News Corp’s Lou Barrett on Serial Killers, print media’s ‘ad recession’, and its election coverage
April’s SMI figures showed a subdued climate for the ad market, but News Corp managing director of national sales, Lou Barrett, says she doesn’t see cause for concern in reports of an ‘ad recession’. She spoke with Mumbrella’s Hannah Blackiston about the figures, why backlash over News Corp’s election coverage hasn’t hurt its ad revenue, and why big executions are making a comeback.
I’m speaking to News Corp’s Lou Barrett after the April SMI figures have been released. The headlines are all doom and gloom – ad spend is down, it’s been down for months, and even outside of the big events which would distort the figures (Commonwealth Games, an election and several public holidays), things look pretty dire.
So are we in an ad recession? Barrett doesn’t think so, and she’s having the calls to prove it.
Barrett: ‘I’ve had a really good year’
“I don’t believe we’re in a recession because I’ve had a really good year. And that good year has happened because we’re not going to a client and saying ‘Which paper can we sell you?’ We’re saying ‘How can we help you with your business problems?’ We’re putting the client first, at the heart of everything we do, and then we talk about which asset works best for them. Which newspaper, or which magazine, or which digital asset?” says Barrett.
“I don’t believe we’re in a recession because I’ve had a really good year.”
I think I heard Lou say something similar about the gender disparity at Adweek last year.
“If it’s not happening to me, it’s not happening. End of.”
“The first generation of the Heart Foundation’s serial killer campaign was a News Corp idea”…
Did the success of this campaign have nothing to do with to collective thinking of Host/Havas and Chris Taylor?
Maybe you should read the links before putting your two cents in.
Chris never mentions Host/Havas being in the mix of ‘collective thinking’ in the initial concept campaign.
https://mumbrella.com.au/the-heart-foundations-hard-hitting-print-campaign-wins-mumbrellas-february-ad-of-the-month-567711
Chris Taylor presented the Heart Foundation brief to 200 News Corp staff at a News Corp conference held on Hamilton Island last September.
Staff were then broken up into groups and had 24 hours to respond.
The groups then presented their ideas, including how all News Corp assets would be deployed to turbo-charge the campaign – after which Serial Killer was was chosen as the winner.
Havas were not in attendance. (That is a statement of fact, not a criticism of Havas. They may we’ll have been integral to the strategy and briefing document).
I know this, because I attended the Conference as a guest of News Corp and, along with Mark Ritson and others, witnessed the whole thing – from Chris’ brief to News Corp’s response.
Great to hear that News reporting is not to the main business of NewsCorp but the client is. It’s a service business. At least their being honest. So why worry about censorship when it’s all about the client?
Recession? Cmon guys just get on with it.
I remember when I was a part of a company that paid very little corporate tax and shipped jobs overseas, was great till they did the same with mine.
The Telegraph and The Australian are climate denial central in this country . Why anyone in the advertising industry enable them is beyond me.
Seen Lou stand on a pedestal following a presentation and harangue the assembled clients and agencies for not spending enough with News.
Strangest sales technique I’ve ever seen.
it seems to work
‘Election coverage’
1 word: partisan
2nd word: smear
3rd word: The Murdoch Newsletter