Kalila Welch

Marketing mix modelling has given advertisers direct visibility over how media spend impacts business outcomes, so does it have a bigger role to play at the negotiating table? Mutinex's recently joined APAC chief Mat Baxter suggests as much but buyers aren't sold on the pitch. For now, they say that while MMM has a big role to play in the media planning process, audience is the best currency available to trade on. And for IPG Mediabrand's Mark Coad, too much emphasis on the outcomes could see advertisers and agencies paying more if media owners know how effective their inventory is for certain clients. Meanwhile, Baxter poses that the annual rate and marketshare deals struck by media buying groups with media on behalf of their pooled advertiser budgets up to a year out could be stifling MMM by preventing advertisers from shifting budgets based on channel performance. Still, UM's Anathea Ruys says it's not so binary. She argues that the deals "unlock so much more than price", and that there are "ways of being flexible" if ROI isn't up to scratch.

Havas is out to close the loop on end-to-end, and it's ramping up its M&A strategy to get there. The French Holdco has racked up 60 acquisitions in the last 12 months, with Melbourne's Hotglue being the latest. The creative production and media hotshop will merge with Havas Media Melbourne, and in doing so will double the group's presence in the market. It's a play for scale on both sides of the deal, but it was Hotglue's integrated capabilities that really caught the eye of Havas Media boss Virginia Hyland. She says the integrated model is here to stay, with stretched marketers seeking an agency that can do it all under the one roof. And now, she's looking to build on that with the agency's next acquisition.

More than 12 months after the publication of the Murphy report, the Albanese Government faces mounting pressure from all sides of politics to hand down a blanket ban on gambling advertising. A total ban could slash up to $300 million in annual advertising revenue from Australian media owners, with TV having the most to lose – already the anticipation of a crackdown on gambling ads in the wake of the Murphy report has seen $40 million dollars leak from Nine and Seven alone. While NDAs have kept official commentary to a minimum, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has spent the last week meeting with stakeholders to share the Fed's proposed reforms. So far, it seems a comprehensive ban won't be on the cards. with indications Government is willing to provide concessions to Australia's already struggling free-to-air broadcasters in a time of "diabolical trouble" per Labor frontbencher Bill Shorten. Yet it seems that no one is happy with what's on the table so far.

Artificially constructed Australian YouTube viewers, known as synthetic audiences, have provided the breakthrough for YouTube to finally subject itself to an independent research currency, joining OzTAM's VPM data for BVOD in the digital audience currency run by the IAB and Ipsos. Although still based on log level data supplied by YouTube across its self-selected top 100 viewed channels, Australia is the first market outside the US where the video giant is muscling up against broadcaster digital audiences and potentially other streaming services for a single view on connected TV viewing. Ipsos also flagged its interest in cross-media measurement, a long-held ambition of advertisers globally who see efficiency gains by eradicating duplicated reach and frequency of audiences across different publishers and channels. Emerging measurement players like Adgile and Beatgrid are gaining momentum here via their cross-media measurement capabilities - Beatgrid, for instance, has been working with the likes of UM and Kmart and Virgin and PHD to develop custom cross-media measurement reporting with a methodology that captures viewing data on the walled gardens and platforms independent of their self-reported figures.

Dentsu has slashed another 50 roles at Merkle. There's now been around 100 roles made redundant from the CX unit since April. Merkle's new boss Kim Douglas – a month into the job – said clients are mothballing big projects and scrambling for short-term wins. Hence cutting roles the firm claims had some duplication following the holdco's previous acquisition spree, taking in the likes of WiTH Collective, Accordant, Divanti, Aware Services, and Amicus Digital. Some speculate the move is indicative of a broader strategic shift, doubling down on the firm's end-to-end digital heritage and pulling back from what was seen as skew towards systems integrator services. But beyond the short-term squeeze, Douglas said the focus remains on building Merkle's positioning as "

Co-founder of The Monkeys and current lead of Accenture Song ANZ after its $63m acquisition of the creative agency, Mark Green, is heading to New York to run Droga5, Accenture Song's global creative brand founded by Green's former colleague at Saatchi & Saatchi, David Droga. Today's announcement of Green's move coincides with The Monkey's brand being mothballed for the global creative unit, Droga5, and comes days before Green's hire of top Initiative media execs start at Accenture Song to build a media buying and planning operation.

Nine and Seven have bucked linear TV audience declines with a glimmer of growth. Yet TV ad revenue keeps falling. Analysts suggest the money eventually follows the eyeballs, but networks have to manage that lag and hold audiences while market sentiment catches up. In the meantime "visibility remains short", per MST Marquee analyst Fraser McLeish. While BVOD's trajectory has slowed, " I think it's got pretty strong growth still ahead – and you should be able to see it offset linear declines reasonably soon." He thinks the bump for linear TV audiences might be short-lived. But "a s long as you get linear audiences declining more in the single digits, as BVOD audience continues to grow in the double digits, you can start to get to a point where you're stable.” Network bosses are predicting a less bumpy second half.

Out of home firm oOh!media is hoping to scoop up mid and smaller sized retailers and sell their media assets on network and off, as well as set up in-store screen networks. Now it just needs a local client to land amid heightening competition. Maybe one or two will land before Christmas. Either way, marketing-content-creative lead Neil Ackland is confident it can deliver brand to demand for marketers while “turbo charging” its own core business.

Paramount has landed the first of the TV network's 2025 upfronts pitches, slinging a first in market unified total TV trading platform that promises to target and deliver audiences across BVOD, SVOD, AVOD, and FAST assets in a single play by early 2025 – with linear following mid year. Paramount Connect plays into TV's convergence and coming tipping point, with buyers long itching at the friction of siloed transactions, per sales chief Rod Prosser. The new set-up will provide buyers with a "compelling blended CPM" that Prosser reckons will offer a more tempting entry point into premium Paramount+ inventory. That ad tier inventory is currently limited but, he claimed, is climbing in line with its broader streaming subscriptions, estimated by Telsyte to be up 18 per cent in the 12 months to June – the fastest growth in market. Elsewhere, the network has caught up to the competition on shoppable CTV, and Big Brother returns.

Mamamia wants to bust out of its media for mums silo and it's put together an "Avengers" style squad of big name media recruits to make it happen. Former Seven national sales chief Natalie Harvey is at the helm with ex-IAG marketer Zara Curtis and Carat's Danni Wright now in the fold and Harvey's one-time Seven Network comrade Georgie Nichols clocking-in next month. Harvey says the number one job is for the team to drive awareness of Mamamia's jam-packed offering. Luckily, that's just what upfronts are for. Taking the stage to address Sydney-based marketers and buyers, the new recruits pitched four new content verticals, a vodcast format, and an expanded first party data play that Wright reckons will give Roy Morgan a run for its money while handing Mamamia's "secret sauce" to clients via a propriety content planning tool.