Mumbrellacast

Mumbrella
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Marketing
  • Updated Weekly

Every week the team at Mumbrella cover the latest news in the Australian media, marketing and advertising industries along with interviews with key people in the industry. Featuring a rotating panel of hosts from the Mumbrella team, this podcast is essential listening for anyone working under Australia's media and marketing umbrella.

  1. 7h ago

    Tough T&Cs, dodgy media buying, Swans or ugly ducklings?

    Welcome to the latest Mumbrellacast, scandal-free since 2023 (unless we missed something in the T&Cs). The biggest non-war, non-AI news at the moment is the Sydney Swans player controversy. We don't dwell on the details -- mainly because it is a developing story -- but instead look at what this scandal (and others like it) means for team and player sponsorships in sport in the future. With millions in gambling money soon to go south, and brands increasingly wary of controversy, might we see a situation where professional sporting leagues become underfunded due to brand reticence? Will this have a knock-on effect where it jeopardises sponsorship for underfunded Olympians? Brands and ambassadors usually have drum-tight contracts that allow the sponsor to pull out if the talent brings them into disrepute, but by then, the damage is often done. And while we are perusing iron-clad deals, Eleanor has been digging into the fine print of T&Cs, and what you actually own when you work with an agency. It turns out, it might not be a lot. Checking out the terms and conditions of working with a number of Australian digital agencies -- some of which have page counts that technically make them novellas -- shows that buried in the fine print are often provisions about who actually owns the assets brands pay good money to develop with the agency: landing pages, backlinks, creative assets, data, and even access to advertising accounts could all be owned by your agency. While we are taking on dodgy practices, media agencies are increasingly promising clients incredibly cheap advertising rates in order to win pitches, and the media owners are then left to make those rates work. Is this a race to the bottom, or a practice that has been going on since Triple M was only half-an-M? Finally, we listen to the new sonic logo created by audio branding firm Smith and Western, who were tasked with capturing the spirit of Australia in a three-second sound blast. It's a tall order, and we discuss whether they managed to capture the ineffable qualities of an entire nation in less time than it takes to squirt tomato sauce onto a bloody meat pie. And because we live in a democracy, we decide to have a go at creating our own sonic signature for this sea-girt nation -- with decidedly mixed results. Happy listening, cobber! Get the latest episodes here. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

  2. Aug 13

    Media works, news is a bargain, women love wicker men

    Welcome to the latest episode of the Mumbrellacast, voted Australia's favourite sound. This week, we open by dissecting the last-minute changes to the News Bargaining Incentive, which made its long-awaited parliamentary debut today. It seems that former minister Peter Garrett unwittingly helped inform the bill, with his Midnight Oil lyric: "the rich get richer, the poor get the picture", as the big media giants look very likely to swallow up the majority of this tech-giant tax, while the smaller publishers will be force to fight it out for a few meta-scraps. Meanwhile, the Australian Association Press is dangerously close to needing to add a "powered by Google and Meta" tagline to its name, after it was guaranteed funding from the "incentive". As Tim notes during the podcast, the Albanese government seems to announce its policies first, waits to hear the cries of dissent and/or support, and then simply gives the loudest voice what they want. I guess that's what comes with living in a functioning shout-ocracy. While everyone is talking about ARN losing Kyle and Jackie, and SCA losing advertising dollars by buying a free-to-air TV network in a year that doesn't start with '19', the Sports Entertainment Group is quietly (at least for a bunch of sports commentators) becoming one of the most powerful radio companies in the country. This week they bought New Zealand's Mediaworks, which is the main player in the NZ radio world, and a company that Hal knows intimately, given he worked there for a number of years. This purchase is a big deal for the Australian media landscape, and we chat about why this is. Ikea Australia has gone viral this week, and it's not even because a dog ate an allen key and some sticks and then vomited out a Billy bookcase. No, it's due to a savvy Instagram post that played off the internet's obsession with Wicker man, known in certain online circles as the sexiest wood-based creature since those Lord Of The Rings trees. Ikea has a history of neatly glomming onto online trends, but this looks like its biggest viral success in recent memory. (Maybe Ikea can do a Dave Hughes post next, given he clearly has a few loose screws.) On Tuesday, SCA released its first results since the Voltron-like merging of Seven's TV and publishing business -- both of which shed advertising bucks over the past year -- and SCA's audio business, which continues to grow its advertising revenue. Hal spoke to SCA's CEO Rohan Lund a few hours after the results dropped, and found him to be a persuasive communicator. And, in keeping with Australian broadcasting law, we were unable to finish the show without bringing up Kyle Sandilands. We debate whether or not his shambolic new radio/video/podcast/broadcast hybrid will stand the test of time. Happy listening! Get the latest episodes here. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

  3. Aug 6

    I read it on Reddit after kicking back on Kick

    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.

  4. Aug 4

    Christian O'Connell on finding a new audience in Sydney

    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.

  5. Jul 30

    The whole legal system is completely REDACTED

    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?

  6. Jul 28

    Full of holes, just the way we like it: Teen social media ban update

    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.

  7. Jul 23

    Australian media bosses rage against (or consider deals with) the machine

    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.

  8. Jul 20

    Meet Luca Lavigne, the 28-year-old boss of Mamamia

    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.

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About

Every week the team at Mumbrella cover the latest news in the Australian media, marketing and advertising industries along with interviews with key people in the industry. Featuring a rotating panel of hosts from the Mumbrella team, this podcast is essential listening for anyone working under Australia's media and marketing umbrella.

Information

  • Creator
    Mumbrella
  • Years Active
    2009 - 2026
  • Episodes
    401
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
  • Show Website
    Mumbrellacast