Best of the Week: (Worst of the Week)

[View web version]( BEST OF THE WEEK [Cooperate]( And another thing... Welcome to Best of the Week, written the day after we wrapped up our ninth Mumbrella360. So it seemed a dead cert that my main topic of the week would emerge from Floor Two, Three or Four of The Hilton in Sydney. Indeed, I even thought I spotted a theme. I was going to talk about the importance of data in making your case around the big issues in media and marketing. Not that original a thought, perhaps. But there was a rreason. Data underpinned two of the best sessions of the week. Mat Baxter, global CEO of media agency Initiative offered up an absolute trove of data to back his case the [brands are increasingly abusing the pitch process](. He was able to demonstrate that pitches are taking longer, going through more stages, and costing more in staff head hours and travel. And at the same time, he demonstrated trends that show that clients are demanding ever lower rates. He also flagged the increasingly long payment terms that some brands now demand. Effectively some expect media agencies to bankroll their campaigns for four months or more. Without referring to it specifically, Baxter alluded to the current (disgraceful) Kellogg’s media pitch in Australia. It’s an open secret in the agency world that IPG and Omnicom have both told the company to shove it, based on the terms it is demanding from its so-called partners. Whether incumbent WPP, Dentsu Aegis or Publicis have the same level of self respect will remain to be seen. Normally announcing a win is seen as something to celebrate, but whoever picks this one up will need to work hard to convince the world they’re not simply desperate. But that can wait until another week, because, as I say, something more significant happened. And it’s also a shame, because I could also have written at length about Mark Ritson’s excellent presentation in which he unveiled Melbourne Business School research into what united effectiveness awards winners. His data offered convincing evidence that brave campaigns do better than safe campaigns. (Indeed, [Ritson also interviewed Heart Foundation’s Chris Taylor on stage](. There aren’t many braver marketers at the moment, but Taylor is one of them.) In any other week, it would have been worth spending more time here, examining Ritson’s findings on the links between success and long term brand building, along with the case for collaborating with multiple partners and the case for using multiple channels. Suffice to say, the data was impressive. And there was another session that got me thinking about the role and importance of data in the media ecosystem. During [our live Mumbrellacast recording on the Naked Communications legacy](, Mat Baxter pointed out the biggest barrier to a Naked 2.0. Now, it wouldn’t be enough for a small group of mavericks with an adversarial attitude and disruptive ambitions, to come together. They’d need to be bankrolled to cover the huge costs of being able to back their point of view with data capabilities. Again, well worth unpacking. But not this week. Instead, only one topic should matter to anybody in our world: The AFP raids. The week started badly, with[the Australian Federal Police’s raid on the home of Sunday Telegraph political editor, Annika Smethurst](. Even non-fans of News Corp would have to acknowledge that the story that triggered the raid was one in the public interest - revealing undisclosed plans by the Government to spy on its own citizens. And then [they raided the ABC](, chasing information about sources for a completely different story. This time it was public interest journalism regarding unlawful killings by Australian special forces in Afghanistan. I can’t spell it out any better than the many commentators who have discussed it this week. And credit certainly goes to the ABC’s head of investigative reporting John Lyons, who live tweeted the whole thing and gave the cops the sort of exposure they would have hated. The raids - designed to deter whistleblowers from sharing information on matters that deserve to be on the public domain - are completely shocking. I hope they also prove to be counterproductive. If media companies can remain united in their anger at what has happened, they may just be able to pressure politicians into creating some better safeguards for public interest journalism Anyone who cares about journalism in a democracy should be angry. So, I’m not going to bang on for 3,000 words about media and marketing this week. Instead, let me leave you with the words of Barrie Cassidy, who presents his last episode of Insiders this Sunday: “After 18 years, I finish up on Insiders this Sunday. And who would have thought that the topic in my last week, in 2019, would be freedom of the press - a freedom quite frankly facing its most serious challenge in decades. “This is not alarmist language. It’s not hyperbole. It’s a real and present danger. “Not for nothing did the New York Times this week post the question: ‘Is Australia the world’s most secretive democracy?’ “The AFP says this was just a standard operation, so why all the suspicion? “First, the raids happened 15 months after one of the stories broke, three weeks after the election and on consecutive days. “But more to the point it was pointed out to the acting Commissioner that the whistleblower David McBride had admitted he gave the documents to the ABC and he had already been committed to stand trial, so why the need for a raid? “He said ‘Just because someone says they did something doesn’t mean they actually did it.’ “So there you have it, a highly visible raid to prove that somebody who has admitted to a crime actually did it. That’s why it smacks of politics. It looks like a big show put on simply to deter whistleblowers and investigative journalists. ‘The ABC story was clearly in the national interest - national security was not the issue. “This has to be rectified, otherwise Australia could drift dangerousbly close to a police state. “A troubling note to go out on. But it’s that important.” It is. It matters more than data-driven marketing strategy. And it’s going to be a helluva last episode of Insiders tomorrow morning. I’ll be watching. And, as I usually do after Mumbrella360, I’ll be taking a few days’ break. Beautiful, rainy Sisters Beach in Tasmania beckons. I can’t wait. Enjoy the long weekend. Toodlepip... Tim Burrowes Content director - Mumbrella [Cooperate]( Mumbrella | 46-48 Balfour Street Chippendale NSW 2008 Australia This email was sent to {EMAIL}. If you would rather not receive Mumbrella's Best of the Week email you can [unsubscribe]( or [manage subscriptions](. [Facebook]( [LinkedIn]( [Twitter](