Dana Newell 
In July 2022, Steve and Dana, two of our Business Development team members went off to Sydney to have creative conversations with media and marketing folks all across Australia. The destination? Mumbrella360, Australia’s leading media and marketing conference.
Because sharing is caring, we wanted to give you an insight into what Steve and Dana saw, heard and learned.
So, What is the Metaverse?
By Steve Bristow | Creative Director and Head of Business Development
The media and marketing conference, Mumbrella360, was held at the Hilton in Sydney this year, with multiple sessions running simultaneously in rooms big and small across three floors. There was also a small exhibition floor with around twenty booths displaying their digital marketing wares, as well as running competitions and giveaways to attract people to their booth.
The Creativa booth was the home base for Dana, our company director, Anthony, and me, and I reckon our Toblerone chocolate bar competition created more interest and LinkedIn follows than our augmented reality demo or showreel combined!
In conversation with Dr Norman Swan
From Tonic Media Network
There were a couple of must-see’s for me – one was Dr. Norman Swan, who works for broadcaster ABC. Dr. Swan was the voice of reason for thousands of viewers and radio listeners throughout the COVID pandemic. He was able to cut through the COVID media circus and provide clarity in a time of mixed messages and misinformation, and in his session he broke down his process and gave insight into how he did it.
How the BBC maintains its political impartiality
With James Stirling, BBC’s executive editor
Another excellent session was with James Stirling, executive editor of the BBC. James talked about how the BBC maintains its political impartiality and offered insights into how the broadcaster has provided a gold standard service for over 100 years. He showed some great clips, including the God Only Knows launch video for BBC Music, a new radio platform to discover and support new music – see it here:
What’s Steve’s takeaway? Well, it’s more of a question
The buzzword around the conference was definitely the ‘Metaverse’. However, nobody could really describe what it actually is. So I went to a session by Ollie Beeston from Meta – I mean if he can’t explain it then who can right? Well, I left that room none the wiser and have come to the conclusion that the Metaverse is just a buzzword that you’re supposed to use in the same sentence as “Web 3.0” and the “Blockchain” to impress people at dinner parties, and that it really doesn’t describe anything that isn’t already happening in the digital media landscape, as far as I can see.
It was great to meet a lot of interesting marketing and comms people at the conference and hear their stories.
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Inviting audiences into our brand story
By Dana Newell | Live Action Director and Business Development
If you’re in marketing and advertising, Mumbrella360 is the best place to learn, network, and connect face-to-face with the best. Steve and I found that it did not disappoint. The collective enthusiasm to see how everyone has been doing and what we’ve all been up to is contagious.
Apart from chatting to the many marketers who stopped by our Creativa booth, I also had the privilege to attend a few of the seminars. Here are my favourite seminar takeaways (plus some ‘inside secrets’ that I don’t mind sharing 😉).
The Availability Bias
How to gear up Marketing and Sponsorships with Andrew Clarke and Alison Tilling
Alison and Andrew challenged us with the question “Do you skip passions like you do advertising?” Surely the answer is ‘no’? I think by now we are all programmed to gloss over big shiny logos if they don’t speak directly into what we care about.
They challenged us to think ‘Passion First’ when developing a strategy. This means asking questions like; what does our audience or target market care about? Do we as a brand care about something more than selling our product? If so, let’s create a campaign around that shared passion and make our audience feel something that vividly evokes an emotion that stays with them and gains consumer attention.
The Fracture
The state of shared experience in a time of hyper-personalisation
The last seminar secret I don’t mind sharing is from Tyler Geer, Head of Strategy at Mediacom.
I was encouraged to hear, that at least Tyler (and of course Brené Brown) believes, that humanity still cares about belonging. In the context of film and television media, Tyler spoke about the importance of shared experience and belonging. That ‘appointment viewing’ of episodes and the anticipation between each one as we talk about “last night’s crazy plot twists” around the watercooler at work… might – just might – make a comeback.
Even Netflix is considering letting its audience have time to devour, think, ponder, and reflect on the drama before unveiling the next installment. It is, after all, better to stay culturally relevant if we stay in the convo for weeks at a time, collectively, rather than binging a series in isolation at various times of the month for everyone to binge and no time to talk to about it.
What’s Dana’s takeaway
Social currency and ‘talk-ability’ are still driving forces behind our content. I’m excited to see how these driving forces impact media in the coming years. I am excited to keep in touch with my new friends I met through Mumbrella360 and see what the future holds for the way we invite audiences into our story.
How would you like to invite your audience into your brand’s story?
