The cost-of-living might be grabbing the headlines but according to panellists at the latest Australian Marketing Institute (AMI) and ThinkNewsBrands Marketing Perspectives Series event, it’s uncertainty and anxiety that’s driving the way consumers behave and make decisions. The bad news is it can send consumers into echo chambers in an attempt to find connection. The good news is it can also drive us to pragmatic action and the desire for authentic, genuine engagement.
Author: admin
Maurice Blackburn flags Australian publisher class action against Google for alleged bid rigging, Meta collusion; $8bn Canadian publisher lawsuit paves way
Australian law firm Maurice Blackburn is investigating a publisher class action against Google in a strikingly similar $8 billion lawsuit already underway in Canada – led by a tiny regional community publishing boss, Lisa Sygutek, who won’t be cowed. “Find your inner warrior, sign-up, go for it,” she urges Australian media owners.Miranda Nagy, the lawyer leading the Australian class action investigation, likewise calls on publishers large and small to join the proposed action. She’s aiming to secure “best possible” retrospective compensation.Maurice Blackburn has come to the same conclusion as the US Department of Justice, various European regulators, and a dozen US state attorneys general. They allege Google manipulated and gamed publishers and brands for years with secret deals and projects – some in collusion with Meta – that actively sought to disadvantage them while entrenching Google’s market dominance – taking billions of dollars away from publishers and fleecing advertisers in the process by charging far more than was either necessary or officially disclosed.The alleged ruses include things like ‘project Bernanke’, in which Google was essentially able to “to take a bigger spread between publishers and advertisers, which means both publishers are getting less money and advertisers are paying more,” according to Adil Abdulla, the lawyer leading the Canadian legal effort through Sotos Class Actions. Then there was ‘Jedi Blue’, in which Google is accused of colluding with Facebook to kill the free market publishers and the broader ad market had tried to build through header bidding, while ensuring Facebook got an ad auction advantage in return.Jason Kint, CEO of US peak publisher body Digital Content Next, says Jedi Blue’s impacts “are still playing out” and forecasts “a bloodbath of lawsuits being filed”. He thinks the Trump administration will go just as hard with “eight to 10 different code name projects” to go after. While many US publishers, advertisers and agencies had been “captured” by Google, Kint reckons that “halo is starting to come off”. He urges marketers and the supply chain locally to likewise reject being strong-armed.For publishers, Future Media founder Ricky Sutton echoes that call: “This is the first window in 20 years where we’ve got a chance to take back some of the things that we’ve lost. What we do is too valuable to be lost to one commercial company with a 25 year run in the sunlight.”
Vale Lisa Ronson: Former Medibank, Coles, Tourism Australia CMO dies
Shock and sadness is flowing across multiple industries and from hundreds of colleagues after high-profile and widely regarded chief marketing officer, Lisa Ronson was killed in a farm accident this weekend involving an ATV (all terrain vehicle).
Bunnings seeks review of Privacy Act breach finding over facial recognition tech trial
Bunnings, the Australian household hardware chain, has been found guilty of breaching the Privacy Act by the Privacy Commissioner for its use of facial recognition technology in a trial across 63 stores nationally. The system, implemented via CCTV, captured the faces of every person who entered 63 Bunnings stores in Victoria and New South Wales between November 2018 and November 2021.
Bin it to win it: TerraCycle boss unpacks how recycling drives customer acquisition, higher footfall, bigger baskets for Walmart, BiC, Big W – trick is aligning KPIs to P&L
Fifty per cent of consumers participating in Walmart’s car seat recycling program were net new customers for the retailer. BiC’s writing instruments and Royal Canin’s pet food packaging recycling programs opened up access and engagement with hard-to-reach but critical stakeholders. That’s the kind of demonstrable customer and sales value TerraCycle CEO and founder, Tom Szaky, says more marketing teams could be capturing if they leaned into waste management and recycling as less of a regulatory sustainability activity and more of a brand and business growth opportunity.
Harvey Norman and Latitude to appeal ASIC ‘misleading conduct’ findings
Harvey Norman and Latitude Finance have been found guilty by the Federal Court for misleading consumers through an advertising campaign for a 60-month interest-free and no deposit payment method. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) expressed concern that the advertisements masked the fact that consumers were required to take out a credit card, such as the Latitude GO Mastercard, to purchase goods. The advertisements were published between January 2020 and August 2021.
Consumer spending trails inflation, younger Aussies cut back says Commbank
The latest CommBank Cost of Living Insights Report reveals that consumer spending continues to trail inflation, with a focus on value and convenience. Online marketplaces, food delivery, and streaming services are leading the charge.
Brands should prioritise social issues to resonate with Australians: study claims
The Growth Distillery, in collaboration with The Research Agency, has released a study titled ‘Needs of the Nation’. The study aims to assist marketers in unlocking growth by identifying and prioritising social issues that resonate most with Australians. The study provides actionable steps to enhance corporate social responsibility (CSR), improve brand reputation, and deliver greater impact.
Beyond retail media: GroupM makes commerce play to connect brand-trade pools, measure ads to sales growth and dump ‘dumb’ ROAS metrics
GroupM is making a major play for commerce revenues as retail media continues to rise. Ex-Amazon and IPG Mediabrands’ Cadreon boss, Marc Lomas, is spearheading the play – along with former Goodman Fielder marketer Leah Jackson, who in her previous gig played a key role in handing trade marketing budgets as well as media to Initiative. Now at GroupM Commerce, the duo will be aiming to convince more brands to take a similar approach. But that requires proving incrementality – i.e. that media investments are leading to new sales and hard growth outcomes and linking measurement across all digital channels directly to the in-store shop floor. No mean feat, but Lomas, Jackson and Mindshare CEO Maria Grivas say they can do it. First port of call? Busting measurement mind-sets away from “dumb” ROAS metrics, per Lomas. Then convincing more brands that an integrated operating model that aligns sales, marketing, brand, ecom and retail media should no longer be an outlier.
Suncorp consolidates all creative, production with Publicis-Leo Burnett, WPP’s Ogilvy and Hogarth out – AI, efficiencies high priority
Suncorp’s CMO Mim Haysom confirmed the now insurance pureplay had consolidated its nine insurance brands with Publicis-owned Leo Burnett after a sweeping review of its creative and production partners in a strategic overhaul following the sale of Suncorp Bank to ANZ.