Brendan Coyne

Paramount sales chief Rod Prosser says TV audience declines have stopped – at least so far this year. Media buyers agree. Meanwhile young audiences are growing on FAST channels, with zero marketing so far. Paramount is set to launch "a tonne more" this year and next and an ad tier "this half" – at least that's the ambition. Magnite chief Yael Milbank says live and on demand inventory through the SSP is powering – up 60-70 per cent last year – "so the audiences are there." Former SMI president Ben Tatta says better attribution, not currency wars, is key to getting better money for "way undervalued" TV – though some are yet to be convinced.

In a Chatham House rule session to the side of the Future of TV Advertising forum last week, four marketers with a combined nine-figure media budget delivered a near-brutal assessment of Australian TV networks’ future. One suggested it was likely a TV network would go pop. Another said the BVOD experience remains “so poor” due to on-going frequency capping fails on repeat ad loads. All said they were following the eyeballs into streaming platforms which are ramping up their own ad growth engines. None said outright they would favour local services because of their contribution to society. The one potential solution proffered? Combine BVOD content and audience reach to stand a better chance against the global platforms and a greater share of budget.

Distinctiveness versus differentiation is a stupid fight, per Mark Ritson. Brands need both to grow faster – and he thinks Ehrenberg-Bass has it wrong in picking the former over the latter. To get it right, the virtual professor says marketers must change their approach to positioning – and massively strip it back. “It is the biggest action item I would recommend that you follow. Get rid of your complexity ... It’s making your brand less and less clear.” Pick one concept, two or three key brand attributes, then go to market with a simple, clear message – and hammer it for years as broadly as possible. Tourism Australia CMO Susan Coghill, says Ritson, “knows what the fuck she is doing.”

BMW marketing boss Alex McLean accepts Tesla has "totally disrupted" the car market and is powering towards the top of Australia's pile. But he thinks a lack of brand attributes beyond 'electric' will see the old guard reel in Musk's firm as EVs become ubiquitous. That tipping point is coming fast, per McLean, and BMW is already lifting key chapters of Tesla's playbook. In the near future, BMW's top brass think smarter CX will sell its cars, with onboard tech enabling remote fault diagnosis and tipping off dealers to enable "proactive service." For now, Australia's tax regime favours electric company cars – which means BMW's marketing department is shifting gears from B2C to B2B.

FAST TV is booming in the US and Australia, where locally there are already 389 free ad-supported TV channels and where the market is likely to grow to $300m within four years, according to Variety VIP intelligence chief Gavin Bridge. He told the Future of TV Advertising conference that it's easy cash, because audiences want curation and are happy to watch recycled shows – and urged networks and CTV operators not to leave money on the table.

Coles is bidding to catch rival Woolworths in the race to become a major media business. But marketers are demanding greater rigour around measurement and reporting – to move bigger slices of budget, they want more data. Meanwhile, agencies risk being sidelined because trade sales teams have historically handled the money and owned the retail relationship. Coles 360 boss Paul Brooks and strategy lead Sam Hegg see structural shifts ahead. Here’s the plan.

Former Vice Australia boss Alex Light has joined Concrete Playground as Managing Director as the indy publisher aims to crack commerce and ride a wave of intent that is driving the likes of JP Morgan Chase and Hubspot to buy up publishing businesses – and publishers like News Corp to pile into comparison sites.

CommBank’s X15 Ventures unit is paving the ground for a massive stack of next gen services that effectively builds an opted-in walled garden for its 15 million retail and business customers, as the bank bids to compete with global tech giants inside its own expanding ecosystem. With a direct-to-customer mortgage play about to launch, it's also eyeing further e-commerce and shopping platforms. Managing Director Toby Norton-Smith told Mi3 there is much more to come from the unit with a billion dollars to spend.