Mumbrella live blog: Thursday, April 10
This is Mumbrella’s live blog, a rolling diary of everything happening in media and marketing. Refresh the page for the latest updates.
Top stories:
- Piracy: At least the Lannisters pay their debts
- Innovation lead Nic Hodges to depart MediaCom
- Ten half-year results poor, McLennan admits programming needs to improve
- Andrew Lamb to leave media agency TMS after 13 years
- Privacy commissioner says new laws will help marketers build trust
- Naked picks up SBS full service creative and media from Razor Group
- TV ratings: The Block winners announcement falls as Ten’s food show loses
- TAC reveals first work from Clemenger
- Ten appoints new COO ahead of half-year results
- AIMIA CEO admits awards night ‘didn’t cut it’
5:40pm – And Kyle and Jackie O are at it again, reopening the war for their Facebook page from 2DayFM, and pastiching Fifi Box’s leaving video at the same time. Dr Mumbo has the background on this one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fydQa-ybFaY
5:15pm – The comment thread on today’s opinion piece from Foxtel on piracy, and why Game of thrones is being screened as it is in Australia. One commenter pointed to this post by ‘Anonymous’ on The Guardian, which sums up a lot of the thoughts coming through.
3:41pm – Dove’s latest ad in the Real Beauty campaign gives women a Beauty Patch, to help them improve their perceptions of their looks. The video is below, but it’s not amused everyone, as this article on Pedestrian.TV shows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGDMXvdwN5c
3:05pm – SingTel has done the unthinkable – come up with an ad almost as inglorious as the Singapore Government’s tourism one. It needs to be seen to be believed. See more at Mumbrella Asia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkcHGxLCs08
1.15pm – The Australian eBay creative pitch has been put on hold as the online auction site has started a pitch to look at its global arrangements. Full story here.
1:01pm – There’s an update on the Ten results story as well, following this morning’s investor briefing. CEO Hamish McLennan said: “Our general entertainment programming on the main channel has underperformed badly since the end of the Winter Olympics. We failed to capitalise on the momentum generated by the Big Bash League, and the Sochi Winter Olympics and the results from our general entertainment lineup have been disappointing.”
12:51pm – Health.com.au has launched a brand campaign poking fun at the complexity of the private health insurance system. It features Darius The Protector, a sword-wielding warrior from the middle-ages who comes as part of a private health insurance policy.
12:36pm – We’ve updated the story around Naked picking up the SBS account, as it seems they have also picked up complete media duties for the public broadcaster, through an arrangement with GroupM agency MEC. It effectively ends Razor Group’s relationship with SBS.
12:15pm – Foxtel has hit back in the piracy debate. Foxtel’s Bruce Meagher explains why the company is airing Game of Thrones as it is in an opinion piece positioning illegal downloaders as worse than the Lannisters.
11:52am – It’s a fast and furious news day today, with Andrew Lamb leaving media agency TMS after 13 years for an unspecified new venture.
11:37am – AIMIA CEO David Holmes has sent a note to the attendees of last week’s awards admitting it “didn’t cut it from an a/v perspective” after most attendees couldn’t see or hear what was happening.
10:56am – Some breaking news, as SBS has announced it has opted to go with Naked as its new agency for creative and strategy, which sees it end its relationship with Joy from July 1. Joy’ sister agency Razor is still fighting it out for the media account. The full story is here.
10:19am – Network Ten has revealed its half-year results and it’s not pretty reading, with the clearest indication yet it lost money on the Big Bash and Sochi Olympics, and an $8m revenue shortfall. Full story is here.
9:42am – TV ratings are coming in, and The Block has fallen on previous winner announcements but still pulled in over 2m viewers, while Ten’s Jamie & Jimmy’s Food Figt show got less viewers than SBS for the 7.30pm timeslot.
9:18am – There’s not a lot happening in the nationals today in terms of media stories. The most interesting is the Australian Financial Review following up The Australian’s exclusive from Monday about Seven considering a bid for Channel 5 in the UK. Apparently now they’re not. That is unless the price drops considerably from the current $1.2bn tag being sought by owner Richard Desmond.
8:35am – Ten has its half-year results announcement today, with many predicting another loss for the number three free-to-air network. Ahead of that CEO Hamish McLennan has announced CFO Paul Anderson has been made the COO as well. Enough acronyms for you there – we break it down here.
8:27am – Yesterday Dr Mumbo spotted how the Festival of Media had made something of a cock up – naming MediaCom as the Global Network of the Year on its website, with a massive picture of Starcom Mediavest picking up the trophy, with John Sintras front and centre.
Well John has tweeted us from Italy to set the record straight, complete with a picture of the gong (it’s not as good as a Mumbrella Award though, is it?).
8:16am – What better way to start the day than with the first work from Clemenger BBDO Melbourne for the Transport Accident Commission. It’s another hard-hitting effort, and you can see the full rationale here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp9h-0N5MK8
8:03am – Morning all. We’ll start today with a philosophical conundrum which could haunt man for the rest of time (or at least until your next coffee break). Where are Kyle Sandilands’ ears?
