Welcome to an audio-led edition. Today’s episode of the Unmade podcast features the second stop on our Compass tour, where we took the temperature of the Brisbane media and marketing community. Plus, further down, in the Unmade Index, SCA’s share price spike begins to unwind.

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Trust, finding consensus in the fractious TV market, and Facebook’s declining relevance for marketers

Last week saw Unmade’s Compass tour hit the Eastern seaboard with the Brisbane edition of the event delivering an excellent conversation.

Among the topics was the opportunity that a more complicated marketing environment creates for brands that are good at what they do. Jonathan Kerr, Chief Growth Officer of Budget Direct observed: “I like complexity. I’m tired, but I like complexity because best navigator wins.”

Meanwhile Cath Brands, CMO of B2B pricing specialists FlintFox, raised a topic that has come up a number of times during Compass: growing scepticism towards the effectiveness claims of some of the global digital platforms. She observed: “As a marketer, Facebook is so 1980s in my mind. I’m over it as a platform from an advertising perspective.” However she acknowledged that other Meta brands are still drawing audiences: “The cool kids aren’t on Facebook but they are on Instagram.”

Michael Crutcher, now a PR executive and a former editor of the Courier Mail said the industry needs to start talking about “the looming war between social media and mainstream media in Australia”, with Meta and potentially Google dropping out of their news funding deals. He added: “And 2025 is going to be nuclear for that.”

Meanwhile, Simon Murphy, chief strategy officer for Publicis Worldwide Australia, suggested that social media is benefitting from a decline in public trust in established news outlets. He warned: “There's a crisis of trust and social media definitely plays into that space. They're filling that void.”

Kerr, who is one of the biggest buyers of TV advertising in the country also had a warning for the TV networks: “I am annoyed with TV. It’s really sad to see the way they can’t come together. I always say ‘never be hard to buy’. We’re at the point where it’s worth coming together to make it so that it’s a much more tradeable, understood medium. TV is such a wonderful medium if you want to deliver a brand narrative and a story so I think it would be truly wonderful if they said ‘Let’s save this together’.”

* Jonathan Kerr, Chief Growth Officer, Budget Direct

* Cath Brands, CMO, FlintFox

* Michael Crutcher, Director, 55 Comms

* Simon Murphy, Global Strategy Director, Publicis

* Jennifer Garner, Senior VP of sales, Epsilon

Unmade Index flattens as SCA recovery runs out of steam

A day after Southern Cross Austereo’s share price unexpectedly spiked upwards by 12.6%, it lost 5.2% yesterday, taking it back down to a market capitalisation of $130m.

It was a mixed day for Australia’s listed media and marketing stocks. Nine gained 0.4%, while Ooh Media lost 0.4%.

Among the broadcasters, ARN Media had the best day, gaining 2.9%.

The Unmade Index finished the day flat on 447.5 points.

Time to leave you to your Thursday.

Today’s podcast was edited by Abe’s Audio.

We’ll be back with more tomorrow.

Have a great day.

Toodlepip…

Tim Burrowes

Publisher - Unmade

[email protected]

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