How Byron Sharp helped Clive Palmer | Newspaper goes into administration | Adland's duty to LGBTIQ Australia | Gary Vee opens APAC outpost | 12 new jobs | Teaching Bob Hawke the internet

[View Newsletter Online]( [Mumbrella Newsletter][Mumbrella Newsletter]( Just 19 days left to get your Mumbrella360 ticket Are you coming to the biggest event in the Australian marketing calendar? With just 19 days until [Mumbrella360,]( it’s time to make up your mind. Take a look at the 138 speakers already announced, presenting across over 80 sessions and six daily stages. Global speakers, industry leaders and exclusive research all come together for an intensive two-day program designed to take your career to the cutting edge. [View the Mumbrella program here.]( Opinion [How Clive grew: Palmer's election advertising strategy]( The big man from Queensland has certainly grown his brand in the lead-up to Saturday’s federal election, and Edge’s Nicole Gardner says it’s all thanks to Byron Sharp. There’s nothing like a hotly contested federal election to boost ad sales. No matter where we’ve sourced our news in the past month, from TV to newspaper, digital to radio, we’ve been slammed with political advertising, content, messages and yes, even video games. [READ MORE »]( Features [Mumbrellacast: The end of Naked, CHEP recruits Ben Shepherd and harassment at adland awards nights]( It was a big week for agency news: CHE Proximity appointed PwC’s Ben Shepherd as chief media officer and Naked merged with BMF. Senior content journalist Abigail Dawson returned to the Mumbrellacast to chat about if the Naked news was a surprise and what all of this means for the creative landscape. In television Lego Masters soared, Celebrity Name Game crawled and the AFL Footy Show fell. [READ MORE »]( News [Sydney Star Observer goes into voluntary administration]( Australia’s longest running newspaper for the LGBTI community, the Sydney Star Observer, has gone into voluntary redundancy with the title up for sale. In a post to the newspaper’s website, chairman of the Star Observer, Sebastian Rice, said: “The board saw an unexpected slowdown in our advertising clients paying their bills, which caused us to run low on cash in the bank. We needed to enter voluntary administration to protect our creditors and staff, and provide a chance for the Star Observer to survive.” [READ MORE »]( Features [The day I taught Bob Hawke how to use the internet]( Before journalism, Mumbrella news editor Paul Wallbank worked in IT. Here, he recounts his encounter of two decades ago with former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke, who passed away yesterday. “Love, can you show Bob how to use the internet?” In my days of running a computer repair business, I’d had many odd requests but this one was unusually intimidating. While I’d been helping Blanche D’Alpuget with her tech travails for a year or so, I’d only had glimpses of Bob Hawke at their sprawling home overlooking Sydney’s Middle Harbour. [READ MORE »]( Opinion [Adland should do more to shape the narrative about queer Australia]( On International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, Blake Mason reflects on being himself in adland, and where to next. Growing up gay in the Shire in Sydney’s south, I could count the number of times I’d seen a same-sex relationship depicted anywhere in the media. The stigma and fear around AIDS in the 80s had gripped my parents’ generation and this message – that being anything other than heterosexual was dangerous – permeated through to impressionable young people like me. [READ MORE »]( Opinion [When taking a stand on social issues, companies risk losing it all]( When a company takes a public stance on a social issue, it can enjoy positive publicity, promote its corporate values, and even see a growth in profits. But when it goes the other way, the result can be irreparable damage. Tony Jacques explores how companies can choose whether championing a cause will help or hinder both its brand image and bottom line. The question of whether corporations and CEOs should get involved in high-profile public issues is hardly new. But it vaulted into prominence last month when Brunei introduced new laws which would allow gay men and adulterers to be stoned to death. [READ MORE »]( News [Seven's The Front Bar gets highest audience ever in absence of the AFL Footy Show]( Seven’s AFL-focused panel show The Front Bar has climbed to its highest metro audience since launching in 2015, with 464,000 tuning in across the five capital cities, according to OzTAM’s preliminary overnight ratings for last night. The Front Bar’s highest audience was in Melbourne, where 281,000 tuned in. The last episode of Nine’s AFL Footy Show before it was axed last week had just 97,000 metro viewers overall, 53,000 of whom were from Melbourne. [READ MORE »]( News [The Presets release music video created through Adobe competition]( Adobe has worked with Universal Music’s in-house agency Bring to create a Presents music video featuring the work of student designers using the tech company’s Creative Cloud. The competition saw students each design an image to match a lyric of the Presets’ new track Tools Down. [READ MORE »]( News [News Corp Australia passes 500,000 paid digital subscribers]( News Corp says it has passed the 500,000 paid digital subscribers milestone in Australia. News Corp Australia’s executive chairman Michael Miller announced passing the milestone in an email to staff. [READ MORE »]( SUPPORTED [Burgers, baubles and barbies – lessons from the new series of Face 2 Face]( As the top-ranking podcast returns for a second season, Facebook’s head of marketing, Alexandra Sloane, examines the key learnings from the marketing luminaries it features. What have a disparate band of companies such as Netflix, Volkswagen, Vinomofo, Myer, KFC and the MLA got in common? It’s simple: they’re some of the most creative marketing forces in Australia today, driving their businesses forward by embracing ideas that thrive in a connected world. [READ MORE »]( News [Red Agency rebrands to Red Havas]( Public relations agency Red Agency Australia has rebranded to Red Havas. The rebrand comes as the Havas Group intends to export the Australian agency’s integrated model of social, PR, brand experience and content production to its international offices. [READ MORE »]( SUPPORTED [Why CEOs should look to candid disruptors for inspiration]( The second edition of Isentia’s quarterly Leadership Index reveals a growing gap between the communications policy of modern tech company founders vs those running legacy businesses. The images and narratives in the news surrounding leadership over the past few months have been compelling, conflicting, compassionate and cruel – from Cardinal George Pell’s abuse of power to Jacinda Ardern’s empathy and the subsequent fall-out from the sustained media coverage of the banking royal commission. [READ MORE »]( Opinion [Cloning our robotic political leaders wasn't hard, but it was a window into bad branding]( As the election campaign limps to its end, The Royals’ innovation lab, Advance Party, investigated what the language of politics can teach us about the need for authenticity in brands. David Rood brings us up to speed. It was slightly awkward to start with. Prime Minister Scott Morrison was appearing next to Liberal MP Michael Sukkar at a press conference in the threatened seat of Deakin. [READ MORE »]( News [Mark Liney leaves M&C Saatchi's Re to become principal at brand agency Design Studio]( Mark Liney, managing partner of M&C Saatchi’s brand consultancy Re has left the business to become principal at brand and design agency Design Studio. Liney spent almost two years at Re, working with clients including Commonwealth Bank and Woolworths. Prior to that he spent nearly four years with WPP owned brand agency Landor, in both London and Sydney. [READ MORE »]( Opinion [Facebook's 'transparency' efforts hide key reasons for showing ads]( Despite Facebook’s claims it’s improving the transparency of its advertising, the social media service’s explanations of its targeting criteria are still obscure and misleading says Oana Goga, a research scientist at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), in this cross-posting from The Conversation. Facebook’s advertising platform was not built to help social media users understand who was targeting them with messages, or why. It is an extremely powerful system, which lets advertisers target specific users according to a detailed range of attributes. For example, in 2017, there were 3,100 people in Facebook’s database who lived in Idaho, were in long-distance relationships and were thinking about buying a minivan. [READ MORE »]( SUPPORTED [Influencing consumers starts with building trust]( Being a brand that consumers recognise and trust today has become more important than ever before. Here, Vogue Australia editor-in-chief Edwina McCann and Zac Skulander, News Corp Australia’s head of content innovation and strategic partnerships, discuss how to turn that trust into influence. Even if you’re far removed from the world of fashion, Vogue Australia is an immediately recognisable brand. In fact, the publication is the fourth-oldest Vogue in the world, before, incredibly, Vogue Italia. [READ MORE »]( News [Gary Vaynerchuk owned agency, Vayner Media, launches APAC office]( Vayner Media has finally opened an office in Singapore after talking about the possibility for many years. The full-service agency, spearheaded by its bombastic CEO Gary Vaynerchuk, will be “the next big thing on the Singapore marketing scene” – according to a company spokesperson talking to Mumbrella. [READ MORE »]( News [Big Red Group appoints Charlotte Valente to lead B2B arm]( Former APN Outdoor GM of marketing, Charlotte Valente, has been appointed general manager for the B2B division of the Big Red Group. Valente is to head up the company’s Marketics arm, distributor of Albert AI marketing technology in Australia and New Zealand, along with Big Red Group’s workplace experiences product, Redii. [READ MORE »]( News [Torch Media adds Canberra Light Rail to its transit portfolio]( Transit out of home provider Torch Media has added Canberra Light Rail to its growing portfolio. The addition gives Torch Media exclusive advertising rights on the newly launched tram circuit. [READ MORE »]( News [Cummins & Partners hires Annie Little as strategist]( Cummins & Partners has hired Annie Little to its Melbourne strategy team. Little joins the agency from the UK where she worked as a freelance planner for Wielden and Kennedy, and as a strategist for BBH London. [READ MORE »]( News [Melbourne PR agency KDPO wins Peroni account amongst list of new clients]( Independent PR agency KDPO has announced a list of new client wins. Asahi Premium Beverages appointed the agency to the Peroni Nastro Azzuro PR account. KDPO was responsible for leading the public relations campaign surrounding the rebranded bottle and glassware for the brand. [READ MORE »]( News [ABC’s Bluey renewed for second season after BVOD and international success]( Australian animated children’s series Bluey has continued its success with ABC announcing its renewal for a second season. The announcement comes as the show was took the crown for the most-watched program on ABC iview, collecting over 75 million plays and counting. In 2019 alone it has broken its own iview record, with 55 million program plays so far compared to 21 million plays in 2018. [READ MORE »]( Accelerate your media sales career Mumbrella’s career-boosting [Digital Sales Essentials]( workshop returns to Sydney next month. Over two intensive days, learn from specialist digital marketing trainer, Russell Easther, on all of the essential components to succeed in digital sales. Topics include the changing trends defining Australia’s digital media landscape, how digital media is sold, how to sell content marketing, the role of programmatic advertising and the wider tech landscape, plus how to showcase success and report ROI to clients. [Book now to save $200.]( Is business growth on your agenda? [The Source]( is your very own little black book of major players in media and marketing. Uncover fresh business leads and sales opportunities, access leading advertisers and marketing decision-makers and stay on top of the constantly shifting industry landscape, FREE for seven days. [Start your trial today.]( Jobs [12 new jobs]( F.Y.I. [Finalists announced for Brian White journalism scholarship]( MOST DISCUSSED [CHE Proximity snares Ben Shepherd as chief media officer]( [Nine reverses Fairfax outsourcing to bring sub-editors back inhouse]( [MCN in the spotlight as Foxtel battles sliding revenues]( [Naked and BMF to merge]( mumbrella.com.au Sent By Focal Attractions Pty Ltd 46-48 Balfour Street, Chippendale, NSW, 2008, Australia If you would rather not receive this newsletter, you can [unsubscribe]( or [manage subscriptions here.](