By James Manning

The discussion was set against the backdrop of good times for the sector. Radio ad revenue was up 3.4% YOY to $809m in 2018 because audiences have been growing – up 12% over the past five years and by 22% over the past decade.

Our guest panel was Ben Fordham (2GB drive), Philippa Noilea Tani (Wavemaker’s Sydney trading director) and Brian Gallagher (Chief sales officer, Southern Cross Austereo).

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Things got off to a nervous start when Fordham asked SCA’s chief sales officer why people would possibly advertise on his FM stations when they could be advertising on 2GB.

“They could advertise on both Ben, if they are really smart,” said Gallagher, being very diplomatic.

Stuck in the middle was Noilea Tani who asked both the media veterans to “play nice”!

Mediaweek also took the opportunity to ask Fordham if he had any update about contract negotiations underway at the station.

“It may not surprise you James, but I am not privy to any of those negotiations [between Alan Jones and management].”

Fordham added he’d love to be able to eavesdrop while the contract talks are underway. He also noted he hoped 2GB contributor Andrew Bolt might continue with the broadcaster after contract talks. As to his own future: “I’m not going anywhere, I am locked in for the next four years.”

We also asked Fordham about his decision, several years ago now, to step back from TV to focus on his radio career.

“Radio has always been my thing and I started in radio when I was 15 as a work experience kid on Alan Jones’ show. I hope TV will always be there in some way, shape or form, but my base is always radio. I love radio, I get the most enjoyment out of it and I find it the most rewarding thing I do.”

The 2GB host loves live reads

One of the big revenue earners at 2GB and other stations around Australia, is live reads. Fordham immediately warmed to the subject.

“There was a day last week when I only has seven and I texted sales to asks what was happening. I am much more comfortable when we have about 20 because that says to me the money is coming through the door.”

He added: “We put a lot of effort into the live reads and we put a lot of creativity into it as well to ensure they are as good as they can be to capture people’s attention.”

Fordham also explained the instant feedback advertisers can get. “If I read the ad at 4.45pm and the phone starts ringing at 4.46pm then they know I have done my job.”

Later in the podcast he detailed the live reads he was doing that day.

Gallagher said that live reads are also important to FM radio, “they are a major part of the way we go to market. Some advertisers are more comfortable with a live read and require them more often. Some of the big brand advertisers are fairly focused on their 30-second commercial module so they can run it ubiquitously across all the stations.

“We work closely with a lot of advertisers on their live reads not only for cap city stations, but right across our regional feeds as well. We run hundreds of live reads a day.”

Noilea Tani said what you recommend to a client comes down to what you are trying to achieve with radio. “Some big brands have well-established products and established messages and it is just about frequency of messages. You might have other brands that have credibility challenges or trust issues and for us that is where live reads are so much more powerful.

“You can also tell much deeper stories when it comes to live reads.”

As to how many times an ad needs to be played to get the message across, Noilea Tani said: “It is a balancing act. We have some clients where we identify that frequency is exactly what they need. But we never want to get to the stage where we are that annoying ad.”

Fordham asked the Sydney trading director if ads get a better reaction when run on FM radio.

“I have to be careful what I say here. [Laughs]”

He tried again: “Do they get a better bang for their buck out of the AM?”

Noilea Tani: “It comes down to targeting. There is a good place for 2GB on a lot of our recommendations and we have an annual commitment to 2GB and Macquarie Radio.” She also added the agency spends with the FM networks: “They are all our friends.”

Election time: Opportunities and challenges

Gallagher said he expected political parties would soon start ramping up their radio spend on ads prior to the federal election. He said there had been some recent significant activity ahead of the NSW vote this week.

He said the parties recognise the real advantage radio has: “We are very connected to our communities. The #1 attraction to radio is the level of trust.”

As to brands avoiding the noise around and election, Noilea Tani said there was no hard and fast recommendation for clients. “You can get a lot of clutter around elections or other major events like football finals and Olympics. Some advertisers tend to go live before the event or go live after it. For other advertisers who are always on, they don’t change their approach. They remain advertising 52 weeks a year.”

She said because the ad market is so short term at present there hasn’t been too much disruption so far.

When asked about the size of radio audiences around major events, Gallagher said: “I don’t think there is a massive shift in consumer behaviour around the way people choose to listen to their favourite radio stations.” He said they are able to track listening patterns in real time by looking at the consumer traffic for the SCA digital signals via listening on its apps.

Fordham noted some brands hold back a little with concerns consumers are careful to lock in major investments around the time of an election.

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Top Photo: Ben Fordham with James Manning, Philippa Noilea Tani and Brian Gallagher

Here the publisher details its 24 media and marketing initiatives across data, audio, video and commercial partnerships:

The event, held in a custom built airport lounge in Sydney, guided guests through five immersive customer journeys to showcase how News Corp engages more Australians and connects its clients with more of their customers. The journeys highlighted innovation across key categories of food, sport, travel, prestige and local communities, each designed to demonstrate News Corp’s strengths as an innovative media and marketing services company.

News Corp Australia journey storytellers at Come Together 2019

The series of immersive journeys were titled Food is Life, Sportopia, Escapism, The Art of Influence and Love Where They Live and featured content experiences created by News’ own digital content marketing agency, Suddenly.

Speaking at the first in a series of eight Come Together sessions this week, Michael Miller, News Corp executive chairman, said: “We are taking clients on a journey of exploration to show the new products we have created to deliver more effective campaign results. By combining the smarts of data and technology, with the creativity of our trusted content, we are showing clients how they can work with us and our engaged audiences, to deliver better outcomes for their brands.”

Damian Eales, chief operating officer, publishing, gave guests an outline of the initiatives as he described the value of understanding not only consumers’ needs and wants, but how to intersect with them on every layer of their customer journey.

Damian Eales, Lou Barrett, Michael Miller at Come Together 2019

“Come Together is our biggest showcase yet,” he said. “Our suite of initiatives, combined with the breadth and depth of our media and marketing capabilities demonstrate we are so much more than media. We deliver a coherent and integrated ecosystem of assets and solutions that create trust, confidence and generates demand for brands.”

As part of the 24 initiatives, News Corp announced greater sales collaboration with MCN.

Lou Barrett, managing director national sales, said Newsamp, the company’s integrated client solutions capability, will now partner with MCN to trial the inclusion of Foxtel, Fox Sports and Sky News to deliver an all-of-business solution.

“With dedicated specialists embedded in Newsamp’s offering, clients will now receive the most highly integrated and creative multimedia campaigns,” Barrett said.

A selection of major initiatives launched at Come Together 2019 include:

• UnrulyEQ+: A new data-powered tool, offering unparalleled levels of consumer insights, which combines the depth of proprietary emotional data from video platform Unruly, and the breadth of audience targeting platform, News Connect.
• NewsCast: a portfolio of new podcast series’ each with commercial partnership opportunities. The podcasts will be devoted to sport, travel, food, fashion and true crime, produced, marketed and distributed by talent drawn from News Corp’s diverse businesses.
• Code Block: In sport, for the first time, an opportunity to secure category exclusivity across News Corp Publishing for its coverage of a chosen sports code including AFL, NRL, cricket, motorsport and racing. Clients can block News Corp’s coverage of a season or one of the many big sporting events.
• Vogue VIP: As part of Vogue’s Diamond Year celebrations, it will launch a market-first membership program offering subscribers access to exclusive benefits, experiences, offers and content.
• News Connect: An expanded catalogue of News Connect customers, incorporating the key categories of food (Food Connect), travel (Escape Connect), sport (Fan Connect), communities (Local Connect) and prestige (Prestige Connect).
• News Connect SelfServe: a new self-serve targeted digital booking capability for clients.
• The Escape Marketplace: A new product that will allow consumers to move from inspiration to transaction with travel products on escape.com.au.
• Escape-a-thon: An online travel sale in June 2019 – a massive three-day flash sale of exclusive travel deals, marketed across the entire News Corp network.
• Digital Kitchen: One supercharged digital platform with the most powerful digital food brands – Taste, Delicious, Best Recipes and Kidspot Kitchen – offering category exclusive partnerships and integration of consumer brands.
• Recipe Rebrand: The opportunity for clients to block out the competition by inserting their brands in up to 100,000 recipes across the entire Food network.
• Trusted By… a powerful new short-form video offering from Suddenly Productions which leverages the trust in News Corp’s brands to endorse clients’ brands.

In addition, two new strategic partnerships for News Connect were announced. Skyscanner – one of the world’s largest travel search companies and Near – one of the world’s most sophisticated geo-targeting companies, which together will enhance the quality of customer segmentation and targeting.

Expecting to attract more than 1,000 senior industry executives in Sydney and Melbourne, Come Together runs until Thursday 21 March in Sydney and from 26 – 28 March in Melbourne.

Come Together 2019 is led by News Corp Australia’s Trade Marketing team and the event series is being managed by Rizer, the world’s largest boutique events agency.

Three Gold 104.3 The Christian O’Connell Breakfast Show TVCs officially launched on Sunday, March 17 and complement a new burst of outdoor and ongoing digital and social.

Featuring the new campaign position “Be Part of Something Special”, the TVCs bring to life the variety of reasons listeners love The Christian O’Connell Breakfast Show, while showcasing the warmth, wit and sense of humour O’Connell is known for.

Also officially launched on Sunday, the 97.3FM Bianca, Mike & Bob Breakfast Show TVC is the first for Bianca, Mike & Bob and captures the energy and fun of the breakfast show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSmoNyQhPng&feature=youtu.be

ARN’s chief marketing officer Anthony Xydis said: “Both the Gold 104.3 and 97.3 campaigns capture the essence of each breakfast show and reflect the unique proposition each bring to their respective markets.

“The Gold 104.3 TVCs showcases the connection and sense of community Christian has built with his loyal audience, and is a key component of our broader marketing strategy for the brand.

“In Brisbane, the campaign showcases the sense of fun, celebrity guests and dynamic energy of both 97.3 and the Bianca, Mike & Bob Breakfast Show.”

By Trent Thomas

Originally hailing from Queensland, she started her career on the Sunshine Coast with Seven Local News, before stints with Sky News and Channel Nine where she first made her name with League fans as part of Wide World of Sports (WWOS).

While with the Nine WWOS team, Sampson was able to cover sport with Nine News Sydney, hosting Nine’s Friday Night Football and she was a regular sideline commentator on Nine’s rugby league coverage. This lead to her hosting her first NRL Finals coverage in 2015, The Sunday Footy Show, and being the first female to host State of Origin coverage.

Despite this experience, Sampson claims to still get nervous every time she goes on camera and remains an openly bias Queenslander who unabashedly tips the Brisbane Broncos and the Maroons to take home their respective silverware this year.

Despite her success at Nine where she was part of a diversified team of sports broadcasters, Sampson moved to greener pastures when she joined Fox League. Although she said she has nothing but good memories from her time at Nine and still stays in touch with colleagues. She is married to a former Nine colleague Chris O’Keefe.

“I had wonderful friends at Channel Nine and still remain friends to this day,” she told Mediaweek. “Then coming across to Fox it just broadened our friendship group. We are a pretty tight knit crew, there is a lot of energy, a lot of shenanigans, but we all adore working together, and we have very good chemistry and are very positive about the game.”

One of the key successes of Sampson’s work to date has been spearheading League Life, Australia’s first all-female weekly sports panel show with Lara Pitt, Jess Yates and Hannah Hollis. The 30-minute show tackles topical discussion and debates the key issues facing the game as the women offer their unique views and perspectives. Sampson says that she feels lucky to be able to work on the program.

“We are very lucky at League Life to work with smart sophisticated women who love Rugby League, and there is certainly plenty for us to talk about in terms of the game and where we are heading.”

Sampson says that one of the keys to performing your best in such a competitive field is preparation.

“My prep on a game day would begin around 9am, I read everything I can, I read the papers, I read online, then I make a few calls, see who is around the clubs and see if there is anything that we’ve missed.

“Then I’ll start writing the run down, so usually my prep takes three or four hours.

“People believe we have it all written down in front of us, or on auto cue or someone speaking into our ear, it’s none of that…we actually have to do the work.

“I’m genuinely interested and out of respect to the legends, the champions, the premiership winners and the immortals, out of respect to them we want to have the best discussions, so I have to be on my game if I want to keep up.”

When quizzed by Mediaweek about what other content on Fox League she is looking forward to this year she nominates the boys on Thursday nights.

“From what I’ve heard Matty Johns, Nathan Hindmarsh and Bryan Fletcher have been outrageous, so that will be something that has everyone talking.”

You can catch Sampson on the NRL 2019 cover on Fox League and Wednesday nights at 7.30pm for League Life.

In the eight-part series, the former MasterChef Australia star cooks her way through some of the oldest and most glorious natural landscapes on the planet. She learns the art of camp cooking over coals in Katherine, cooks for park rangers in Kakadu National Park and prepares delicious desert over a campfire in Alice Springs. From bush tucker to modern gourmet delights, Schofield catches up with locals to find out what’s on the menu in the north.

Justine Schofield said: “Northern Territory is one of my most favourite parts of Australia and I love revisiting. This time it was special as I also got to film Outback Gourmet. The Australian outback is full of natural wonders and an amazingly rich culture. I was excited to cook with the locals against the extraordinarily beautiful landscapes. I hope the audiences enjoy watching the series as much as we did while filming it.”

Schofield starts her outback journey in Kakadu discovering the ancient, natural wonders of this unique wilderness, then heads to Katherine where the outback meets the tropics and visits Darwin where she unveils some unique South Asian delights before finishing her trip in Alice Springs.

The series is produced by hsquared for SBS Food. Schofield has previously hosted Justine’s Flavours Of Fuji for SBS Food and she is the host of eight series of Everyday Gourmet for Network 10.

Elle welcomes Hannah James to the role of features director, following her stint as the acting features director across Harper’s Bazaar and Elle. Before joining Bauer Media, James spent two years freelance writing and editing for a number of lifestyle and travel publications, and prior to this held the features director position at News Corp’s Stellar magazine.

Elle editor Genevra Leek said: “We’re so pleased to welcome Hannah to the Elle team in the permanent position of features director. Hannah is perfectly placed to ensure Elle maintains its position at the centre of the cultural conversation. We look forward to seeing more of the great storytelling she has delivered for the past few months as acting features director.”

Genevra Leek

Harper’s Bazaar welcomes Kirstie Clements as features director. Clements returns to Harper’s Bazaar with close to three decades of experience in fashion publishing, including her previous role as associate editor of Harper’s Bazaar, a successful tenure with Condé Nast International and Vogue Australia, where she was editor-in-chief for 13 years.

Editor of Harper’s Bazaar Eugenie Kelly said: “Kirstie has been a regular contributor to Bazaar for the last 10 months, so I’m pleased she has decided to join the editorial team as features director. Her original love is words and she certainly has her finger on the pulse when it comes to current affairs, luxury and style, so she’ll be a great fit.”

Harper’s Bazaar reveals a first for the magazine, with the news that Katarina Kroslakova is launching a brand new luxury motoring column in the May issue of the title. Kroslakova was previously luxury correspondent and editor of The Australian Financial Review’s Life & Leisure and Luxury magazines and is now managing director of content creation agency Primary Ideas.

In addition, Elle continues its dedicated Elle Drive motoring content in-mag and online via Noelle Faulkner, senior journalist at Bauer’s WhichCar and presenter on WhichCar TV. A respected luxury and consumer motoring journalist, Faulkner is on the global Lamborghini female advisory board, member of the Ferrari Driven Women initiative and a judge on the prestigious Wheels Car of the Year and WhichCar Style Award. Faulkner is a long-standing contributor to Elle’s First Look Drive pages and curator of the annual Elle Drive Awards, which aim to empower and include women in greater conversations around automotive.

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Top image: Eugenie Kelly

Backed by the New Idea Test Kitchen, the Pacific brand said the new destination is supported by Seven West Media’s 7Food network.

The digital offering, New Idea Food, is made up of the content verticals:

• Food News
• Dinner Tonight
• Baking
• Easy Entertaining
• Healthy-ish

Louisa Hatfield, group content & brand director for Pacific, said: “Unlike other online food destinations that are geared towards women who are brilliant chefs, New Idea Food is for women who simply love food. With exceptional editorial, native and branded content, the platform is fast becoming the authority on all things food.”

Gereurd Roberts, CEO of Pacific, said: “Creating a new environment for New Idea in a space it already dominates is a fantastic way for our clients to reach a valuable audience that shares one key thing with us – the love of food. Food already drives one of our fastest growing social audiences and so it’s a clear opportunity to play to our strengths and focus on what we know works, for us and our clients.”

New Idea Food is the latest addition to Pacific’s food offering which includes All Recipes and Better Homes and Gardens.

It’s hard to find any one program shaking up the charts this week.

There is very little movement within the top 10s on either the Digital Originals or the Overall TV charts this week.

For a fourth successive week Netflix’s The Umbrella Academy has ranked #1 on Digital Originals in Australia and New Zealand, while Game Of Thrones remains in that position on the Overall TV charts.

New to the Digital Originals charts in both markets this week are Netflix’s The Order and After Life.

The Order is a horror drama centred around a college student who joins a secret society.

The After Life is the dark comedy, which is the latest creation from creator, producer, director and lead actor Ricky Gervais.

As the final season of Game Of Thrones draws nearer, get used to seeing the show top the chart for the foreseeable future. Fans of the series from HBO coming to Foxtel in Australia were given the episodes lengths by the broadcaster this week. Episode one of season eight is the shortest at 54 minutes. The second episode is also just under one hour while the four remaining episodes will push out to close to 80 minutes each.

Captain Marvel continued to dominate proceedings with two new releases in the top five which had just over $1m between them.

#1 Captain Marvel $7.37m

After setting a cracking pace on its opening weekend, the second weekend saw takings down 46% as total box office hit $26.21m. That is the best two-weekend performance since Aquaman did slightly better with $26.96m in its first two weeks back in January. The #1 movie shed only 27 screens to 862 as it returned a second weekend screen average of $8,828.

#2 Hotel Mumbai $979,000

The thriller about the attacks on the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in India stars Dev Patel and it first screened in Australia at the Adelaide Film Festival last October. Icon opened the film on just 99 screens where it earned a screen average of $3,654.

#3 A Dog’s Way Home $643,000

Takings dipped 27% for the third weekend with the movie remaining on 286 screens (+12 this weekend) with a screen average of $2,249. Total gross to-date is $3.55m.

#4 Green Book $586,000

The Oscar winner is spending an eighth week in the top five. Ticket sales dropped 27% this week as the movie dropped off 14 screens to remain on 286 at a screen average of $2,049. So far it has grossed $12.78m.

#5 Fighting With My Family $387,000

A top five finish came from previews over the weekend with the movie showing on 234 screens with a screen average of $1,658. The Stephen Merchant written and directed sports comedy-drama includes Dwayne Johnson in the cast.

• Seven News 998,000/989,000
• Nine News 937,000/912,000
• A Current Affair 891,000
• ABC News 724,000
• 7.30 600,000
• The Project 477,000/276,000
• 10 News First 413,000
• SBS World News 110,000

Breakfast TV

• Sunrise 264,000
• Today 200,000

Seven

Home And Away started its week on 658,000 after a week 11 average of 576,000.

There were some appalling scores last night on My Kitchen Rules with the bubby and wife Mick & Jodie-Anne with the fab friends Lyn & Sal. Pete scored their entrée 1 out of 10 and the dessert 2 out of 10. Manu was a little more generous scoring those dishes 2 and then 2. The Monday audience was 714,000 after 761,000 last week, which was the best episode of week 11.

The brilliant doco Billy Connolly Made In Scotland: Part 1 then did what was a disappointing 335,000. 

Nine

A Current Affair featured Steve Marshall reporting on the Christchurch attack with 891,000 after a week 11 average 782,000.

Married At First Sight stood tall after 7.30pm again with 1.351m after last week’s 1.288m on Monday.

Bad Mothers was on 498,000, keeping its audience after 495,000 a week ago.

10

Discussion on The Project about Christchurch included the responsibility of the media. Conrad Sewell was also a guest on the show with 477,000 after 7pm following an average last week at 7pm of 409,000.

Dancing With The Stars had audiences of 568,000 for the elimination and then 495,000 for the remainder of the episode. Its week 11 numbers were 526,000 and 484,000.

ABC

7.30 focussed on the Christchurch attack and had 600,000 viewers after week its 11 average of 587,000.

Australian Story did 579,000 after 551,000 last week.

Four Corners looked at Uber and its operating strategies and future plans with 556,000 watching after 605,000 a week ago.

Media Watch looked at coverage of Friday’s terror attack with Sky News Australia one of those under the microscope for its audience of 603,000.

Q&A was then live in Townsville with questions about Queensland senator Fraser Anning. The episode did 360,000. 

SBS

The Kennedys continued at 7.30pm with 174,000.

The final of this short series of Michael Mosley: Trust Me I’m A Doctor did 180,000.