Mumbrella live blog: Wednesday, February 26
This is Mumbrella’s live blog, your rolling diary of everything you need to know happening in the world of media and marketing. Refresh the page for the latest updates.
Top stories:
- Lachlan Murdoch’s DMG radio cuts ties with Daily Mail rebranding as Nova Entertainment
- Mitchells and Carat to faceoff as Industry Super pitches; MediaCom will not contest Pacific Brands pitch
- Dick Smith has lost his OzEmite trademark battle
- Richard Curtis surfaces as CEO of FutureBrands
5:44pm – Ten has refinanced it’s loan facility – it now has a $200m loan with the Commonwealth Bank which replaces $230m worth of loans it had previously.
5:34pm – Remember those Facebook lookback videos everyone did a few weeks ago (and Facebook said nearly broke the internet)? Well, this is what politician Scott Morrisson’s would look like, according to the boys from A Rational Fear, who are also crowdsourcing cash for a new project.
5:14pm – Are you interested in content marketing but don’t know where to start? Mumbrella is hosting a day-long Content Marketing Academy in Melbourne next Wednesday, March 5. There are a few places left, click here to see the program and book your spot.
5:08pm – DMG Radio has rebranded as Nova Entertainment, shedding its last links with the Daily Mail Group it was named after. However the company owned by Lachlan Murdoch has denied the rebrand is anything to do with the entry of the Mail Online in the Australian market.
Angry: O’Donnell
5:04pm – A contestant of Channel Nine’s home renovation reality show The Block has accused the show’s producers of making him look stupid and lazy in a Facebook post, news.com.au has reported. O’Donnell is said to have told a Facebook friend: “I’m super sick of the story arc beign (sic) that I’m in some way mentally deficient. I want to keep track of this as it looks like its (sic) getting out of hand and I can’t remember every fabrication. My memory of the bs (b******t) is finite.”
3:52pm – There’s an update on the story about the Industry Super Australia account pitch, it seems Mitchell & Partners will defend the business, pitting them against sister Aegis agency Carat for the $40m business. Interesting stuff.
2:07pm – We’ve got our hangout with the founders of international agency network Iris Worldwide staring in under an hour. You can leave your questions for them on this page, where the hangout will be housed, or by tweeting #askiris.
1:20pm – Standby for the newsletter which is winging its way to your inboxes. You can get the newsletter here. There’s a heap of great stuff in there today, including:
- The $40m Industry Super media pitch
- Richard Curtis to head InterBrand Australia
- Dick Smith loses OzEmite trademark battle with Aussiemite
- Charlotte Dawson’s death was the most shared story last week
1:02pm – Seven West Media has issued a statement refuting claims the AFP made in the Senate Estimates Committee on Monday that the network had told police it had no further documents to produce on two occasions. In the statement, Seven argues the network had “frankly admitted” it was still searching for documents pertaining to the police production order, but had none in relation to the programs mentioned and “there were no funds payable under this agreement with Mercedes Corby”.
12.43pm – Breaking news: MediaCom announces it will not contest the $16m Pacific Brands media account. Nor will any other Group M media agency.
According to the media statement the agency feels “our businesses are no longer aligned”.
The statement:
MediaCom today announced it will not defend the Pac Brands business after a partnership of more than a decade.
Peter Barrie, Managing Director of MediaCom Melbourne said of the decision: “Our relationship with Pac Brands has been built over many years and we have enjoyed many successes together.
The team are immensely proud of the work we have produced.
However, after careful consideration and dialogue it is clear to us that our businesses are no longer aligned. As an industry we are acutely aware of the challenges that face clients and their agency partners.
We have to deliver on multiple levels to our staff, clients, business and shareholders.
We wish Pac Brands and their team every success in the future, we will continue to deliver exceptional work and ensure that there is a seamless transition to their new media agency partner, when selected.”
Note: No GroupM agency is taking part in the review
12:06pm – Here’s another new business win, and it’s a continuation of the march of Match Media, which has picked up the “multimillion dollar” Viking Cruises business. The agency topped Mumbrella’s media agency review last year too.
11:48am– The Cold War between News Corp and the Mail Online appears to be heating up nicely, with the first spat coming over the Grant Hackett rehab story last night. Dr Mumbo has the goss.
11:28am– Seven are taking the AFP to court over those Schapelle raids, after officers failed to hand over documents relating to last week’s raids by Monday afternoon.
10:46am– The new DrinkWise campaign is sure to raise a few eyebrows. Blling itself as “classy as fu*k” it pulls few punches. Here’s one vid below, but the full details can be found here.
10:21am – Seven has announced it has signed up comedian Mick Molloy for its Saturday night AFL coverage. The release says:
Comedian Mick Molloy has signed with Seven‟s Saturday Night Footy team in the biggest trade coup since Lance “Buddy” Franklin landed in Bondi.
A self-professed Tigers‟ tragic, Molloy will join Luke Darcy, Brian Taylor, Matthew Richardson, Cameron Ling and Sam Lane for the hour-long preview show on Saturday Night Footy throughout the 2014 AFL season.
He will not be required to wear a suit and tie.
10:12am – Well the new Coles ad is having the usual divisive effect on commenters. While Tom Donald took to the story to say: “Has Adland given up on hating on Coles? Surely they should, as the sale of Wesfarmers Insurance to IAG for $1.85 billion must make “Little Red Quote” the most effective ad campaign of the year. Coles know what they’re doing…”
@aptronym too to Twitter to vent this:
While Matt Smith added:
10:01am – Well the Nando’s Mangogate just gets more exciting, with the peri-peri chicken specialists responding to their deep-frying counterparts KFC on their tactical Facebook post:
9:48am– We’ve had to dig deep in the ratings to find The Biggest Loser, which was just the 30th most-watched show yesterday, and only 21st in Ten’s target demographic of 25-54s. But the channel did pick up more share from the previous two evenings.
9:41am – Ooh, it’s the new Coles ad. Don’t worry Quo fans, they’re still there, and the supermarket is going ‘Deeper Down Down’.
9:32am – As Mangogate rumbles on (that is the story of Nando’s ‘stealing’ the giant mango in a stunt) KFC have jumped aboard the tactical bandwagon with this timely Facebook post:
9:21am – The ratings are in, and it’s more bad news for The Biggest Loser, which pulled just 251,000 viewers for Ten in the 7:30pm timeslot last night. It follows two nights of pain for the station, which is struggling against the established formats of My Kitchen Rules and The Block in that timeslot. Full ratings story will be up soon.
9:01am – Ray Hadley is back on the air, having not appeared on 2GB since last Friday when his wife applied for and then rescinded an apprehended violence order. This morning he said on air his family is “going through a hard time” but want their privacy respected.
8:42am – Did you see the cover wrap for the commuter paper MX last night? Interesting line from Pizza Hut taking a swipe at Maccas promising a new range to rival them. Pizza and Burger Hut doesn’t have quite the same ring though.
8:28am – Around the papers this morning, and The Australian is reporting The New Daily, the news website started by superannuation funds, is being monitored for any bias towards them by the corporate regulator the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
8:16am – So, what’s on the agenda today? Well, since you ask, this afternoon we’re holding a live video hangout with the founders of Iris. They’ll be coming into Mumbrella House to talk about building an independent network fro scratch and the pitfalls of brands not engaging with their consumers. It’s happening here at 3pm, and you can send in your questions or use the hashtag #askiris.
8:05am – Welcome along. Around the traps today there are a number of stories doing the rounds of John Singleton’ spray against the heads of Fairfax, and the company’s return of fire against him. I think it’s fair to say the chances of a Macquarie-Fairfax radio merger are dead in the water right now.
Looks a lot better! Nice work.
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Please get it’s and its right!
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