Sean Cummins: "You have to call bulls**t" | Free TV slams proposed betting services ad ban | AKQA lands Down Under | Twitter to tackle online abuse | 115 new jobs

[View this email in your browser]( [Mumbrella Newsletter]( [nova-mum-600x120px]( Have you grabbed your earlybird M360 ticket yet and saved yourself $700? Named Australia’s Best Conference in 2016, [Mumbrella360]( brings together nearly 2000 of your industry peers for three days to get inspired, educated and better connected. Grab your [Mumbrella360]( earlybird ticket by April 12 and save $700. A ticket to Australia’s biggest media and marketing conference will get you access to an afternoon of formal networking, two conference days of multiple streams, masterclasses and roundtables, exhibition hall, plus many social events. Features [Sean Cummins: 'You have to call bull***t on things that don't do a good job for the art of advertising']( International office closures, local mergers, client wins and resignations and being named Mumbrella’s agency of the year – it’s been a big two years for independent full-service agency Cummins & Partners. Speaking with Zoe Samios, global CEO Sean Cummins opens up about his four offices, further international expansion, selling off his agency, digital advertising and gender diversity. The past two years for independent full-service agency Cummins & Partners has been marked with a series of highs and lows. [READ MORE »]( News [Digital giant AKQA opens doors in Australia through rebadge of DT]( AKQA, the last major digital agency network without a presence Down Under has announced that it will expand its network into Australia via a rebrand of digital agency, DT. DT was founded in Australia as DT Digital by David Trewern and is now owned by WPP. It rebranded to the simplified DT in 2012 when it was owned by STW, which was, in turn, taken over fully by WPP last year. [READ MORE »]( [swm_trade_mumbrellaedm_600x120_update-02-02-17]( News [News DNA's women’s content platform, Whimn to have New York newsroom]( News Digital Networks Australia’s female-focused content platform, With Her In Mind Network, or Whimn.com.au, is set to have a New York newsroom, pitting the operation firmly against Mia Freedman’s Mamamia and New York-based Spring Street. The site, which launches in March, will spearhead women’s content across News DNA’s network and will target three audience personas. [READ MORE »]( News [Twitter claims to tackle online abuse with beefed up technical measures to stop repeat offenders]( Twitter has reacted to growing community and advertiser concerns about the use of the social media network as a platform for harassment and abuse, introducing a series of new safety measures which it claims will stop abusers who have been permanently suspended from creating new accounts. In a series of changes to be introduced in coming weeks, Twitter has vowed to stop the creation of new abusive accounts, will introduce safer search that will hide tweets with “potentially sensitive content” from immediate view, and will collapse abusive and “low quality” replies to keep more relevant replies at the top of a conversation. [READ MORE »]( [bf-mumbrella-leaderboard-600x90px]( Opinion [2017's sexiest marketing topics]( The industry has been put on notice and if common sense prevails, viewability, bot fraud and third-party auditing are about to become a whole lot sexier, which will ultimately mean more growth for brands and advertisers, argues ThinkTV’s Kim Portrate. Ten points to Marc Pritchard for making his “not sexy” marketing topics as sexy as all hell last week. If common sense prevails, the themes of his address at IAB’s Annual Leadership meeting in Florida will actually prove to be the industry’s sexiest topics of 2017. [READ MORE »]( News [Free TV slams proposed ad ban on betting services during live sport]( Australia’s commercial TV broadcasters have slammed a move by the Australian Labor Party (ALP) to ban all advertising via betting services completely while live sport is in play. The ALP introduced an amendment to the Interactive Gambling Bill currently being read that called for a blanket ban on the promotion of betting during live sporting events on TV.  The bill was introduced last year to place restrictions to online gambling operations. [READ MORE »]( [retail_lastweek_600x90]( News [Press Council finds Courier-Mail breached rules in suicide story]( The Australian Press Council has found the Courier-Mail in Queensland to have breached rules around the reporting of suicides when it carried a story syndicated from NSW on the apparent suicide/murder involving a woman and her son. The story, published under the headline “Mother, son found dead beneath cliff at Maroubra” on March 31, 2016, reported on the death of a woman and her two-year-old son and included photographs identifying the scene, a number of quotes from family members and an apparent suicide note. [READ MORE »]( News [Pandora creates new programatic sales director role, promoting Alison Pavy]( Music streaming service Pandora has promoted Alison Pavy into a newly-created programmatic sales director role. Pavy has worked at Pandora for almost three years, starting in 2014 as a senior sales executive. Previously, she worked at Microsoft Advertising as an account executive for two years and prior to that she worked at Nine as a sales executive for two years. [READ MORE »]( [travel_conference_last_week_eb_600x90]( News [Seven dominates TV ratings due to MKR and Murder Uncovered premiere]( My Kitchen Rules has topped the ratings for the third night this week, being the only program to reach the million mark as Seven’s audience share continued to climb with the premiere of  new series, Murder Uncovered. MKR’s first elimination round resulted in WA contestants Bek and Ash as the first to leave the show, helping MKR to pull an average of 1.201m viewers, up from last week’s 1.113m viewers, according to OzTAM’s overnight preliminary metro ratings. [READ MORE »]( News [Artline invites Australian consumers to get creative in new campaign]( ACCO Brands is encouraging artists to express themselves with Artline pens as part of a back to school campaign. The campaign, created by Zoo Group Sydney, invites consumers to participate in an online competition which provides the opportunity to be featured on the brand’s advertising billboard. [READ MORE »]( [digital_school_600x90-2]( News [Carsales revenues rise on domestic and international growth]( Carsales has reported online advertising revenues rose 13% to $129.8m for the half year, with total operating revenues rising to $178.6m. However, the result was hit by issues in its financial and related services division, which reported revenue down 22% to $26.1m due to “volume shortfalls as a result of issues at a major lender in the period”. [READ MORE »]( News [Thrive acquires New Zealand PR agency East Agency]( Independent public relations company, Thrive PR, has acquired New Zealand PR firm East Agency and hired founder Lucinda Kennedy. The founder and director of East Agency Kennedy is set to join Thrive PR as head of the New Zealand office. Kennedy previously consulted to Thrive as it was starting up. [READ MORE »]( [360_earlybird_600x90]( News [HelloFresh launches first campaign to position brand in Australian market]( [hellofresh-australia-campaign]( Home-delivery food distributor HelloFresh has unveiled its first work for the Australian market, with an ad featuring everyday families and couples preparing meals together. Created by Emotive, the ad – which will run from this Sunday February 12 – features existing HelloFresh customers and a couple trying the brand for the first time. It’s the first local above the line advertising work form the German-headquartered company. [READ MORE »]( Sponsored Post Keynote speakers announced for CommsCon, ahead of earlybird tickets closing [commscon_enewsletter_header]( World’s leading communications technology thinker Faris Yakob will open [Mumbrella CommsCon](. Yakob will share his strategies for how PR and communications practitioners can gain consumers’ attention in a cluttered social media landscape and why digital is the perfect space for brands to understand their consumers. One Green Bean founder, Kat Thomas, will close the day with a presentation on the 10-year journey of the market-defining agency she founded in Sydney and has since launched in London also. Book before February 16 to [save $100 off your ticket](. Jobs [73 New Jobs]( FYI: • [Landor invites the community to help brand management with new playbook]( • [Cosmopolitan launches first pride issue]( • [AppNexus signs over 260 new publishers]( • [Sky News anchor Peta Credlin extends on-air roles]( • [Southern Cross Austereo appoints first national digital news editor]( • [AMY awards back for 2017 as call for entries opens]( • [OzTAM introduces new Live Video Player Measurement Report]( • [Agent99 PR announces Anders Sorman-Nilsson as new client]( • [IAB study reveals media agency growth in understanding audio streaming and podcasts]( MOST DISCUSSED [ADMA faces calls for boycott for Trump “support”]( [Facebook streaming numbers plummet 94% after Nielsen recalibration]( [Seven West Media board clears CEO Tim Worner of misconduct following probe]( [Foxtel threatens to sue as Facebook pirates plunder Mundine vs Green fight]( 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.]( [unsubscribe](