Tag: Australia

Sydney, Australia – Online shopping while under the influence of alcohol might sound hilarious, but it does happen: the latest survey from comparison platform Finder shows that around 18% of Australians admit to doing so.

In terms of the frequency of doing it, this is split by 12% admitting to having done it once or twice, and 6% having doendo it often. 

Meanwhile, 62% of the respondents admit that although they haven’t done so, have actually shopped online while mildly sober. 

In terms of what items or services respondents eyed while ‘drunk-shopping’, the most is having food delivered, with around 1212% of the respondents. This is followed by buying alcohol (11%), and shopping for clothes or shoes (9%). Some have even gone as far as applying for a job (2%), applying for a house/apartment (1%), buying airline tickets (1%), and purchasing a pet (1%).

The average amount most spent online while drunk in one sitting was AU$328. Demographic-wise, men have admitted to spending AU$343 while drunk in one sitting, compared to AU$306 for women.

By age group, Gen X drunk shoppers are the worst offenders, spending AU$425 on average per sitting, compared to AU$299 for Millennials and AU$265 for Gen Z.

Sydney, Australia – The Australian Influencer Marketing Council (AiMCO) has announced the newest members of its guiding council (GC) following its latest member elections. The elections covering half of the Council were the inaugural executives since AiMCO was established in 2019. The remaining councilors are due for re-election in 2022. 

The new members are namely Natalie Giddings, CEO at Hoozu; Jacqui Capel, general manager at Squad by Mamamia and Tegan Boorman, founder at Social Law Co., along with returning council members – Anthony Richardson from Q83, Ben Mayor from We Are Social, Sarah Letts from Totally Awesome, Sam Kelly from Hello Social, and Stephen von Muenster from Von Muenster Legal.

Other members of the council include Detch Singh from Hypetap, and the current chair of the council; Patrick Whitnall as the current deputy chair; Ben McGarth from VAMP, Jamie Taylor from Havas Media; Kylie Green from The Lime Agency; Sharyn Smith from Social Soup; Shivani Maharaj from Wavemaker; Simone Landes from The Lifestyle Suite; and Steph Pearson from OMD Create.

The guiding council oversees the strategy and direction for AiMCO and its initiatives, working with the membership to activate working groups and programs. With membership growing to more than 75 members this year, the Australian influencer marketing body has shown its commitment to building confidence and accountability, establishing a presence and voice for the channel.

Furthermore, the council has overseen the review and update to AiMCO’s Code of Practice, and the development of a guide to gifting linked to influencers, as well as a reference cheat sheet for guidelines on social media posts as advertisements. The council also shared that it was slated to oversee the creation and delivery of 16 member webinars and podcasts, as well as the launch of the AiMCO Awards to be held on February 24, 2022. 

“AiMCO’s Guiding Council represents companies from across the influencer marketing community with 17 members that guide the overall direction and activities of AiMCO for the year ahead,” the council stated.

Speaking about the appointment, Capel said, “I am very excited to join the Guiding Council and be a part of this team of passionate experts and leaders. It’s an amazing time to be a part of the Influencer industry in Australia as it grows from strength to strength.”

Meanwhile, Giddings commented, “The influencer industry in Australia is evolving at a rapid pace and navigating the best approach for brands can be daunting. Joining such an industry-wide initiative is very exciting for me. It has long been my desire to come alongside creators and brands to deceiver the best partnerships that truly deliver results.”

AiMCO’s roster of 74 members were invited to nominate for the vacant seats with a competitive and close election process ensuing.

Boorman stated, “My appointment to the Guiding Council is a logical extension to my continued involvement with AiMCO since it’s formation in 2019. I look forward to continuing to work with the exceptional industry leaders appointed to the Guiding Council, as well as the AiMCO members involved in various working groups, towards creating a more transparent and matured influencer marketing industry well into the future.”

Australia – Foxtel, Australia’s subscription TV company, has rebranded its loyalty program Foxtel First, to be now called Foxtel Reward.

Following this endeavor, the company has also partnered with live entertainment company, Live Nation Australia, to bring Foxtel Rewards members unmissable live music events.

Through the partnership, Foxtel Rewards will be rolling out entertainment experiences across the most anticipated Live Nation Australia tours. It will also enable members to experience VIP benefits, such as meet and greets with the stars, invitations to exclusive pre-show parties, and reserved ticket allocations.

Moreover, members will be able to enjoy a slate of huge local and global talent in the upcoming Live Nation tours, including Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Tim Minchin, and Alanis Morissette, as well as Backstreet Boys, and Rod Stewart, among others.

Greg Segal, Live Nation’s president of brand partnerships for Australia, commented, “We are looking forward to bringing Foxtel Rewards members deeper connections to their favorite artists and the music they love. We know the Foxtel Rewards program will make these experiences even more memorable for members.”

Foxtel Rewards will also bring an enhanced sport offering to their members with action-packed live sporting events, allowing them to meet sporting heroes and score tickets as part of regular giveaways. 

The program will deliver access to all areas to some of the biggest cricketing matches across the summer months including The Ashes, One Day International, T20 World Cup, and the Big Bash League, as well as NRL, and AFL, Supercars events across 2022. 

Lisa Cronin, Foxtel’s director of customer marketing and loyalty, said, “At a time where live experiences are more valued and sought after than ever before, we’re thrilled to be partnering with Live Nation Australia and rounding out our strong loyalty offering with the most exclusive money can’t buy experiences for our customers.”

Furthermore, the new rewards program will enable members to get their hands on premium movie tickets, bonus and exclusive content, and behind-the-scenes previews of their favorite shows, as well as attend VIP events.

Foxtel Rewards is free for all Foxtel residential customers with a set-top box only, which excludes Foxtel from Telstra customers.

Sydney, Australia – Global comparison platform Finder in Australia has promoted Taylor Blackburn, former head of media relations for ANZ, as its new head of public relations for ANZ. 

Prior to joining Finder in September 2018, he has previously worked as the account director of communications agencies Haystac and Howorth, and the account supervisor of creative network Ogilvy Health. 

The elevation of Blackburn comes after the stepping down of Adam Freedman, who will be pursuing a different path. 

Commenting on his promotion, Blackburn said, “It’s a thrill to be leading such a great team of professionals, but even more rewarding because of what we do. I joined a really strong crew at Finder in 2018 and it’s my privilege to enable them to go even further as a team.”

Chris Ellis, Finder’s CEO for Australia, shared that Blackburn has powered an incredibly strong media relations team at Finder and demonstrated his deep understanding of the role communications plays in their business – from idea creation to media spokesperson.

“For us at Finder, our customers, partners and crew are at the heart of everything we do. As a passionate and popular leader, Taylor’s unique skill set and experience will be vital to this role, and we’re excited to see him lead our communications function into the future,” said Ellis.

Sydney, Australia – First-party data provider Audience360 has announced that it has entered a partnership with financial comparison site Mozo, allowing brands to engage audiences currently looking for personal finance and retail energy products with a purchase intent on Mozo.

This means that any advertiser seeking to reach Mozo audiences will be able to access the complete suite of Audience360 media buying tools. Audience360, which has first-party data partnerships with carsales.com.au, Webjet, and the AFL.com.au said the importance of transparent, premium first-party audience data has ‘never been greater’.

Furthermore, the partnership which delivers audience extension capabilities across the wider Internet, will allow brands to be able to target users beyond the Mozo website. The core editorial finance areas on Mozo are banking, insurance, loans, and utilities, and provide advertisers with a strong ‘intention to buy’ audience.

“We believe that by partnering with Audience360 we’ll give advertisers better reach of audiences and brands will have the benefit of connecting with people that have the intention to soon buy retail finance, energy, and other services,” said Neville Daniels, managing director for APAC at Mozo.

Mozo compares more than 1,800 products from more than 200 banking, insurance and energy providers to help Australians find a better deal each month via its comparison tools and calculators, and is a trusted source of financial rates and information with Australian consumers, the media and industry. 

Meanwhile, Jenny Parkes, managing director at Audience360, commented, “Mozo’s website users are ready to transact and are actively looking for products and services. We are seeing first party data rise to the fore in digital advertising, and we are thrilled that Mozo has joined our growing stable of publisher and vertical brands.”

Parkes added that branded audiences enable advertisers to reduce media wastage and target users with more precision, as digital ad campaigns are based on first party deterministic data.

Sydney, Australia – Creative agency Host/Havas has announced the appointment of former creative director at Droga5 New York Henry Kember as its newest group creative director, where he will play an important role in the agency’s creative leadership, and will also help in continuing to shape and drive company culture.

Through his new role, Kember will be overseeing projects across the entire Host/Havas client portfolio which includes Air New Zealand, NBA, Reckitt, Stockland, Palau Legacy Project, Avis Budget Group, Tassal and United Nations Free & Equal.

He brings into the agency over 15 years of experience both locally and internationally. During his stint at Droga5 New York, During his career, Kember has worked on some of the world’s most iconic brands such as Covergirl, PayPal, IKEA and Diageo.

Jon Austin, ECD at Host/Havas, commented that they are thrilled to have someone of Henry’s fearsome calibre and talent join them at Host/Havas, noting that he has long admired Kember’s creative talents during his other stints in other agencies.

“Not just for his incredible aesthetic and passion, but also for his ability to genuinely impact and leverage popular culture in his thinking. In fact, when we were chatting, I’d leave every call feeling like he’d somehow managed to jam several SXSW talks into our Zoom chat. And not even premium Zoom, just the 45-minute one, which is even more impressive,” Austin said.

Meanwhile, speaking about his appointment, Kember commented, “It’s a fascinating, challenging time to be in advertising. No one gets this more than Jon Austin, Olly Taylor and Laura Aldington, and no one’s better set up to thrive at this moment than Host/Havas. Plus they’re so nice I could never have pitched against them. Even the fact that Jon was front man for NZ’s version of Blink 182 couldn’t stop me signing on.”

Melbourne, Australia – As the city of Victoria emerges from its lockdown due to COVID-19, energy provider Momentum Energy has rolled out its newest campaign with creative agency Havas Media, which ‘takes over’ Flinders Street Station with human-sized ‘bottles of happiness’.

The campaign encourages Melbourne commuters to ‘Get Happy’, created by Momentum Energy’s in-house creative team, in which the human-sized bottles contain happiness-inducing content at Flinders Street Station, supported across multiple touch points including radio, OOH, online video, digital and social.

Said bottles are classified to the following: one jar contains ‘wishing stars’ that come with a ‘supanova-free guarantee’. Meanwhile, the second is a party pack of brightly colored ‘rainbow seeds’ for those who’d like to grow their own organic, full-spectrum rainbow, and lastly, the third is an 80% unicorn and 20% acrylic blend of ‘warm fuzzies’ to provide relief from 2021.

Furthermore, the campaign will take on a digital form where through bespoke display medium rectangle ads (MRECs) the designs of the human-sized bottles and their corresponding creative content will be shown to ‘spark joy’ as well as social content showcasing how people can make their own DIY ‘bottles of happiness’ at home.

According to the company, they believe that Australians not only deserve a boost of happiness as they venture out again, but that their choice of power company should make them feel good too.

Kate Lightfoot, creative lead at Momentum Energy stated, “We’re stoked to welcome people back to the city with these giant jars of imaginary nonsense. Walking around them makes you feel like a kid again and they’re an impactful reminder that Momentum is here to help Victorians get happy.”

The human-sized bottles are designed to evoke a delightful sense of childlike wonder and excitement, while reminding passers-by they can get similar happy vibes from their choice of power company.

Meanwhile, Sarah Cook, associate account director at Havas Media Melbourne, commented, “Our timing with the station domination is impeccable. It’s a great feeling to help spread some happiness and bring a smile to everyone venturing out via Flinders Street Station and reclaiming the love for our city.

Australia – Swimming Australia, the governing body for swimming in Australia, has appointed Publicis Groupe’s global creative network Publicis Worldwide, as its new full-service agency partner.

As part of the mandate, Publicis Worldwide will be overseeing Swimming Australia’s marketing strategy, creative, media, and design, as well as social, and partnership development. 

Eugenie Buckley, Swimming Australia’s CEO, believes that they have created a strategy to expand from their platform engaging Australian swimmers and the sport’s wide fanbase.

“Publicis Worldwide has proven experience bringing together communications strategy, creativity, data, and technology to lead the change, and to shape the future of the sporting and entertainment experience in swimming,” said Buckley.

Meanwhile, Simone Waugh, Publicis Worldwide’s managing director, said, “Our expertise in building brands and now applying it to sports is timely for our agency – with the momentum and change evident as soon as the 2032 Olympic Bid was successful for Queensland.”

Sydney, Australia – Customer experience agency The Works has announced the addition of ex-CEO of independent CX agency MercerBell Julie Dormand as its newest managing partner on a contract basis.

She will be responsible for leading the agency’s operations, people and key clients, as well as driving next year’s business plan initiatives with general manager for people and operations Jasmine Lansdell, as well as with managing partner Kristie Thistelthwaite, who is set to go on maternity leave in December.

Dormand has spent the best part of the last two decades with MercerBell across myriad positions including the role of CEO from January 2019 to February 2021.

Speaking about her appointment, she said, “It is great to be a part of The Works team at a time when they have such momentum behind their new positioning ‘Be Significant’. They have an infectious energy for creativity and client results. Their award-winning culture shines through in the approach to the work.”

She will be joining the leadership team, reporting into founder and creative partner Damian Pincus, and will work alongside partner Douglas Nicol, creative partner Iggy Rodriguez, and managing partner Ruth Haffenden, who returns from maternity leave.

“It would be an understatement to say The Works team are excited to be bringing on board such a well-renowned and respected industry leader like Jules. Jules will play an instrumental part in fulfilling our significant ambitions for 2022. Having led Australia’s first CX agency, Jules certainly has extensive expertise providing first-class customer engagement strategies, which will stand us in good stead with our clients,” Pincus said.

The Works had recently signed in Iggy Rodriguez as new creative partner and Katie Harper as new head of production. This follows after the agency also launched its newest brand platform ‘Be Significant’ in a bid to beat ‘meaningless’ in adland.

Adelaide, Australia – Out-of-home (OOH) media company JCDecaux has won the tender to be the exclusive OOH advertising partner for the Adelaide Railway Station.

This extended agreement alongside with the Department of Infrastructure and Transport (DIT) will see JCDecaux continue its full motion audio and video XTrackTV screen presence, as well as install new digital small format screens across the station. All new digital assets will be available to buy programmatically.

The JCDecaux XTRACKTV is a large-format video and audio OOH offering usually installed in railroad stations and terminals.

Steve O’Connor, CEO of JCDecaux, said, “Adelaide Railway Station is an important, historical local landmark and one of the CBD’s busiest destinations for commuters, city workers and tourists alike. It’s a privilege to be awarded this opportunity in what has just recently been named Australia’s most liveable city, at such an iconic location at the heart of public transport in Adelaide.”

JCDecaux has been providing advertising solutions in Adelaide Railway Station since 2015. The new six-year exclusive contract commences immediately.

Adelaide Railway Station has an estimated over 230,000 passengers. The partnership is expected to give advertisers the opportunity to engage said audience.