Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade.

We’re a day earlier than usual in our weekly podcast cycle, after last night’s announcement that Eric Beecher’s Private Media has bought the David Koch-founded Pinstripe Media. Today’s interview features Private Media CEO Will Hayward and Pinstripe’s MD AJ Koch.

And further down, there were big swings in both directions on the Unmade Index.

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‘We’re trying to build a mass product’

This week saw a major consolidation in the publishing sector serving small businesses, with Private Media, owner of Smart Company, buying its biggest rival Pinstripe Media. Pinstripe, founded by former Sunrise presenter David Koch, publishes Startup Daily, Flying Solo and Business Builders.

Private Media has been examining its options to grow through acquisition for some time. In conversation with Unmade’s Tim Burrowes, Will Hayward explains why, of 30 potential acquisitions, Pinstripe was the deal to do. And AJ Koch explains why now was the time to sell the family firm.

David Koch will continue to front Business Builders for now, but will not be coming across as a member of staff.

In the conversation Hayward acknowledges the view of investor Warren Buffett that acquirers are usually on the wrong end of any acquisition. He argues: “We think media is different, and I would argue that the trend in media has been positive.”

On the exit of his father from managing Pinstripe, AJ Koch says: “He's not a spring chicken anymore and we know he needs to retire at some point. We'd always talked about being open to an exit at some point. But we weren't actively looking.”

Hayward says that the logic of the deal is centred on the close competition between the two organisations in targeting an audience of small and medium sized businesses. But he claims this new found pricing power will not be used to put up prices for advertisers and sponsors, but to make it easier to advertise in the sector.

He says: "The first step to building a really sustainable business in which the majority of revenue comes from advertising is to make sure that you're making it really easy for your advertisers to grow their spend year on year. If I was a CEO of a publicly listed business where I was incentivized on the next 12 months of revenue, absolutely pricing power matters a great deal. I'm not.

“We're not too focused on the next year. We're focused more on the next three to five years. And the first step on that journey will be making it as easy as possible for the marketing team at Big Tech Inc to say ‘That's a great buy. Let's just keep doing that buy'.”

Red and green on the Unmade Index

The Unmade Index crept up on Tuesday during a day with no clear direction.

Southern Cross Austereo and Seven West Media both saw upwards jumps of 3.4% and 3.5% respectively.

And Vinyl Group and Enero saw larger falls of 8.7% and 4.1% respectively.

The Unmade Index closed on 586.6 points, an improvement for the day of 0.18%.

More from Mumbrella…

* Nine Radio loses Sydney and Melbourne as listeners switch to FM

* The case of the smoking bullet point: Qantas admits to ChatGPT use ‘for formatting’

* Omnicom confirms Nick Garrett to lead new Oceania structure

* Exclusive: Paul Bradbury quits in wake of Omnicom changes

* Why are readers fleeing from Australia’s top news sites?

* Opinion: No CMO is an island: Why collaboration is more important than ever to marketing leadership

Today’s podcast was edited by Abe’s Audio. We’ll be back with more soon.

Have a great day

Toodlepip…

Tim Burrowes

Publisher - Unmade + Mumbrella

[email protected]

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unmade.media/subscribe

Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade.

Today we dive into one of the fastest evolving marketing opportunities - connected TV - with Alex Spurzem, boss of Samsung Ads.

Plus, a record-beating day on the Unmade Index for marketing and print player IVE Group.

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‘The trap is to underestimate the capacity viewers have to want different things at different times’

In today’s interview we talk streaming TV with the man who claims to be reaching 7m Australian viewers, Alex Spurzem, MD for Samsung Ads in Australia, NZ and SE Asia.

Thanks to the prevalence of Samsung televisions, the company now has what it claims is the world’s biggest FAST - free ad supported television - service.

According to Spurzem, the opportunity of streaming TV in all main screen forms is being underestimated. For brands, particularly those with access to their own content, that includes the ability to spin up their own channels.

He argues “Barriers to creating a TV channel are lower than ever. Now you can have a TV channel up and running in 24 hours.” He observes: “You need about 100 hours of content to make the channel worthwhile.”

As opposed to the lean-forward nature of subscription streaming, FAST represents a return to the TV habits of the free to air era. According to Spurzem: “TV had been for many decades what became scrolling through content, TV channels you can zap through.” FAST works on the same principle.

Spurzem made an early decision to join the Video Futures Collective and joined Foxtel Media’s Toby Dewar on stage at last year’s Upfronts to back the initiative, which represents a break from the media establishment centred around the FTA-owned OzTAM.

He says it was because VFC filled a gap. “There was a lack of evidence for marketers of how streaming could fit in.”

Spurzem argues that VFC is not set up in opposition to OzTAM, which he suggests may be less relevant in the future anyway. “As time goes on, measurement that’s based on samples and panels and streaming meters will become less robust.” He points out: “Say both of us watch the same show… even though you and I are watching the same content there’s a decent chance we’ll see different ads during the ad break. The idea of content as a proxy for ad measurement will become less robust.”

“Sooner or later we’ll get to the point where the majority of TV is just digital. Once the majority of TV is traded digitally through fit-for-purpose advertising technology. When that takes place around impressions and frequency caps, at that point is a reach currency as valuable as it used to be? I can’t help but think that in other areas like online display advertising there’s never been demand for a reach currency.”

However, Spurzem does not rule out following Netfix in becoming an OzTAM subscriber, conceding: “There are areas we can collaborate on”.

And on the topic of AI, Spurzem offers a case for optimism as far as the TV industry goes: “You’re not going to get an AI agent to watch TV for you.”

IVE Group’s charge up the Unmade Index continues

Print and marketing business IVE Group led the way at the top end of the Unmade Index, rising by 1.3% on a day when most Unmade Index stocks sank. The company is trading at the highest share price in its history and closing in on a half a billion dollars valuation.

Among the larger stocks, Seven West Media had the worst day on the Index, losing 3.3% while Southern Cross Austereo dropped 2.7%. Ooh Media, which lost its Auckland Transport contract yesterday, sank 2.6%.

The Unmade Index closed on 579.1 points, a loss for the day of 0.75%.

More from Mumbrella…

* Telstra’s ‘Wherever We Go’ voted most unforgettable ad – and most hated

* Havas’ James Wright formally expands remit in wake of Virginia Hyland exit

* Opinion: Happy World PR Day: The earned revolution is here

* 6,000 downloads enough for ABC News to top Podcast Ranker

* Opinion: Qantas breach: In a crisis, you need to reach people where they are

* Retail media outgrows its shell: ‘Structure and collaboration are essential’

Today’s podcast was edited by Abe’s Audio. Time to leave you to your evening. We’ll be back with more tomorrow.

Have a great day

Toodlepip…

Tim Burrowes

Publisher - Unmade + Mumbrella

[email protected]

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unmade.media/subscribe

Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade. On the day the annual Infinite Dial results exploring audio adoption patterns in Australia are released, we discuss the planning and buying of podcast advertising.

Sign up for an annual paid membership of Unmade before June 30 and you’ll receive a huge additional benefit - a complimentary membership of Mumbrella Pro, usually priced at $790. It’s our best ever end of financial year offer.

Along with all of our paywalled content, your annual Unmade membership gets you tickets to September’s REmade conference on retail media; to October’s Unlock conference on marketing in the nighttime economy; and to Unmade’s Compass end-of-year roadshow.

And Mumbrella Pro contains an extensive archive of presentations from Mumbrella’s conferences, including last month’s Mumbrella 360, along with the industry’s most detailed database of brand and agency rosters.

‘Too many brands are still thinking about reach when they're thinking about podcast advertising, and a successful campaign being about cheap CPMs.’

A year on from the launch of Australia’s first, and to date only, media agency specialising in the planning and buying of podcast advertising, we check in with the team at Earmax - Andy Maxwell and Ralph van Dijk.

Maxwell and van Dijk linked up to launch Earmax a year ago. Prior to coming to Australia, Maxwell spent most of his career in the UK, working within marketing and podcasting, while van Dijk is adland’s elder statesman of audio, having run specialist radio agency Eardrum for 35 years.

During the podcast conversation with Unmade’s Tim Burrowes, the duo discuss the high engagement levels of podcast listeners, why reach isn’t everything, and the challenges of the specialist agency cutting through in the market.

According to Maxwell: “As a podcast listener, you hear how much wastage there is, you hear how you get served the wrong ads in the wrong environments. When you do get served the right ads it’s powerful.”

Maxwell argues that one of the major errors being made by marketers and planners is making conversations about podcasts one of reach rather than specialisation. He argues: “One of the big issues itself is that people are still thinking about reach and incremental reach, when actually the podcast medium should be about driving consideration and conversions.

“These big brands, you can get your reach from everywhere else, but podcasts, because of the environment, because of how engaged the audience is, you have such a massive opportunity, whether the reach is 100,000 or a million.

“You can find a specific audience interested in a specific subject and get them in an environment where they are so leaned in.”

He adds: “Too many brands are still thinking about reach when they're thinking about podcast advertising and a successful campaign being about cheap CPMs. Five podcasts of 50,000 listeners is more effective than one podcast of 250,000.”

Meanwhile, van Dijk is frank about the pace of adoption of Earmax in the market, saying it has gone more slowly than he anticipated. He says: “I just thought that word would catch on and they'd all be telling their mates and there would be people banging down the door to have us look at their campaigns.

“The reality is that there's structures, processes, arrangements, partnerships in place for both the creative and the media, which a tough decision has to be made to go around that.”

He adds: “There's a lot of politics.”

Today’s podcast was edited by Abe’s Audio. We’ll be back with more tomorrow.

In the meantime, don’t forget to join us for The Infinite Dial Australia, in a couple of hours.

I’m hosting a conversation with ARN Media’s Lauren Joyce, Thinkerbell’s Margie Reid, and Edison Research’s Larry Rosin about the state of play in audio.

Have a great day

Toodlepip…

Tim Burrowes

Publisher - Unmade + Mumbrella

[email protected]

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unmade.media/subscribe

Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade.

Today’s edition contains highlights from the finale of Mumbrella360, with our Compass panel reflecting on FY25 and projecting for FY26. Plus, Vinyl Group is the worst performer on the Unmade Index for a second day in a row.

To get maximum value from a paid membership of Unmade, sign up today.

Your annual membership gets you tickets to September’s REmade conference on retail media; to October’s Unlock conference on marketing in the nighttime economy; and to Unmade’s Compass end-of-year roadshow.

You also get access to our paywalled archive.

Upgrade today.

AI b******t; agency ageism; and finding reasons for optimism - Compass live from Mumbrella360

It was a strong finish to Mumbrella360, with our Compass format coming to the conference for the first time.

In a panel moderated by Tim Burrowes, we heard from Josh Faulks, CEO of the Australian Association of National Advertisers, Natalie Harvey, CEO of Mamamia; Jacquie Alley, chair of the Independent Media Agencies Association and John Schoolcraft, the brains behind the Oatly brand.

In a fast-paced conversation, the panel romped across topics including the benefits and perils of LinkedIn, the state of the market, and the permanent staple of the effectiveness versus creativity debate

Schoolcraft, who earlier in the day had delivered Mumbrella360’s opening keynote, focused on the sweeping changes being caused by generative AI: “The moats are gone now - AI just leveled the playing field.”

Faulks was slightly more sceptical and argued that concerns about job losses in the industry are overblown: ”We’re hitting the peak of the AI hype cycle. There’s a lot of b******t. I don’t think it’s about job losses. We spend way too much time talking about the bad things that could happen with AI and not enough on the opportunities.”

Alley nominated a topic that requires more discussion: “The ageism that sits in this industry. My prediction is that strategic thinking is only going to get more important. I’m hopeful the more experienced employees will finally start to be valued. They (clients) want the head of strategy in the retainer… Experienced people aren’t billable, and that’s a problem.”

And Harvey urged publishers and platforms to seek a peace process: “With the globals, the challenge is, it’s not about creativity, it’s about mass reach and getting things cheaper. That’s what’s weird about the fight with Australian publishers - we make their platforms better.”

More from Mumbrella…

* Schwartz Media to sell 7am podcast

* Ten names The Project’s replacement news show: Ten News+

* Adam Sadler to lead Scentre Group’s Brandspace retail media push

* M+C Saatchi kills off Bohemia brand

* Starcom appoints Matt Houltham as CEO

* Mumbrellacast: The Project and Q+A get the boot; Challenges women face in media; and Greg Hywood’s verdict on Nine

Unmade Index grows as Vinyl falls again

Vinyl Group saw the biggest fall on the Unmade Index for the second day in a row on Wednesday. It lost 4.2% to land on a market capitalisation of $144m.

Vinyl had briefly traded on a bigger valuation than audio companies Southern Cross Austereo and ARN Media. SCA gained 1.6% to land on $152m; ARN lost 1.9% to land on $158m.

Elsewhere on the Unmade Index, Ooh Media gained 2.5% and Nine gained 1.6%.

The Unmade Index closed up 1.1% on 564.1 points.

Today’s podcast was edited by Abe’s Audio. We’ll be back with more soon.

Have a great day

Toodlepip…

Tim Burrowes

Publisher - Unmade + Mumbrella

[email protected]

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unmade.media/subscribe

Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade.

Today, we talk to Clive Dickens, one of media’s innovators, about what he’ll be doing next.

To get maximum value from a paid membership of Unmade, sign up today.

Your annual membership gets you tickets to September’s REmade conference on retail media; to October’s Unlock conference on marketing in the nighttime economy; and to Unmade’s Compass end-of-year roadshow.

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Clive Dickens unveils his plans for Meliora, something that’s a little more than a typical media consultancy

After some big digital roles at Southern Cross Austereo, Seven West Media and Optus, Clive Dickens launching a media advisory service seems a logical next step. Particularly when you factor in some big radio jobs in the UK along with proximity to some successful audio startups.

But Meliora appears to be a little more than your typical one-person, stay-occupied-until-something-else-comes-up advisory.

Dickens says that he’s recurited another five partners to eventually join the business, and in the meantime identified another 10 “associates” to fill the gap in the mean time.

He also plans an investment arm which will focus on startups, and additionally a creative IP fund to put money behind interesting creators.

Dickens expands on his plans in the podcast interview with Unmade’s Tim Burrowes.

He says: “They're not just investments. They're partners. The significant number are in the AI space. And we want to bring and leverage some of those products and services to our clients as well to help them unlock that AI value.”

The conversation also touches on his plans around media equity - working with media companies to offer distressed inventory in exchange for stakes in busiensses that need to build their profile. It was a model he successfully applied on behalf of Seven West Media with Airtasker.

And he says that his plan to invest in creative work is in part at least a response to the disruption being caused by generative AI. “In a world where there's going to be less traditional jobs because of gen AI, we wanted to invest in jobs that we believe only humans will be able to do.”

More from Mumbrella…

* Getting ahead and the importance of progress to brands

* Brittany Higgins joins Third Hemisphere

* Free TV chair Greg Hywood steps down

* Is the PR industry still a great place to work?

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

Time to leave you to your evening. We’ll be back with more tomorrow.

Have a great day

Toodlepip…

Tim Burrowes

Publisher - Unmade + Mumbrella

[email protected]

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unmade.media/subscribe

Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade, recorded earlier today live on stage at Mumbrella360.

To get maximum value from a paid membership of Unmade, sign up today.

Your annual membership gets you tickets to September’s REmade conference on retail media; to October’s Unlock conference on marketing in the nighttime economy; and to Unmade’s Compass end-of-year roadshow.

You also get access to our paywalled archive.

Upgrade today.

Radio salaries; the rise of LinkedIn video, Google’s AI video magic and the Mumbrella360 origin story

Today’s podcast was recorded live on stage at Mumbrella360 this afternoon.

In a panel anchored by Abe’s Audio’s Abe Udy, editorial director Hal Crawford, head of curation Cat McGinn and Tim Burrowes were joined by Genero marketer Christie Poulos.

We chewed over highlights from Mumbrella360 including creator Rob Mayhew’s assertion that LinkedIn and YouTube provide the greatest opportunity for B2B video creators. We also discussed this week’s ranking of radio salaries, the impact of Google’s new video generation offering Veo 3, and the development of Mumbrella360 over the last 14 years.

More from the Mumbrella departure lounge…

* David Droga steps down as Accenture Song CEO

* Justin Graham to step down as APAC CEO of M+C Saatchi Group

* Coles' chief customer officer Amanda McVay to depart amid overhaul

Today’s podcast was edited by Abe’s Audio. Time to leave you to your afternoon. We’ll be back with more tomorrow.

Have a great day

Toodlepip…

Tim Burrowes

Publisher - Unmade + Mumbrella

[email protected]

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unmade.media/subscribe

Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade. Today’s Unmade podcast was recorded at last month’s AI conference HumAIn, with a panel of practitioners exploring the evolving role of AI chatbots in media and marketing, highlighting the wide spectrum from chatbots as utility, and chatbots as personality.

Today is a good day to upgrade to a paid membership of Unmade. Your annual membership includes:

* A complimentary ticket to all of Unmade’s events, including our retail media conference REmade (September 23), Unlock (October), and Compass (across November)

* Member-only content and our paywalled archives;

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Upgrade today.

As a member of the Unmade community you have unlocked exclusive ticket savings to attend Mumbrella360, taking place at Carriageworks Sydney next week, May 27-29.

Simply enter code 20UNMADE360 to save 20% on any ticket type, whether that's the all-access pass or the 'conference only' two-day pass.

From sludge to snark: the divide between form and function in AI chatbots

Cat McGinn, curator of HumAIn, writes:

With generative AI finally giving brands the opportunity to roll out chatbots that work, we tackled the topic at HumAIn.

The discussion features Foxtel’s head of marketing operations and strategic programs Aaron Mitchie, Bastion’s AI consultant Shaun Davies, columnist and strategist at Agency C, Parnell Palme McGuinness, and creative director Emma Barbato.

McGuinness and Davies discussed the development of “Yell At Parnell”, a chatbot trained on McGuinness’s published columns, and designed to replicate her editorial tone and views. The aim was to extend engagement beyond the limitations of comment sections and to experiment with scaling an opinion columnist’s voice.

Davies noted that prompt engineering required over 4,000 words to capture not only factual grounding but also the columnist’s personality, including humour, tone, and political perspectives.

“There is a desperate desire to engage, and this is another opportunity for people to engage. I think that they would also like that opportunity to be supported by the media outlets they're engaging with; I think that it would reverse in some degree the decline in users,” said McGuinness, pointing to closed comments as a missed opportunity for newsrooms.

Creative director Emma Barbato took it further, introducing Bruce Ryder, Australia’s first fictional AI celebrity, a 1970s larrikin launched as a synthetic brand ambassador (see video below). Audiences bought into Bruce rather than the product: “The intrigue was the storytelling, and him as the product,” she said. Barbato highlighted the creative opportunities available to brands when working with immersive, character-led AI tools, particularly in environments unconstrained by conventional briefs.

In contrast, Foxtel’s Aaron Mitchie outlined a strictly functional approach. His team is rolling out a bot to eliminate internal admin, trained on corporate policies. “We’re purposely trying to be boring,” he said. “The idea is eventually everyone's going to get back a day in their week back from admin.”

The panel also raised questions around the ethics of disclosure with users, synthetic identities, emotional attachment to bots, and the future role of anthropomorphised AI in consumer engagement.

Barbato ended the panel with a rallying cry for the creative industries, saying,

“For the first time in my time in the creative arts, we have no hierarchy of anyone being better. We have zero gatekeepers, and it has attracted a brand new creative. And that's what I'm the most excited about: the community that is coming together. I don't know how long we've got. But right now, it’s a garden of Eden with no weeds.”

More from Mumbrella…

* Mumbrellacast: ABC, SBS and the gender pay gaps data; inside outdoor media; marketers and Google’s AI Mode; Resolution Digital’s new chapter

* SBS beats ABC as gender pay gaps revealed

* Catalano slams SCA activist investor over vote meddling

* Tropfest organisers hint at ‘epic comeback’

* Google launches AI Mode, marketers ponder impact

* M+C Saatchi CEO Michael McEwan joins Droga5 Melbourne

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

We’ll be back in your inbox tomorrow or on your podcatcher next week.

Adios amigos,

Cat McGinn

Curator - HumAIn

[email protected]

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unmade.media/subscribe

Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade. In today’s edition of The Unmakers we talk to creative legend Chas Bayfield about his new venture 21 Madison, fixing the mistakes made by AI. Plus, Seven West Media shares continue their surge on the Unmade Index

To get maximum value from a paid membership of Unmade, sign up today.

Your annual membership gets you tickets to September’s REmade conference on retail media; to October’s Unlock conference on marketing in the nighttime economy; and to Unmade’s Compass end-of-year roadshow.

You also get access to our paywalled archive.

Upgrade today.

Introducing 21 Madison: Fixing ads knocked up in Canva by the business owner’s talented niece

In today’s audio-led edition of Unmade, we talk to an adland legend who quietly slipped into Australia under cover of Covid and now does global work from his home in Hobart.

Bayfield has a world-beating portfolio. His work is still instantly recognisable to anybody who grew up in the UK. Blackcurrant Tango’s 1996 90-second epic, ‘St George’ won most major advertising awards.

Now a freelance creative, Bayfield lives in Tasmania with most of his work for overseas brands.

This month Bayfield has launched a new business, 21 Madison. Recognising the fact that AI and tools such as Canva have made it possible for anyone to create an ad, even if they lack the skills to write a message that sells, Bayfield aims to overlay his human talents onto the machinery.

In the podcast interview with Unmade’s Tim Burrowes, Bayfield describes his target market as those who cannot afford to commission an ad agency: “It's people who, for whatever reason, are self-generating their advertising. Potentially AI, potentially Canva. It might just be that they've got a talented niece or nephews, knocked something up in their year seven graphics class. Largely, I'm guessing it's going to be AI.”

Bayfield sees 21 Madison’s role as stepping in to turn the copy into something that sells. Recognising that these are not the big budget players, he adds: “These are people who are going to be putting ads out on Facebook and Instagram.”

According to the 21 Madison website, prices start from a $79 “quick fix” to $999 per month for a virtual creative director helping create eight ads per month.

Bayfield says 21 Madison is his attempt to make the best of the disruption being wrought by the likes of ChatGPT:

“We can sit around and shake our fists at the system and the way it is, a bit like blacksmiths in the early 1900s, just angry at cars. And where does that get you?

“So you have to work out, what can I do to move it on? I've never been one just to sit back and go, ‘this is always going to be the same forever.’”

During the interview, Bayfield also tackles the most controversial period in his career, when he and a colleague won a sex discrimination claim against ad agency JWT alleging that they lost their roles because the agency wanted to lose its reputation as “a boys club”.

Despite winning the case, Bayfield suffered a brutal social media backlash.

He reveals: “The backlash that came afterwards was off the scale.

And I got a monstrous amount of social media hatred and people telling me that I wasn't going to work. And I certainly wasn't going to work in Australia.

“I won a works tribunal. It was all I had done.

“It was nasty. That was pretty tough. Especially as I've always felt that I've been the one looking at what's next in advertising. To be cast as this washed up dinosaur was horrible.”

Seven extends its ASX charge

Seven West Media continued its charge on the Unmade Index, rising another 6.9% yesterday to a market capitalisation of $247m. The stock has now risen by more than 10% over the last week. However, in the bigger picture the stock is still trading close to a historic low.

Meanwhile it was a down day for the two major audio stocks with Southern Cross Austereo losing 5.9% and ARN Media losing 1.9%.

The Unmade Index, which tracks the performance of media and marketing stocks, lost 0.6% to land on 551.5 points.

More from Mumbrella…

* Stop calling us influencers, says influencer

* GroupM workforce braces for major restructure impacts

* AI is no longer a disruptor, it’s part of the process: D&AD report

* CNN and Fox take on their own legacies with new streaming services

* SBS goes fully nude in streaker ad campaign

Time to leave you to your Friday.

We’ll be back with more tomorrow.

Have a great day

Toodlepip…

Tim Burrowes

Publisher - Unmade + Mumbrella

[email protected]

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unmade.media/subscribe

Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade. Today we hear from Getty Images’ global creative boss Rebecca Swift, on the impact and risk of AI on creative industries.

Today is a good day to upgrade to a paid membership of Unmade. Your annual membership includes:

A complimentary ticket to all of Unmade’s events, including tomorrow’s AI conference HumAIn (May 6), REmade (September 23), Unlock (October), and Compass (across November)

Member-only content and our paywalled archives;

Your own copy of Media Unmade.

Upgrade today.

‘Business loves bargains’: Rebecca Swift on how generative AI could undermine creativity and consumer confidence

The growing wave of low-quality, mass-generated imagery is threatening both brand trust and the long-term viability of creative industries, warns Rebecca Swift, senior vice president of creative at Getty Images. Dr Swift warns that what she terms “AI slop”is on the rise.

In the podcast conversation with Unmade’s Cat McGinn, Swift said the deluge of generative content risks homogenising brand expression, eroding legal safety, and discouraging future talent from entering the creative workforce.

“AI slop” refers to the easily created, highly distributed output from generative AI tools, which is often divorced from original intent, training data transparency, or creative integrity. While acknowledging that the issue predates AI, Swift argued that the explosion in tools has made the problem more visible—and more dangerous.

Swift said Getty has deliberately kept its content library free from AI-generated assets to ensure provenance, avoid contamination of training sets, and protect creator rights.

“It would be easy to follow the money. But we chose to follow our values.”

She also warned that some large models are now training on content that is itself AI-generated, compounding quality and IP risks.

“For global brands, there’s no guarantee that marketers in different regions aren’t using content that breaches trademarks or contains copyrighted elements,” Swift said. “There are real legal and reputational implications.”

Consumer trust is also on the line. Getty’s research shows that while AI-generated content has become harder for the average consumer to spot, the appetite for disclosure has increased. More than 90% of survey respondents said they want to know when an image is AI-generated.

“We’re seeing consumers approach images with a default mindset of distrust,” Swift said. “That has implications not just for media, but for any brand that trades on authenticity.”

Unmade’s AI conference for media and marketing, humAIn, takes place tomorrow. Tickets are still available.

Correction: Dr Swift refers to Getty’s consumer research as beginning in 2003; the research began in 2023.

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

See you at HumAIn - or in your inbox - tomorrow.

Have a lovely day,

Cat McGinn

Curator - HumAIn

[email protected]

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unmade.media/subscribe

Welcome to an audio-led edition of Unmade. Today we hear from adland satirist Rob Mayhew about making it in the creator economy, why he loves TikTok and LinkedIn, and how Facebook is just too greedy.

Today is a good day to upgrade to a paid membership of Unmade. Your annual membership includes:

A complimentary ticket to all of Unmade’s events, including HumAIn (May 6), REmade (September 23), Unlock (October), and Compass (across November)

Member-only content and our paywalled archives;

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‘We need a new playbook’ - Rob Mayhew on how agencies are failing to make the most of the creator economy

In the extremely niche specialty of advertising industry satirist, Rob Mayhew is the leading light.

The agency creative turned TikTok and LinkedIn creator has amassed a dedicated following in the English-speaking marketing world.

Mayhew started his career in the UK in a below the line agency, before cutting his teeth as a social media strategist. He found his place as a content maker during Covid lockdowns by satirising adland and agency culture.

He now mainly works with B2B brands including Adobe, WeTransfer and Sitecore looking to tap into his burgeoning followings particularly on TikTok and LinkedIn.

In the podcast conversation with Tim Burrowes, Mayhew discusses his forthcoming keynote at next month’s Mumbrella360, what marketers are getting wrong when they jump on social media trends, and why he is no fan of Facebook.

He explains: “I'm a huge fan of TikTok. It's my favorite platform, closely followed by LinkedIn and then YouTube. Meta, Instagram, I'm kind of not really a fan of… I just feel like they're greedy.”

* Mumbrella360 is from May 27-29. Find out more here.

Time to leave you to your day. Today’s podcast was edited by Abe’s Audio.

If you’d like more from me in your ears, last night’s edition of the Mumbrellacast is now in your favorite podcatcher. Hal Crawford and I discuss Facebook’s ghost stores; Ben Shepherd’s proposed walled garden for premium advertising; and Albo’s love of newspapers.

I’ll be back on Saturday with Best of the Week

Toodlepip…

Tim Burrowes

Publisher - Mumbrella + Unmade

[email protected]

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