Could racehorse records signal deeper relationship between execs at Kia Australia and Advertising Associates?
Official records from Australia’s national horse racing body, Racing Australia, could reveal a shared interest in horse racing between the leaders of Kia Australia and its media agency Advertising Associates.
Neither company responded to Mumbrella’s questions about this.
Mumbrella has previously published allegations that question whether Kia Australia’s 2023 media pitch had been improperly influenced by a personal relationship between executives at the two companies.
Now, allegations made by numerous sources about a longstanding personal friendship between Kia Australia CEO Damien Meredith and Advertising Associates managing director Brett Carty appear to be supported by a number of records available on the Racing Australia website.
The records list Brett Carty’s horse racing business, Carty Racing, and an individual with the initials D J Meredith, as members of the ownership group for at least three horses, including Gringotts, Broadcaster and Nondisclosure. Ciaron Maher is listed as the trainer for all three horses, which have collectively accrued upwards of $375,000 in prize money to date.
Neither Meredith nor Carty responded to Mumbrella’s questions regarding their alleged shared ownership of multiple racehorses.
The shared ownership of a horse between the two leaders is not unlawful, and neither does it question an ethical challenge to the relationship, however it may pose a conflict of interest, according to Kia’s own global compliance code.
The policy outlines those conflicts of interest “exist where interests of one of our employees conflict or have the ability to conflict with the interests of Kia, or where an employee’s judgement could be influenced or appear to be influenced by a personal interest or benefit”.
Regarding “contracting with related companies, family or friends”, the policy asserts “employees must not be involved in procurement decisions relating to companies in which they or their family or friends hold an interest, as it may give an appearance that the employee has improperly influenced the procurement decision”.
It continues: “If an employee is aware that Kia is considering contracting with any such person or company (whether the employee is involved in the procurement decision making process or not), the employee must disclose the relevant information to their line manager and the Legal / Compliance Team so that any necessary steps can be taken to avoid any appearance of impropriety.”
Kia Australia did not respond to Mumbrella’s questions about whether the alleged relationship between Meredith and Carty has been formally disclosed to Kia’s Compliance Team.
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Sure, but then why run a pitch with what seems like half the industry participating?
As someone who is client side, if you have a preferred agency you wish to work with, you go to procurement and let them lead the commercial negotiations.
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In the event it is true the Kia CEO Meredith does owns horses with the Advertising Associates managing director Carty and Meredith was involved in the selection of a media agency as part of a tender in which Meredith was a part of the Kia decision making group, then a conflict of interest existed.
If Meredith did not disclose this conflict and did not recuse himself from decisions involving Advertising Associates then the process followed has been improper.
If Kia, as a publicly traded company, is aware of this behaviour and does nothing then not only does it effectively condone this sort of behaviour it endorses it.
Sportage indeed
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Horses were the currency of Melbourne media for years and still are. Businesses have been built off the back of the horse. Mark my words
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Is this not how business has always been conducted? The saying who you know…
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Is this article written by a 16 year old work experience person?
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This is the tip of the iceberg. Keep looking.
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The don;t ask people to pitch.
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mumbrella can you please name and shame some of these commenters. There is no place in this industry for people, who think this is acceptable and expected behaviour in business
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This is great stuff, and to echo other comments, exactly what we want to see from our trade journalists.
Regardless of what eventuates from this specific case, this is the thin end of the wedge. The industry is rife with this sort of behaviour; appointments masquerading as meritocratic but which are anything but. The fact that only a tiny number of people are prepared to go on the record with this speaks volumes.
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Shock horror that two people ever have shared interests outside of the working environment? Mumbrella’s meek attempt at investigative journalism is laughable.
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The key point which you seemed to have misunderstood is that it is in clear breach of Kia’s compliance code
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The efforts agencies put towards pitching are intense. Too many marketers don’t care about this and pitch poorly, it’s not good behaviour. This isn’t about sour grapes or bitterness, this sort of thing needs to be stopped for the good of the product. I think it’s fine to appoint an agency for whatever reason, but there’s no need to ask others to waste time and money when they were never going to be given the business, just benchmark another way.
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Respect to Mumbrella for attempting some original reporting for once, but this ain’t it.
Shock horror, people want to do business with people they like! A personal relationship tends to lead to an even stronger obligation to do good work.
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Big agencies, poor losers.
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Keep going and broaden your investigation into horses and key Melbourne industry players.
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Really?
Why pitch the business – costing competing agencies $$$ in head hours, not to mention the emotional expenditure of staff – if the decision was already made on the basis of personal relationships? Also, maybe read the part about global compliance policy.
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Well done Mumbrella !
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Both own a horse called ‘Nondisclosure’, hard to make this stuff up.
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As commented in this chain this has been going on for decades and
I mean decades. So they have professional relationship that extends outside of business hours into a friendly 1, there is no crime in that.
Many a CMO or MD has shared in horse ownership with an agency mate if indeed they mutually enjoy the sport of kings. Many a client with a passion for racing ends up their company sponsoring some of the most prestigious races on the Australian racing calendar. Sure they built a business case for it.
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Absolutely sick of the industry’s high-pressure grinder churning mental well-being into dust, all to pad the pockets of such scumbags. No wonder the exodus from our ranks continues unabated.
Nothing will be done.
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Isn’t Kia also a horse racing sponsor?
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You don’t think this happens the other way round with indie publishers/media owners being asked to pitch on campaigns, which the agency inevitably gives to News/Nine? Swings and roundabouts old sport.
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Sounds like you are comparing swings to roundabouts old chap.
You do realise that agencies put even more time into those same campaigns and it’s the client that gets final decision on what is booked? This is a fraction of effort compared to pitching.
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