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Mumbrella live blog: Tuesday, March 25

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

Top stories:

5:07pm – It seems the wild water buffaloes which escaped from a Samsung shoot and were roaming Sydney’s streets today has inspired the marketing conspiracists, as DK commented:

“Seems like Samsung is getting on the viral marketing bandwagon… first Ellen’s Oscar selfie, now wild animals in Sydney’s streets (no doubt a nod to the old Optus campaigns). I wonder what they’ll think of next!”

adam-ferrier-2-copy4:28pm – In today’s Answers for Adam column, Adam Ferrier asked is pitching the best way for clients to pick an agency? And there’s been some interesting responses.

Erm said: “People should be awarded work based on them being a better choice than the next person. True, other industries pitch for work but how many of them actually do the work in order to win it? You wouldn’t ask 5 law firms to draw you up a workplace contract then pick the best one to represent you…Pitching is fine, but it should be about the work you’ve done and how well you’re able to show that you’ll be able to do it again.”

Me said: “The last thing I want is govt-type procurement process. Pitch doctors are the most visible sign of things going that way. Reduces the agency from a qualitative supplier to a quantitative one. I still think its about the work, but its hard to justify genuine costs when all the thinking has already been shown. Cart before the horse type of thing. Reminds me of the ‘past performance’ caveat for financial planning. Do you trade off your past work, or do you risk the information transfer? Sorry Adam, your question takes precedence although I think you might already have the answer as you nominated it as a reason you jumped ship to C&P.”

What are your thoughts? You can read the story here and comment in the thread below.

3:50pm – Mindshare’s chief operating officer Sharb Farjami is set to join News Corp as national sales director. Details here.

3:19pm – Graham White’s response to Joe Hildebrand’s CommsCon speech is stirring up some debate in the comment thread.

Lucie agreed with the points White raised, saying: “Great piece Graham. Enter social media, word of mouth, citizen journalism and you have another layer to PR all about transparency and honesty. Spin simply doesn’t fly and it hasn’t for a long time.”

While Cambo suggested White himself was “polishing a turd” by denying that spin is part of the PR industry. He said: ““We do not try to spin or distort facts”. Errr I work in comms, and have worked on both client side and agency. In my 20 years or so experience I’ve always found this to be the case. “Spinning” includes only showing the bright side. Does that mean it’s unprofessional? No. On the contrary it’s an accepted negative in our business. And anyone that says it doesn’t happen is, quite frankly, polishing a turd.”

2:44pm – MLC is urging Australians to save for retirement in its ‘Let’s Save Retirement’ campaign created by Clemenger BBDO Melbourne. Today they unveiled the campaign’s TV spot.

2:26pm – Remember to check out our FYI section – Yahoo!7 has launched a new advertising format for tablet and Fairfax are going to research the effectiveness of mobile ads.

2:04pm – Senior members of the media industry who have criticised the Nielsen online ratings have been told they need to become more involved in the consultation process as the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) prepares to open the tender process for an online measurement provider. IAB chairman Mark Britt was speaking at a Town Hall meeting on the subject last week.

1:53pm – Remember that Goodtime Burgers ad? The one that pictured a patty sandwiched between a woman’s buttocks? It was banned by the Ad Standards Board in January and the fast food company put out another ad featuring a formal apology. Well apparently that was offensive as well… Read the full story here. Hope it doesn’t put you off your lunch.

Goodtime Burgers apology ad

1:45pm – MediaCom has secured its new national head of strategy and Mumbrella is first with the story reporting Helen Black, formerly of UM Sydney, will take up the role, reporting to chief strategy officer Paul Payne.

1:35pm – The siting of water buffaloes strolling through Newtown caused quite a stir in the media this morning, and it appears they will be the stars of a new Samsung ad to be shown in Korea.

1:24pm – News Corp Australia has launched a print newspaper in Adelaide. The free weekly lifestyle publication called The City will release its first edition tomorrow. Read the full story here.

12:44pm – Those at last Thursday’s CommsCon Awards may remember Joe Hildebrand’s address, which he admitted saw him chastised in a lift by one PR exec after the show. Now Howorth MD Graeme White has waded into the debate, defending the profession in this opinion piece.

12:19pm – David Koch has apologised for using the phrase “saner heads prevailed” this morning when he rubbished claims made in The Australian and Nine’s A Current Affair last night he was nearly axed in 2011. The story centred around an email from former Sunrise executive producer Adam Boland, who was not with Seven at the time, and suffers from bipolar disorder, as he set out in last night’s Australian Story (see 10:30am).

Screen Shot 2014-03-25 at 12.22.30 pm

11:24am – There’s something of a spat developing on Twitter between The Australian’s media editor Sharri Markson and a few well-known TV writers. As part of it she posted a photograph of an iPad, which also included all the bookmarks on the browser. These include the SMH.com.au and Pirate Bay. Televised Revolution has the analysis.

However, she has just tweeted this:

Screen Shot 2014-03-25 at 11.28.02 am

Answers_For_Adam-110:49am – This week in Answers for Adam, Adam Ferrier asks whether a lengthy and often expensive pitch process is the best way for clients to pick a new agency?

10:30am – TV ratings are in, and Secrets and Lies has dropped again to 273,000 viewers, while Adam Boland’s Australian Story got 755,000 viewers for the ABC.

Adam Boland 2

10:06am – Online job site OneShift is looking to start a marketing push, pitching its media account and handing its creative duties to Whybin\TBWA Sydney after an “informal review” process.

9.35am – Singaporean media agency The Media Shop, a boutique media planning and buying agency, is launching offices in Australia and Indonesia. Read the full story here.

9.12am – Nine’s A Current Affair last night laid the hatchet into Seven’s Sunrise program over the story of how former EP Adam Boland consider axing David Koch and Natalie Barr from the show.

Koch and co have addressed the issue on air this morning with Samantha Armytage having the line of the morning: “I cannot believe that we have given this more airtime than it already had. It’s such a big steaming pile of poo.”

8:43am – The big news yesterday afternoon was Woolworths installing a former Coles marketer as its new chief marketing officer, and adding Leo Burnett to its roster.

8:27am – The Australian Financial Review’s Rear Window column has an interesting nugget about adman Neil Lawrence, who apparently is getting 4:46pm tattooed to his backside. Apparently it is the time the Labor party announce dit was forming a minority government on Sunday in South Australia, where he had been working on the campaign (not a patch on Kevin07 we hear).

8:18am – And so to Media Watch, where host Paul Barry, who came under fire yesterday from The Australian when he was accused of being “obsessed” with News Corp, pointed out News Corp columnist Andrew Bolt has written about the ABC more than 130 times already this year.

He did however go on to criticise The Daily Telegraph for its coverage of the March in March protests.

8:07am – Good morning all. An interesting night of TV last night, with Adam Boland’s Australian Story and Media Watch on ABC1 providing a lot of talking points for the media industry today.

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