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Mumbrella live blog: Thursday, March 20

Welcome to Mumbrella’s live blog, a rolling diary of the latest happenings in marketing and media. Refresh the page for the latest updates.

Top stories:

4:40pm – If you couldn’t make it to today’s CommsCon conference Andrew Woodward has blogged about his experiences of the day. He wrote: “CommsCon covered everything… media trends, agency management, stakeholder relations, social media, best practise, yadda, yadda. It was a great day listening to great people telling great stories. In a world of very expensive conferences, this is good value for money for new and seasoned (I didn’t say old) practitioners. I think the communications and PR industry in Australia is alive and well, indeed flourishing.”

4:10pm – Earlier today at CommsCon a group of Australia’s leading PR agencies bosses talked about new agencies structures. During the session they said they are unhappy with the quality of candidates being found by PR recruitment companies and also the level of training in public relations being offered by university course. Story here.

4:00pm – It’s afternoon tea at CommsCon, who could say no to a hot scone with jam and cream?

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3:26pm –  Still at CommsCon Twitter is loving founder/marketing and founder/creative strategist Four Pillers Gin and Better Happy Matt Jones’ case study.

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3:06pm – Mumbrella deputy editor Nic Christensen is currently moderating a CommsCon session on how companies communicate with the government.

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2:55pm – Twitter is seeing lots of engagement with CommsCon today. Twitter users have particularly enjoyed Edelman Sydney GM Matthew Gain’s case study

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2:11pm – Don’t forget to check out our FYI section – AANA has unveiled the finalists for Great Australian Marketing AwardsMulti Channel Network has launched a dedicated sports division MCN Sport and Leo Burnett Melbourne picked up six gongs at the AME Awards.

2:08pm – Travel brand Helloworld has moved its media account from Initiative to OMD, all the details can be found here.

1:02pm – Back to CommsCon, at today’s session on how to pitch journalists senior journalists from several of Australia’s major new arrivals including the Mail Online, Buzzfeed and Junkee, told a room full of public relations professionals how press releases are only useful to them if tailored for their websites. You can read the full wrap of the session here.

12:35pm – Dan Ilic reached his crowd-funding target of $50k for A Rational Fear. The money raised goes towards production costs to create a 10 week season of digital satire, including infographics, articles and videos.

12:29pm – Pacific Brands has appointed McCann as its creative agency on its Workwear account, taking responsibility for the Hard Yakka, KingGee and Stubbies brands. Clemenger Melbourne and M&C Saatchi had previously held responsibility for the portfolio.

11:52am – Back over at CommsCon and the panel on the new agency structure has just kicked off. Meanwhile, you can see a wrap of LA Dodgers PR man Joe Jareck’s keynote interview here. Follow the feed at #commscon on Twitter.

 

11:21am – Dr Mumbo is one for wild conspiracy theories, and you can see the latest rumours on News Corp’s future structure in his corner of the site.

10:53am – The CommsCon session on how to pitch journalists has just wrapped up, with Buzzfeed editor Simon Crerar, managing editor of Junkee Steph Harmon, moderator Simon Canning, Mail Online reporter Candace Sutton and The New Daily’s editorial director Bruce Guthrie getting into it in Sydney. Follow the event via the #commscon hashtag, there’s a lot of good stuff happening.

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10:43am – So the cast of new BBC comedy W1A, a spoof on what goes on inside the BBC’s output department from the people who made comedy series 2012, apparently are a little worried the program could be mistaken for a fly-on-the-wall documentary of the Beeb.

10:27am – Last night’s TV ratings are in the bag, and it’s business as usual at the top for My Kitchen Rules, although The Biggest Loser had the biggest gains on Wednesday, which also boosted Puberty Blues, although Ten couldn’t quite manage a 10 per cent share.

9:57am – Over at CommsCon the LA Dodgers’ Joe Jareck is wrapping up his chat with Mumbrela’s Tim Burrowes on managing one of the US’ biggest sports brands. You can follow the Twitter stream via #commscon. It’s been trending in Sydney.

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9:48am – The ACMA now has more powers to decide which complaints it should move on after changes to the Broadcasting Act by the government yesterday.

9:08am – And so it begins – Mumbrella’s editorial director Tim Burrowes kicks off CommsCon 2014, welcoming the LA Dodgers’ Joe Jareck to the stage.

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8:53am – In a bizarre twist this morning tonight’s CommsCon Awards compere Joe Hildebrand has been forced into a job swap on Studio 10 this morning with the Australian Women’s Weekly news editor Bryce Corbett. Apparently they’re both “token me in female dominated work environments”.

8:40am – Here’s an interesting people move – cartoonist First Dog on the Moon is leaving his home of seven years Crikey to join The Guardian Australia. Of course, he drew a cartoon to celebrate.

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8:28am – Around the traps today there’s an interesting piece in The Australian claiming Fairfax chairman Roger Corbett has been shaking some trees of other media outlets looking for a tie-up with someone, preferably a free-to-air TV partner.

Although the story cites “unnamed media executives” as sources, Fairfax is known to be a supporter of the media reach rule repeal being looked at by the government. Interestingly though, the media group everyone thought would swoop for them, Seven West MEdia, appears to be more reluctant, with Kerry Stokes and CEO Tim Worner resisting changes.

8:09am – Spotted this morning jogging off the Manly Fast Ferry was Bauer Media boss Matt Stanton, heading down to the Park Street offices of the group. Fortunately the mooted move to Sydney’s World Square from the traditional home of Australia’s biggest mag publisher wouldn’t mean an arduous change in routine for him.

8:02am – Welcome along. It’s Mumbrella’s CommsCon conference and awards today in Sydney, so we’ll be bringing you a few reports from some of the best minds in PR today, alongside the rest of the news.

 

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