 'punts' 'kicks'? Why are there so many songs about rainbows? We attempt to answer some of these questions. And finally, there is seemingly a lack of basic training in the marketing industry, as Mark Ritson revealed at Mumbrella360 last week. He gave marketers a simple ten-part, multiple-choice quiz -- and most professionals couldn't get a pass mark, despite the test featuring what Ritson dubbed "basic sub-undergraduate questions". Worse still, 75% of those who failed rate themselves as "above average" in their field. Gulp! Get the latest episode every Thursday. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

Rohan Lund, the newly minted CEO of SCA, joins Tim Burrowes on stage at the Mumbrella360 conference for his first major public interview since becoming boss of the media company. Lund joined the board of SCA in March, was appointed CEO in April, and officially started in his new job on May 1. Four weeks later, he jumped onto the M360 stage for a wide-ranging chat about a newly merged company in flux. Lund speaks about his first month in the role, the biggest differences between the cultures at SCA and Seven, whether he will bid for the NRL, the predictable perils of having Gina Rinehart as a new financial backer, and how he plans to build his executive team. “I don’t think the media is ready for these horizontal views," he said. "I think TV, radio, and publishing are very different businesses. They have different customer strategies and different cultures today." Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

This week's Mumbrellacast was recorded live at Mumbrella 360 at Carriageworks in Sydney, with a six-person panel featuring our host Abe Udy, special guest Vinne Schifferstein Vidal, and regulars Eleanor Dickinson, Nathan Jolly, Hal Crawford, and Tim Burrowes. We open with a selection of quotes from day one of the conference, with luminaries such as marketing leadership guru Thomas Barta, Ebiquity CEO Ruben Schreurs, Henry Innis and Nicky Barton from Mutinex, and Maura Touhy di Muro of Roblox speaking on redundant terminology, marketing mix modelling, artificial intelligence, leadership, and what Barta calls "the evil twins of marketing stupidity". Tim spoke with SCA's newly minted CEO Rohan Lund, who was very honest about the "duplication" and "inefficiency" in merged companies such as the one he has been running for the past 28 days. He unpacks what he learned from that conversation. Abe also runs a live demonstration of his new AI-built sales-enablement tool that turns a few quick prompts into a fully-produced radio advert, with music, and real voice-over talent from the Abe's Audio stable. It's quite remarkable, even if the live demo went slightly askew... And we drag down the celebratory mood of the conference by discussing the bleak economic conditions, and how they are impacting marketers. Sorry! Get the latest episode every Thursday. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

BYD Australia CMO Kate Hornstein joins the Mumbrellacast to discuss the brand’s rapid rise from new EV entrant to one of the country’s top-selling automotive players, and the marketing strategy behind it.

Welcome to this week's Mumbrellacast, where Abe Udy, Hal Crawford, and Nathan Jolly -- who some are calling the best power trio since Nirvana -- discuss the Federal Budget's impact on the media world, the new SBS managing director, and the job losses and bidding wars at Ooh Media. We open with the Federal Budget, easily the best 990-page document to be released so far this month. AAP is being given a cool $15m to keep the newswire ticking along, while the ABC and SBS both got their budgets increased. But it's the capital gains tax changes that have start-ups in the media and marketing space worried. Is it just post-budget panic, or will the new rules make it less attractive to start -- or continue -- a small business in Australia? Also this week, Jane Palfreyman has been named the managing director of the SBS, a job she's been doing for around nine months already, taking over from James Taylor, who is now at Ooh Media (more on him, shortly). As we discuss, the SBS has a reputation for promoting from within their ranks -- and for largely avoiding the "our tax money pays for this garbage" garbage that the ABC seems to cop every time they report something slightly impartial or show a boring re-run of The Bill. Is it time to apply more scrutiny to the SBS? As we were going into record this podcast, Ooh Media was just wrapping its annual general meeting, during which CEO James Taylor announced 82 job cuts -- around 9% of staff -- and $12m in annual savings. The shareholders seemed quite impressed with the way the company is being ran -- possibly because two recent takeover bids have seen share prices soar in the past few weeks. Taylor and co. also seem largely unconcerned about Nine's recent acquisition of outdoor media rival QMS, which seems to have appeased the shareholders somewhat. And finally, Eleanor spoke to Gavin McLeod, chief creative officer at Emotive, about the new campaign they created for Four Seasons Condoms entirely with AI. It's worth watching the ad before you start typing "AI slop" into the comments box below... Get the latest episode every Thursday. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

"Once a marketer, always a marketer," declares Thomas Barta. "Marketing is about creating change and desire, and I'm still in it." Later this month, Barta is flying to Sydney from Cologne to present a keynote at Mumbrella 360 around the "catalyst" theme of the conference. He aims to provide a framework to close the gap between knowing what needs to change, and actually making change. His overriding premise is that “companies don’t create the future — people do”, and that individuals inside organisations are the ones who propel change. "If you wanna be a catalyst ... it's not about some skills you were born with and then you suddenly are that. "It's that you need to very simply learn how to do two things very well. The first thing is ignite ideas that lead to growth ... second, you also need to learn to rally an organisation. "We have a lot of people who have lots of good ideas that go nowhere. We have a lot of people who execute like hell and maybe are hitting a wall because they're in the wrong direction, and they have lots of people who do none of the above because they just tick along. "But then there are these few people who lead the company and that is the role you can take, even if you are 21-years-old, and you are starting out in this profession. "That's what we need to learn: How do you ignite and how do you rally? And if you take these two themes and you work on them a little ... your career will clearly take a positive turn." Listen to the entire podcast to learn why Barta thinks the terms 'performance marketing' and 'brand marketing' are "complete bullshit"; how marketers can treat the infux of AI in marketing as akin to choosing the red pill or the blue pill; and why Donald Trump is the best marketer he's ever seen. Mumbrella360 runs from May 26-28 at Carriageworks in Sydney. Get tickets here. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

Welcome to this week's Mumbrellacast, where Tim Burrowes joins us live from the Qantas lounge but swears he isn't compromised. The reason we mention this is because this week, it was revealed that ABC managing director Hugh Marks has accepted a membership to the Qantas Chairman's Lounge, one of the most exclusive clubs in the country -- and one where memberships are dealt out -- and rescinded -- by one of the biggest corporations in the country, one which has had a horror PR run since the pandemic. We discuss why this is potentially a huge problem when it comes to the perception of the national broadcaster as an independently minded news outlet, and why other media outlets aren't slamming Marks for this decision, when lesser ABC scandals seem to be beaten up. Dentsu Australia has ditched its Carat and iProspect brands and reduced its Australian operation to one brand. Why did this happen, and what does it mean in a wider sense? These aren't just rhetorical questions: we attempt to provide answers. Now onto radio (or the 'wireless' for our older listeners; don't the kids dress weird these days?). This week, Heith Mackay-Cruise stepped down as chair of Southern Cross Media. He will be replaced by Teresa Dyson, a long-time Seven West Media board member, and a portent of the shifting power dynamics in this newly merged media company. A week or two ago, Seven’s former chief operating officer Rohan Lund was named CEO and managing director, and it seems that SCA's John Kelly -- who seemed to be the frontrunner for the top job -- will remain as audio boss. Stay tuned to this end of the dial, as we turn to Kyle Sandilands' defence against ARN defence against Kyle's defence against his sacking -- we've gotten hold of Kyle's Federal Court filings this week, and it might be the only legal document in the history of the courts to feature the word "arse-licker". Kyle is somewhat throwing Jackie under the bright-pink Kiis bus, claiming she was just as offensive on-air as he was, and contributed to the tone of the show -- and that ARN's producers not only encouraged this, but actively monetised it. Finally, Trinity P3’s latest State of the Pitch report reveals that “abusive” pitching practices are becoming normalised across Australia’s advertising industry – and, according to Trinity P3’s CEO Darren Woolley, agencies share some of the blame. Over to you, Darren.... Get the latest episode every Thursday. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

On May 1, Australia's biggest talk-radio network Nine Radio shut down and in its place sprung up Tapt Media, as hoteliers the Laundy family officially took over Sydney's 2GB, Melbourne's 3AW, Brisbane's 4BC, and Perth's 6PR. Former Nine Radio -- and now Tapt Media -- CEO Tom Malone and chief commercial officer Brian Gallagher both speak with Tim Burrowes in the latest episode of Mumbrella’s Unmaker Series podcast, about what the new ownership means for the future of its talkback radio empire.  "This is a hundred-year-old startup", Malone notes, "and there's a huge opportunity ahead of us." Coming from Nine, Malone says that the network "understood that the best way to run this business would be as a standalone entity", and it's clear both he and Gallagher agree with this sentiment. "Having your own bespoke sales team commercialising with a singular focus on audio — linear, streaming, podcasting — is gonna drive a better result for the business," Malone notes. He lists off short and long form video and audio, on and off-platform plays, third-party reseller agreements, and even a subscription offering as possibilities that are in the pipeline.  "There's lots of different avenues that we can explore. That's really exciting for us as a business, harnessing the power of our content, but also the power of our connection between our broadcasters and our listeners." There's also a neater demographic fit between the Laundy's hotel empire and the stations' audience. "We're not playing top 40," Gallagher notes. "We're getting to core issues and we're connecting community. We're connecting them beautifully with clients as well. So it's a real opportunity. "Look, in all fairness to the power of Nine, which is the preeminent Australian media company, the ability for this business to actually maximise its revenue opportunities in that umbrella were very limited ... That's a business that trades very effectively in a 25-54 marketplace ...  We deal with slightly different demos that don't make the CPM (cost per mille) cut in the analysis from time to time. "So it's a really hard thing to  be competitive and achieve the right kind of market share." Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

Welcome to an early edition of the Mumbrellacast, hot off the audio presses, where we dissect the recent developments in the media and marketing space -- as we do. Tim Burrowes, Hal Crawford, and Ben Willee from Spinach Advertising react to this morning's news that Pacific Equity Partners has made an offer to buy outdoor advertising company Ooh Media --  an offer worth around $750m according to the AFR. The government released its draft version of the News Bargaining Incentive yesterday, which it is hoping will sail through parliament this winter. According to Anthony Albanese, the proposed legislation will encourage “deal making between the platforms and news organisations”. But who exactly is being incentivised to do what? We know some of the smaller publishers aren't happy. In light of Henry Innis' piece on Mumbrella this week about how Australia’s coming housing crisis will impact marketers, there's also a rather downbeat conversation about the economic outlook, if bad news is your thing. Happy listening! Get the latest episode every Thursday. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

Two decades ago, James Donald was working on an oil rig in Norway. This month, Ideally -- the market research platform he co-founded -- raised over $13m in an investment round that will help the NZ-based startup push into the US, and launch a new product Ideally Canvas. Donald speaks with Tim Burrowes in the latest episode of Mumbrella’s Unmaker Series podcast, about his journey from oil to artificial intelligence and consumer research, and how he helped build a company worth north of $90m in a few years. He also discusses his company's new product, Ideally Canvas, which gives brands a real-time, continuously updated consumer profile rather than a static snapshot; the limitations of synthetic data; and how Ideally is able to offer a nimble consumer insights service that competitors will routinely charge ten times more for. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

This week on the Mumbrellacast, we parse the second book of the radio ratings, look at M+C Saatchi Australia's fall from grace, and speak to Spotify's global head of thought leadership, Jenny Haggard. First off, we look at the first radio ratings survey since every single network decided to lay waste to their Sydney breakfast radio plans. Kyle and Jackie O are gone, Jonesy and Amanda are gone, Fitzy, Wippa, and Kate are gone, even 2Day's "the hits before they hit" format has gone out the window. We take a look at a survey where everything changed -- but mostly stayed the same. Next, we look at M+C Saatchi's dive. The global agency delivered its worst ever yearly results this week, and the Australian operation has copped the blame for the fall. It was so bad that the company presented its full-year results, minus Australia. Gulp! What's the story? And finally, we convinced Jenny Haggard, Spotify's global head of thought leadership, to take a three-month tall-ship from her Los Angeles office to our converted 1800s wool shed office in Sydney just to appear on the podcast, which is the type of commitment to cause we should all expect from our Swedish tech giants. Jenny has been with Spotify for 12 years, which is much longer than Taylor Swift and Neil Young have been. She chats about how the company is letting users become more active in how their own algorithmic recommendations work, the delicate balance between being a company that is chasing both subscriptions and advertisers –- and the struggles they’ve had educating the market on its ad offering -- what sets Spotify apart from social media platforms, despite being on the same pocket-computer, and how Australia's under-16s social media ban may impact them in the future -- and what they'll do if it does. Happy listening! Get the latest episode every Thursday. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

Welcome to a special relationship issue of the Mumbrellacast, where we look at the delicate dance between creative agencies and clients, and the harried, hurried waltz between media agencies and media salespeople. BMF and Westpac announced their divorce this week after just one year. Both are claiming they initiated the breakup, due in no small part to Mumbrella's own investigations into the matter. BMF fired the first shot, as far as we can tell, but isn't it rather unusual for an agency to fire a client? We discuss. A nicely timed study from marketing consultancy We Grow came out this week, examining the fragile relationships between those who buy the ads and those who sell the ads. Small talk is out of fashion these days, it seems, with each meeting needing to have a clear, concise point -- and hopefully nouns used as verbs and vice versa. There is increasingly no tolerance for salespeople reaching out just to reach out, meetings with no clear agenda, and God help the media seller who tries to book a boozy lunch without any concrete pitch. It's a pressure cooker situation, the agencies say, and salespeople who fail to understand this are doomed to annoy agencies into eternity. But aren't relationships built mostly on pointless chit-chat? There's a massive disconnect here, and we delve into it. Within 24 hours this week, Snap, BBC, and Disney announced around 4,000 job losses between them, with AI being blamed for a lot of the redundancies. But is that just an easy excuse to get rid of staff, and save some money during a period of declining traditional media, soft advertising spend, and mass uncertainty around what technology will bring next? And we wrap up this week's podcast by asking the question: Why in the world is News Corp launching an 87-year-old fashion title into the Australian marketplace? The mobile-first, social-first play seems at odds with a classic glossy magazine brand, but there may be method in the madness -- especially given the Myer partnership and the e-commerce side of things. And just for the hell of it, we close with an impromptu magazine-based pop quiz. Happy listening! Get the latest episode every Thursday. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

Welcome to the Mumbrellacast, where chances are you're about to win. We open this week's podcast by parsing the new gambling advertising restrictions announced last week by Anthony Albanese, more than one-thousand Earth days since a parliamentary inquiry recommended a total ban. While this isn't a total ban, in-stadium advertising at sporting events is no longer allowed (including on teams jerseys), TV stations are limited to three ads an hour, celebrities can no longer promote betting companies, and kids will be spared the footy odds blasting through SEN 1116 during school pick-up times. But do the new restrictions go far enough? Is Albanese's focus on protecting children from the evils of hearing about a same-game multi missing the point, when we live in a country with the most gambling losses (and wins!) per capita in the world? And what does this mean for the NRL's pending broadcasting deal, which footy boss Peter V'landys still believes will beat the AFL's current $4.5b seven-year deal? For that last question, we pass the mic to gambling and sports media rights expert Lachlan Gepp, who channelled Daryl Kerrigan in saying, "tell him he's dreaming". This week, Daily Mail Australia hired a new head of digital subscriptions, who has the modest task of driving the transformation of the company's revenue stream. We discuss how the Mail's increased focus on chasing subscription dollars instead of web traffic marks a big shift in the global media landscape, and ask whether they will be successful in retraining and retaining legions of readers drawn to its entertainment-heavy content. Also, Ooh Media had an eventful week, with the departure of its chair Tony Faure -- as well as most of the staff within its retail media arm Reo, which will be shutting down by the end of June. While retail media is booming at the moment, there appears to be no room at the inn for third-party companies trying to team up with brick-and-mortar businesses to help them sell retail media assets, advertising, or both. And, just for fun, we press rewind on a snippet from an February interview with Ooh CEO James Taylor, where he talks about the future of Reo. Happy listening! Get the latest episode every Thursday. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

Welcome to a special Easter edition of the Mumbrellacast, where you don't have to search high and low to find the treats. We start with the news that Telstra's chief marketing officer Brent Smart has left the company, after launching one of the most memorable campaigns seen on Australian television in years. We couldn't confirm news that he left the offices leaning back and whistling a Bee Gees tune, but we do look at what's next for the country's biggest telco. And while we're on the subject of telcos, Vodafone has managed to upset a lot of Australians with its newest campaign by suggesting that regional and rural areas are devoid of life, culture, and phone service. Plenty of emus though, apparently. American Ali Wong stars in the commercial, and her claim that "nothing's out here" has made national news. Is the ad elitist, funny, or a bit of both? (Or neither?) This week, Mumbrella broke the news that Virgin Australia is quietly building its own retail media network, hiring the former McKinsey and VML digital leader Scott Moore to drive its development. Retail media is becoming a major money spinner for brick-and-mortar stores, neatly wrapping together their physical and digital locations to sell you cat food and Zooper Doopers, but how exactly will it work for an airline? And will Qantas board the retail media plane next? The eSafety Commissioner’s first report on the under-16s social media ban is rather damning. It has found that, close to four months since the implementation of the ban, Tiktok, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Youtube still have “major gaps” in their compliance, and that more than two-thirds of children under 16 who already had a Facebook account in December when they bans came into play, still do, despite two-thirds of kids also believing Facebook is "totally lame, Mum, gross!" (okay, that final stat isn't from eSafety). We unpack the report. Finally, Jackie Henderson has filed suit against her former employee ARN, claiming that the termination of her contract “constituted adverse action". Henderson is arguing that her initial complaint letter, where she said she can no longer work with Kyle Sandilands was simply her exercising her workplace rights, and that the contract was terminated because of this, in contravention of the Fair Work Act. Happy listening!

This time last year, Publicis Group completed its landmark acquisition of Atomic 21 2, bringing one of Australia's biggest independent media success stories into its fold. In today's interview episode of the Mumbrellacast, Rory Heffernan, CEO of Atomic 21 2, and Michael Rebelo, CEO of Publicis Group ANZ, unpack the year-long integration process, including what's worked and what comes next.

We've crossed the picket line to present this week's episode of the Mumbrellacast. Around the time of recording this episode, ABC employees were returning to work from their 24-hour strike -- the first in 20 years -- which means the skeleton staffers won't have to dust off those old Seachange episodes just yet. But nothing has been resolved, so it remains to be seen if another strike is on the cards. We break down what the workers want, why they haven't gotten it -- and why managing director Hugh Marks is acting as if working for Aunty is akin to doing national service, with lines like: "I understand that in the current climate higher pay would help many individuals, but we must also remain focused on the long-term sustainability of the ABC and its relevance to all Australians." Kyle Sandilands filed suit against ARN last Friday, and we got hold of the "concise statement" lodged in Federal Court on his behalf, which we've published in full on the website, and which we unpack on the podcast. The document also reveals, for the first time, the exact amount that Kyle is earning, and under which financial column each of those "services" falls under. There's a curious "consultancy fee" for ARN's hip hop-based digital station CADA, which caught our collective eye. Our guess is Kyle isn't instructing them on which ASAP Rocky album tracks to playlist. We also talk press releases, following Medianet's Amrita Sidhu's declaration at CommsCon on Wednesday that 73% of journalists told them they "often or occasionally" receive what they suspect to be AI-generated pitches. "Make no mistake about it though," she said. "Our thematic analysis shows the majority will lose trust in the pitch ... For them, an AI generated pitch is a lazy pitch. It's a non-researched pitch. It's a potentially false pitch. There goes the trust." We debate whether journalists can detect an AI-generated pitch, and the rising use of press releases in journalism. Finally, we hear from Tumbleturn Marketing Advisory’s Jen Davidson, who feels we are ready for what she dubbed "Naked Communications 2.0", referring to the storied agency that pioneered unbundling strategy from execution. Happy listening! Get the latest episode every Thursday. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

The highest paid radio host was officially terminated from his job this week, after his equal-highest-paid co-host Jackie Henderson was let go a few weeks back. We're talking about Kyle Sandilands of course, which is where we begin this episode of the Mumbrellacast. Is this the end of the saga, or just the beginning? Or the long, long middle? We pick apart the wording from Kyle's impassioned media release, issued a few minutes before his ex-bosses at ARN made the news official on the ASX on Wednesday morning. He has called the lawyers in, and is claiming that his former bosses made it impossible to actually remedy the alleged breach. Surely Sandilands won't give up his $100m pie without a dragged-out, knock-'em-down legal battle. We speculate wildly on what might happen next. And sticking with radio, we parse the year's first radio ratings survey, where the main take-away message seems to be that -- in the world of radio -- change takes time to stick. Christian O'Connell replaced Jonesy and Amanda in Sydney breakfast for ARN's Gold, and the listeners were not willing to stick around for the shift. A few stations changed names, and listeners ran away. It's early days though -- we still believe. Finally, a bunch of top executives in Australia’s advertising industry are facing a future of falling financial returns, as consolidation, shrinking remits, and hordes of sentient robots that love a good em dash have killed off the million-dollar leadership salary -- perhaps for good (in every sense of the word). But where do all these executives end up when the well runs dry? Maybe they can join Kyle at Lowes? Happy listening! Get the latest episode every Thursday. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

Chris Howatson has called out the mass consolidation of advertising agencies sweeping the global holding company sector, describing it as a confusing strategy that could hamper long-term growth. Speaking to the Mumbrellacast, the founder of Howatson and Co said the approach focuses on merging creative brands that don’t scale, while media operations, where scale actually delivers efficiency, are the parts that make financial sense. He added that holding companies may continue to make extreme margins on media through principal trading, but this will mask the declining value of their creative businesses as more top talent leaves for independent agencies. Howatson’s comments come as the agency marks its five-year anniversary, with the founder outlining his long-term commitment to remaining independent, keeping headcount under 200 even at the cost of taking on new clients, and explaining why he believes the industry is entering a creative renaissance despite consolidation and AI disruption.

Four years ago, Tim Burrowes came up with the idea of the Unmade Index, which tracks daily the fortunes of 14 Australian publicly listed companies, ranging from once-mighty media companies like Seven through to tiny (read: $40m) businesses like Gumtree. Unfortunately, since its January 6, 2022 inception, the index has tracked the massive decline of the local media industry, with the total value dropping by more than 60%. If maths isn't your strong suit, that's a big fall for stocks -- which investors generally prefer to increase in value. As discussed in the podcast, the past four years have been absolutely transformative, just not in a good way.

Good things come to those who wait, and the out-of-home advertising industry, and the media buyers who book the campaigns that grace billboards and bus shelters across the country, have certainly been waiting for the next iteration of Move for quite some time. Originally called Move 2.0, then reverting to simply Move, the long-awaited and much-touted out-of-home audience measurement tool is finally live, having been in development since 2021, and teased numerous times along the way. Elizabeth McIntyre, CEO of the Outdoor Media Association, appears on the Mumbrellacast, where Tim Burrowes quizzes her on the future of out-of-home advertising, the granular new Move system, and what's happening within the OMA. Burrowes also asks McIntyre about her own plans, now the big project has been completed and delivered. For the uninitiated, Move tracks audience data from around 180,000 outdoor advertising sites around the country, by modelling a synthetic audience of 2.2 million Australians and their daily movements. This system was built after tracking the movements of 5,000 people over a fortnight across more than 280,000 different routes. It then predicts the likely audience of each out-of-home advertising point. This information is calibrated against independent data sources for further accuracy, and is available in hourly increments. Listen to the whole conversation on the Mumbrellacast, by subscribing on your favourite podcast app, or clicking on the player above.  

Welcome to this week's Mumbrellacast, featuring zero serious misconduct breaches -- aside from references to both Alan Bond and Donald Rumsfeld, of course. It's been quite the week in radio-land, with ARN using the dump button on Kyle Sandilands for "serious misconduct" which is, of course, legalese for "teasing his co-host for believing in star charts". We smashed the glass and issued an emergency podcast on Tuesday evening shortly after ARN dropped the bombshell that the Kyle and Jackie O show is no more -- you can listen to that here -- but today we investigate what is likely to be a long and drawn out legal battle between Sandilands and his former station. Victoria-Jane Otavski from Blackbay Lawyers unpacks all the legal elements for us, and looks at whether or not the network actually has a case for alleging serious misconduct in breach of his contract. As she asks, how can someone remedy a behavioural breach that's already happened -- without using some serious time-space misconduct. This week Mumbrella broke the story that Australian content platform Envato was sacking up to a third of its workers. Envato has flown under the radar for many, but for certain creatives it provides songs, sounds, stock imagery, and photography -- paying billions out to the creatives who made the original pieces, while providing a rich content library to those who need it. It was bought by Shutterstock last year for a whopping US$245m, so this is a major Australian start-up success story gone slightly pear-shaped. We look at why it needed to make such a drastic downsizing, and whether or not AI has reared its mechanical head (spoiler: it has). Finally, we look at Vinyl Group's acquisition of Val Morgan Digital, which will see the media company add Buzzfeed, Ladbible, Popsugar, Vox Media, and Choctop Monthly to its growing stable of brands (fair enough, I made up Choctop Monthly). We wonder aloud whether the $7m (plus $3.5m in Vinyl stock) was too much to pay, or if this is all part of the masterplan to build a media stable to fuel the company's music tech dreams? Happy listening! Get the latest episode every Wednesday. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

"What I uncovered as I tried to get my team set up time sheeting ...  was that not only are they incredibly frustrating for the people doing them, and the people chasing them, but the data that comes back from them is not very accurate." That's Freddie Mckenzie, co-founder of Manifest, a startup using AI to automatically construct timesheets at agencies. Mckenzie, speaking with Tim Burrowes in the latest episode of Mumbrella's Unmaker Series podcast, says he's well aware that many in the industry think billable hours is a broken model: but that doesn't mean it's irrelevant.  "The agency model and the whole industry runs on time: time's a really important component at the moment. It's becoming less important as we go into the future, but ultimately it's a service-based industry ... [and time remains important for] understanding your costs, understanding your resourcing, understanding your team, and understanding your business." Manifest began as an internal tool ("Shutterspeed") built inside Mackenzie's Auckland production company Vivid Creative (now Chameleon). The system uses machine learning to automate time sheet tracking, and Mckenzie says that pricing model will initially be based on standard per-seat SaaS models. McKenzie told Burrowes that while some people may have privacy concerns about the software, it was probably worth it even on an individual basis because for many agency people, timesheeting is the worst part of their job. Manifest is not a simple timesheeting stand-in: it's designed to give managers a better understanding of their own operations.  "Charging based on time is definitely becoming obsolete really fast -- it de-incentivizes agencies to use AI tooling because it's supposed to make us faster."  "What Manifest is designed to do is help you understand how outputs are created and how value is created inside the agency," he says.

The news that the Kyle & Jackie O Show is coming to an end is a consequential one. The sudden and dramatic axing of FM radio's biggest show of the last two decades has enormous consequences not just for Kyle Sandilands and Jackie Henderson, but also for ARN Media and even rival Southern Cross Austereo. Tonight's ASX announcement also sets the stage for a legal battle between Sandilands and ARN. In an emergency edition of the Mumbrellacast, Tim Burrowes was joined by Ben Willee, executive director for media and data at Spinach Advertising to unpack the consequences of the media story of the year. What next for the two presenters, and how on earth will Kiis FM fill the breakfast shows in its tow biggest markets? Ben Willee has a bold suggestion: Beg Gold FM's Brendan Jones and Amanda Keller to return to breakfast, and ask Chrsitian O'Connell to switch networks to Kiis.

It’s results season, and this week Nine, SCA, and ARN all reported the various fortunes of their companies. The night before they announced their financial results -- and the very next business day after the retirement of chair Kerry Stokes -- SCA's board decided to dump boss Jeff Howard, who used to run Seven, and was very briefly CEO and managing director of the newly merged Seven/SCA. The timing of this decision sent quite a message to the market. Former SCA boss John Kelly (back when they were "all about audio") is now interim CEO of the company's TV and audio divisions, and decided to use the SCA investor call as a gentle audition to shareholders for the top role. He looks in with a good shot. After all, it was very clear which of the two companies involved in the Seven/SCA merger is doing the heavy lifting in financial terms, and it's not the one that screens three hours of Home and Away each week ...

Hundreds of thousands of hateful comments are sitting on the Facebook feeds of Australian news publishers, according to a scan from a social media startup that is using multiple AI models to understand comment intent and context. “Conversational intelligence” company Sence scanned 4.8m comments on 114 publisher pages and found virulent racism and violent threats among around 400,000 harmful comments attached to news stories. The New Zealand operation — which has signed up The All Blacks, NZME and Radio New Zealand in its home market — is now pushing into Australia and is using the scan as an illustration of the extent of the problem.

Apple has shaken the world of podcasting again this week (let's not forget the "pod" part of the word comes from the iPod) with the announcement that it is adding videos to its podcasting platform, with an option for listeners to toggle between video and audio-only. Youtube is the top platform for podcasts in the world, and Spotify has been focusing on video-led podcasts of late. Yet, CRA's Podcast Ranker -- the"only official measurement system" for podcasts -- doesn't count video plays in its count, meaning it's leaving a lot of the audience out of the equation. Eleanor Dickinson wrote about this topic, speaking to Karl Stefanovic's podcast producer Keshnee Kemp and Spotify ANZ head of podcast Prithi Dey. We discuss the topic further on the show. Also discussed is Joe Aston's investigative commentary publication Rampart which, he disclosed to Tim, is making “multiples” of $500,000 in revenue after its first year, and was profitable by month two. It's an example of a thriving media company in a market that has seen so many others fail of late. (You can listen to that full interview here.) Is it good business sense for a business publication to sue its own subscribers? That's what Todd Scott, the owner and publisher of New Zealand premium finance masthead NBR is doing, taking some of its biggest customers to court if they don't ensure their employees all have their own logins. Scott reckons he's make “hundreds of thousands of dollars” from publicly shaming these companies -- so it appears to be good business sense, indeed. And finally, Tim chats to newly minted Ooh Media CEO James Taylor about whether his out-of-home business is being undervalued by the market.

Former Australian Financial Review columnist Joe Aston sat down with Mumbrella's Tim Burrowes for an Unmakers Edition of the Mumbrellacast. The pair covered a lot of ground, including a probing discussion on the economics of Aston's operation, his interview guest list, the character of former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, and his plans to expand beyond "the Joe Aston Show".

12 February 2026 In this week's Mumbrellacast, our hosts discuss the spray ACMA chair Nerida O'Loughlin copped from Sarah Hanson-Young over the media watchdog's lack of regulation regarding the Kyle and Jackie O show's continued infringes; the merging of WPP's creative agencies; NZ retailer The Warehouse's eight-week advertising blackout; and Hal's conversation with The Guardian Australia's Liz Wynn on the publication's move to require its most dedicated users to log-in to the site to access its news. Join Hal Crawford, Nathan Jolly, Eleanor Dickinson, Tim Burrowes and Abe Udy for a look at everything under Australia's media and marketing umbrella.

4 February 2026 Thanks to Earmax Media for sponsoring this episode. Click the link HERE to see podcast advertising campaigns that really work, or email hello@earmaxmedia.com directly. Be sure to check out Tim's chat with the team at Earmax — Andy Maxwell and Ralph van Dijk — HERE. In today's Mumbrellacast, our team reviews new advertising work for Coopers, Mirvac, Westpac, Bupa and Colorbond; discusses a spate of closures in Australian print media; and Eleanor interviews ex-Clemenger BBDO talent, Vinne Schifferstein, who co-opened a new AI agency, MC&V. Join Hal Crawford, Eleanor Dickinson, Tim Burrowes and Abe Udy for a look at everything under Australia's media and marketing umbrella.

30 January 2026 We are interrupting our normal schedule to bring you an emergency Mumbrellacast, after both Nine and Nova delivered major news to end the working week. Join Nathan Jolly, Tim Burrowes, Hal Crawford and Abe Udy for a look at everything under Australia's media and marketing umbrella.

28 January 2026 For this week’s Mumbrellacast, we have a live recording from the Perth edition of the Compass roadshow, where we heard from the cream of the Western Australian media and marketing community. At The Globe, Tim Burrowes moderated a panel where Block Branding co-founder and creative strategy director Mark Braddock; Social Meteor managing director Luke Whelan; chief marketing and growth officer at HIF Australia Kristina Green; and marketing consultant Alice Manners discussed ChatGPT's impact on the world, whether bravery still exists in marketing, and the reliance on gambling advertising dollars in the media.

21 January 2026 In this week's Mumbrellacast, we head to Adelaide for the Compass event, where four of the city's leading lights in the marketing and media world talk about recent changes in government policy, the struggles of running an agency, and how Adelaide is a bellwether for the rest of the industry. From the surrounds of the wonderfully named Elephant British Pub, Tim Burrowes moderates an all-star panel that features Sean O’Brien, managing director at Nine Adelaide, Katheryn Korczak, co-owner of Nation Creative, Michael Healy, CMO of the Royal Automobile Association, and Adele Gibb, managing director at Carat.

This week’s Mumbrellacast is a live recording from our Compass Melbourne event, where a panel of media and marketing insiders discuss the challenges of the year ahead. The panel — Thinkerbell's chief executive officer, Margie Reid; Southern Cross Austereo's head of marketing, Naomi Gorringe; Atomic 212's chief strategy officer, Asier Carazo; and Mondelez International's vice president, marketing ANZ, Ben Wicks — talk about the opportunities and challenges around the encroachment of AI, how to capitalise on a viral moment, the gaps in diversity hiring, and the perils of attracting younger generations to an unsteady industry.

7 January 2026 This week’s Mumbrellacast is a live recording from our Compass Brisbane event, where a panel of media and marketing insiders speak about the compounding challenges — and opportunities — in the industry. The panel — Andrew Kolb, head of strategy at VML; Kirsty Lucas, senior vice president of marketing and partnerships at Brisbane Airport; Remy Brassac, co-founder of Rumble and Rumbletown Ventures; Kelly Healy, general manager of News Corp Australia; and Eliott Bledsoe, arts marketing consultant — discussed doing more with less, the negative impact AI will (and is) having on journalism's future, the advertising industry's undervaluation, and how the upcoming Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games will be the sector's "north star".

31 December 2025 This week’s Mumbrellacast is a live recording from our Compass Sydney event, where a panel of media and marketing insiders talk about a tough 2025 – and look ahead with optimism. The panel — Christina Aventi, chief strategy officer at BMF; Bel Harper, chief product and marketing officer at Ooh Media; Anita Ayres, head of brand and marketing at Teachers Mutual Bank; and Clare Pickens, chief executive officer at Leo Burnett — discussed the toughest challenges they faced in the year, how "value-based compensation" should be quantified now that AI is destroying hour-based billing, the controversial conversations the industry should be having, and reasons to remain optimistic (there's even a poem recommendation).

24 December 2025 This week’s Mumbrellacast is a live recording from our Compass Hobart event, where a panel of media and marketing insiders talk about an industry in flux. The panel — Amr Elsayed, head of digital business at Kings Digital; Danika Porter, senior marketing leader and former head of brand and marketing at Federal Group; Clive Dickens, managing director at Meliora; and Craig Herbert, editor of The Hobart Mercury at News Australia — discussed workforce challenges such as the redundancy crisis and shrinking marketing teams, and cultural issues including workplace support for women, mental health and neurodiversity.

17 December 2025 In this week's Mumbrellacast, our hosts discuss the latest leader movements at ARN; Christian O'Connell's introduction to Sydney; the media coverage of the Bondi Beach terrorist attack; and the biggest developments in AI this year. Join Nathan Jolly, Tim Burrowes, Cat McGinn and Abe Udy for a look at everything under Australia's media and marketing umbrella.