Best of the Week: New year, new job; Do we have a coke problem?

[View web version]( BEST OF THE WEEK And another thing... Well, welcome to 2019. I’m not sure who started 2019 off with more of a bang: the Sydney NYE fireworks director Fortunato Foti - who had 500 kilograms more of pyrotechnics to bring in 2019 than he did to welcome 2018, making it 8.5 tonnes - or if it was adland. To me, it certainly felt like adland was trying to outdo Foti, with the traditionally quiet pre-Australia-Day period seemingly a thing of the past. A number of you joked with me when I decided not to take the Christmas/ New Year/ early January period off that it was probably actually a wise and sneaky decision, as I wouldn’t have to “waste” my leave, but I wouldn’t really have to work too hard. Win, win, right? According to adland wisdom, if you’re working during the Christmas period, you’re hardly working. Except, this time around it appeared to be a different ballgame. Whether it was[Michelle Guthrie launching a lawsuit against the ABC over her dismissal]( (it’s worth noting here I was very swiftly corrected by my dad for calling it ‘Unfair Dismissal’. Turns out, Guthrie earned too much for her firing to fall under Unfair Dismissal, so instead she is going after them for ‘adverse action’ based on claims she was shown the door because she had made complaints about political interference, and the inappropriate actions of then chairman Justin Milne. She’s also claiming she wants to come back to the gig, which I always find such a funny quirk of the system. Do you really want to come back, Michelle? I suspect you wish you hadn’t been unceremoniously dumped ahead of the expiration of your five-year contract, but given the circumstances as they are, I don’t imagine you actually want to walk back in and try to lead the national broadcaster again. Although, wouldn’t that be something to witness?). Plus, there was the [ongoing shake-ups at Nine’s embattled Today Show](, [defamation claims](, rumours about [what’s happening with the Australian Defence Force Recruiting creative pitch](, or the shuffle in leadership in many of adland’s top positions. Needless to say, there were certainly fireworks at the beginning of 2019. The carousel never stops turning When I wrote Best of the Week way back on 18 March, 2018, I wrote about how CEOs were moving around agency land left, right and centre - not so much a full-blown conspiracy theory as a general observation and difficult-to-ignore pattern. In a short space of time, Y&R CEO Phil McDonald had departed. The story had the ominous words “effective immediately” when we revealed it, so, for some, it was hard not to eye off the tin-foil hat and wonder what had gone down. This one caused some pretty major problems for me too, as in my rush to get our daily newsletter out, my adrenaline seemingly suppressed my attention-to-detail gland, and I sent it to the masses saying ‘WPP CEO walks’. Whoops. Obviously I got a lot of sass from the industry, and some stren words from WPP HQ, and quite a bit of sarcastic questioning over whether global WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell had really walked, or had I meant WPP AUNZ CEO Mike Connaghan? Or, had I just messed up and intended to write ‘WPP agency CEO walks’? Yep, that one. Fast-forward 10 months, and it’s somewhat ironic that both Sorrell and Connaghan have departed (probably ironic in the Alanis Morissette sense of the word, “A traffic jam when you're already late”, rather than the actual meaning of the word, but we all misuse it so much that I might as well just accept it). Perhaps rather than being a muddled, overwhelmed editor back in March, 2018, I was actually a prophet? Within a day of McDonald’s departure, former boss of Leo Burnett Sydney Peter Bosilkovski was announced as his replacement. Also around this extended game of musical chairs back in March 2018, WhiteGrey’s joint-CEO Paul Worboys had departed, so Miles Joyce was set to lead the newly-merged agency as its now-solo CEO. Less than two weeks later, Joyce too was out, and then former M&C Saatchi managing partner Lee Simpson was at the helm. The whole joint CEO thing, and indeed the wider ongoing restructures at the top of holding groups, media owners and agencies, was [described by my news editor, Paul Wallbank, on this week’s podcast]( as “the Hunger Games of corporate Australia”, which - while brutal - if accurate, doesn’t bode particularly well for some in adland. So when VML merged with the now-Bosilkovski-helmed Y&R and it was decided both he, and VML boss Aden Hepburn, would jointly-run the operation, you can imagine why people questioned how that would work. Towards the end of last year, there was obviously a similar amount of job interviews, networking and planning for the future of groups and brands going on as there was when I wrote about it 10 months ago. The biggest move in my eyes (because of its significance, her impact, and, I’m not going to lie, the traffic it brought to the Mumbrella site), was [Lisa Ronson’s impending departure from Tourism Australia to become chief marketing officer at Coles](. Previously, the marketing function at Coles had been conducted and overseen by chief operating officer Greg Davis, who was behind the likes of the plastic-gobbling Little Shop promotion, as well as the Good Things Are Happening at Coles brand platform. While it’s easy for me to speculate from the outside looking in that Tourism Australia seems more creative and fun than Coles, I look forward to seeing what the woman who spearheaded the Dundee: Son of a Legend Super Bowl campaign will do the the traditionally boring supermarket category. Also this week, [Southern Cross Austereo’s chief creative officer Guy Dobson left](. The press release again carried those two most-ominous words “effective immediately”. Dobson had been with the company which owns the Hit Networks and Triple M, for over a decade in various roles, including chief executive officer of what, prior to the merger with Southern Cross, was the Austereo Group. SCA - which has the Hit Network’s Fox FM in Melbourne doing well, but continues to struggle with Sydney’s 2Day FM - said Dobson’s departure was a “unique opportunity” to review the existing business structure and the skills and experience it needs going forward. Translated: I’m not sure Guy is being replaced, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see more personnel shake-ups at the business this year. That’s not to say that if you leave a media company as part of a wider rethink, restructure or reset that the relationship is totally over. Back in 2017 Nine’s chief digital officer Alex Parsons left the company after more than a decade. His departure came a few months after marketing was removed from Parsons’ remit, and given to Karen Madden, who joined as Nine’s group marketing director. Again, Parsons’ role was not directly replaced, but he left the business with CEO Hugh Marks noting that while “change is challenging and complex... Alex and I believe this presents huge opportunities for the future of our business”. And those opportunities, well, they certainly did present themselves. Nine bought Fairfax, and now [Parsons is back at Nine to sell off the events arm of the business](which came with the purchase, including the likes of the City2Surf, the Night Noodle Markets and Good Food Month. It’s always an interesting proposition when you’re tasked with effectively making yourself redundant or selling your way out of a job, but Parsons didn’t completely rule out working with Nine again should he be successful in selling off the once-Fairfax business unit. Agencies also weren’t immune to the shuffles and shake-ups this week. First we heard [Matt James, CEO of Publicis Media, was heading back to the UK to be global brand president of Zenith in London](. Then, shortly after, [current CEO of Publicis Communications and former boss of Saatchi & Saatchi, Michael Rebelo, was elevated to the newly created role of CEO of the Publicis Groupe across Australia and New Zealand](. With Rebelo now overseeing both creative and media - supported by former Blue 449 CEO John Preston as chairman of Publicis Media - it is unlikely James will be directly replaced. Well, at least until the next restructure. Also in agency land [Shaun Briggs, Initiative Melbourne’s managing director, went client side to run Specsavers’ media planning](. Initiative has held Specsavers’ media account since 2016, but Briggs’ role within the brand is a new one. So, much like mid-March 2018, the beginning of January 2019 saw adland’s job market significantly shift. When I wrote about the agency CEO game of musical chairs back last year, I concluded by asking Mumbrella readers to put on their tin-foil hats and let me know their theories for who would replace Bosilkovski at Leos Sydney, and who would fill the void left by Ben Lilley at McCann. I also wondered who would become CEO of Domain after the departure of Antony Catalano (we now know this is Google’s Jason Pellegrino), what would become of former IPG Mediabrands global CEO Henry Tajer (hello, Amazon Media Group), and where News Corp’s Nicole Sheffield would land (Australia Post). Time is a funny thing. But, in 2019 there are so many people we are watching, I genuinely lose track. Where will former Fairfax CEO Greg Hywood be this time next year? Speaking of which, there is still a permanent managing director and chairperson role up for grabs at the ABC. Not to mention SBS lost its short-lived chief content officer, former media agency exec and right-hand-man to Tajer, John Sintras. Then there’s former APN Outdoor CEO James Warburton, CEO of Australian Radio Network Rob Atkinson, Foxtel’s former marketer Andy Lark, Telstra’s CMO Joe Pollard, Carat’s once-CEO Paul Brooks, and so many others currently on gardening leave or seeking opportunities that our infamous whiteboard with ‘Unemployed execs’ and ‘Vacant jobs’ is getting a little overwhelming. So please dust off your tin-foil hat once more and get in touch. Who will land where? Are you dreaming of a White Christmas? Now if you’re not already familiar with the [Roy Morgan Facebook page](, why not amuse yourself this week and go and have a look? Towards the end of last year, the parody account (although, to be honest, so much of what it writes about is terrifyingly real, so I’m not sure ‘parody’ is actually the right word here) posted some Christmas songs for the industry from the album ‘Pour a Lil Roy In Your Glass’. I won’t tell you what happens if you click through the link to buy the album, as I think that would officially make me a spoil sport, but the image on Facebook shows it includes the following tracks: * You’re All I Want For Christmas (Ode to a Melbourne Bitter) * Do They Know It’s Christmas, Why Are They Still Briefing Me? * It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like A Merger* All I Want For Christmas Is My Client To Pay Me - Featuring the Ikon Choir * Please Come Home For Christmas - Featuring the neglected partners of agency folk * Rudolph the Red-Nosed Chat Bot * Silent Night over at Snapchat * Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow - featuring the outdoor media vendors * ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas - a ballad by the media buyers on the Woolworths account * And, returning once again - the Atomic 212 acapella group with their hit White Lie Christmas I’m sure everyone will have their own favourite there, and perhaps one or two which make them squirm. For me, given how closely we covered the Ikon Court case, the Atomic 212 scandal, and, of course, ‘Ninefax’, (plus our love-hate relationship with bloody chat bots), it really is hard to choose the best gag. One which really stuck out for me though is the ‘Let is Snow’ song. For a long, long time, media’s excessive use of cocaine has been something I’ve watched with fascination. As somebody who doesn’t partake in the consumption of “nose beers”, it’s obviously something I don’t understand. For me, it’s not a puritanical/ Holier-Than-Thou thing. It’s more a death thing. I’ve never been able to rationalise having a good time on cocaine, with the incredible environmental destruction it causes and the rising death toll it has - not in terms of overdoses, but due to the gangland Drug Wars. Estimates put the death toll of the Mexican Drug War between gangs at over 120,000 in the years between 2006 and 2013. That doesn’t include the over 27,000 missing. Plus, you don’t have to try very hard to find horrendous reports of drug cartels murdering people, decapitating them, and leaving their heads on spikes. As someone who is fidgety and talks too much already, I’m not sure me and cocaine, with all these thoughts running around, would be a great mix. And then there’s the environment. (And before you @ me, I’m aware that most of my contribution to this planet is negative, and if we went through my immediate surroundings in my room, whether it’s my “smart” technology, clothes on the floor, plastic water bottle, environmentally destructive activewear, or arguably-unnecessary perfume, you’d be able to point out many flaws in this argument. But everyone has to draw a moral/ ethical line somewhere, and I’d argue it’s impossible to be perfect, or, for that matter, impossible to even be consistent. And this, personally, is my line). The Roy Morgan joke about “Let It Snow” confirmed for me that I want to look into the extent of cocaine use in media and adland, and the effects it may be having. When my deputy editor Josie Tutty wrote about how the industry’s drinking problem is stretching us to breaking point, the response was predictably mixed: “We agree. Let’s talk about this. Thank you, Josie”, through to (of course) “All right snowflake. You could have been a teacher”, and “No-one is forcing you to drink”. A number of people, however, also pointed out that the real problem, or at least another problem, might be cocaine, and that even though everyone knows about it, nobody is actually talking about it. It’s going to be an interesting one for me to navigate, given my lack of experience with it - but hey, if the folks in Canberra can legislate on everything from tampons to reproductive rights, I think I can give this one a crack. I don’t know where it will land, to be honest. I’ve seen media friends have the time of their life with a bit of the good stuff, but I’ve also had horrific nights as a result of other people's actions while under the influence. How is this playing out the next day in agency offices, and is there still a problematic culture where cocaine is required to build bonds, get deals across the line, and cope with the stress, anxiety and pressures that come with this industry? I guess I’ll find out. If you’re a user, abuser or loser, please get in touch. (FYI I count myself in the ‘loser’ category as it’s a word frequently hurled at me when I refuse to have the powder off the top of the toilet). I’d love to hear what you think. I should warn you though, throwing Nike’s “Just do it” slogan at me, won’t work here. That’s it for now, mainly because it is time to hit send on this thing, and my heart rate is getting a bit high. I am, once again, on the news desk this weekend (four weeks until Cuba!), so please get in touch with any stories, fun holiday anecdotes to make me jealous, or just to say hi. You can reach me at: vivienne@mumbrella.com.au Happy New Year! Vivienne Kelly Editor - Mumbrella Sponsored Post The [Cooperate]( platform transforms how marketing teams visualise their customer journey, deliver content at each stage of the journey, and see how it performs - from one place. Australian enterprises like [Monash University,]( [SFI Health](, The Heart Foundation, UNSW and TicToc Home Loans can finally manage content across the customer journey, empowering their teams to visualise the entire journey from start to finish, and manage all of the marketing work in-between. Mumbrella | 46-48 Balfour Street Chippendale NSW 2008 Australia [Unsubscribe](| [Manage Subscriptions]( [Facebook]( [LinkedIn]( [Twitter](