Mumbrellacast: The ABC’s rough week, more Christmas ads, and Christian O’Connell’s rise to the top

It’s almost the end of the year, and that means (more) Christmas ads, GfK’s seventh radio ratings survey of the year, and Nine’s AGM. What more could we wish for?

First up are the cracking Christmas campaigns, with Woolworths, Myer and Australia Post taking their turn. Woolies got 80% of the way there and could have leant more into the magic, according to Zoe Wilkinson and Brittney Rigby, although the two disagreed on the success of Australia Post’s effort. The star of the ad, a boy named Alfie, buying a small disco ball is an effort to reposition Aus Post as a retail destination for “simple gifting”, according to creative reporter Zoe. But would Myer’s Global Positioning Stocking actually have made more sense for the postal service, with the ad’s emphasis on getting presents where they need to go, on time?

In radio ratings world, Christian O’Connell is the good news story of the week, helping Gold FM to top breakfast in Melbourne, despite only taking the hosting chair last year. Nova was the winner overall in Adelaide, ending Mix’s 27 survey streak. And it was the first full survey period for 2Day FM’s new breakfast offering: music. But is one survey really enough to judge, or are people, as Tim Burrowes puts it, “the worst”?

Nine’s AGM was also held this week, in which CEO Hugh Marks and chair Peter Costello admitted the advertising boycott against 2GB’s Alan Jones hurt Macquarie’s revenues. Macquarie is now wholly owned by Nine, and the team asks, could the next boycott extend to the broader media company, and how long will it take to associate Jones with the Nine brand?