There are hundreds of shoots taking place everyday, ranging from full-scale TVC productions to one-man content shoots, the vast majority are being undertaken by creative agencies and production companies, commissioned by their clients.

If we consider that a standard TVC shoot generates 500GB of data per shoot day, and a content shoot around two-thirds of that - managing digital assets becomes a huge task in terms of infrastructure and maintenance.

Chris Platt, managing director of Universal McCann in Brisbane has joined independent agency, BCM Group, as director of media and engagement and a member of the agency leadership team.

Platt has been running Universal McCann for 2 years and before that held head of planning positions at Carat and Y&R.

Says Phil McDonald, partner, BCM Group: "We have always been a fully integrated agency that has a quality media planning and buying offering. However, Chris joining us signals a real commitment to offering something different to the traditional, siloed media and creative agencies. Our strength is delivering creativity that is truly connected to the moments of truth in a customer journey. Chris's skill sets and experience will make that an even more powerful proposition."

WARC, the global authority on advertising and media effectiveness, has today released its Effective Content Strategy Report 2018, outlining key content marketing themes from the world's most effective campaigns.

Drawn from the winners of the Effective Content Strategy category of this year's international WARC Awards, a global search for next-generation marketing effectiveness, the report identifies common themes from branded editorial-style content that can demonstrate a business outcome.

Says Lucy Aitken, managing editor, case studies, WARC: "Despite the stumbling blocks in encouraging advertisers to experiment with new content formats and try something that perhaps doesn't look like advertising of old, there is a palpable enthusiasm for content.

"Content is starting to take a more central role in communications strategies that recognise its strengths and its power to connect."

Joan Warner, the chief executive officer of CRA, said the initiative would be the largest scale radio audience measurement pilot study using diary and electronic monitoring ever undertaken in the world.

The One Club for Creativity, the foremost global nonprofit organization recognizing creative excellence in advertising and design, is now accepting applications for its next exclusive Executive Creative Summit, taking place on November 29-30, 2018 at the NewWerktheater in Amsterdam.

The Epica Awards, represented by CB in Australia and New Zealand, has announced that Mark Tutssel, global chief creative officer and executive chairman of Leo Burnett Worldwide, will be the first recipient of its Creative Leaders Tribute.
 
He will be handed the trophy during the Epica Awards ceremony at the KIT Royal Tropical Institute in Amsterdam on the evening of November 15. Epica is currently receiving late entries - agencies can contact Epica here.
 
As its name suggests, the award was launched to pay tribute to those who have shown a career-long commitment to supporting and enhancing creativity. Earlier this year, when Mark was named executive chairman of Leo Burnett, he effectively became the first creative leader of the agency since Leo Burnett himself.

The commercial radio industry has today announced the launch of the RadioApp skill for Alexa, which makes it simple and convenient for listeners to ask Alexa to play any of nearly 300 Australian AM, FM and DAB+ digital radio stations.
 
Says Joan Warner, the chief executive officer of industry body Commercial Radio Australia, who announced the initiative at the Radio Alive national radio conference in Melbourne today: "Listening to radio is one of the most popular uses for smart speakers, so the Australian radio industry has created a voice experience that works easily and seamlessly across all Alexa-enabled devices."

Micah Walker has chosen internationally renowned film director Steve Rogers as his guest on the latest episode of The Creative Relay podcast.

Having worked with Rogers on some of his most awarded campaigns including James Boag's 'Pure Waters', Walker was eager to sit down and listen to the director's thoughts on film making and ideas.

Melbourne-based food mediatech startup Hood Food Guide has licensed all three of its original food series to Virgin Australia for its in-flight entertainment platforms. In celebration of all things food, Hood Food Guide's original short-form series Treat Yo'Self and What's Grub Got To Do With It along with the self-titled long-form series Hood Food Guide are airing in the skies to Virgin Australia guests. You can find all series under the Travel category via your personal device or seatback screen.

Australian finance destination Yahoo Finance has launched its first ever consumer marketing campaign.

The campaign will run across out of home and digital featuring the strapline "Make Money Work". The work has been created to highlight Yahoo Finance as a premier destination to empower personal financial management, opening up debate around informed financial choices for all demographics.

Award-winning production company Hustle Productions is re-launching today (Thursday, October 18) as Barking Mouse.

Says Georgia Woodward (left), co-owner and producer at Barking Mouse: "The change has been a long time coming; we've been developing the new brand since January."

Hailing from Canada but admired throughout the world, Olivier Staub is an international award-winning photographer and filmmaker now represented in Australia by The Producers. With major awarded work for global clients such as Cirque Du Soleil, Volkswagen, Nike and Doctors Without Borders, Staub has a resume to die for and possesses a unique creative approach that encompasses performance, landscapes, light and textures.

Staub's direction of the 37 Days campaign for Group Atlantic (Leo Burnett Paris) resulted in the project being in the top 10 most awarded works of 2016. Featuring a 9,000 pound glass cube transported to the top of an 2,800m glacier, the concept showed how heat generates life in even the most hostile and dormant environments. The agency needed a director with a huge vision of how to pull off such a stunt and Staub proved to be an astute and creative choice.

Sexist jokes, objectifying women, off-colour comments; most people hate these all too common signs of disrespect towards women, but often they just go along with it, or don't feel comfortable voicing their disapproval.

Australia's national body for the prevention of violence against women, Our Watch, has today launched an interactive campaign developed in conjunction with Thinkerbell, to help Australians do something when they witness disrespect towards women.  
 

"The Cube" campaign was developed by brand experience design firm COLLINS, with each episode brought to life by one of six talented animation and illustration studios from around the world.

Unveiled today, "The Cube: Part Three", created by Moscow-based animator Dasha Chukhrova.

Authored by Australian Nowlab director Robert Tilt, Isobar, has published a playbook to explain what blockchain is, the technology in practice and how it can be integrated into businesses today. The playbook unpacks blockchain's potential impact on the global media and marketing industry including media supply chains, transparency, brand management and creativity, as well as explaining what marketers should do next. The playbook is available to download from isobar.com.

Tourism Australia has launched the next phase of its A$36 million Dundee campaign with a series of videos developed by Thinkerbell, inviting Americans to book a trip Down Under and visit the 'set' of the movie.

Starring Aussie actor Luke Hemsworth, the videos will take US travellers on an exclusive behind the scenes tour of the Dundee movie backlot, showcasing the breadth of spectacular and unique experiences on offer across Australia.

The Works has promoted Paul Swann (left) and Tom Harber (right) to the newly created roles of managing partners as the agency continues to build its integrated offering with RXP Group.

Swann has been a creative partner at The Works for more than six years, during which time he developed work for accounts including Optus, Jim Beam, Visit Canberra, Unilever, and GSK and won numerous local and international creative and effectiveness awards. Prior to The Works he was managing partner at Naked and has held a number of senior roles at agencies in the UK and Australia.

Harber joined the agency from the UK in 2014 as creative project leader and group account director for Jim Beam globally, becoming head of project management two years later. He has led brands including Jim Beam, Optus and Canadian Club and and more recently has led new business development.

Adams is an ARIA award nominated record producer, mix engineer, audio engineer, and audio specialist. With the growing need for high quality video and audio content, Made in Katana is pleased to continue leading the industry with its first to market creative approach.

Due to popularity, The MADC has upgraded its MADC Presents: Matt Eastwood - Passion Trumps Talent to a larger venue within The Wheeler Centre.

Says Adrian Bosich, MADC president: "Tickets sold out for the talk, but we continued to get enquiries from those who had missed out. We have upgraded the room size at The Wheeler Centre, to allow more people to hear Matt's insights."
 
'Passion Trumps Talent' will share exclusive insights from the former J. Walter Thompson Company's Worldwide CCO, and explore why passion is the answer to navigating the industry challenges of today and tomorrow.
 
Matt Eastwood: Passion Trumps Talent
Where: The Wheeler Centre, 176 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne
Date: Thursday 25th October, 2018
Time: 7:30pm - 9:00pm

Clemenger Group consultancies Porter Novelli, GRACosway and Hall & Partners have joined forces to create a unique graduate program offering exceptional graduates of any discipline a year rotating in communications, public affairs and market research.The new program is modelled on the long-standing Clemenger Group graduate program, but with a specific skew to developing graduates with the mindset and skills that project- based, in-the-day consulting demands.

This year's Google.org Impact Challenge Australia has launched with a new advertising campaign from independent agency, The Hallway.The Google.org Impact Challenge Australia, now in its third year, discovers and supports the next generation of Australian innovators making an impact locally and globally.

By Thursday, most of the Creative Ambassador Group had dispersed, either flying back to Australia or continuing their travels elsewhere. I was lucky enough to spend my last couple of days being introduced to a number of Aussie and Kiwi expats working in agencies across the bay area. Prior to coming on the trip, I had no idea there was such a large Australian advertising community here, but after the past week, it was clear to me why.

The second annual Campaign Brief Legendary Lunch will be held in Brisbane on Thursday October 25.

The lunch is once again generously sponsored by top visual effects company Alt.vfx and film production company Taxi Film. Brisbane's top creatives and agency producers will be receiving invitations this week.

Continuing the important work of championing workplace diversity in the advertising industry, The Agency Circle is getting ready to release it third diversity benchmarking survey on Monday, October 22nd, carrying on from last year's survey results that unearthed valuable insights into agency employees' experience in the workplace when it comes to diversity, and perceptions of diversity.
 
Launched in 2016 as a response to increasing frustrations around the lack of diversity found in creative agencies, this year's survey is open to all agencies, creative, media, digital or otherwise, and spans all aspects of diversity, including ethnicity, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, disability, gender and age.
 
Appointed this year as The Agency Circle chairman is Leo Burnett Australia head of talent, Sarah Palmer (pictured). She takes over the role from Clemenger BBDO Sydney managing director, Emily Perrett. Palmer is encouraging more involvement from agencies with less than 100 staff to also take part.

The Valley and Magnum Opus Partners have launched the 2018 Cox Plate Carnival again focusing closely on what the Spring Carnival is really all about - racing!

The Cox Plate Carnival at The Valley is very different from the other Spring Racing headline events - the Cox Plate itself is widely believed to be the best WFA race in the world, and it holds a unique position in the Australian racing calendar.

AWARD School has announced Josie Burns (far right) as the new national school head for 2019, including two new appointments across Victoria and Western Australia.

Host/Havas Sydney's associate creative director Josie Burns has been appointed as 2019 National/NSW AWARD school head, alongside Leo Burnett's Karen Ferry, who has in been in the role since August 2017. Josie succeeds Clemenger BBDO's Brendan Willenberg as national and NSW school co-head.

Jess Wheeler (far left), associate creative director and partner at Fenton Stephens has been appointed Victoria school head. Rikki Burns (centre), associate creative director at Meerkats has been appointed Western Australia school head.

Applications are still open for the 2018 Copy School in Sydney, sponsored by NewsMediaWorks, with another world-class line-up of guest creative tutors.

Copy School is designed to encourage the best quality copywriting across all channels and engages some of Australia's leading advertising creative directors and copywriters, as well as news media executives, to pass on their knowledge and experience.

Commercial photographer Andrew Vukosav was seeking solitude when he initially took to the skies of Australia with his dog Frankie for company. The white noise of the plane's engine, together with the focus required to keep control of his ship, meant he was liberated from the constraints of everyday life and free within the skies and landscape.

A new TV series featuring one of Australia's most loved female celebrity cooks, Anna Gare, and a team of real-life cabbies, hit the screens this week. The show, Anna Gare's Cab Fare, follows the TV cook as she gathers stories and recipes from 13cabs' diverse network of cab drivers - culminating in the creation of delicious dishes inspired by Australian drivers with diverse backgrounds from around the globe, as pasrt of a new campaign via Thinkerbell.