Two of WPP’s creative agencies – AKQA and Grey – have been merged to create efficiencies.

AKQA will become the lead brand in four markets, including Australia. The Grey and whiteGREY brands will be dropped.

The change also takes effect in Belgium, Italy, and the UAE. In Belgium, Famous Grey will rebrand to AKQA Brussels, creating a new office for AKQA. In Italy, both brands will continue to operate, but their leadership will merge. In the UAE, Grey Dubai will cease to exist, with AKQA becoming the sole brand. In China, Grey’s leadership will lead both brands.

Grey has been considered part of AKQA when it comes to financial reporting since 2020, when the agencies paired up to create AKQA Group, but both agencies continued to operate. In Australia, whiteGREY, the local Grey Group offering, merged with AKQA as part of the move. 

At the time, global CEO of WPP Mark Read said: “Our clients want outstanding creativity, powered by technology expertise and delivered at a global scale. This new company is designed precisely to meet those needs and is another important step forward in building our future-facing offer for clients.”

The news follows WPP also merging Wunderman Thompson and VMLY&R to create VML at the end of 2023.

This marked the end of the Y&R name, and the revival of VML as a stand-alone brand, five years after VML and Y&R were merged.

Last week, WPP announced the merger of The&Partnership and mSix&Partners, while earlier this year, Hill & Knowlton and BCW merged.

In 2022, WPP’s media agency arm, GroupM, merged Essence and MediaCom to create essenceMediacom. 

More to come

After four years of product development, Volkswagen is gearing up to start trials for its latest regional road safety innovation, the “Roo Badge,” in collaboration with creative agency DDB Sydney, and wildlife rescue organisation, Wires. 

This device, designed to fit over a Volkswagen’s front badge, emits a warning signal to kangaroo species as vehicles approach. The signal, inaudible to humans, blends natural and artificial sounds in real time before projecting at high-frequency from the front of the vehicle.

The creative solution by the Amarok ute manufacturer aims to save countless kangaroos, protect regional Australian drivers, and prevent hundreds of thousands of dollars in vehicle damage.

Project lead David Jackson, DDB Sydney’s digital executive creative director, told Mediaweek the inspiration for the RooBadge came from Volkswagen commercial clients experiencing the kangaroo hazard firsthand on film sets for its annual Amarok ad, which sparked the three-year journey towards a solution.

“We asked ourselves if we could do something about it,” said Jackson.

“We advanced the idea that cars have got smarter, they’ve got CarPlay and Android Auto. So why don’t we use those smarts to come up with something that can give us a vessel to play different sounds, and test different things for different parts of Australia?”

The RooBadge, the first of its kind to be scientifically developed and proven, has now been granted permission for stage four trials – involving kangaroos in the wild – by The University of Melbourne Office of Research Ethics and Integrity.

Jackson lists it as a departure from more primitive technologies that have come before it, because it uses what researchers at the University deem “meaningful sounds,” effective in deterring kangaroos.

While the Amarok has assumed the hero position in the campaign thanks to its brand love in Australia, Jackson says the vision is for a universal vehicular safety solution: he wants the RooBadge to work with all cars.

“We’re really thinking about how we make the solution available to all, because safety shouldn’t be something anyone owns,” says Jackson. 

“It should be something we put out there that everyone has the availability to get their hands on.”

He also sees the RooBadge technology as having the potential to go beyond Australia, and work for deer in other countries.

“What we know from science is that the ear shape in the head shape tells us that they probably have similar hearing ranges,” says Bender. 

“So, whatever we learn has transferability to the deer as well.”

The news comes a month after DDB Sydney launched a new campaign for Volkswagen, marking the automotive company‘s first brand platform in seven years: “Let’s go for a drive.”

DDB Sydney ECD Matt Chandler told Mediaweek the relaunch was a reaffirmation of the Volkswagen brand presence in Australia.

“As VW embarks on an important new chapter, with the arrival of several new models this year, it was vital that the unique Volkswagen brand was clearly re-established for the Australian audience,” said Chandler.

“VW has always had a tone and wit wholly of its own, so having the opportunity to put that back front and centre was about as exciting a creative challenge as you can get.”

See also: DDB Sydney launches first brand campaign for Volkswagen in seven years

Client: Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles 
Ryan Davies: Director, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles
Nathan Johnson: Head of Marketing and Product, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles

Creative Agency: DDB Group Sydney 
David Jackson: Digital ECD (Concept) 
Noah Regan: Creative Partner (Concept) 
Stephen de Wolf: National Chief Creative Officer  
Ben Welsh: Chief Creative Officer  
Tara Ford: Chief Creative Officer  
Matt Chandler: Executive Creative Director 
Tim Woolford: Creative Partner  
Tommy Cehak: Creative Partner  
Chris Ott: Creative 
Nick Russo: Managing Partner 
Natalija Bouropoulos: Business Director 
Oscar Kennedy: Business Executive 
Adrian Jung: Group Head of Delivery 
Renata Barbosa: Head of Integrated Content 
Sevda Cemo: Head of Integrated Content 
Rene Shalala: Senior Producer 
Tania Jeram: Senior Producer 
Laura Oleart: Integrated Producer 
Natalie Greaves: Producer 
Morteza Shahbake: Senior Art Director  
Rhys Day: Senior Editor 

Technology Partner: Nakatomi 
Research Partner: The University of Melbourne 
Industrial Design Partner: Vert Design 
Design Agency: Interbrand Australia 

Music and Sound: Mosaic 
DOP: Simon Hammond 
Production Assistant: Mason Walker 
Grade: Fergus Hally 
Drone: Flying Robot

Beverley McGarvey’s top priorities in her new role are to grow Paramount+ in Australia – “one of the biggest and most important markets” that “really punches above [its] weight in terms of SVOD opportunity” – and help accelerate the business’ path to profitability.

One of Paramount+’s top global executives, and McGarvey’s boss, Marco Nobili, laid out those goals to Mediaweek, praising McGarvey for the work she’s done to date: “Bev is such a great leader for us, not only in Australia, but across the globe. Some of the things that we’ve done in Australia with Bev have been … best practice.”

Nobili is in Australia this week off the back of the announcement of Paramount+’s ad-supported tier (it will launch in Australia in June), and McGarvey’s promotion last week. She is now president of Network 10 and Paramount’s regional lead across AUNZ, following the departure of her former co-lead Jarrod Villani in February.

The Paramount+ EVP and international general manager noted that in three years, the streaming platform has grown to 67 million subscribers across 45 markets: “It’s just a gigantic step. I mean, when you put this into perspective versus others, it’s an amazing milestone over such a short period of time.”

Its third birthday is “a good moment for us to target streaming profitability. In our latest earnings, we have announced that we are targeting being profitable in the US streaming business next year. And overall, we are accelerating our overall path to profitability.

“How do you grow your top line revenue by managing cost, prioritisation, and resources, making the best out of our US content, and making the best out of the local assets and the ecosystem that we have? Really harness the power of partnership … partnership on the marketing side, but also on the distribution side.”

Those are the questions Nobili is tasking McGarvey with answering across Australia and New Zealand. She has been reporting to him for a few years already, so “we have a good cadence of understanding what the global streaming priorities are, and how Australia can fit into that,” McGarvey said. She wants to focus on bringing content across the Paramount ecosystem together “to make us bigger than the sum of our parts.”

‘We can continue to grow at an accelerated rate’: Local performance

Nobili argued that despite its modest population, Australia has an outsized impact, confirming it “is certainly a market that is top priority for the company across streaming and non-streaming. For Paramount+, it’s a key market.”

He set out a number of reasons for that impact: Australians tend to stack a number of streaming subscriptions and consume a lot of US series, the market has a strong average revenue per user, and the Network 10 and 10Play alignment adds to the overall content offering. Paramount+  is the fastest-growing streamer in Australia, he said.

“We’re going to accelerate that growth,” Nobili continued. “So in general, I remain very optimistic about not only the results we’ve had so far, but also the future ahead of us.

“I am actually pretty convinced that we can continue to grow at an accelerated rate versus what the rest of the market is … And when you think about that opportunity, having the launch of an ad-supported tier at a price point of $6.99. It really makes it the most affordable, premium quality streaming service in the market.”

The streamer’s strategy includes a dual focus on acquisition and retention. Nobili said US series like Halo and Gentleman in Moscow are heavy-lifters in attracting new subscribers, while the NCIS franchise, including NCIS Sydney, plays both an acquisition and retention role, because it “drives so many hours on the service.”

‘Look at it on a tactical basis’: F1 broadcast rights and Paramount+ partnership

The weekend’s Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix attracted unprecedented commercial interest for Ten, and the race’s strongest commercial viewership shares on Ten since 2008. Sunday’s race reached 1.55 million Australians, and had its biggest ever livestream audience (up 51% year-on-year).

On the ground at Albert Park, it was impossible to miss the Paramount+ branding: trackside signage and a large activation were part of the streamer’s global sponsorship deal with the sport.

The Paramount activation

McGarvey said the key to approaching the marketing opportunity was focusing on clearly-aligned Paramount+ content, like the soon-to-be-launched Top Gear Australia. Commercially, the focus was on “bringing in advertising clients that have an interest in that type of sport and entertainment, but more broadly, just about leveraging those sorts of assets across the entire ecosystem.”

While Ten has the linear rights, Foxtel owns the breadth of F1 broadcast rights in Australia until 2026 – believed to be worth $40 to $45 million. Paramount+’s global deal does not encompass broadcast rights – in the US, for example, ESPN retains the broadcast rights until 2025.

Nobili said the global sponsorship “certainly has done a great job for us. I hope if you ask the same question to F1 … that they’re also very happy about the partnership.”

“I think it’s great for the overall Paramount+ brand and our content offering. But I think it’s also great for F1 to have an entertainment partner that can come together and provide a new and surprising experience … those things also need to be entertaining and fun and that’s what we are as a brand.”

McGarvey won’t rule out Ten vying for the F1 rights when they come up again in 2026.

“We look at all the opportunities that come along and assess what’s right for us,” she said.

“Sport is important. And as Marco said, it needs to be entertaining, and it needs to be a good fit. We love our deal with football [Ten has the A Leagues rights] and have great plans to grow that. So I think, the F1, like everything else, we look at it on a tactical basis, when the rights come around.”

Stan’s unfair prominence advantage?

The free-to-air bosses – McGarvey at Ten, James Warburton at Seven, Mike Sneesby at Nine, James Taylor at SBS, and David Anderson at ABC – have united to campaign for senators to push through proposed prominence laws. The bill is designed to ensure that FTA channels’ BVOD apps are easy for audiences to find and install on smart TVs.

However, Nine is arguing that Stan should also be captured by the prominence protections, as a local streaming platform investing in local content, and because it voluntarily – ie without being forced to via regulations – offers functions like closed captions and audio descriptions.

McGarvey said Paramount+ already experiences “great prominence,” and that she views the streaming platform as separate to the issue facing the linear business.

“With my free to air hat on, we [the FTA networks] are extremely aligned that prominence is critical. We have an obligation to produce 55% Australian content plus sub-quotas. The key priority in free to air is to provide Australian content for all Australians, to provide news, to provide information, to provide access to sport in a way that all Australians can access.

“In terms of how Paramount+ and Stan fit into that, we do do Australian content on Paramount+, but in terms of the prominence piece, it is more how we work with Paramount+, it’s more a commercial play, because for us, it’s a different business proposition.

“And we get great prominence at Paramount+ through our great content and our brand building and our marketing. Our position is very much firmly that prominence is important for our linear business, and Paramount+ is an incredibly important asset here. But we see it operating in a different way.”

Southern Cross Media Group has confirmed that chairman Rob Murray has retired as a director. The board has appointed Heith Mackay-Cruise as Murray’s successor. 

This brings forward Murray’s previously announced intention to retire as a director at SCA’s 2024 Annual General Meeting.

In a notice lodged with the ASX, the Board also made it clear that it will not appoint any new directors this financial year or while SCA continues to engage with ARN and Anchorage Capital’s proposal to acquire SCA.

Murray joined SCA as an independent non-executive director in September 2014 and was appointed as chair in August 2020. 

He said that by bringing forward his retirement, he was “hopeful this will help avoid the distraction and unnecessary time, cost, and resources that would be required by the recent call by one of our shareholders for an extraordinary general meeting.

“I wish SCA, the board and the broader SCA team all the best for the future.”

SCA’s new chair, Mackay-Cruise, thanked Murray for his time with the company, saying: “Becoming chair in the middle of the lockdowns and other challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rob led a process to refresh the Board and plan for future succession.

“Most recently, Rob’s leadership has been critical to the Board’s securing of a significant increase in the consideration for SCA shareholders under the Consortium’s Revised Indicative Proposal. As announced to ASX on 18 March 2024, the Board unanimously determined to re-engage with the Consortium based on this higher value.”

The new chairman, Mackay-Cruise was an existing board member. He has been on the board for three and a half years and in a long corporate career he currently sits on three other boards of tech companies – Orro Group, Straker, and Codan. He is also on the board of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

From 1999, Mackay-Cruise spent over eight years with ACP Magazines. Half his time at ACP was as group marketing and circulation director. The other half saw him running the New Zealand business as NZ chief executive officer.

The news of Murray’s departure drops on the same day that another board member exits – director is Glen Boreham who announced earlier this month his intention to depart on March 27.

Earlier in March – nearly five months since the proposal was first tabled – the SCA board finally responded to the takeover proposal from ARN and Anchorage Capital.

The message from the board was that the offer was not enough and it wanted a revised proposal.

See Also: Triple M takeover: SCA finally says ‘no’ to ARN/Anchorage and open to revised proposal

–

Top Image: Rob Murray

Compiled by Jasper Baumann and Tess Connery

“The audience is distilled into the people who want to be there”: 1000 episodes of Matt & Alex All Day Breakfast

Last week, LiSTNR’s Matt & Alex All Day Breakfast podcast hit a major milestone – 1000 episodes. In 2020, former Triple J breakfast hosts Matt Okine and Alex Dyson made the jump into the world of podcasting, serving up episodes every weekday for listeners to get their brekkie fix.

With 1000 episodes now under their belt, Okine casts his mind back to make the point that in the beginning, telling Podcast Week’s Tess Connery “It almost didn’t happen.”

Okine: “Cast your mind back to a time when LiSTNR didn’t exist, the platform didn’t have a name yet and didn’t have any other shows. Sam Cavanagh said hey, do you want to come and be a part of this? Then, of course, the pandemic happened, so suddenly we were wondering if it would ever happen.”

To celebrate the milestone episode, the duo hosted the 1000th show live at Melbourne’s Comedy Republic, which Dyson runs with fellow comedians Rhys Nicholson and Kyran Wheatley.

Dyson: “When you tell the jokes on the podcast, it’s in a vacuum – you assume people are rolling around on the floor laughing barely able to contain themselves. But until you see it in person, it’s just a myth. Schrodinger’s laugh. So having people there is amazing, and also nerve-wracking.”

Okine: “When we were planning it we thought okay, 1000 episodes, do we have this star-studded event where we pack it with all of our friends and people we’ve met along the way? We had ideas about getting actors up on stage to recreate one of our most liked segments word for word. 

“The more we thought about it, the more we felt like it should really just be the essence of our show, which is two idiots who don’t know what they’re doing and flying by the seat of their pants. It was a really joyous occasion.”

One of the segments at the live show was the appearance of The Goat Goat – a character Okine voices which was introduced in episode 223. 

Dyson: “I stitched Matt up by getting him to play that goat. But when I said we’ve got a special guest from one of 1000 episodes backstage waiting, someone in the audience yelled out The Goat Goat – I had to pretend to ignore them because they got it in one. That’s how well our audience knows us.”

Whilst the ability to correctly pick out the live ‘guest’ with 1000 episodes of material to choose from is certainly impressive, the podcast’s connection with its audience runs much deeper. “They’re really the whole show,” Okine said.

Okine: I feel very proud of the audience that we’ve got for this podcast, because they’ve stuck by us for years. They’re unwavering in their dedication and the way that they interact with the show, and the things they know about the show. There’s no doubt that there wouldn’t be a show without them. 

Dyson: “One of the incredible things about having this on-demand breakfast show is that the audience is distilled into the people who want to be there. When you’re on the radio it’s a scattergun of people passing through, but with the podcast, they’re there because they enjoy the banter, the community, and getting involved. So you’ve got this extremely pure 24 Carat listener base, who make it all the more funny. Everyone there is there for the same reasons and having a good time.”

Looking ahead, the pair have a lot of plans on the horizon, hinting at some major events and a tour. With 1000 episodes under their belt, the – probably – don’t have any plans to slow down any time soon.

Dyson: “We have a few things on the agenda, we might be doing something quite cool and personal around Mother’s Day coming up this year. We’ve also got some plans for the Olympics, which is one of our favourite events.”

Okine: “It has been 10 years of Matt & Alex. I don’t want to say anything is set in stone, but we’ve always done our live shows in Melbourne – because Alex owns a comedy club there and the rent is cheap – but it might be time for us to say g’day to one or two other places as well throughout the year.”

Dyson: “I thought 10 years meant long service leave! We’re going to have to go back to the drawing board, because I was about to book a holiday.”

[Listen to Matt & Alex All Day Breakfast here]

Going Behind the Edit with Yahoo Lifestyle

Can’t get enough of Married At First Sight? From inside scoops to exclusive interviews with former participants, Yahoo Australia’s entertainment journalists Lachlan Guertin and Tahlia Pritchard are here to bring you the latest on MAFS and reveal all the behind-the-scenes secrets you won’t see on TV.

Podcast Week’s Tess Connery caught up with Yahoo Lifestyle editor Lyndsey Rodrigues to chat all about the Behind The Edit podcast. 

How did Behind The Edit come to be?

Rodrigues: “Last year, we ran a video series that was the first iteration of Behind The Edit where we invited past contestants from MAFS to come in and talk about what was happening on the show as it aired from an insider’s point of view. They could give a real perspective of what it was like in the moment, and how the scenes may have played out, and that was really successful.

“A podcast really seemed like the next natural step given that reality TV is one of our authority areas at Yahoo Lifestyle. We’ve gone all in on MAFS, we know that we have a highly engaged audience who is keen to hear these stories from a behind-the-scenes perspective. Both Lachlan and Talia are seasoned reality TV reporters with really solid industry contacts, so it just felt like the right time to capitalise on that.”

The reality TV space moves so quickly. How do you go about approaching each episode in an environment where things are completely different from day to day?

“We have current participants reaching out and saying that they want to come on the podcast because they don’t like their edit. We might have a guest already booked for a particular week from a past season, and then we’ll get a current contestant saying ‘I want to come on I want to share my story’. It’s a great problem to have, but it does move really quickly. 

“The overarching approach to each episode is to look at the events of the week that happened on Married at First Sight, then pick out the biggest moments. Whether it was across Retreat Week or Intimacy Week, we’ll then go about figuring out who would be the best person to speak to about what those weeks are actually like.”

There are a few reality TV podcasts out there in the market. How do you go about standing out from the crowd with Behind The Edit?

“One of the biggest points of difference, I think, is that we’re quite neutral. Because our editorial coverage is not mean or slanderous, that is a reason why we get such great confessions and information from them, because they know that we’re not the meanies. 

“The other thing that really stands out for us is that you don’t have to be a full-on fan of MAFS. You could just be a casual viewer, you could just be someone who’s interested in reality TV as the juggernaut that it is, and there’s something in there for you. It really is a fascinating deep dive into how the shows are made, and how contestants are chosen. You’re getting great insight into things that you just don’t see on camera and learning about how the show comes to be – and also why people continue to want to participate in them knowing that the court of public opinion is so brutal.”

For the people who are listening, what do you hope they take away from the podcast?

“One of the things we’re really keen to do is humanise the people that appear on this show, because, as I mentioned, the court of public opinion is really brutal. People see these reality TV stars and think it’s fair game, they can say whatever they want online because they went on this show – but they are human, and they have their sides to the story. Not everything is always as it seems.”

[Listen to Behind The Edit here]

From fungi to forensics: News Corp’s new The Mushroom Cook podcast

News Corp Australia continues to expand its True Crime Australia platform with the launch of its latest podcast series, The Mushroom Cook.

Led by the Herald Sun’s investigative team and journalist Brooke Grebert-Craig, ‘The Mushroom Cook’ delves into the incident surrounding what was seemingly an ordinary family lunch in rural Victoria, but ended with the tragic loss of three lives.

The series uncovers the background of the accused, Erin Patterson, who prepared the fatal mushroom meal, and provides an overview of the ongoing court proceedings as Patterson faces trial for murder.

[Listen to The Mushroom Cook here]

LiSTNR introduces Daytime Explorers, a podcast resilience toolkit for kids

Host Amy Taylor-Kabbaz, acclaimed Mindful Mama coach and mum of three, returns with a new season of Daytime Explorers, the sister series to Bedtime Explorers.

Each episode invites little listeners to take a walking meditation in their imagination. With each gentle step along a snowy path, in a leafy forest or along a sandy beach, the podcast is designed for children to gradually slow down and let go of their worries.

“Over each of the 10 meditation episodes I aim to gently guide children to slow down, feel more calm and lower their anxiety, whenever they need to, wherever they are,” said Amy.

[Listen to Daytime Explorers here]

The Squiz’s NewsClub dives into Meta’s standoff with Australian news media

Kate Watson and Claire Kimball, co-founders of The Squiz unpack the escalating tensions between Meta and Australian news media in a two episode series.

The episodes delve into Meta’s contentious decision not to renegotiate deals with Australian news organisations. 

In episode one, they highlight how these changes will likely alter how stories and news are broadcasted and consumed. In episode two, they speak to Tim Duggan, founder of Junkee Media and chair of the Digital Publishers Alliance, to highlight public access to information and how future generations will navigate and comprehend the news landscape.

[Listen to NewsClub here]

Toilet Paper Australia and DM Podcasts launch Talking Sh!t

Toilet Paper Australia is a satirical group dedicated to calling out nonsense in the media and politics. Their new podcast Talking Sh!t is hosted by the anonymous ‘Admin 1’ and ‘Admin 2’, who are the brains behind the Toilet Paper Australia social media accounts.

Featuring serious commentary, perspectives, and humour, the two hosts navigate the latest news and hypocrisy from the Australian political and media landscape.

Antony Stockdale from DM Podcasts said: “Unfortunately Toilet Paper Australia will never run out of content, of issues big and small to cover. This show is everything we love about independent media and podcasting in 2024, and we are thrilled to be working with Toilet Paper Australia, to help bring their unique and important voice to life in a podcast.”

[Listen to Talking Sh!t here]

Equalution founder launches nutrition podcast

Founder and CEO of nutrition app Equalution Amal Wakim is set to debunk common food myths and simplify nutrition with her new podcast Chew On This.

The podcast caters to those looking to enhance their knowledge, optimise their health, and satisfy their curiosity about the fascinating world of nutrition. 

“My latest venture aims to break down recent scientific research into easily digestible nuggets so that everyone can become more well informed about the ins and outs of what they eat, ” said Wakim.

“Each episode will deliver a well-rounded perspective on nutrition and is packed with actionable tips for leading a healthier lifestyle. I am so excited to introduce listeners to our lineup of experts so they can learn about the latest trends and research in the field of nutrition.”

Chew On This is available from April 7.

Michael Chamberlin has been a fixture at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival for a decade. Last year his season had the full house sign out early.

Given he has a new AFL-themed show this year – Michael Chamberlin’s Completely Incomplete History of Australian Rules – seats might be hard to come by soon too.

In addition to his work as a standup, Chamberlin excels in other mediums too.

His podcast JunkTime, co-hosted with Adam Rozenbachs, will celebrate 400 episodes later this AFL season. He’s also halfway through the 2024 14-episode season The Weekly with Charlie Pickering where he works as head writer.

He calls his comedy audience a “broad church” with ages ranging from early teens to Biden-aged seniors. Ahead of his first Comedy Festival show this weekend, Chamberlin told Mediaweek: “Having a show in the afternoons works well for me. Those younger and older people probably aren’t coming to show at 9.30pm.”

As to any secrets about success as a standup, Chamberlin grinned: “Well I’m not playing in a theatre. So I’m not one to ask about that! It is one of the art forms where you don’t know if it’s going to be any good until you say it out loud. You can be very confident it’s going to be really funny only to find out that, actually, no one really likes it at all.

“I’ve had five and 10-minute chunks in the past where people didn’t laugh. You go away and work on it and then they can become the most reliable parts of your act.”

When it is noted the Chamberlin business model boasts a number of revenue streams, his instructions were clear. “Don’t tell the tax office.

“I do a bunch of stuff and there is always a little bit of something coming in from somewhere.”

When asked if he has a favourite the response was equally swift: “Standup is the best because it’s the one where you are in total control. You are the one getting the attention which is nice. It’s completely you. It’s not going through other people or levels of bureaucracy or lawyers. There is a feeling of immediacy. You can think of a joke and then do it that night.”

Footy show was easy to write

Chamberlin added the Incomplete History show was probably the easiest he’s had to write. “When you do standup you have to think about why you are saying things and what’s the purpose to it.

“With the new show I am reciting historical stories that have been around for up to 170 years. It’s something I’m generally interested in. Even though I had to read a bunch of football books and do internet research. I really enjoy that stuff that covers the history of the game.”

Michael Chamberlin: Family ties

A key contributor to Chamberlin’s knowledge of AFL/VFL history is his father. “This year he put me onto the 1916 VFL season. Fitzroy won the premiership from last. There was only four teams that year though because of World War I. I definitely inherited an interest in the game from him. He was the type of guy who would call up Channel 7 in the 1980s to correct them on a fact.”

All the Chamberlins are Hawks fans. “Even my brother and sister married Hawthorn supporters. They have five kids between them and they are all Hawks supporters. Even the dog is a supporter. He is called Cyril.” After the great Cyril Rioli.

Chamberlin and Rozenbachs recording JunkTime with guests Paul Roos and troublesome broadcaster Lawrence Mooney

JunkTime cracks 400 episodes

About round 18 of the AFL season will see the JunkTime podcast reach 400 episodes. A milestone that only a handful of AFL greats can boast about.

“We should be planning a celebration. JunkTime does a live post-Grand Final episode with Wil Anderson and Charlie Clausen. There is also a live show at the end of the season before the Final Series stars. There used to be a pre-season JunkTime live show too. But because of my work schedule we haven’t had time for the past couple of seasons.”

The podcast looks for the unusual events in the AFL. This week they filled most of an episode about the Tasmanian Devils who don’t play a game until 2028. There is never any post-game recaps. “I say to Adam that if we ever analyse a game on JunkTime we should stop doing it.”

The Weekly with Charlie Pickering

Working as head writer on the Pickering program keeps Chamberlin busy at the start of the year. “It fills about 95% of my waking hours.”

As we spoke on a Tuesday, Chamberlin noted he was about to head off to rehearsal. “It’s not too panicked today. Everything seems in good shape. We look through what seems like a million bits of video and also watch every corner of the internet to find stuff about the media.”

Other writing credits for Chamberlin include working as head writer on the gone-but-not-forgotten Tonightly with Tom Ballard. “I loved that so much. I even moved to Sydney for it.”

The initial workload for that show must have been enormous given it was on five nights a week. “Initially there were just five writers,” explained Chamberlin. “By the end of it we had about 17, but not all full time.”

Even though the show is remembered as being killed off way too soon, the team still managed to produce 160 episodes. “They used to joke that I’d sleep at the ABC. I didn’t always. But there were a number of times I showed up in the same clothes the next day.” [Laughs]

Other writing assignments have included The Masked Singer script for Osher Günsberg. And writing for The TV Week Logies. “That was awesome because we had a host for the first time in 20 years. The general opinion was that we managed to pull it off quite nicely.”

When asked about working on the 2025 Logies broadcast, Chamberlin said: “Hopefully. But I have no idea if Sam Pang is going to host it again.”

Michael Chamberlin’s Completely Incomplete History of Australian Rules is on at The Coopers Inn, Melbourne on weekends from March 30 through April 21.

JunkTime hosts on stage during a live episode in front of an audience

Gaming is the entertainment channel of choice across Gen Alpha, Gen Z and millennials, a new report from Livewire has found, but the gaming agency stresses that brands that want to capture attention must adapt. 

The 2024 Next Gen Attention study surveyed 1,801 gamers across the UK, US, and Australia, and explored the difference in expectation, habits, and gaming consumption across the three generations. 

The report found that while gaming is the biggest form of entertainment across the groups, the younger Gen Alpha and Gen Z have different expectations, and are more welcoming of brands in gaming.

Adam Fischer, head of ANZ at Livewire, told Mediaweek that the report breaks down some misconceptions in the Australian market when it comes to brands reach consumers through gaming.

“What’s becoming clear is that gamers love gaming more than any other entertainment channel,” he said.

“It shows that the fundamental unit of marketing attention is being disrupted, not just the core marketing channel.

“Gen Alpha and Gen Z expect brands to be present in gaming and if they contribute in a positive way through world builds, skins and additive experiences it’s more likely to lead to purchase. Consumer expectation is currently ahead of brand realisation – especially in Australia.”

The Next Gen, which Livewire defines as Gen Alpha and Z combined, enjoy branded moments in games nearly 20% more, compared to millennials. Immersive experiences are also an increasing expectation, with interactive moments (65%) and playable experiences (69%) on the rise through characters, skins, world-builds, interactive billboards, playable, and rewarded videos.

Gen Alpha is significantly more likely to purchase after seeing a brand in-game than the older cohorts. They’re also the most committed to gaming, with 70% of Gen Alpha gaming at least 4-5 times a week, while Gen Z aligns more closely in their daily gaming habits with millennials. 

Tom Simpson, CEO of Livewire, said that the next generation is different than any the market has seen before.

“Tech-natives raised in gaming, this is a generation that does not primarily consume media via downward-scrolling flat social-media screens,” he said.

“They exist in immersive, interactive, playable digital spaces. And this means how brands talk and engage with them has to be completely different too – it’s now about items, immersive ads, playability and experiences in expansive digital worlds.

“It’s the fundamental unit of marketing attention that’s being disrupted, not just the core marketing channel.”

See also: Growing Pains: How advertising in the Aussie video game industry is beating middle child syndrome

New research has shown that the ABC is just as trusted across the Pacific as it is in Australia, with nearly 80% of survey respondents trusting the broadcaster.

The research surveyed people about usage patterns relating to ABC Australia, ABC Radio Australia, the broadcaster’s digital and social media channels, broader media consumption, and attitudes to ABC programs and Australia more generally. 

The research was conducted last year across the key Pacific markets of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu. It was the second time the ABC had commissioned a survey in the Pacific, with 2021 being the first time the data was collected.  The survey was conducted by an independent research agency with expertise in the region.

When comparing the ABC to international broadcasters such as the BBC, CNN, and national broadcasters from France, Japan, New Zealand, and China, the ABC was found to be the preferred international broadcaster in almost every region. The exception was Fiji, where Al Jazeera was most preferred.  

Throughout each market, between 36% and 70% of those surveyed had listened to, watched or used ABC online in the prior three months. 

Whilst traditional media consumption is still strong, household ownership of radios and televisions is generally in decline in the region. Newspapers are also being increasingly read online. 

The aim of the ongoing research is to ensure that the ABC’s investments in the Pacific are effective, and that its content and services are meeting audience needs. 

The latest round of research was conducted before editorial staff at the ABC passed two votes of no confidence against managing director David Anderson, and other senior managers.

The votes were cast in light of the broadcaster’s handling of complaints.

Staff have also called for the broadcaster’s head of content, Chris Oliver-Taylor, to step down due to his decision to dismiss broadcaster Antoinette Lattouf.

See Also: David Anderson faces second vote of no confidence from staff

–

Top Image: ABC sports presenters Sam Wykes, Tinirau Arona and Anna-Liza Mopio-Jane in Honiara

Easter used to be a time to watch religious movies like King Of Kings and Ben Hur. Not anymore. Now it’s about the decline of traditional media in new series like Obituary (BritBox) and The Girls On The Bus (Foxtel/Binge). 

Obituary is a bizarre series from Ireland about a small town called Kilraven and its local newspaper. Rather than getting its journalists to multi-task, Elvira (Siobhan Cullen) is kept on the payroll, but only to write an occasional obituary. Huh? 

Unable to survive unless there are deaths, Elvira starts killing townsfolk, but only the awful ones. It is a bizarre concept that doesn’t go far enough, and there just aren’t enough laughs for what is supposed to be a black comedy. 

Girls on the Bus or Obituary?

The Girls On The Bus is based on the book Chasing Hilary all about the 2016 Presidential race. Rather than dramatise that fertile ground, this series invents a fictional story about pretend politicians. Huh?

The girls comprise of a social media influencer, a journalist from The New York Sentinel (instead of The New York Times), and a reporter for a faux Fox network. It all comes across as pointless, unless you’re into American politics, and it wastes great actors like Carla Gugino and Griffin Dunne.

Platform 7 (Stan) is set in an English railway station where a ghost (Jasmine Hobson) is trapped. She is trying to figure out how she died when suddenly she’s not trapped and wandering all around the town. Huh? This one is a shocker, with a lacklustre lead performance.

There is better acting to be found in Manhunt (Apple TV+), the new series about the search for actor John Wilkes Booth (Anthony Boyle) after he assassinates Abraham Lincoln (Hamish Linklater) at the theatre.

Assuming that everyone knows all about Civil War history, Manhunt starts with the killing and then jumps all over the place with flashbacks and flash forwards. It’s part period drama and part true crime western.

Lincoln ally Edwin Stanton (Tobias Menzies) leads the investigation and there’s some juicy political moments with the new President. Based on the book Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer, there are just seven episodes. Happy Easter all.

TV Gold: New episode of Mediaweek’s weekly TV podcast

Listen now on your favourite podcast platform for 30 minutes of TV reviews and recommendations every week from Mediaweek’s Mercado on TV columnist Andrew Mercado and editor-in-chief James Manning.
We want your comments, feedback and questions – [email protected].

This week: Obituary, The Girls on the Bus, Manhunt + Best of 2024 so far

Two new dramas set in the media and a series set at the end of the American Civil War.

Obituary (BritBox, series) tells the story of an obituary writer for a small Irish newspaper. She needs more bodies to keep her job. You’ll be surprised at her initiative.

The Girls on the Bus (Binge/Foxtel, series) is set on the campaign trail for a US election in what is an election year in the US. We meet four very different reporters who chase their stories in four different ways. Even though it is set in the current day, it manages to feature cameos from a character playing gonzo journalist Hunter S Thompson.

Manhunt (AppleTV+, series) is a dramatic recreation about the hunt for the killer of American president Abraham Lincoln.

As an Easter extra, Andrew and James detail their greatest hits of the year so far with some viewing tips if you find time over Easter for catch-up viewing.

Whether it’s a childhood jingle that you can still sing word for word, or a campaign that influences the way you work today, everyone has an ad that has really stuck with them.

Mediaweek has been asking the industry to take a trip down memory lane, to find out all about the ads that made us.

Georgi Oates – Head of Media, SCA

Melbourne Metro Trains, ‘Dumb Ways to Die’ 

“You can’t deny you’re probably humming the tune in your head from just reading the headline. 11years on and I still laugh at the well-articulated lyrics, well-illustrated comical cartoons, and super catchy tune. Seems like I’m not alone, as the video has now had over 299M video views, with 28M of those reported in the first few weeks of the campaign.

“I was impressed by this campaign as it turned the concept completely on its head. Often these types of safety messages are focused on shock, negative or gory images to get their point across, however this made light of how careless you needed to be, in all-encompassing and fun way. Given the results Metro reported on a decrease in near misses over the campaign period, and the Cannes Grand Prix the campaign brought home, it clearly resonated with many.

“I even saw last year it started to pop up across TikTok with it becoming the soundtrack of people hurting themselves in particularly ‘dumb ways’. A simple, yet brilliant campaign!”

Sophie Jablonski – Senior Activation Manager, Half Dome

Haribo Starmix

“Comical = memorable – and Haribo always nails this brief. As a brand that predominantly skews to the younger market, they used this ad to play on the child-like enthusiasm people have about Haribo, seeking to widen their consumer base across the generations.

“I love the juxtaposition of the boardroom setting – a reminder not to take life too seriously, to tap into our creativity, and that (deep down!) we’re all just children playing at adult life.”

Paul Sinkinson – Managing Director (Australia), Analytic Partners

Any Last Requests, the 1980 Ad from Pixie Caramel

“The ad is the epitome of glorious kitsch, the production values are questionable at best on a classic Kiwi budget, and it’s never going to win an award – but they knew that wearout wasn’t a thing and kept the ad going for years.

“It hasn’t aired for over 35 years and I can still describe each frame and recite the lines for you- which means I still think Pixie Caramel is ‘the longer lasting chew’ and a chocolate bar I’m obsessed with.”

See Also: The Ads That Made Us: Juicy Corn, Go to Bed Jessica, and The Reading Writing Hotline

–

Top Image: Georgi Oates, Sophie Jablonski, Paul Sinkinson

To submit an ad, please email [email protected]

Man of Many has launched its inaugural online edition, housed on a dedicated platform within the title’s website. The online edition includes long-form features, interviews, analysis, and reports curated under a quarterly theme.

The digital edition was pre-released at an event in Sydney last Thursday before going live on Friday, attended by Man of Many clients, select friends of the brand, and influencers.

Frank Arthur, co-founder of Man of Many, told Mediaweek of the launch: “The timing aligns with our recently re-established strategic vision for Man of Many to become a household name in premium lifestyle content, while maintaining our commitment to delivering engaging and inspiring stories. 

“Additionally, with the expansion of our core editorial offerings into video, social content, and live activations, our aim is to create a regular and highly anticipated initiative that ties all these elements together.”

The concept and strategy for the digital edition have been led by editor-in-chief, Nick Hall, who was looking to expand the brand’s editorial scope and cover topics that delve deeper into personal stories and experiences. 

For its debut, Man of Many has chosen ‘Reinvention’ as the central theme, which Hall describes as “the perfect theme to kick off this new project.”

“With so much uncertainty in the media landscape at the moment, reaffirming our commitment to inspiring and engaging content felt like a necessity. It’s what our readers love and it’s what we’re best at,” Hall said.

Each quarter’s edition will be dedicated to a different theme, with Arthur clarifying that there are big future plans for the product.

“We’re starting small with a test-and-learn approach, and the response from our audience has been fantastic. We have several clients interested in exploring commercial partnerships for future editions. 

“Upcoming editions will include more feature articles, new social and video elements, bigger launch activations, and an overall bolder approach.”

For the Reinvention issue, reigning Formula 1 Rookie of the Year and Australian icon, Oscar Piastri, features on the digital cover. 

Hall described Piastri as “the perfect embodiment of reinvention,” making him the right choice for the edition’s first cover.

“He’s gone from highly-touted prodigy to underserved villain to fan favourite all in the space of two years, and I couldn’t think of a better person to speak to the importance of adapting to change,” Hall said. “He’s an Aussie hero that is making huge waves on a global scale and we are beyond proud to have him as our inaugural digital cover star.”

In addition to the lead feature with Piastri, the Man of Many Reinvention Edition also features interviews with former NRL star turned business mogul Adam “Mad Dog” MacDougall, CEO of Swiss watchmaker Rado, Adrian Bosshard, and the self-proclaimed punk-rock protectors of Sydney’s live music scene, FANGZ.

See Also: Mediaweek’s Sales Team of the Year: February spotlights Man of Many

David Jones has advanced its venture into the multibillion-dollar Australian retail media market with the appointment of commerce media platform Criteo to power its stand alone retail media department, David Jones Amplify.

The move comes as part of the 186-year-old retailer’s extensive rebranding efforts, helmed by chief marketing officer, James Holloman, who believes the collaboration will drive maximum ROI and digital marketing effectiveness for David Jones’ brands.

Last year, at Advertising Week APAC 2023, Holloman addressed the rebrand in his keynote, Reimagining a 185-Year-Old Icon, roadmapping the developments in store that would propel the retailer into its next iteration while preserving its luxury heritage.

The session highlighted digital transformation as a cornerstone of its evolution, particularly the decision to develop the David Jones brand into a full omnichannel experience, with the Criteo partnership the latest reflection of that goal.

David Jones announced the launch of Amplify in August last year, designating it Australia’s number one media ecosystem targeting the premium shopper, and giving advertisers access to over 475 in-store formats, 102 digital formats, and 70 print and digital editorial formats.

At the time, Holloman described Amplify as a game changer for brands both endemic and non-endemic to David Jones looking to engage with Australia’s most affluent consumers.

See also: David Jones launches Amplify – a media ecosystem targeting premium shoppers

The newly announced partnership will bring Critero’s retail media solutions to the Amplify platform, meaning brands and advertisers can now activate online retail media campaigns on DavidJones.com. By leveraging first-party data and Criteo’s AI-driven platform, brands will also be able to advertise towards SKU-level sales outcomes across devices and channels.

David Jones and Criteo plan to further expand the partnership to activate offsite advertising, enabling any brand – including non-endemic brands – to reach David Jones’ audiences as they browse.

“Onsite and offsite retail media has many benefits, offering brands strong return on ad spend due to the use of high quality first-party data,” said Criteo’s managing director for Australia and New Zealand, Colin Barnard.

“We are proud to be building our client base in Australia, and to support David Jones, a market-leading premium retailer, by powering their online retail media initiatives.”

Colin Barnard

See also: GroupM and Criteo partner up to boost omnichannel commerce media capabilities in APAC

–

Top Image: James Holloman

The Brag’s Rolling Stone AUNZ held its annual awards show last night, recognising local musicians including Crowded House, Tones and I, and Dom Dolla.

The title’s second ever Rolling Stone Icon Award went to Crowded House, while Tones and I won the Rolling Stone Global Awards, judged by the masthead’s international editorial teams; editors from Rolling Stone US and Rolling Stone UK vote in the category.

Rolling Stone AUNZ‘s editor-in-chief, Poppy Reid, said the nominees’ work “was listened to and judged by some of the world’s most influential music critics.”

“A huge thank you to our incredible sponsors and performers who have made the 2024 Shure Rolling Stone Australia Awards our best yet,” she added.

“We are continually inspired by Australian artists, their stories, and their music, and we are so proud to support them with such a special night dedicated to celebrating their art.”

Reid also noted that everyone congregated at the Ivy in Sydney has some level of power, and therefore a responsibility as gatekeepers to leave the gate open a crack.

Hosted by radio presenter Alex Dyson, the awards night featured performances from Crowded House’s Neil Finn and Angus and Julia Stone.

In total, five awards were handed out: Best Single (Peach PRC), Best Record (The Teskey Brothers), Best New Artist (Dom Dolla), the Rolling Stone Global Award (Tones and I), and the Rolling Stone Icon Award (Crowded House).

Reid with Tones and I

TV personality Richard Wilkins presented Finn from Crowded House with the Icon Award, saying: “It’s a great honour and pleasure to be here tonight to present this award to a band that was formed in the mid-80s out of the ashes of a wonderful group called Split Enz. They moved to the Hollywood Hills and made one of the great records of all time.”

Accepting the award, Finn added: “Thank you, Rolling Stone, for making us into an icon. I’m not sure what that truly means, but I think it means you need to go to Mecca and buy some makeup, so I’ve done that.” He had bought a tinted eyebrow gel, joking that previously his eyebrows have looked white.

Tones and I, a former Rolling Stone AUNZ cover star, said of her Rolling Stone Global Award win: “Wow, this is an incredible award to win, up against such an icon in Kylie Minogue who helped pave the way for women in pop music on a global scale.”

She extended an invitation to early-career artists in the room to get in touch with her, in the hope they would have a less tough time starting out than she did.

Earlier this month, Rolling Stone AUNZ named James Jennings as its new print editor.

(L-R) Angus Stone, Poppy Reid, Julia Stone

2024 Shure Rolling Stone Australia Awards Winners:

Rolling Stone Icon Award

Winner: Crowded House

Best Single

Peach PRC – ‘Perfect For You’ – WINNER
Dom Dolla ft. MK – ‘Rhyme Dust’
Budjerah – ‘Therapy’
Amy Shark – ‘Can I Shower At Yours’
Fisher ft Kita Alexander – ‘Atmosphere’
Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers – ‘I Used to be Fun’
Lime Cordiale – ‘Colin’
Tkay Maidza ft. Flume – ‘Silent Assassin’

Best New Artist

Dom Dolla – WINNER
Royel Otis
Oliver Cronin
The Rions
Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers
Grentperez
Blusher
Old Mervs

Best Record

The Teskey Brothers – The Winding Way – WINNER
Teenage Dads – Midnight Driving
G Flip – DRUMMER
The Amity Affliction – Not Without My Ghosts
Troye Sivan – Something to Give Each Other
Brad Cox – Acres
Dope Lemon – Kimosabè
Peach PRC – Manic Dream Pixie

Rolling Stone Global Award

Tones And I – WINNER
Kylie Minogue
Troye Sivan
The Teskey Brothers
Dom Dolla
DMA’S
Fisher
Vacations
Tame Impala

—

Top image: Poppy Reid and Neil Finn, Crowded House

AUNZ brands took home three awards at the annual Experience Maker Awards, held at the Adobe Summit 2024 in Las Vegas.

The global awards program recognises and celebrates those using Adobe Experience Cloud to reimagine customer experience and who have been innovative and made impactful achievements.

This year’s winners from AUNZ include:

The Advocate – 7-Eleven Australia

This award recognises the company demonstrating a customer-first approach to personalise customer journeys. 

7-Eleven used Adobe Experience Manager, Adobe Commerce, Adobe Analytics, and Adobe Campaign to redesign its entire website and app experiences for enhanced personalisation and to eliminate customer pain points. The company now delivers 250 million moments via digital channels each day and boasts 1.2 million active users of its My 7-Eleven loyalty app, which accounts for 15% of online and offline sales.

The Experience Maker Executive of the Year Award, Paul Wallace, digital area lead, 7-Eleven Australia

Wallace set the ambitious goals of quadrupling the delivery of customer moments to 1 billion and increasing digital transactions to 29% of revenue by 2030.

He led the relaunch of 7-Eleven’s app experiences using Adobe products and in addition to earning a near 5-star rating for the app, the company has seen its members fill up their fuel tanks six times more than non-members, increasing total fuel sales by 460 million litres year-on-year.

The Experience Maker of the Year, Data technologies capabilities team, News Corp Australia

News Corp’s 150 brands are consumed by an audience of 18.2 million across print, digital, social, and audio channels. The data technology capabilities team used Adobe Real-Time CDP to create more than 20 million unified customer profiles and grow its addressable audience across 130 digital properties. 

The announcement of the awards comes as Adobe has engaged Accenture to co-develop industry-specific solutions using Firefly, building on the 20-year-long relationship between the two parties. 

Adobe announced the launch of Firefly, its family of creative generative AI models, in September last year following a six-month beta.

Its foundational generative AI models for images, text effects, and vectors support text prompts in over 100 languages, enabling users globally to create personalised content at scale, and accelerate the transformation of content supply chains.

See also: Adobe taps Accenture to co-develop industry solutions with Firefly AI

The commissioning team from BBC Studios Social has invited indies to pitch fresh, short-form concepts that extend and enrich existing IP, and reach new audiences on digital platforms.

The available production opportunities are online now and cover most of the top brands in the BBC Studios Social portfolio. On the Kids and Family side, commissioners are interested in food and fun family-related ideas for Bluey as well as playful activity-focused content for Hey Duggee. 

Youth-skewing ideas are welcomed for both Top Gear and the digital-first comedy channel Funny Parts.

On the factual and unscripted side, BBC Earth is looking for concepts that capture the splendour of nature in accessible formats for their new vertical channels and a spread of ideas across space, sustainability, and the human body.

In the past year, BBC Studios Social has commissioned over 1,500 minutes of original content across their portfolio including a series of stop-motion Hey Duggee adventures, and a range of celebrity-voiced Bluey Book Reads that have surpassed 16 million views since launch. 

Chris Allen, director of digital content development at BBC, said: “In an increasingly competitive and fast-maturing digital-first market, BBC Studios Social are committed to finding, developing, and partnering with the best independent producers and new talent globally.

“We love our world-class brands, and we’re super excited to share them with you to deliver new formats, new talent, and new ideas that are critical and commercial successes. Whether silly comedy sketches or a mind-bending science documentary, we hope this will be the start of some beautiful creative partnerships.”

Each brief is available as part of a video and accessible in text form. The submissions portal is open now and closes on Sunday 21 April 2024.

See also: Making Aussie content that works for FTA and streamers, locally and globally: BBC and Werner

Quantcast has expanded its APAC sales team with three new appointments, as the company continues to grow in the Australian and Southeast Asian markets.

Joining the global advertising technology company is Alara Yenisey as client success manager in ANZ, who will be based in Melbourne.

She brings with her diverse background in digital media, advertising and client management. Prior to joining Quantcast, she held key account manager and digital planning roles at News Corp Australia, UM, OMD and SBS, working with national and global clients including Coles, Optus and McDonald’s.

Alara Yenisey

Yenisey said she was looking bringing her agency experience to drive measurable outcomes for Quantcast clients.

“As a digital-first marketer, Quantcast’s dedication to leading the market in effective, accurate digital advertising makes it an attractive place to work,” she added.

Also joining Quantcast are Koh Chew Hoi and Amanda Soh, based the Singapore office as client success manager and senior sales manager, respectively.

Chew Hoi is brings with her more than a decade of experience in media and publishing, primarily in Singapore. She has worked in management positions at Singapore Press Holdings, Performics, iProspect and Zenith.

Koh Chew Hoi

Chewhoi said she was looking forward to bringing her experience to help grow the client books across Asia and improving the client experience.

“Quantcast has become one of the premier digital advertising marketers across Asia and I’m excited to be part of such an illustrious organisation,” she added.

Soh comes to Quantcast with extensive sales and account management experience within the APAC digital advertising industry. Under her new remit, she will be responsible for driving revenue growth and fostering strategic partnerships with key clients across the region.

Amanda Soh

Prior to joining Quantcast, Soh was the Southeast Asia agency lead and client partner for Twitter (now X), where she was responsible for spearheading initiatives to increase the platform’s footprint in-market. She has also held senior account manager roles at Oracle, Amnet and MEC.

Soh was also keen to drive revenue and new client partnerships in the Asia region. She said: “Having worked in the APAC digital sales industry for most of my career, I’ve had a front row seat to Quantcast’s ongoing growth and domination in the market.”

Sonal Patel, vice president, APAC at Quantcast, welcomed the appointments, noting that Yenisey, ChewHoi and Soh all bring experience from their regions and passion for client relationships.

“Quantcast has significantly bolstered its Australia and Southeast Asian operations over the past several months, reflecting a genuine commitment to growing our APAC footprint and strengthening our relationships with our clients. The sales team is well-placed to extend our efforts in the APAC market,” Patel added.

–

Top image: Alara Yenisey, Koh Chew Hoi and Amanda Soh

TV Report March 27, 2024:

Nine TV Report

Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars

Nine’s evening began with the second episode of Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars.

Gordon and Janine have handpicked 14 of Australia’s most exciting up-and-coming entrepreneurs to compete for their investment. The teams embarked on their first challenge – modernising the Chiko Roll – going head-to-head to create a new twist on the classic snack.

Each team was tasked with designing a new poster, writing and delivering a 30-second call to action, preparing a new Chiko Roll-inspired dish and delivering it to thousands of punters attending a rugby match. The teams came face to with members of the public reporting back with their honest feedback as well as Chicko Roll’s GM of Marketing. 

A Current Affair

Over on A Current Affair, AFL greats responded to drug cover-up claims and met with an Olympic medallist who is determined to make it to Paris after a horror fall from a horse.

Seven TV Report

The Front Bar

The Front Bar featuring Sam Pang, Mick Molloy and Andy Maher was next on Seven as they shared a laugh about the world AFL and caught up with stars of yesteryear and today, ahead of the fourth round of the AFL 2024 season.

Home & Away

Earlier in the night was Home & Away as Eden orchestrated an awkward reunion, Tane lashed out and Mackenzie played with fire.

10 TV Report

The Project

The Project on 10 reported on the Baltimore bridge tragedy, Splendour in the Grass being cancelled and welcomed Comedian Nath Balvo to the desk.

I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!

On 10’s I’m A Celebrity, the celebrities faced a boulder dash challenge but it wasn’t the only challenge they faced as trouble brews between two tired and hungry campmates.

ABC

7:30

On 7:30, a coronial inquiry into the 2019-20 Black Summer bushfires has delivered its findings while Sarah Ferguson interviewed Liberal Senator James Paterson. 

SBS

Alone Australia

In the new season of Alone Australia, 10 Australian survivalists armed with bows and arrows take on the wilderness of New Zealand’s South Island, self-documenting their battle to sustain themselves in complete isolation and striving to be the last one standing to win $250,000. 

Tuesday 26th Mar 2024: VOZ Total TV Ratings Overnight Top 30 – Programs ranked on reach

Total People TV Ratings

Nine’s Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars recorded a total TV national reach of 1,712,000, a total TV national audience of 581,000, and a BVOD audience of 63,000.

Nine’s A Current Affair recorded a total TV national reach of 1,531,000, a total TV national audience of 1,000,000, and a BVOD audience of 65,000.

Seven’s The 1% Club recorded a total TV national reach of 1,580,000, a total TV national audience of 906,000, and a BVOD audience of 33,000.

Also on Seven, Home & Away recorded a total TV national reach of 1,227,000, a total TV national audience of 794,000, and a BVOD audience of 83,000.

10’s airing of I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! recorded a total TV national reach of 1,439,000, a total TV national audience of 654,000, and a BVOD audience of 57,000.

See Also: TV Report March 26, 2024: Gordon Ramsay and Janine Allis unearth the next Food Stars during premiere

People 25-54

Nine’s Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars:
• Total TV nation reach: 708,000
• National Audience: 283,000
• BVOD Audience: 40,000

Nine’s A Current Affair:
• Total TV nation reach: 486,000
• National Audience: 291,000
• BVOD Audience: 37,000

10’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!:
• Total TV nation reach: 576,000
• National Audience: 291,000 
• BVOD Audience: 35,000

Seven’s The 1% Club:
• Total TV nation reach: 486,000
• National Audience: 261,000
• BVOD Audience: 18,000

Seven’s Home & Away:
• Total TV nation reach: 367,000
• National Audience: 244,000
• BVOD Audience: 47,000

People 16-39

Nine’s Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars:
• Total TV nation reach: 305,000
• National Audience: 112,000
• BVOD Audience: 23,000

Nine’s A Current Affair:
• Total TV nation reach: 183,000
• National Audience: 105,000
• BVOD Audience: 20,000

10’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!:
• Total TV nation reach: 244,000
• National Audience: 138,000 
• BVOD Audience: 24,000

Seven’s The 1% Club:
• Total TV nation reach: 208,000
• National Audience: 111,000
• BVOD Audience: 10,000

Seven’s Home & Away:
• Total TV nation reach: 156,000
• National Audience: 109,000
• BVOD Audience: 28,000

Grocery Shoppers 18+

Nine’s Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars:
• Total TV nation reach: 1,312,000
• National Audience: 454,000
• BVOD Audience: 51,000

Nine’s A Current Affair:
• Total TV nation reach: 1,187,000
• National Audience: 777,000
• BVOD Audience: 53,000

10’s I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!:
• Total TV nation reach: 1,085,000
• National Audience: 488,000 
• BVOD Audience: 45,000

Seven’s The 1% Club:
• Total TV nation reach: 1,237,000
• National Audience: 708,000
• BVOD Audience: 26,000

Seven’s Home & Away:
• Total TV nation reach: 968,000
• National Audience: 630,000
• BVOD Audience: 67,000

Data © OzTAM and Regional TAM 2024. Not to be reproduced, published or communicated (electronically or in hard copy) in whole or in part, without prior written consent of OzTAM and Regional TAM.