Mumbrellacast

Hosted by Mumbrella

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400

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Jun 2026

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About the show

Every week the team at Mumbrella cover the latest news in the Australian media, marketing and advertising industries along with interviews with key people in the industry. Featuring a rotating panel of hosts from the Mumbrella team, this podcast is essential listening for anyone working under Australia's media and marketing umbrella.

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60 recent

June 11, 202631 min

Vinyl Group's latest land rush, radio ratings, and the problem with short-term marketing

On this week's Mumbrellacast, we dive into today's radio ratings and look at who will fill the Kyle-sized hole in the Sydney breakfast market, debate Vinyl Group's masterplan, and chat to Nicky Barton from Mutinex about why brands are cutting marketing spend to long term channels. We start with today's radio ratings, and the race to secure the Sydney breakfast radio crown now that Kyle and Jackie O are doing their broadcasts live from the Federal Court. Triple M, ABC Breakfast, Smooth, Nova, and Gold all enjoyed increases in audience share for the timeslot, with Nova's new breakfast duo Ricki-Lee Coulter and Tim Blackwell managing to net the station's best breakfast ratings in 17 years, and Christian O'Connell starting to build an audience in his newest market. Tim also shares some interesting info about the most-listened-to shows nationally, and finds that all that glitters may well be Gold. This week, Vinyl Group took over Pedestrian Group from Nine, and the licence for Time Out Australia and, according to CEO Josh Simons, did both deals for the price of a latte. It's the latest land rush for the aggressively minded media company, but does buying and bundling a bunch of once-hip, loss-making, youth-targeted media titles add up to a profitable business or are you just left with a stack of once-hip, loss-making, youth-targeted media titles? I guess we shall see. And finally, marketing effectiveness company Mutinex has released data that shows how Aussies brands are crowding into marketing channels that are already saturated, while cutting spend in those that build long-term memories, such as television, talkies, and the wireless. Mutinex head of marketing science Nicky Barton joins the Mumbrellacast to discuss the findings and to be peppered with a barrage of questions from Hal and Tim. Happy listening! Get the latest episode every Thursday. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

June 4, 202625 min

Untrustworthy brands, untrained marketers, and unrest in the out-of-home industry

On this week's Mumbrellacast, Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine joins the team to discuss a variety of topics, including her company's latest survey, which saw Optus pass Woolworths as Australia's most distrusted brand -- quite a dubious honour, indeed. There's a Paul Kelly lyric: "To be good takes a long time, but to be bad no time at all." We saw that song play out when Qantas went from an untouchable Aussie icon to a national disgrace during the pandemic, and we've seen it happen to the once-sparkling reputations of Optus, Coles, and Woolworths over the past few years, which we discuss. We also look at the continuing downturn in advertising spend in Australia through the lens of the new Guideline SMI figures, and try very hard to find a bright spot amongst all the diving lines on dot graphs. This week, a friend of Mumbrella passed along an email from Elizabeth McIntyre -- the CEO of the Outdoor Media Association, a peak body that does exactly what its name suggests -- to her own board, blasting the country's largest outdoor media operator, Ooh Media, for making some dubious claims using OMA's Move measurement data. We love a good internal fight between stakeholders, so we unpack all the drama here. And speaking of drama, this week was meant to signal the deadline for networks to make their first bids for the National Rugby League broadcasting rights, and it could go one of several different ways. Will the league's chairman Peter V'landys get the record deal he has been bleating about for several years? (Spoiler: He probably won't). Will Seven swoop in and take the two biggest footy codes? Will Nine box out Foxtel? Will Foxtel box out Nine? Will an American streaming service take a punt on a sport that calls 'punts' 'kicks'? Why are there so many songs about rainbows? We attempt to answer some of these questions. And finally, there is seemingly a lack of basic training in the marketing industry, as Mark Ritson revealed at Mumbrella360 last week. He gave marketers a simple ten-part, multiple-choice quiz -- and most professionals couldn't get a pass mark, despite the test featuring what Ritson dubbed "basic sub-undergraduate questions". Worse still, 75% of those who failed rate themselves as "above average" in their field. Gulp! Get the latest episode every Thursday. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

June 2, 202635 min

Rohan Lund's first major interview since becoming SCA chief

Rohan Lund, the newly minted CEO of SCA, joins Tim Burrowes on stage at the Mumbrella360 conference for his first major public interview since becoming boss of the media company. Lund joined the board of SCA in March, was appointed CEO in April, and officially started in his new job on May 1. Four weeks later, he jumped onto the M360 stage for a wide-ranging chat about a newly merged company in flux. Lund speaks about his first month in the role, the biggest differences between the cultures at SCA and Seven, whether he will bid for the NRL, the predictable perils of having Gina Rinehart as a new financial backer, and how he plans to build his executive team. “I don’t think the media is ready for these horizontal views," he said. "I think TV, radio, and publishing are very different businesses. They have different customer strategies and different cultures today." Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

May 28, 202625 min

Mumbrellacast: Live and sweaty at M360

This week's Mumbrellacast was recorded live at Mumbrella 360 at Carriageworks in Sydney, with a six-person panel featuring our host Abe Udy, special guest Vinne Schifferstein Vidal, and regulars Eleanor Dickinson, Nathan Jolly, Hal Crawford, and Tim Burrowes. We open with a selection of quotes from day one of the conference, with luminaries such as marketing leadership guru Thomas Barta, Ebiquity CEO Ruben Schreurs, Henry Innis and Nicky Barton from Mutinex, and Maura Touhy di Muro of Roblox speaking on redundant terminology, marketing mix modelling, artificial intelligence, leadership, and what Barta calls "the evil twins of marketing stupidity". Tim spoke with SCA's newly minted CEO Rohan Lund, who was very honest about the "duplication" and "inefficiency" in merged companies such as the one he has been running for the past 28 days. He unpacks what he learned from that conversation. Abe also runs a live demonstration of his new AI-built sales-enablement tool that turns a few quick prompts into a fully-produced radio advert, with music, and real voice-over talent from the Abe's Audio stable. It's quite remarkable, even if the live demo went slightly askew... And we drag down the celebratory mood of the conference by discussing the bleak economic conditions, and how they are impacting marketers. Sorry! Get the latest episode every Thursday. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

May 19, 202627 min

BYD's CMO on building one of Australia’s fastest-rising car brands

BYD Australia CMO Kate Hornstein joins the Mumbrellacast to discuss the brand’s rapid rise from new EV entrant to one of the country’s top-selling automotive players, and the marketing strategy behind it.

May 14, 202628 min

AI STIs, CGT, SBS MDs, and OOH's AGM

Welcome to this week's Mumbrellacast, where Abe Udy, Hal Crawford, and Nathan Jolly -- who some are calling the best power trio since Nirvana -- discuss the Federal Budget's impact on the media world, the new SBS managing director, and the job losses and bidding wars at Ooh Media. We open with the Federal Budget, easily the best 990-page document to be released so far this month. AAP is being given a cool $15m to keep the newswire ticking along, while the ABC and SBS both got their budgets increased. But it's the capital gains tax changes that have start-ups in the media and marketing space worried. Is it just post-budget panic, or will the new rules make it less attractive to start -- or continue -- a small business in Australia? Also this week, Jane Palfreyman has been named the managing director of the SBS, a job she's been doing for around nine months already, taking over from James Taylor, who is now at Ooh Media (more on him, shortly). As we discuss, the SBS has a reputation for promoting from within their ranks -- and for largely avoiding the "our tax money pays for this garbage" garbage that the ABC seems to cop every time they report something slightly impartial or show a boring re-run of The Bill. Is it time to apply more scrutiny to the SBS? As we were going into record this podcast, Ooh Media was just wrapping its annual general meeting, during which CEO James Taylor announced 82 job cuts -- around 9% of staff -- and $12m in annual savings. The shareholders seemed quite impressed with the way the company is being ran -- possibly because two recent takeover bids have seen share prices soar in the past few weeks. Taylor and co. also seem largely unconcerned about Nine's recent acquisition of outdoor media rival QMS, which seems to have appeased the shareholders somewhat. And finally, Eleanor spoke to Gavin McLeod, chief creative officer at Emotive, about the new campaign they created for Four Seasons Condoms entirely with AI. It's worth watching the ad before you start typing "AI slop" into the comments box below... Get the latest episode every Thursday. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

May 12, 202630 min

How to become a marketing catalyst, with Thomas Barta

"Once a marketer, always a marketer," declares Thomas Barta. "Marketing is about creating change and desire, and I'm still in it." Later this month, Barta is flying to Sydney from Cologne to present a keynote at Mumbrella 360 around the "catalyst" theme of the conference. He aims to provide a framework to close the gap between knowing what needs to change, and actually making change. His overriding premise is that “companies don’t create the future — people do”, and that individuals inside organisations are the ones who propel change. "If you wanna be a catalyst ... it's not about some skills you were born with and then you suddenly are that. "It's that you need to very simply learn how to do two things very well. The first thing is ignite ideas that lead to growth ... second, you also need to learn to rally an organisation. "We have a lot of people who have lots of good ideas that go nowhere. We have a lot of people who execute like hell and maybe are hitting a wall because they're in the wrong direction, and they have lots of people who do none of the above because they just tick along. "But then there are these few people who lead the company and that is the role you can take, even if you are 21-years-old, and you are starting out in this profession. "That's what we need to learn: How do you ignite and how do you rally? And if you take these two themes and you work on them a little ... your career will clearly take a positive turn." Listen to the entire podcast to learn why Barta thinks the terms 'performance marketing' and 'brand marketing' are "complete bullshit"; how marketers can treat the infux of AI in marketing as akin to choosing the red pill or the blue pill; and why Donald Trump is the best marketer he's ever seen. Mumbrella360 runs from May 26-28 at Carriageworks in Sydney. Get tickets here. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

May 7, 202632 min

High-flyer Hugh Marks, Dentsu joins the merging lane, and Kyle strikes back

Welcome to this week's Mumbrellacast, where Tim Burrowes joins us live from the Qantas lounge but swears he isn't compromised. The reason we mention this is because this week, it was revealed that ABC managing director Hugh Marks has accepted a membership to the Qantas Chairman's Lounge, one of the most exclusive clubs in the country -- and one where memberships are dealt out -- and rescinded -- by one of the biggest corporations in the country, one which has had a horror PR run since the pandemic. We discuss why this is potentially a huge problem when it comes to the perception of the national broadcaster as an independently minded news outlet, and why other media outlets aren't slamming Marks for this decision, when lesser ABC scandals seem to be beaten up. Dentsu Australia has ditched its Carat and iProspect brands and reduced its Australian operation to one brand. Why did this happen, and what does it mean in a wider sense? These aren't just rhetorical questions: we attempt to provide answers. Now onto radio (or the 'wireless' for our older listeners; don't the kids dress weird these days?). This week, Heith Mackay-Cruise stepped down as chair of Southern Cross Media. He will be replaced by Teresa Dyson, a long-time Seven West Media board member, and a portent of the shifting power dynamics in this newly merged media company. A week or two ago, Seven’s former chief operating officer Rohan Lund was named CEO and managing director, and it seems that SCA's John Kelly -- who seemed to be the frontrunner for the top job -- will remain as audio boss. Stay tuned to this end of the dial, as we turn to Kyle Sandilands' defence against ARN defence against Kyle's defence against his sacking -- we've gotten hold of Kyle's Federal Court filings this week, and it might be the only legal document in the history of the courts to feature the word "arse-licker". Kyle is somewhat throwing Jackie under the bright-pink Kiis bus, claiming she was just as offensive on-air as he was, and contributed to the tone of the show -- and that ARN's producers not only encouraged this, but actively monetised it. Finally, Trinity P3’s latest State of the Pitch report reveals that “abusive” pitching practices are becoming normalised across Australia’s advertising industry – and, according to Trinity P3’s CEO Darren Woolley, agencies share some of the blame. Over to you, Darren.... Get the latest episode every Thursday. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

May 5, 202625 min

Brian Gallagher and Tom Malone tap out of Nine Radio and into Tapt Media

On May 1, Australia's biggest talk-radio network Nine Radio shut down and in its place sprung up Tapt Media, as hoteliers the Laundy family officially took over Sydney's 2GB, Melbourne's 3AW, Brisbane's 4BC, and Perth's 6PR. Former Nine Radio -- and now Tapt Media -- CEO Tom Malone and chief commercial officer Brian Gallagher both speak with Tim Burrowes in the latest episode of Mumbrella’s Unmaker Series podcast, about what the new ownership means for the future of its talkback radio empire. "This is a hundred-year-old startup", Malone notes, "and there's a huge opportunity ahead of us." Coming from Nine, Malone says that the network "understood that the best way to run this business would be as a standalone entity", and it's clear both he and Gallagher agree with this sentiment. "Having your own bespoke sales team commercialising with a singular focus on audio — linear, streaming, podcasting — is gonna drive a better result for the business," Malone notes. He lists off short and long form video and audio, on and off-platform plays, third-party reseller agreements, and even a subscription offering as possibilities that are in the pipeline. "There's lots of different avenues that we can explore. That's really exciting for us as a business, harnessing the power of our content, but also the power of our connection between our broadcasters and our listeners." There's also a neater demographic fit between the Laundy's hotel empire and the stations' audience. "We're not playing top 40," Gallagher notes. "We're getting to core issues and we're connecting community. We're connecting them beautifully with clients as well. So it's a real opportunity. "Look, in all fairness to the power of Nine, which is the preeminent Australian media company, the ability for this business to actually maximise its revenue opportunities in that umbrella were very limited ... That's a business that trades very effectively in a 25-54 marketplace ... We deal with slightly different demos that don't make the CPM (cost per mille) cut in the analysis from time to time. "So it's a really hard thing to be competitive and achieve the right kind of market share." Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.

April 29, 202631 min

Ooh Media takeover bid and the News Bargaining Incentive

Welcome to an early edition of the Mumbrellacast, hot off the audio presses, where we dissect the recent developments in the media and marketing space -- as we do. Tim Burrowes, Hal Crawford, and Ben Willee from Spinach Advertising react to this morning's news that Pacific Equity Partners has made an offer to buy outdoor advertising company Ooh Media -- an offer worth around $750m according to the AFR. The government released its draft version of the News Bargaining Incentive yesterday, which it is hoping will sail through parliament this winter. According to Anthony Albanese, the proposed legislation will encourage “deal making between the platforms and news organisations”. But who exactly is being incentivised to do what? We know some of the smaller publishers aren't happy. In light of Henry Innis' piece on Mumbrella this week about how Australia’s coming housing crisis will impact marketers, there's also a rather downbeat conversation about the economic outlook, if bad news is your thing. Happy listening! Get the latest episode every Thursday. Podcast edit by Abe’s Audio.