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Associate Professor Felipe Thomaz, of University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, suggests Professor Byron Sharp’s best known book, How Brands Grow, is a misnomer – it’s actually about how big brands keep big marketshare, not how they got there. He also says it’s based on flaws within Andrew Ehrenberg’s earlier work, primarily static markets and a requirement not to differentiate. Thomaz suggests that’s why FMCG firms adhering to those rules were caught napping by more nimble differentiated start-ups. Optimising media for reach alone no longer works, he suggests, because all reach is not equal – and used bluntly won’t deliver business outcomes. “There is a missing dimension,” per Thomaz. He’s out to prove it with a peer-reviewed paper that analyses 1,000 campaigns and a million customer journeys via Kantar and Wavemaker. The upshot? “None of it holds … I’m seeing that 1 per cent of campaigns are actually getting exceptional money, while the vast majority are choosing to get some really mediocre outcomes.” But there’s potential upside for marketers, media agencies – and media owners – that grasp the category-specific implications.

Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind was “surprised” – read underwhelmed – by the first tranche of Privacy Act legislation laid before parliament last month. But she says the hard stuff is still coming after the election, which means businesses now diverting budgets away from compliance to other activities may regret it, especially as the regulator has sharper teeth. Kind says firms are failing under the current Privacy Act – and they are in the regulator’s crosshairs. Tracking pixels are under serious scrutiny across the piste, as are companies using data beyond what it was collected for and potentially passing it to third parties. In that vein, Kind has “existing concerns” about loyalty programs, customer data enrichment businesses and data broking: “It’s something I’d like to look at again under the current framework,” she says, suggesting those operators “make sure that they’re watertight”. Likewise firms targeting via geolocation: “We’re looking at a case at the moment … We have some real concerns about how it’s being used.”

News Corp-controlled REA Group is reaping the benefits of a long-term CX investment strategy, with some key metrics powering by an order of magnitude. The firm was the first to combine Tealium’s CDP and Braze’s customer engagement platform – and the likes of Kmart have since followed. As well as soaring conversions and clickthroughs – and the Holy Grail of personalisation at scale – Audience and Marketing GM Sarah Myers says the stack now driving earned media she estimates is worth circa $10m a year.