Radio ratings, Spotify is not social media, and M+C Saatchi's woes

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.