Dr Mumbo

Ad rate negotiation: Bob Miller style

When they made former Toyota marketing supremo and ‘cartel killer’, Bob Miller, they broke the mould – and modern day media barons should probably thank their lucky stars.

Miller revealed one of his darkest secrets to the AANA's Sunita Gloster

Miller revealed one of his darkest secrets to the AANA’s Sunita Gloster

While Miller was regaling guests at the AANA Christmas drinks with advice to “hang digital thieves from a lamp post”, Dr Mumbo enjoyed the irony as he admitted to a little light-fingered work himself – or at least as someone who enjoyed the benefits of second-story operatives through Toyota’s media agency at the time.

“Don’t know if I should reveal this dark, terrible secret now because it was a long time ago and I won’t be sent to Devil’s Island,” Miller said darkly.

“We used to nick Coles’ media schedule – I’ve never told that to a living human being.”

He said having the ill-gotten intelligence of Australia’s largest advertiser was a glorious tool when it came to talking price with the media.

“Whatever they told you at the networks, or the media guys told you about the rates for this and the rates for that – we knew the truth,” he said.

“We never told them we knew the truth, but you’d be astonished just how good a negotiator you can be when you actually have facts.

“We knew the Media Store was buying at a good rate because we had the secret benchmark.”

As Miller himself might say, it was different back then.

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