Mumbrella live blog: Monday, March 24
This is Mumbrella’s live blog, your rolling diary of everything going on in the world of media and marketing. Refresh the page for the latest updates.
Top stories:
- Ten announces shake up for Wake Up
- ZenithOptimedia will not contest Lion media review as rivals line up for pitch
- ECD and founder Jason Ross leaves CumminsRoss
- Nielsen launches Twitter TV metric
- TV ratings: Ten posts lowest ever Sunday night share
- Durex hijacks Earth Hour for condom campaign
- Dr Mumbo: Ironic ad tracking; Promoting your competitor
- Feature: Inside the CommBank CAN campaign
5:05pm – Back to the loves of our favourite spin doctors (see 9:58am), and its the turn of Ten’s Neil Shoebridge to make the list. He seems to like a good horror story, with his favourite authors being Stephen King and Neil Gsiman, loves a bit of Stevie Wonder, and cites a diverse set of inspirations as communicators, Mahatma Ghandi and Madonna. Diverse.
4:16pm –The Australian Press Council has upheld a complaint about two Daily Telegraph articles for the inaccurate reporting of traffic issues in Sydney, the second tim the paper has been censured for its coverage of the topic. The full story here.
3:56pm – We’re hearing from Woolworths Droga5 has not been dropped from the creative roster but its contract as lead agency expires on May 1, with an update due then.
2:24pm – BREAKING NEWS: Woolworths appoints a new chief marketing officer in Tony Phillips, and has added Leo Burnett to its creative roster supplementing the work of Droga5.
1.30pm – It would appear the National Australia Bank read our Mumbo about them advertising for Westpac. Read the full Mumbo here.
12.55pm – Mumbrella has the latest on the shortlist for the Lion pitch, including that incumbent ZenithOptimedia will not be participating. Read the latest here.
12.25pm – Ten is bringing Nuala Hafner up to Sydney to read the news on its struggling breakfast program Wake Up. It is one of a number of changes its new EP has made but the question is increasingly how its Wake Up different from its rivals. Ten says it is very different. Full story here.
12.05pm – Interesting comments by STW COO Chris Savage at last week’s Commscon. Savage said competition among agencies had become so intense that it was the equivalent of a ‘knife fight in a telephone box.’ Read the story here.
12.01pm – Mumbrella revealed a few weeks ago TAL has appointed Initiative to be its media agency. For those interested the official release just went out:
Australia’s leading life insurance specialist, TAL has appointed Initiative as its media agency for a two year period.
Initiative will be working with TAL’s direct to consumer brand InsuranceLine, which offers a range of life insurance products including income protection, life insurance and funeral insurance.
The appointment was made following a competitive process. Initiative will work on integrated campaigns across traditional consumer media and digital platforms.
TAL Direct Head of Marketing Communications & Brand, Melanie Lyne said: “We are excited to have Initiative on board as we strengthen the InsuranceLine brand and enhance our customer experience in the direct life insurance market.”
Initiative CEO, Andrew Livingston said: “TAL Direct’s InsuranceLine brand has a strong customer base and plans to broaden its customer footprint as it continues to innovate its products and service. Our partnership is brand-focused and data-driven to develop clear insights and strategies.”
11:44am – Did you know Commonwealth Bank’s CAN campaign is nearly two years old? Nic Christensen sat down with CMO Vittoria Shortt to see how the campaign has changed the bank, and how much longer it can run for. Read his in depth profile here.
11:22am – With social TV the next frontier for many networks Nielsen has announced it will roll out its Twitter TV measurement metric in the second half of the year.
11:00am – Interesting news from full-service agency CumminsRoss with executive creative director and naming partner Jason Ross departing after three and a half years. No word on a replacement yet, or exactly why he’s gone.
10:40am – There’s some interesting creative around today – from people turning into vacuum cleaners to a gameshow outdoor panel, and this ad from Durex encouraging people to #turnofftoturnon in a hijack of Earth Hour.
10:20am – Predictably the stoush between The Australian and Paul Barry is rumbling on on Twitter, after the paper accused him of being “obsessed” quoting News Corp editors and a study from iSentia showing Media Watch has featured News Corp in 11 of 19 segments so far this year. But Barry had a few words for Media editor Sharri Markson on Twitter this morning:
9:58am – Some of the nation’s favourite spin doctors have been named among the 50 most influential Corporate Affairs leaders. For example, Seven West Media’s Simon Francis, who cites Winston Churchill as one of his most inspirational communicators, and an unexpected love of band The Foo Fighters, as well as authors like Charles Dickens. He also loves V8 Supercars, so will be saddened to see them going to Ten.
9:31am – The first round of TV ratings are in, and Ten has dropped to a record low audience for a Sunday of just 6.2 per cent last night, despite the return of Elementary after a long mid-season break. Ten has cinfirmed its lowest ever rating night was January 31 this year, when it had six per cent.
9:01am – There are some times when ad tracking becomes to ironic, as Dr Mumbo discovered at the weekend.
8:22am – There’s plenty happening around the traps this morning, and unsurprisingly the media sections of The Australian and Australian Financial Review are abuzz with the stoush between Seven and Ten over veteran programmer John Stephens.
The Oz has Ten boss Hamish McLennan describing Seven as the “800 pound gorilla” with new documents revealing detailed contract negotiations between Stephens and Ten, including demands for Foxtel and compensation for “loss of lifestyle”.
The AFR has Ten network rubbishing claims in the Stephens court documents it will have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to drag its programming back from the brink. It also has McLennan saying the network has many dance partners talking about potential suitors for it, but not ruling News Corp out as one of them. It seems ironic he would use a dance simile given the predicament of revamped show So You Think You Can Dance.
8:07am – Good morning folks, we hope you had a great weekend and enjoyed the feast of sports on offer from cricket in Bangladesh to Baseball at the Sydney Cricket Ground (with $40 hotdogs on offer). We’ll have the latest ratings for you when they drop just after 9am.
