Add more content here...

CBA profits down 2%, says it’s bolstering customer support amid economic slowdown

CBA’s annual cash net profit after tax for the 2024 financial year was $9.8 billion, down 2% on the previous year and 3% less on the first half of FY24. The fall in profits was attributed to lower lending and deposit margins, increased business competition, and inflationary pressures on operating expenses, partly offset by volume growth and lower loan impairment expenses.

Published
Categorized as News

ACCC accepts TPG’s undertaking in Google search services probe

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has accepted a court-enforceable undertaking from TPG Telecom as part of its ongoing investigation into Google’s search services in Australia. This move follows similar undertakings accepted from Telstra and Optus.

Published
Categorized as News

UM secures renewed Master Media Agency role for Australian Government

Universal McCann (UM) has been confirmed as the winner of the Australian Government’s Master Media Agency following a competitive tender process. It continues UM’s tenure as the government’s media agency of record since 2018, with the agency having successfully defended the account in 2021. 

Published
Categorized as News

Temple & Webster bucks soft market and reports 26% lift in revenues; flags marketing and AI investments as key to growth

Online retailer Temple & Webster says it’s getting closer to realising its $1bn sales ambitions target after bucking the 4% dip in market conditions and chalking up record FY24 revenues of $498 million, up 26% year-on-year.The ASX-listed retailer said growth was driven by an all-time high in active customers, up 31% to 1.1 million, with repeat customers now making up 57% of all orders (874,000). The higher frequency spending was countered by a decline in revenue per active customer of about 3% to $461.

Published
Categorized as News

7-Eleven launches new mobil fuel range with high-octane campaign

7-Eleven has rolled out a new range of Mobil fuels across its stores in Australia, promising to enhance engine performance. The launch is accompanied by a high-energy campaign created by creative agency CHEP Network, featuring a video directed by Jeff Low from Revolver Films.

Published
Categorized as News

Performance marketing: Cupra power trio plot 7-second burn through auto market, back distinctiveness to skew younger, hit early speed humps

It’s had to revise projected unit sales figures down from 7,000 annually because of the economic climate, Australia’s competitive, nuanced automotive market and changing EV regulations, and it’s faced early challenges with product reliability globally and a digital sales process locally. But the team behind Volkswagen-owned Cupra are sticking to their ambitions of becoming a design and performance-led brand either loved or hated by consumers – never just liked. Cupra’s global brand chief, Ignacio Prieto, EVP of sales, marketing and aftersales, Sven Schuwirth, and Australian director, Ben Wilks, share the inspiration and story behind the latest car brand on the Australian block, how they’re balancing brand distinctiveness and design with local flavour, commercial setbacks thus far and the tribal community and performance play they’re executing to win over a nuanced set of younger-than-average car buyers who still enjoy driving, not being driven.

Published
Categorized as Articles

Sir Martin Sorrell on the $9bn valuation wipeout of his new world holdco S4Capital – and why Publicis, Omnicom, Havas are ‘premier league’ players – Dentsu, WPP, IPG ‘second division’

Part One: It’s been three years since Sir Martin Sorrell was last on the Mi3 podcast – he declared then a mea culpa of sorts: he didn’t, and couldn’t, transform WPP, the giant marketing services holding company he founded in the 1980s, fast enough because it was listed, hampering transformational efforts that would likely spook the investment community. At the time in 2021, Sorrell’s next generation digital holding company, S4Capital, was firing with a market cap of circa £5 billion (AUD$9.6bn), just three years after a street fight with WPP’s board saw him exit and build WPP 2.0. He was bleak on the future of his old British firm, along with WPP’s French and US-based global holding company rivals. But since then S4Capital’s market cap has plunged more than 90 per cent to £300 million (AUD $582m) as the tech sector, representing 45-50 per cent of S4’s £1bn in revenues, slashed their own marketing budgets globally. But there’s more to it – another mea culpa even – and more of Sorrell’s scorecard on his big holding company competitors along with Accenture Song’s dive into media, a move peculiar to Australia, he argues.  

Published
Categorized as Articles

Sir Martin Sorrell on the $9bn valuation wipeout of his new-world holdco S4Capital – and why Publicis, Omnicom, Havas are ‘premier league’ players; Dentsu, WPP, IPG in ‘second division’

Part One: It’s been three years since Sir Martin Sorrell was last on the Mi3 podcast – he declared then a mea culpa of sorts that he didn’t – and couldn’t – transform WPP, the giant marketing services holding company he founded in the 1970s, fast enough because it was listed. At the time (2021), Sir Martin’s next generation digital holding company, S4Capital, was firing with a market cap of circa £5 billion (AUD $9.6bn), just three years after a street fight with WPP’s board saw him exit and start the new business. He was bleak on the future of his old British firm at the time along with WPP’s French and US-based global holding company rivals. But since then S4Capital’s market cap has plunged more than 90 per cent to £300 million (AUD $582m) as the tech sector, representing upwards of 45 per cent of S4’s revenues, slashed their own marketing budgets globally. But there’s more to it – the basics actually, like pricing S4Capital’s business services appropriately to clients. Sir Martin almost acknowledges some rookie errors at S4 in managing the business, which operates as .Monks today globally in-market across technology and content. Aside from his typically robust macro views, Sir Martin also appears to have developed a new and begrudging respect in building S4Capital for businesses that can break down business silos – and lashings of enthusiasm to hire people “who are sharers”, he says. “If ever I was to write a book, which I will never do, about our business, clients and agencies, I would say the biggest impediment is the political structure, or the structure of the companies – they are organised basically into silos,” he told Mi3 last week during a visit to Australia. “Good people tend to put their arms around things. There are exceptional people who are good, who are sharers. Those are the jewels…find good people who are good by definition, but also who share, and we do have them inside our company, but to be frank there are not as many as there should be.” 

Published
Categorized as Podcasts

‘It’s the only way I learnt to add value at the ABC (and made people want to talk to a marketer)’: Audience and marketing chief Leisa Bacon on proving naysayers wrong – and what’s next

When Leisa Bacon came into the ABC a decade ago to unify audiences and marketing teams under one umbrella, she faced a chorus of detractors saying it wouldn’t work. Fast forward 10 years and the model has not only been sustained, it’s enabled Australia’s public broadcaster to celebrate becoming number one for digital news (12.6m over News’ 12.4m in June 2024), FTA BVOD (OzTam data), plus broadcast TV reach (35.6 per cent weekly). Ipsos 2023 figures showed nearly eight in 10 consumers trust in the ABC. While the first to admit she’s not had to weather the brutal commercial pressures of her media peers, Bacon has had to cope with the same fragmentation of media channels and audiences, and find a way to not only unify the ABC’s audience and brand approach, but increasingly prove the efficiency of her marketing efforts. How? By talking about audience growth, not marketing. Which has precise parallels with the ongoing customer-marketing consolidation in the commercial world.

Published
Categorized as Articles

‘Intensely worried’: Australia’s squeezed middle ditches eating out, entertainment to ride out cost of living crunch – but AMP and NAB chief economists warn on job cuts

Chief economists at NAB and AMP have flagged Australia’s low unemployment rate as critical to current consumer confidence while low economic growth hovers above recessionary levels. The threat of incoming job cuts have them worried – and their data suggests those betting on tax cuts to refuel spending may be taking a big risk. 

Published
Categorized as Articles