MFA-Ex was back and heaving this year with a series of keynotes presentations that included two audio speakers on stage talking to each other for 20 minutes, a raging “Data Wars” debate in which personalisation lost out and the $1.8bn inventor of programmatic trading who’s turned planet crusader. 

Perhaps the most personally instructive for the crowd was a keynote from Initiative Media, which developed the art of diplomacy and a velvet-gloved punch by demonstrating in a series of live questions how media agency types risked being out of touch with the population by assuming their own lifestyles, location and perceptions were representative. 

“We were off in almost every single one of those questions,” said Initiative boss Sam Geer after the voting tallies came in on a series of questions on the ethnic, neurodivergent and bodyweight of Australians. 

“Sometimes we can be guilty of not checking on ourselves and seeing the sort of influences that actually guide our media decisions and the change that we create in the world,” Geer said. “In Sydney, we are very much anchored in this anglo inner city living environment and that has a profound effect not just on how we see the world but how we plan within it.”

Personalisation got more of an overt hammering than industry lifestyle and mindset bubbles in an entertaining “Data Wars” debate which in Sydney saw PHD’s Head of Digital, Gemma Dawkins, dramatically turn crowd sentiment away from personalisation and the early momentum that was with Nine’s Director of Advertising & Data, Ben Campbell.  

“People don't trust advertising anymore…in fact, advertising is the second least trusted profession in Australia,” said Dawkins in her retort to Nine’s Ben Campbell, who argued for the case. “We sit behind journalists, behind real estate agents and even MPs. And why is it? Because people don't want to be a point of experience….and most of the time our data sources are horribly inaccurate.”

In a deft display of turning sentiment, Dawkins flipped the pre-debate crowd vote in favour of personalisation to a resounding defeat. Truth can sometimes win.

Mi3 asked a handful of MFA-Ex attendees for their takes on the gig – here they are:

Max Broer, National Strategy Director, Bohemia.

No one needs to hear it again, but jeez its been a weird couple of years. Particular for an industry like ours whose core product, best work and most compelling reason to build a career in, is the connection of people. So, to be in a room again with 1,500 peers was downright refreshing, energising and inspiring. 

Whether it was the half wave to old colleagues across the room or the deeper life chats with industry friends you hadn’t seen IRL in three years, it felt bloody good to have MFA EX, and media in general, back and buzzing.

What the industry needed right now: optimism and inclusivity

If I had to summarise the broad blend of presentations on display this year, I’d go with responsibly optimistic. 

Across all presentations there was a focus on both the power our industry has to create impactful change, and the responsibility that comes with that to ensure we do so with the environment and inclusion front and centre. 

There was the slick, thoughtful and self-aware opening from Initiative’s dynamic duo, Sam Geer and Chris Colter, challenging our all too real unconscious biases. There were powerful stories of reflection shared in OMD’s exploration of indigenous practices. Then there was the heavyweight keynote from the creator of the programmatic industry, Brian O’Kelley, imploring that we, The Changers can make an enormous impact on the future of our planet if we are brave enough to challenge ourselves and our partners to do better.

This was a wise tone for the day to strike, because while it was challenging and provocative, it was a rally cry that centred on what we can do as a collective to have a positive impact on the future. 

However, the focus on the future does come at a cost, and on this day that was facing up to the very real and present challenges that are confronting our industry right now. To have a full day of presentations without one notable mention of inflation, in-housing, the talent supply chain, privacy regulation or even a discussion around what the hell Web 3 actually is, felt like a missed opportunity to provide some more tangible and opinionated discussion. 

While I did really enjoy the Futurology and Data Wars segments that took a fun and engaging take on how we look at technology in our industry, they lacked a little of the edge that similar segments had in the first iteration of MFA EX. 

I don’t think anyone particularly wanted to see a return to some of the more bitter Q&A moments of the first MFA EX, but I think its important to have a thoughtful and respectful exploration of the harder hitting challenges our industry faces.  

That said, I firmly believe MFA EX 2022 delivered what the media industry needed right now. An inclusive, upbeat, and most importantly fun day for us to reconnect with each other, and look forward with confidence. 

An energy summarised perfectly by Paralympian Grant “Scooter” Patterson closing proceedings with his utterly original and always inspiring take on living life well.

Kate O’Loughlin, Strategy Manager, Initiative

It wasn’t just industry Kool-Aid and slaps on the back at this year’s MFA EX – there were also some confronting truths and genuine conversations.

I’m a sceptic of Kool-Aid, especially when it’s industry flavoured. While sometimes industry events can feel like one big ol’ kumbaya moment, MFA EX was far from this. The day was filled to the brim with genuine, impactful conversations that left me feeling both inspired and motivated (far from the Kool-Aid sugar high). However, getting a full day out of the office can always be a challenge. If you were unable to attend, I’ve taken it upon myself to give you the TL/DR (too long didn’t read, for those of you who don’t speak internet) of the key themes from MFA EX 2022.  

TL/DR: We’re not as woke as we thought
The day opened with Initiative’s ‘Awaken Your Unconscious’ panel where Sam Geer and Chris Colter demonstrated that as an industry, we have increased the representation of diverse communities in both our people our work. However, there are communities that represent a large portion of society that aren’t considered by many media buyers. While 86% of our industry feel they can be their authentic selves, 61 per cent experience bias once or more a month.

While visibility of ALL groups must become the standard, our industry must move beyond just representing marginalised communities to advocating for them too. 

TL/DR: Honesty is actually the best policy 
Throughout the day, some of the most powerful moments were the times where people braved all in the interest of the greater good.

We saw this in Brian O’Kelley’s session ‘With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility’, where he spoke candidly about his personal experience in being made redundant off the back of a deal with a company he literally founded. Shortly after him, panellist Naej Blanchard-Dunn from OMD’s talk in ‘First Nations Practices For A Sustainable Workplace’ advocated for the importance of transparent storytelling and what this meant to her personally as a First Nations woman. 

At its core the day was powered by truth, with continuous call-to-arms moments from various sessions that left you feeling fired up to go and enact some change. 

TL/DR: Collaborations aren’t just for the Kardashians 
While logically it makes sense that you need a team to score a goal, we lose sight of this when we’re having a good game ourselves. 

We first heard this thought from UM’s session ‘Even The Best Ideas Are Not Easy To Sell’, where Raj Gupta closed the session by calling for agencies to collaborate with partners, and again later in the day from Remi Baker’s ‘Crimes Against Creativity’, where she pushed for individuals to work together to grow ideas.

So often we focus on individual accolades or the success of our own agencies, but there is a need for cross-function and cross-agency collaboration. 

TL/DR: If you’re not uncomfortable, you’re not doing it right
It’s easy to push our industry’s issues to the side in favour of the positive, especially when that involves sitting at your Friday lunch with a glass of champagne in hand.  

But sometimes the most impactful conversations are those focusing on the potential negatives of working in media. Caitlin West started the afternoon with a challenge for the industry to rethink the way we view hygiene factors for agency retention through her talk on ‘The Tenure Equation To Happiness’. 

Caitlin was followed by PHD’s ‘Data Wars’ debate, which pushed the audience to re-evaluate their belief that personalisation could do more harm than good thanks to an incredible case from Gemma Dawkins. 

Both sessions proved to me that in discomfort we become better people. By challenging the discourse of our industry, we can ensure everyone loves and advocates for their role in media. 

It’s rare that you walk away from an industry expo armed with not just knowledge, but tools to create change within your teams and companies. MFA EX, however, was one of those days. 

Far from building a literal campfire and sitting around it with someone stumbling their way through an acoustic cover of ‘Wonderwall’, MFA EX was a come-together moment for our industry. Let’s hope this was more than just a singalong. 

I look forward to seeing change off the back of the day and will be keenly observing the trade press for campaigns and initiatives that create, advocate, and celebrate our diverse country.

Mark Tzintzis, Business Lead, Mindshare; Co-Chair MFA 5+ Committee, Melbourne

The late (and great) Kobe Bryant is oft credited with saying “turn every setback into a comeback”. If the last two years of COVID was our industry’s setback, then the MFA EX dual-city event held in Melbourne on 6 October and Sydney on 13 October was our collective – and triumphant – comeback. 

It’s quite coincidental (if not poetic) that the day after MFA EX Melbourne, the Victorian Government announced that the pandemic declaration was set to expire, putting a fortuitous and definitive full stop on the past. 
After two years of media and marketing short-termism, thought leadership was back, front and centre, and at scale. The topics covered on the day at MFA EX were varied, putting on display the depth and breadth of not only the opportunities our industry is primed to take advantage of, but the challenges we simultaneously face.

There were three standout sessions for me:

1. Awaken Your Unconscious
2. Client In The Hot Seat
3. Data Wars

Awaken Your Unconscious presented by Initiative’s Sam Geer and Chris Colter – while plagued by pesky technology – made me ponder the uncomfortable question as to whether our largely white, young, and comparatively affluent labour force, truly ‘knows’ Australian society at large. We were at times way off the mark when it came to quantifying non-traditional sectors of our community via the interactive polls which in and of itself isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker… until of course you take a step back and look at how many hours are spent in agencies talking about DE&I. 

Nevertheless, the session did leave me feeling hopeful after a considered discussion with guest panellists from the MFA DE&I Advisory Council, where practical measures were tabled to help awaken our collective unconscious bias to become better – and more inclusive – media professionals (such as taking advantage of tools like the SBS Inclusion Program).

Client In The Hot Seat featured Lisa Ronson, CMO at Coles and Suzana Ristevski, CMO at NAB – two formidable clients from very different categories speaking about their goals and how our industry is poised to help their teams achieve them. 

To agencies, this type of insight is gold but unfortunately, the little time allocated to these sessions meant we did not have the ability to really convert what they were saying into actionable outputs on our end. I understand the concept was meant to be a rapid-fire questioning of sorts, but a more measured conversation, delving into how our industry (which has moved well beyond just media planning and buying and into data, analytics, measurement, and more) can help truly add value would have made for a more illuminating discussion. 

Data Wars presented by PHD was surprisingly entertaining. It cleverly took the – at times – dry and dull topic of data ethics and turned it into a fun (yet informative) debate. Thought I did feel a little sorry for Nine’s Director of Strategy & Insights, Toby Boon. 

He had most of the room on his side before the debate began, agreeing with his case that data harvesting isn’t really that bad. By the end of the session, however, the majority of the room was disagreeing with him. I’m certainly not putting this down to Toby’s debating skills (he was illuminating, as always) but rather the audience’s (myself included) fickleness, coupled with PHD National Head of Digital Gemma Dawkins’ evident persuasiveness.

 All-in-all, MFA EX was a resounding success. Holding the first session in Melbourne was a nice touch, as well. As a proud and native Melbournian, it was great to once again see us at our best as we signalled to our industry, to our clients and to the market that we’re back… and boy, are we back! 

Katie Finney,  Director, 7RED

MFA EX awakened me to my unconscious bias, now I know it’s up to me to make conscious change. We are an industry centred in human connection, writes Seven’s Katie Finney, and screens will never replace the impact of meeting face to face to exchange ideas and inspiration.

There’s only one way to describe it: walking into a packed room of 1,500+ dynamic and engaged media executives is an electrifying experience. To be reconnected face to face with colleagues, peers, and friends ready to be inspired brought out a sense of anticipation in me that I had not experienced in a long time.

The MFA’s industry purpose – and theme for MFA EX – of “We are the changers” was brilliantly curated throughout the day, with every session engaging, informative and fresh. Through the Inspiration X sessions, it was wonderful to see the inclusion of our amazing future leaders in advertising with less than 15 years’ experience command the room – equally to that of legends in our industry. 

After starting the day with my personal awakening with Sam Geer and Chris Colter’s interactive – and for me, uncomfortable – session, I made the personal commitment to take as much out of the day for my own self-improvement and to champion new ways of thinking among my colleagues and business partners. 
If others felt the same was I did, our industry is poised for great change over the coming months and years. A huge achievement, in my book.

To deliver on this ambition, my three key outtakes of the day:

1. Inspired by Scope3’s Brian O’Kelley – who was certainly a highlight – I am going to make the choice to change small things that I have the power to do so, to be more sustainable. With each action I take, I will follow Brian’s appeal to tell people what I have done. I am going to share, share and share again, so people can do the same.
2. Learning from the practices of our First Nations People and the session presented by OMD, I am going to make more time for storytelling within our team. I will listen to people’s stories, get to know what makes them who they are, and be true to myself.
3. From Paralympian Grant “Scooter” Patterson, I will remember that everyone can be great, you just need to want it bad enough. You need to do the work to get yourself there and importantly don’t give up when you don’t get there straight away.

After three years without MFA EX and other live events, it was glaringly obvious how much our industry needs these events. We need to make the time to step away from Teams calls and the constant flow of work, and be challenged to think differently. We need to be inspired and take the time to self-reflect. 

Our people need to appreciate why face to face will always be better than working remotely and shared experience via screen was only because it was a requirement for our survival during the pandemic.  

We are an industry centred in human connection and we must champion this so our future leaders can develop, grow, and importantly stay working in this wonderful industry. I cannot wait to be together for MFA EX again in 2023 and celebrate the small or big changes that each of the 1,500 attendees will have achieved.

Catherine Krantz, Executive Director – Media operations, Dentsu international

Held for the first time in Melbourne after a successful run in Sydney in 2019, MFA EX was the perfect antidote to two years of being apart as an industry. While some of the excitement in the room could likely be attributed to the long pause of in-person events, I believe it had more to do with the sharp insights, new perspectives and challenging invitations issued by the stellar cast of presenters.

What MFA EX managed to achieve was the ideal balance between the more technical media content on one side, and on the other, discussions on how we can become better as an industry – more inclusive, more flexible, better contributors to our communities and society at large.

There was loads of great content shared throughout the event and it was difficult to choose, but here are my top 3 sessions:

First Nations Practices for a Sustainable Workplace
As a member of the MFA EX and Awards committee, I knew from the moment I saw this topic in the draft agenda that it would be a standout and the presenters didn’t disappoint. Four short stories presented with passion about how “success” can be reframed and how important it is to live authentically, share stories generously and acknowledge the responsibility we have to the earth and the generations that will follow us.

Philippa Moig’s personal story about her time as a jillaroo and the life-altering decision this was for her, her future partner and their family, was fascinating and put into perspective the positive changes people can make to lead full and interesting lives.

In the words of one of the presenters, indigenous leader Dr Paul Callaghan: “The essence of a leader is to create great stories for those around you: your family, your team, your community.”

Learning from the Future
If the session above was about taking cues from the past, this session was, in contrast, offering people a framework to think about what’s possible in the future. The presenter, Mark Byrne, is a colleague so I must confess my bias towards his presentation, but his ability to break down the hefty topic of futurology into simple, relatable examples and offer a perspective of where our industry could go left the audience captivated.

Using the example of Nokia, which despite spending billions of dollars on research and development, fell from grace as the leading mobile phone maker by failing to look to the future, Mark inspired the audience to explore the potential of ‘what if’ territory.

“How does such a successful company, spending such huge amounts of research  and development, completely miss the strategic possibilities of a product they were solely focused on?” he asked the audience. A quote by Apple icon Steve Jobs provided a glimpse of the answer: “Innovation has nothing to do with how much innovation dollars you have. It’s got nothing to do with money. It’s about the people you have, how those people are led, and how much those people get it.”

Presenting a ‘Futurology Framework’, Mark left he audience with a valuable takeaway.

1. Examine the underlying drivers of change.
2. Describe plausible future scenarios.
3. Develop stories to connect future to present.
4. Develop solutions.

Inspiration X: Caitlin West and Christian Rossi

If Caitlin and Christian are the future of our industry, then rest assured we are in good hands. Both presenters delivered their content with clarity and confidence, and I especially liked the way they each took a fresh view of current topics: employee retention and change. They approached their topics from a different perspective, with Caitlin presenting a compelling case on why we should learn from people who stay with companies rather than those who leave, and Christian sharing his view on what we can learn from the All Blacks, a best-in-class example of a high-performing team.

What all these presentations had in common was an abundance of elements that can be practically applied in our agencies today – from having the vulnerability to share your story with someone in your team, to asking “what if” on a client brief, or considering the power of autonomy, recognition, and trust in retaining employees and building resilient teams.

Ultimately, I left with three important take-aways:

1) It's critical for our industry, in partnership with clients and media owners, to continue to champion diverse views and imagery to drive societal change.

2) Ideas and inspiration can come from anywhere; you just need to be curious.

3) And we’re better when we’re together!