Police boss fails on the comms; Bringing sexy/boring back
Welcome to a midweek update from Unmade: Today: The NSW Police Commissioner becomes the latest leader to fail a PR test; we reveal the keynote for this year’s HumAIn conference; and a milestone for Pureprofile.
If you’ve been thinking about upgrading to an Unmade membership, this is the perfect time. Your membership includes:
Member-only pricing for our HumAIn (May 28) and REmade Retail Media (October 1) conferences;
A complimentary invitation to Unmade’s Compass event (November);
Member-only content and our paywalled archives;
Your own copy of Media Unmade
Announcing HumAIn’s keynote: Jeremy Somers on AI-powered creativity for brands
Cat McGinn, curator of HumAIn, writes:
We’re delighted to begin sharing the program for our HumAIn conference announcements with a thrilling keynote. The founder of the world’s first AI creative agency, Jeremy Somers, will return to Australia to set out how marketers should be thinking about AI-powered creativity.
In a session titled “Sexy/boring: the real story of AI-powered creativity for brands”, Somers will explain the process of using AI to create work for global brands.
The founder of fashion label We Are Handsome, Somers previously worked in Sydney as a creative at digital agencies including Razorfish and the White Agency. He now works with a host of brands including Tommy Hilfiger, Yahoo!, Converse, 4AM and Fenty Beauty.
In the provocative session, Somers will share his vision for the incendiary creative potential of AI, from idea stage to campaign execution.
He will make the case for the shifts marketers must embrace to harness the full power of AI innovation and argue that AI is a means of augmenting human creativity and problem-solving, not replacing it.
We can also announce a second session, presented by award-winning AI entrepreneur Stephen Hunt.
Hunt, an advisor to digital startups and former TubeMogul and Adobe executive, will present “From zero to one”, a primer on how to get started, and how to keep up. He will walk through the basics of AI is; how we got to this watershed moment in 2024 and why it’s so important to embrace it right now. He will share tips, tricks and hacks through real case studies that demonstrate the impact generative AI can deliver for any team or business.
And we can also share the advisory board, who have helped shape this year’s HumAIn program. They are:
Alana Maurushat, Professor of Cybersecurity and Behaviour, Western Sydney University;
Tom Braybrook, Managing Director, Acceleration Australia;
Elle Green, VP Strategic Partnerships, The Martec;
Pip Bingemann, Co-Founder, Springboards.ai;
PJ Pereira, Founder & Creative Chairman, Pereira O’Dell;
Dre Horton, Co-Founder, Knowing.Me;
Andrés López-Varela, General Manager, Storyation;
Jenni Ryall, Group Director Business Development & Strategy, Bastion;
Ricky Sutton, Author, Future Media & Founder, Oovvuu;
Bridget Cleary, CEO, BRX;
Wade KingsleyCreative Coach & Consultant, Founder, The Ideas Business;
Kate Young, Head of Customer Centricity & Capability, ANZ;
Mitch Incoll, Head of Strategy, Media.Monks
The program is filling fast, including the AI Upfronts, but anybody interested in proposing content should email Cat McGinn via cat@unmade.media. Those interested in sponsoring the event should contact Doug Wesney via doug@wethinkmedia.com.au.
HumAIn takes place in Sydney on May 28. Earlybird tickets, with a saving of 20%, are on sale now.
Hear from Jeremy Somers on the Unmade podcast:
Being good at fronting the media is no longer an optional extra for bosses – their jobs depend on it
Tim Burrowes writes:
Another week, another disastrous media performance from an organisation’s leader.
Last year Kelly Bayer Rosmarin had to step down as CEO of Optus after going missing during November’s network meltdown. It was her second communications fail after the 2022 data breach.
Last week, Woolworths boss Brad Banducci stuffed up his own lap of honour after his awful performance on the ABC’s Four Corners tainted his retirement announcement.
And this week it was the turn of NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb.
After the alleged murder of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies by a serving police officer, she failed to front the media for three days.
When she eventually did the rounds yesterday, she came across as combative and defensive.
In her interview with Sunrise’s Natalie Barr and Matt Shirvington, she refused to accept that she should have gone public sooner
Questioned about the force’s failings, she clumsily resorted to quoting Taylor Swift with the phrase “Haters gonna hate”, which opened her up to further criticisms that she didn’t understand the magnitude of the reputational disaster facing the police force.
And then, bizarrely, Seven says she refused to leave the Sunrise studio because she didn’t want to talk to the Seven News crew waiting outside. Talk about a metaphore for being under siege.
Like Bayer Rosmarin, it was a second offence for Webb. She was similarly flat footed last year when she eventually did live interviews over the tasering of a 95-year-old woman who died afterwards.
Amid accusations of a cover up after the force initially did not disclose a taser was used in the incident, she took days to front the media. And when she did, she came across as stubborn, insisting it wasn’t her job to watch the officer’s bodycam footage as it wasn’t her doing the investigating.
It had shades of PM Scott Morrison’s “I don’t hold a hose, mate” during the 2019 busshfire emergency.
Webb may not be as vulnerable as a CEO who answers to a board and shareholders. The NSW Police Commissioner is appointed by the Police Minister. However, that makes it a political appointment, and it’s still possible to lose the confidence of the minister, particularly if their leadership performance becomes part of the problem.
Even in public office, officials need to master effective media communications, or risk losing their job.
Unmade Index finds equilibrium
The Unmade Index stood still on Tuesday, despite most media and marketing stocks slipping slightly
Among the larger stocks, Seven West Media slipped by another 2.22%, taking its price down to 22c, a price last seen in November 2020. The company is now worth less than a third of a billion dollars.
Southern Cross Austereo lost 1.53%, and Nine’s Domain lost 1.47%.
The only two stocks to rise were Ooh Media, by 1.93%, and agency holding group Enero, which was pleased as pi to rise by 3.14%. Enero shares its half yearly results this morning.
Despite yesterday finally being able to report a net profit for the half, shares in Pureprofile didn’t budge.
Time to leave you to your Wednesday. By the time this lands into your inbox, (Jetstar willin) I’ll be somewhere over the Tasman, on the way into Sydney for this afternoon’s IAB Audio Summit. More on that later in the week.
We’ll be back tomorrow with an audio-led edition, featuring an in depth interview with Foxtel Group CEO Patrick Delany. It’s a terrific conversation.
Have a great day.
Toodlepip…
Tim Burrowes
Publisher – Unmade
tim@unmade.media
