When media agencies are given a microphone…
There is nothing Dr Mumbo wanted more on his Thursday evening than to spend it in a room full of young, ambitious, competitive, microphone-happy media agency folk – and watch them make fools of themselves on stage.
So imagine his disappointment when he rolled into Nine’s Sydney The Voice Agency Battle at The Beresford last night, only to discover the competitors could actually hold a tune – so much so that there was even Champagne*-fuelled speculation some agencies may have hired external singing talent.
Dr Mumbo is known for picking a winner, so despite the breadth of talent, he was not surprised to see PHD’s Beatriz Grattan-Smith take home the prize for her rendition of Son of a Preacher Man.
The winner of The Voice Agency Battle in Sydney: Beatriz Grattan-Smith
Dr Mumbo’s favourite moment however (given he is too polite to repeat some of the jokes splashed around by MC for the evening, Married At First Sight’s Ryan Gallagher), was when two of the nine singers picked the same song.
Thorough research would indicate there are at least 97 million songs in the world (translation: a quick Google of “How many songs are there in the world?”), so Dr Mumbo was delighted when both Joshua Alvarez from Starcom and Julia Guan from The M Agency picked Drops of Jupiter by Train. Who said you can have too much of a good thing?
Not Dr Mumbo, but budding comedian from MAFS, Ryan Gallagher
Dr Mumbo can only hope that when The Voice Agency Battle is held in Brisbane next week, we are treated to some karaoke disasters, instead of an hour of people who can actually sing.
* The speculation was wrong, and Dr Mumbo suspects it was actually Sparking Wine fuelled, rather than Champagne.
Dr Mumbo offers the talented and non-talented media agency folk photographic evidence below (click to enlarge):
Kyle Sapsford and Matt Fiorenze from Mindshare beg: “Let Me Entertain You”
“Okay, okay. I will let you entertain me”: The Voice Agency Battle judges in Sydney
Rob Christian from Carat can slide without knee pads
By day, Danny Zarka may be a productivity director at Amplifi, but by night he wants you to Twist And Shout
Cameron Chu from UM belting out Under The Bridge
Emelia McAdam from Wavemaker sings Tainted Love
Aiden Dabbagh and Danielle Galipienzo from Initiative ask “Why don’t you come on over, Valerie?”
Joshua Alvarez from Starcom got to sing Drops of Jupiter first
Julia Guan from The M Agency gives Drops Of Jupiter its second run of the evening
Judge Andrew Coorey, winner Beatriz Grattan-Smith and still-single Ryan Gallagher at The Voice Agency Battle in Sydney
topics
Aiden Dabbagh
Amplifi
Beatriz Grattan-Smith
Cameron Chu
Carat
Danielle Galipienzo
Danny Zarka
Emelia McAdam
Initiative
Joshua Alvarez
Julia Guan
Kyle Sapsford
Matt Fiorenze
Mindshare
Nine
PHD
Rob Christian
Ryan Gallagher
Starcom
The M Agency
The Voice
Wavemaker
Hi talent and no fame = Nobel Prize
Low talent and hi fame = reality tv contestant
No talent and no fame = contestant in media sales promotion based off a reality tv show concept
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“First and foremost, I’d like to thank my trading desk….”
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No talent and no fame and the ability to suck the fun out of everything = your good self
congrats, this was all a bit of fun but we’ll defer to you next time, you know, when you grow up enough to put your name against your pearls of wisdom.
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I would watch a battle of the trading desks competition
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Inability to spell the word high = low chance of winning anything.
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Do we really need to foster even more repulsive narcissism in our world?
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…so would I, would be nerdy as hell!
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I might be biased but this is high energy good clean fun. People who had most likely never sung in a band before getting the chance to do so and then being prepared to do it to industry peers, colleagues and a lot of strangers.
Nothing narcissistic about risking failure in public. Good songs and a great show, let’s all turn those frowns upside down.
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Maybe ‘Why?’ was just greeting his/her new besties ‘talent’ and ‘no fame’.
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This made me laugh too loud!
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excellent take down.
I actually think, as far as media company client events go, this is a pretty good idea.
Ties directly to a property, gets people involved, is different…
Better than “trivia night” or similar.
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