MFA eNEWSLETTER - 2007

• 2006 ELECTIONS
• NEW MEMBERS
• MFA LAUNCHES ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP
• MFA REPRESENTATION
• AWARDS
• EDUCATION AND TRAINING
• ONLINE/DIGITAL SUB COMMITTEE
• RESEARCH

^TOP

2006 ELECTIONS

Gary Hardwick- MFA President

We are delighted to welcome Gary Hardwick as our new MFA President. Gary's dedication, focus and commitment to delivering positive results will ensure that the MFA continues to meet its charter in serving it's members and striving for continual improvement across many aspects of the advertising media sector.

Roger Camplisson - MFA Vice President

The role of the MFA continues to evolve and grow as the industry sector faces continual and rapid changes and the need to have a senior and solid leadership team driving industry initiatives has become vital to ensure our success of implementing effective change. Consequently the MFA is delighted to announce the appointment of Roger Camplisson, Chief Executive Officer of Initiative to the position of MFA Vice President.

John Sintras - Former MFA President

After serving an extended term of four years as MFA President, John Sintras has stepped down from the role making way for Gary Hardwick to take up the reigns.  John’s commitment and passion to serving and improving opportunities for the industry has been extraordinary and his efforts are greatly admired and appreciated. Thank you John for your tireless energy over the past four years and delivering so many positive outcomes for the benefit of our industry

^TOP

NEW MEMBERS

MotivatorMedia are welcomed into the fold and join us as our first Melbourne only based agency.

^TOP

MFA LAUNCHES ASSOCIATE MEMBERSHIP

When the MFA commenced operations some nine years ago, the objectives of the Association was to promote, develop and defend the rights and interests of its members as media practitioners. With the associated goals of improving accountability, providing better research, improving the standard of education and creating opportunities that enhance the operations of a media agency, it has become clear that these functions are now affecting a much wider community.

The accelerated change of technology and it's influence on consumer behaviour has seen our industry evolve into providing specialist communication services that deliver fully integrated communication solutions across a range of platforms. With this expansion the MFA recognises that its members are now competing in a new environment and that the exclusive nature of the membership to only serve traditional planning and buying needs is outdated.

As a result, the MFA has created an Associate Membership that will allow any organization, other than Media Agents to become an MFA member. This could include broadcasters, publishers, media suppliers, marketers, educational providers, consultants or specialist companies such as event marketing, sales and promotion, and online.

Entitlements of the Associate Membership includes:

• Access to published best practice documents or guidelines
• Member discounts to MFA endorsed events such as MFA Awards program
• MFA Newsletter
• Opportunity to participate in MFA Trainee Program
• Opportunity to participate in various Committees
• Email updates on any industry developments, initiatives, newsletters
• Ability to market their service through MFA website
• Access to MFA members room

Many of these entitlements are subject to approval by the Executive Committee as it remains vital to ensure confidentiality on sensitive information is maintained and that the intentions of any action by associate members are not compromising to the key charter of the association.

For more information on the MFA constitution and Associate Membership please contact carol@mediafederation.org.au

^TOP

MFA REPRESENTATION

The MFA has a firm belief in placing effort and resources where it will most likely affect change. As such the MFA holds all five of the Advertiser positions on the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), a position as an Executive Committee member on the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC), two positions on the Outdoor Marketing Australia (Move) board and technical committee, one position on the OzTAM technical committee and a position on the OzTAM board and finally holding one position on the Advertising Standards Bureau board. The MFA always welcomes any opportunities to contribute to discussions that may result in positive outcomes for the industry.

^TOP

AWARDS

	2006 MFA Awards were definitely 'anything but beige'. In its eigth year, all records continued to be broken with 183 entries received and judged by over 80 specialists in Sydney and Melbourne with 610 people celebrating at the Hordern Pavilion on October 19. The shift from single media type to categories such as Automotive, FMCG, Finance, etc has continued to prove successful. With a higher proportion of the marks now attributed to proving the effectiveness of the media contribution itself, we are delighted that the marketers have embraced these changes so positively and it was pleasing to have so many clients participating in the judging process.
	A Pro Bono or Cause Marketing category was launched at the event in memory of Pam Lane and in appreciation for her significant contribution to the industry. This year $4,700 was raised from dinner ticket sales and donated to Young Achievement Australia according to the wishes of Pam's family. This category creates a wonderful opportunity to encourage the industry to undertake more work in helping the community in areas of need. The MFA Awards is proudly supported by PBL as our GRAND PRIX SPONSOR for the seventh year. Our MAJOR SPONSORS include: Australian Association of National Advertisers, Adnews, Advertising Standards Bureau, APN Outdoor, Magazine Publishers of Australia, Multi Channel Network, News Ltd, OzTAM, and SBS. DISTINGUISHED SPONSORS include: Active International, Airworks, AGB Nielsen Research, Australia Post, Establishment, Nielsen Media Research and Regional TV Marketing.

^TOP

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

The MFA has delivered some major initiatives this year with the intention of improving the quality of education in the Advertising Media domain as well as increasing awareness of the industry. These outcomes include: The launch of the Media Guideline which is available free on our website, is an 86 page overview of the Australian Advertising Media industry, covering the structure, roles and responsibilities, processes, systems, terms and much more. Many in the tertiary sector have welcomed this publication with comments such as this from Brett Van Heekeren, Course Co-ordinator BA Communication, Charles Sturt University, 'Congratulations this is a marvellous initiative, we have been crying out for something along these lines'. This publication offers a great insight for tertiary students, new cadets to the advertising media industry as well as new recruits to the marketing and media sectors. In the two months since its launch on our website, we have received over 300 downloads. Three major universities plus the Government Business Services Training Package have undertaken an agreement to upgrade their advertising units to offer more comprehensive training on media planning and buying and the MFA is assisting in offering further education and material to the course developers. In 2006 the MFA Trainee Program placed ten graduates with host agencies for three months in Sydney and Melbourne and 9 of these were placed in permanent positions. Another major initiative we launched in 2006 is a dynamic video that is aimed to encourage interest for students to pursue a career in advertising media. Check out the video on our website.

2007 Trainees

^TOP

ONLINE/DIGITAL SUB COMMITTEE

The Online/Digital committee was introduced at our last AGM and the opportunity to have a voice in this sector has been embraced by the marketplace.

The MFA, in conjunction with the IAB and AFA established a set of standardized Ad Specifications and naming conventions. Detail of the Standards is now posted on the IAB's web site. http://www.iabaustralia.com.au/standards.html

The MFA has been an active member of the 2007 Internet Awards steering committee and as such have played a key role in helping to reshape the program with restructuring entry categories, judging criteria and all members of the sub committee have been invited to participate in the judging process in early 2007.

The MFA continues to seek greater collaboration with other industry bodies to ensure any developments in the media research area meet industry expectations.

^TOP

RESEARCH

Many goals continue to be kicked with our aim in delivering continual improvement on audience and media measurement. Much of the past year has been focused on two major initiatives 1) review and implementation of a revised reporting structure for the ABC and 2) evaluation of a preferred measurement system for the Out of Home advertising industry.

November 17 saw the release of the new look report from the ABC. This report is the first of a new 13 week reporting calendar for the majority of publications and it now contains greater transparency on the numbers that make up the Average Net Paid Sales. These results are a significant step forward in providing the industry with greater clarity and confidence in the numbers and the efforts of many individuals must be applauded.

Having representation on the MOVE technical committee has allowed the MFA to have a significant role in reviewing and identifying the optimum deliverables for a single Out of Home audience measurement system. Many of the elements continue to be worked through and we will continue to support the OMA in meeting the needs of the market when the system rolls out in 2008.

2007 will see the continuation of many ongoing initiatives such as demographic and socio economic harmonisation, print measurement enhancements through quality reading metrics, sectionalised readership from newspaper publishers and a day of week circulation report from publishers. With the MFA holding ten seats at the board and technical levels of various committees, we can be assured that the effort required to implement change is allowed with these positions of influence and knowledge.

In closing we would like extend our sincere appreciation to everyone that supports and actively contributes to all of the MFA projects, many of which are too numerous to mention in this newsletter.  We would like to take this opportunity in wishing you a healthy and fulfilling year both professionally and personally.

For more information on any of the MFA initiatives, please contact Carol Morris at the MFA on 9583 9610 or Gary Hardwick on 9290 7500 for more details.

^TOP