TrinityP3 for FIVE: R/GA and Huge for sale | Sustainability on CMO agenda | TV Measurement wars | Innocean puts toothpaste back in tube - October 27

Welcome to TrinityP3 for FIVE. A curated newsletter of the five things the TrinityP3 team thinks you need to read this week.?

Our goal with TrinityP3 for FIVE is that in five minutes of reading on a Sunday you can get up to speed, feel more informed or even get a head start on your week by looking ahead.?

And don’t forget you can sign up to the email version of the newsletter here or the LinkedIn version here (our Linkedin version just passed 500 subscribers this week!)

This week’s curator is Stephen Wright , Business Director Media Australia & Global.

Oct 27, 2024

THE FIVE

1. ARE AUSSIE MARKETERS ABOUT TO GET SERIOUS ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY?

There were a couple of noteworthy developments in the Australian marketing space dealing with sustainability this week. The first was the? new AANA Environmental Claims Code , effective from March 1, 2025 and the hope is that it will support efforts to eradicate greenwashing by marketers .

The other development came on Thursday when the AANA, ACA, IAB, and MFA united to launch Ad Net Zero’s Australian Chapter. Launched in 2020, this global industry alliance and action plan aims to reduce the carbon impact of developing, producing and running advertising to net zero. In Australia, it has launched with some 25 members across brands, media owners and advertising groups .

Why it matters (SW): Marketers and advertisers are pre-programmed to dial up the positives and to employ a bit of poetic licence. Self regulation hasn’t worked. This is too important an issue to allow lax standards to continue. Meawhile, the pressure is growing from the financial markets, legislation and – increasingly – corporate governance frameworks to force adland to get its act together.?

Senior TrinityP3 Consultant and founder of Net Zero Media Christopher Sewell adds:? As an industry we have been slow to get here…? 2020 was when the commercial pressure started to drive action. This was the time clients started setting Net Zero Targets.

Companies have been looking for compliant data, and guidance, from advertising's often large contribution to emissions to use in their environmental reporting. Unfortunately they have had to use spend-based figures ($1 = x amount of CO2) as no reliable, auditable data was available from the industry.

So a unified push to develop a framework in the form of ANZ’s GMSF is the best initiative the industry has had so far and should be supported. This is a chance to be actively involved in emissions reporting thereby we are starting to take back control of the narrative with knowledge and verifiable carbon data.

This is the first real positive step in working to measure, educate, then mitigate carbon in media publishing, planning and buying we have seen so hopefully the industry can now take this matter seriously.

2. IPG MEDIABRANDS PUTS R/GA AND HUGE ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK?

R/GA and Huge aren’t (forgive the quip) huge brands here in Australia so when the IPG Mediabrands results revealed that it was putting both brands up for sale, the response was muted.?

Interpublic CEO Philippe Krakowsky confirmed that it was evaluating “strategic alternatives” for the struggling digital agencies, with MediaPost calling them a “drag” on earnings.?

Why it matters (SW): There are good and bad sides to this story. On the positive side, holding groups are being prudent and addressing less profitable areas of their portfolios. On the negative side, it can be read as a declaration to accelerate principal-based trading where healthy profits are achieved from client revenue, behind their backs, through undisclosed commissions.

3. FOXTEL MEDIA TURNS UP HEAT IN RENEWED TV MEASUREMENT WARS

We’re only half-way through the TV Upfronts season but Paul McIntyre in Mi3 is worth a read on what he called “a muted industry mutiny.” McIntyre, true to form, brings together key strands dealing with the new think tank Video Future Collective , which now includes Amazon Advertising, Disney Advertising, Foxtel Media, Samsung Ads, SBS, Vevo and YouTube.

Ben Shepherd also looks at this in Signal , referring to TIM BURROWES ' podcast chat with Mark Frain , examining possible scenarios for the local video market.?

Why it matters (SW): Advertisers deserve to know the audience they’ve reached and the return on their investment. The market is splitting free-to-air on one side, streamers on the other. Protectionist behaviour on both sides, and parochial squabbling among media providers, undermine the potential growth for all parties.

4. NINE LOOKS TO PLAY IN MARKET MIX MODELLING SPACE

As we’re talking Upfronts, Nine’s announcement that it would jump into the market mix modelling space was interesting. Media owners are under pressure to demonstrate the return on media investment they deliver. Nine used its event to argue that too much revenue was coming out of television. To demonstrate its effectiveness, it will allocate $30 million in “advertising investment across its platforms” (read: bonus inventory) for brands to partner with relevant third-party verification to establish the return from their medium.?

Why it matters (SW): A commercially savvy move from Nine and Michael Stephenson , recognising the shift in focus from audience delivery to sales validation. Details here will be important, eg, are they measuring TV effectiveness or just Nine’s TV effectiveness? First impressions have been positive from media agencies and marketers alike. This is a welcome evolution in accountability from Australia’s largest locally owned media company. It will be interesting to see whether (or should I say when?) others will follow suit…

5. INNOCEAN PUTS TOOTHPASTE BACK INTO TUBE WITH HYUNDAI MEDIA WIN

An interesting account move this week was Jasmin Bedir and Innocean announcing it had won the Hyundai media account and would set up a media division to service the account. With this move, Innocean is increasingly moving to a full service offering.?

Why it matters (SW): The industry is trending back to full service. Closer collaboration between creative and media can only ever deliver benefits. Some are further on the journey than others – Publicis Group in particular has been reaping benefits from this at a local level. The trend poses an interesting challenge for some of the holding groups with clear separation between creative and media offerings.

THINGS THAT CAUGHT OUR ATTENTION

Nathan Hodges , Managing Director ANZ, TrinityP3?

Brand tracking platform Tracksuit this week launched a new whitepaper exploring the “sins” associated with “emotionless advertising”. At first sight, this is yet another attempt to put a beard and glasses on the blindingly obvious and call it a breakthrough. The whitepaper grandly concludes that marketers should use “emotion”' in ads (well, duh). But the communications idea for this earth-shattering finding is not based on behavioural science or indeed any common sense. Oh no – Tracksuit has gone for the Seven Deadly Sins. Yep, I'm confused too.

Anton Buchner , Senior Consultant, TrinityP3?

Love the simplicity of this campaign from TESCO in the UK. Replacing TESCO letters with food imagery to continue the quality story is great. It is still identifiable at a glance as a TESCO ad. And on a playful level, the first letter of each food corresponds to the letter it replaces. Clever work by BBH.

Ellie Angell , Business Director ANZ, TrinityP3

In a similar vein to what Anton says… Mark Ritson's take on the Tesco billboard that everyone's going on about is a good read and a wonderful explainer of the Zeigarnik effect and why the ad works.

Nic Christensen , Senior Consultant, TrinityP3?

There was an awesome piece in Adweek this week on how media releases have become too hyperbolic and what this means for trust in the media ecosystem. Honestly, for anyone writing or working on a release, just drop the flowery BS language and speak clearly and simply. It’s not that hard…

Kylie Ridler-Dutton , Senior Global Consultant, TrinityP3?

Brands, beware the TikTok firestorm. The internet has spoken, and showed how the power of the people had a boba tea brand lose its funding and investment due to allegations of cultural appropriation.

Darren Woolley , Global CEO of TrinityP3?

This week Clare Fenner announced she was leaving Atomic212 . This is significant – it shows that in 2024, senior people in the industry still have to choose between career and family. This is not a women’s issue, it is a people issue that all should be challenging. Why should anyone have to choose?

Lydia Feely , General Manager of TrinityP3

This Mi3 piece raises some interesting challenges in the wine industry and the common theme of younger audiences increasingly wanting to tap into brand experiences. This is a clear case study in the power of tapping culture through the use of brand experiences to engage consumers in a different way.

Nick Hand , Senior Consultant, TrinityP3

Not surprising that AI was on the agenda at Sydney's recent SXSW. I loved this bite from Neil Heymann, Global CCO at Accenture Song, speaking on an SXSW panel as reported in Mi3: talking about the very real, very current threat of AI to creative jobs, Heymann is optimistic the the emphasis will swing back to human creativity once “the media landscape levels out and there's a sea of content that all feels the same”. Seems like a welcome dose of common sense to me.

WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO

This week TrinityP3’s Ellie Angell interviewed the CEO of Freedom Furniture Blaine Callard for our Managing Marketing podcast . It’s a fascinating conversation that really unlocks how the CEO’s office views areas such as marketing and gives insight into how to get that buy-in from the wider C-Suite.

WHAT MADE US LAUGH

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