Gyngell and Steedman to talk media at Mumbrella360 as event focus turns to technology, creativity and gamification
The CEO of Nine Entertainment Co will be interviewed live on stage by the boss of WPP’s media division Group M at Mumbrella360 in June.
The head-to-head between David Gyngell and John Steedman will take place on the first day of the conference, which is at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney on June 5 and 6.
Tickets for Mumbrella360 went on sale today. An early bird booking price – with a discount of $600 – is available until the end of April.
Gyngell’s appearance comes after a dramatic year for Nine. Gyngell led the complex negotiations which saw NEC rescued from the financial abyss. The network also bounced back in the ratings thanks to the success of The Voice and is currently at the centre of speculation around its plans for a tie-up with Southern Cross Austereo.
Meanwhile, Group M is Australia’s largest agency buying group, with the combined power of Mediacom, Mindshare, MEC and Maxus.
Last year Mumbrella360 became the first in Australia to have its visitor numbers audited by the Circulations Audit Board’s new rules for exhibitions and conferences. With a unique visitor attendance of 1,020, it is now the largest event of its type and by far the largest held at the Hilton. Mumbrella360 was also named conference of the year at the Australian Event Awards.
Among the themes this year is a focus on the area where marketing meets technology. Naked Communications will moderate a session featuring a live brief with seven technology companies given five minutes each to pitch a solution. The session will be moderated by Naked’s global head of behavioural science Adam Ferrier.
Mumbrella360 will also be gamified throughout in an initiative curated by media agency PHD. Delegates will be able to download an app enabling them to keep track of all of their activities throughout the event as a means of demonstrating gamification in practice. PHD’s strategy director Chris Stephenson will also lead a session exploring how gamification works in the world of marketing. Last year PHD moved its global planning tool to a gamification-based system.
Other key elements of the conference will see the latest research from the Mumbrella Media Agency Review and Mumbrella Creative Agency Review unveiled. Combined into one book for the first time, the publication – which ranks Australia’s top agencies and offers detailed analysis on their performance and industry perceptions – will go on sale for the first time at the event. This year, the publication will be edited by Simon Canning, former marketing and advertising writer for The Australian.
The Mumbrella Awards, which will again be chaired by Telstra’s chief marketing officer Mark Buckman, will this year take place on the final night of Mumbrella360. The call for entries will be published in the next few days.
Also being unveiled will be the latest round of The Encore Score – the most comprehensive and authoritative ranking of what ordinary Australians think of public and TV personalities. This year’s survey will increase the number of people ranked from 700 to around 1000.
The Battle of the Media will also return.The first year of Mumbrella360 saw News Limited’s Campbell Reid win the debate for newspapers, while last year saw Val Morgan CEO Damian Keogh pick up the trophy for cinema.
The coming days will see further details of the conference unveiled. Similarly to the first two years of the event, sessions will be a mixture of those curated by organisations within the industry and those created by the Mumbrella team.
Submissions for curated sessions close shortly.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
Linkedin