Speaker 1: Nine podcasts, nine podcasts.
Speaker 2: Effect but.
Speaker 3: Bline good a Russell Hallcroft here and I am Freddie
Speaker 3: Young and we are back with another episode of Admission
Speaker 3: where we unpack the biggest stories happening in the worlds
Speaker 3: of marketing media and more many things to get through.
Speaker 4: Today.
Speaker 2: We have the new content format taking the world by storm.
Speaker 2: Open AI is getting into hardware, and we're also going
Speaker 2: to discuss maybe the most important campaign happening in the
Speaker 2: world right now, Russ.
Speaker 4: But first off, Russ, how are you?
Speaker 1: Thank you for asking? Freddy. I'm great, I'm great. We're well.
Speaker 1: This is has discussed earlier. This is the busiest time
Speaker 1: of the year for me because I'm We do our admission,
Speaker 1: we do the breakfast radio. But then of course I'll
Speaker 1: get on a plane, I'll go and do a Telly.
Speaker 1: And the good news is that Teley Show grewing. You know,
Speaker 1: it's year eighteen if you can believe that, and it
Speaker 1: is going really well from a ratings point of view.
Speaker 1: So the seven day number is the one that we
Speaker 1: all look at now. So the overnight stuff is you know,
Speaker 1: some somewhat of an old fashioned way to look at TV.
Speaker 1: You know, so ie watching it live you know, eight
Speaker 1: o'clock on the on ABC on a Wednesday night. That
Speaker 1: that is one method to watch it, of course, but
Speaker 1: the other method is via iView. And what tends to
Speaker 1: happen is it's about fifty to fifty so you know,
Speaker 1: five hundred to six hundred thousand people watching it live
Speaker 1: eight o'clock on Wednesday, and then the rest five hundred
Speaker 1: and six hundred thousand catch up over the over the
Speaker 1: course of the next seven days. So you know, that's
Speaker 1: that's a pretty good number. That's a really good number. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that show just you know, while I'm on a
Speaker 1: bit of a growing advertisement, you know, three of the
Speaker 1: top five shows ever on the ABC are ruins grew
Speaker 1: in shows.
Speaker 2: So you've really that you've got the grew and transfer
Speaker 2: for what is a growing world?
Speaker 4: What are the top three? What are the variants?
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, well, grew and transfer. In fact, it's actually
Speaker 1: quite interesting, you know, Will and I have been talking
Speaker 1: about it a bit this year off air, like why
Speaker 1: did we who decided that it should just be called
Speaker 1: grew and they're not growing transfer? The Gruen transfer was
Speaker 1: always a great name because, of course it refers to
Speaker 1: an architect in I think in the nineteen thirties in
Speaker 1: the US that worked out how to turn browsers into
Speaker 1: buyers via the floor plan of shopping centers, and then
Speaker 1: that became known as the Growen transfer, transferring a browser
Speaker 1: to a buyer. And obviously that translates extremely well to
Speaker 1: the world of advertising, turning people that. You know, obviously,
Speaker 1: what we do in advertising is we try and find
Speaker 1: as many browsers as possible, and really good advertising turns
Speaker 1: the browser into a buyer. So I always thought the
Speaker 1: name was brilliant and then for some reason the trans
Speaker 1: verb it's been taken off because someone didn't ask me.
Speaker 4: It's funny. We've talked to her recently.
Speaker 2: I think we're talking about Airbnb and about, you know,
Speaker 2: the different opinions for what the verb to Airbnb is
Speaker 2: and how that sort of you know, lays the plan
Speaker 2: or the or the blueprint for how it expands into
Speaker 2: different verticals.
Speaker 4: When you when you think.
Speaker 2: About the word gruin now in Australia, is it fair
Speaker 2: to say that its meaning is probably you know, there's
Speaker 2: obviously it still means what it means, but to the
Speaker 2: vast majority of the Australian viewing public, they probably don't
Speaker 2: know about that Austrian social sideist. So the fact that
Speaker 2: you've been able to go into these different verticals, what
Speaker 2: do you think Gruin as a brand stands for at
Speaker 2: the moment?
Speaker 1: That's really I think I think at its best growing
Speaker 1: well grew and stands for sort of let's call it entertainment.
Speaker 1: But I think Gruin works at its best when the
Speaker 1: Gruin personified by Will is cynical, is questioning, questioning the
Speaker 1: role that you know, the world that you and I
Speaker 1: were in free, questioning our role in life. That's when
Speaker 1: it works at its best. Now, whether the public would have,
Speaker 1: you know, make that analysis, I'm not so sure. However,
Speaker 1: the public laugh along with the nonsense that is advertising
Speaker 1: by watching that show, don't they So they can probably
Speaker 1: get to that point. Or do they just say I
Speaker 1: enjoy it because it's funny. Yeah, and in the air,
Speaker 1: I've got to tell you this year it has gone
Speaker 1: up another level when with regard to the humor, they're
Speaker 1: just they're just doing a tremendous job. You know, there's
Speaker 1: a writing There is a writing room. There always has been,
Speaker 1: but there's a writing room. The editing is exceptional, and yeah,
Speaker 1: the product that's been produced is really really good when
Speaker 1: you think it's eighteen years. Eighteen years you reckon the
Speaker 1: people who get tired. Well, actually quite the opposite.
Speaker 2: No, you've I dare say, you figured it out and
Speaker 2: now you're able to sort of week to week take
Speaker 2: bigger and bigger swings, or to act with more confidence,
Speaker 2: which just makes for a better product every year, doesn't it.
Speaker 1: I love it, you know, And it's reminded me of
Speaker 1: an idea which maybe you could take into your agency
Speaker 1: in New York. The notion of a writer's room, a
Speaker 1: writing room, so that obviously it happens in TV and film,
Speaker 1: where you know you'll fill the room with as much
Speaker 1: talent as I suppose the room would fill, or as
Speaker 1: much as you dare. There will be writing rooms, comedic
Speaker 1: writing rooms in New York. They'd be happening right now.
Speaker 1: But the notion of a writing room in the world
Speaker 1: of advertising, I've never heard of it before, and we
Speaker 1: might be revolutionizing advertising right here, Freddie.
Speaker 4: It could be.
Speaker 2: And I tell you what I love about the writing
Speaker 2: room as well, is that it's a physical space. There's
Speaker 2: something in large. There's a lot of politics that goes
Speaker 2: on sort of in rooms, and you're always sort of
Speaker 2: worried about your image. And for a business, I think
Speaker 2: it works for any business really to create a room
Speaker 2: that's dedicated to sort of failing together, a very safe
Speaker 2: space where everyone's just allowed to say, hey, like, what
Speaker 2: do you think is that shit?
Speaker 4: Is this okay? Or something?
Speaker 2: And just to really vomit the ideas with each other.
Speaker 2: I think every house, every home should have, even if
Speaker 2: it's just a cupboard, a small space where you're allowed
Speaker 2: to suck together.
Speaker 1: I love the idea of this, of a writing room
Speaker 1: for ads. I mean it's quite interesting, you know, in
Speaker 1: a pitch situation. Certainly when I was pitching, you'd have
Speaker 1: a team or a couple of teams, and they'd go
Speaker 1: off and they'd be in their own room together, just
Speaker 1: you know, the art director and the writer in the
Speaker 1: traditional sense I don't think i've actually ever experienced. Let's
Speaker 1: put six really smart people in the one room at
Speaker 1: the one time and get them to crack it. What
Speaker 1: an obvious idea, What an obvious notion?
Speaker 4: They'll tell you.
Speaker 2: What it's making me think of is a place that
Speaker 2: I don't know what they are even, but I know
Speaker 2: that one day I really want to work at a
Speaker 2: think tank. I like the idea of going to work
Speaker 2: in a think tank.
Speaker 1: I could not agree with you more freddy social social ideas,
Speaker 1: experimentation around, you know, new regimes, new taxes, even freddy,
Speaker 1: even a new tax could be interesting if you're doing
Speaker 1: it in a think tank.
Speaker 4: Exactly, I'd love it.
Speaker 2: It's just to be surrounded by no intelligent people that's
Speaker 2: giving it their best and being a little self conscious
Speaker 2: maybe or maybe the opposite of it.
Speaker 1: Speaking of a thing, Well, yeah, I'm speaking of think tank.
Speaker 1: So I was just some reading over the weekend with
Speaker 1: regard to AI and what AI is going to do
Speaker 1: to in particular the white let's call it white collar,
Speaker 1: the white collar world, you know. In the prediction that
Speaker 1: I read was that twenty percent of white collar jobs
Speaker 1: will be gone within five years, which of course reminds
Speaker 1: us of that that that Kodak case study, when you know,
Speaker 1: consultants came into Kodak and said, well, look, this digital
Speaker 1: camera thing, it is a bit of an issue for you,
Speaker 1: and so here's what we think is going to happen
Speaker 1: to your business over the course of the next four years,
Speaker 1: Like your business won't exist in four years time. And
Speaker 1: then of course Kodak got to the point where their
Speaker 1: business didn't exist. I think I'm right and saying it
Speaker 1: wasn't four years, it was four months. So yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: So the idea, the idea that all the prediction twenty
Speaker 1: percent of white collar workers will lose their jobs because
Speaker 1: of AI. I'm not surprised by that number. Are you
Speaker 1: surprised by that?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 4: Not really, I am skeptical at times.
Speaker 2: I know there's there are certainly hiring freezers at the moment,
Speaker 2: and it does seem to look like the numbers do
Speaker 2: show that at the you know, let's call it the
Speaker 2: bottom rung, the entry level positions, they are starting to
Speaker 2: feel the gates of entry getting thinner and thinner. So
Speaker 2: I wonder if it's going to be one day we
Speaker 2: walk into the office and they say, hey, you're all gone,
Speaker 2: or if it's going to be slowly over time and
Speaker 2: you know, we just the number of people coming into
Speaker 2: the office gets slower and slower, and you know, one
Speaker 2: day we wake up and go, hey, where did everyone go?
Speaker 1: Well, maybe I think the other prediction in this particular
Speaker 1: article finn Review Week in finn was fifty percent of
Speaker 1: graduate jobs won't exist. And I can actually see that
Speaker 1: as well, because if you know, if you know that
Speaker 1: AI is going to change your workplace, what you will do,
Speaker 1: I think is just you know, I'm not going to
Speaker 1: employ ten graduates all employ five, because that's not such
Speaker 1: a tough decision to make as as the workplace, you know,
Speaker 1: reshapes itself. And of course the other prediction was, so
Speaker 1: guess who will be at the top of the list
Speaker 1: for headcount loss as a result of AI Those that
Speaker 1: are working from home? So you can just so see that,
Speaker 1: can't You aren't if you're part of a large corporation.
Speaker 1: Let's say you're part of a telco, just you know,
Speaker 1: just to pick an industry. You're part of a telco,
Speaker 1: You've spent the last five years working from home. You've
Speaker 1: lost your relationship really with the corporation and with your colleagues.
Speaker 1: AI is proving that, you know, we can afford to
Speaker 1: have some job losses. Who's going to lose their jobs?
Speaker 2: You know, the people that are already essentially at this
Speaker 2: point a screens. You know, if I'm going to interact
Speaker 2: with the screen, you know, why don't we get a
Speaker 2: very cheap screen? I can see, I can see the
Speaker 2: logic there. What my conspiracy theory with it as well.
Speaker 2: A lot of the time twofold is that you know,
Speaker 2: the capability isn't just quite there yet. I think sometimes
Speaker 2: AI I have the sneaking suspicion that it might just
Speaker 2: for a lot of organizations at least be a bit
Speaker 2: of a smoke screen for offshoring of jobs. And a
Speaker 2: lot of the time I've seen it in the news
Speaker 2: whenever people start saying things like we're going AI first now,
Speaker 2: it seems to me like a means by which founders,
Speaker 2: especially owner operators, are trying to sort of regain control
Speaker 2: of their organization. They want to be less people, less discussions.
Speaker 2: They really seduced by the idea that no longer is
Speaker 2: it sort of going to be a committee or anything.
Speaker 2: It's just going to be fewer people and smaller teams
Speaker 2: being able to move much faster and more importantly in
Speaker 2: the direction that the founder would.
Speaker 4: Like them to go.
Speaker 1: Right, I understand, and I think what would happen well,
Speaker 1: I think is going to happen in our world in
Speaker 1: the advertising production world, advertising and media and the digitize,
Speaker 1: the ever more digitization of the creative work and the media. Gee,
Speaker 1: a lot of it's going to be made by machines,
Speaker 1: isn't it Yep, Yes, a lot of it is going
Speaker 1: to be made by machines, that does. I do think
Speaker 1: that dars open up an opportunity for the stuff that
Speaker 1: isn't made by machines. Nonetheless, there will be a huge
Speaker 1: volume of in the main unwatchable.
Speaker 4: Yes, pretty much.
Speaker 2: Interesting it is it is, and I think the one
Speaker 2: thing I can't remember what the name. It's some sort
Speaker 2: of paradox though, where things are going to get cheaper
Speaker 2: to make, and so as the cost of production comes down,
Speaker 2: it holds that we're actually going to see a lot
Speaker 2: more stuff, which would indicate that rather than just outright
Speaker 2: losing jobs. There'll be some rounds upfront, of course, but
Speaker 2: over time it would tend to suggest we're going to
Speaker 2: see a lot more jobs making. Yes, in a lot
Speaker 2: of instances, more and worse stuff. But that's one thing
Speaker 2: that sort of keeps me, I guess a little optimistic.
Speaker 1: About speaking of optimism and progress and the world of AI.
Speaker 1: So you sent me a film that I that I
Speaker 1: had to endure.
Speaker 4: Yes, so it was.
Speaker 2: Last week Open Ai released a long but beautifully shot
Speaker 2: video of two men meeting at a cafe in San Francisco,
Speaker 2: and those two men were Sam Oltman, who was the
Speaker 2: CEO of open Ai, and Sir Johnny Ive who is
Speaker 2: an industrial designer, the ex chief design officer at Apple
Speaker 2: where he built the iPhone and the MacBook Pro. And
Speaker 2: they together are discussing with each other and also to
Speaker 2: camera the fact that Johnny's product and engineering company Io
Speaker 2: is merging with open Ai, their mission being to create
Speaker 2: a family of devices, so hardware and instead of us,
Speaker 2: you know, making our listeners sit through it all. I
Speaker 2: think the key moment of the video, or the problem,
Speaker 2: the key thesis, as Sam Oltman puts it, is he
Speaker 2: describes that, you know, we have like magic intelligen in
Speaker 2: the cloud, but if I want to ask chat JBT
Speaker 2: something right now, I'd have to get out my laptop.
Speaker 2: I'd have to launch the Internet, I'd start typing, and
Speaker 2: I'd have to like explain that thing. And you know,
Speaker 2: we're sort of at the limit of what a laptop
Speaker 2: can do. And so it sounds like they're gunning for
Speaker 2: a wearable and so we'll get to the rumors of
Speaker 2: what they're actually going to build. But other than that,
Speaker 2: the video is pretty light on details. So if they're
Speaker 2: not selling a particular product here, Russ. What are they
Speaker 2: selling us?
Speaker 1: Well, they're selling us themselves. I mean when I had
Speaker 1: a look at that film, my immediate reaction to it
Speaker 1: was ge whiz only in America, you know, I mean
Speaker 1: just and it really is. It really is writ large
Speaker 1: the difference between the American economy and ours, the Australian economy.
Speaker 1: And what I mean by that is that it showbiz right.
Speaker 1: Like literally the founder Sam, the founder Sam and founder Johnny.
Speaker 1: They literally they believe it's okay to make a film
Speaker 1: about themselves and the you know, the marriage that they
Speaker 1: are about to create in order to create even more
Speaker 1: value and even more ideas and more progress. Now I'm
Speaker 1: not knocking it. I wish that we were like that.
Speaker 1: I would love the idea that a couple of Australian entrepreneurs,
Speaker 1: we're happy to make a film about meeting in a
Speaker 1: cafe or a pub to talk about the next brilliant
Speaker 1: thing that they're about to produce. But we at a
Speaker 1: so far away from ever ever being in a position
Speaker 1: where culturally that would be acceptable.
Speaker 4: It's it's a very good point.
Speaker 2: It's funny how they get around the facts that they
Speaker 2: are just creating this really self aggrandizing video by having
Speaker 2: each other describe the other. So Johnny's describing Altman as
Speaker 2: bearing this huge responsibility, but it's still humble and curious,
Speaker 2: and Johnny is quoite, the deepest thinker in the world.
Speaker 4: And he has a lovely family.
Speaker 2: And you just watching this saying what's going on right now?
Speaker 1: I watched it exactly what. Okay, So my question to
Speaker 1: you is, that's very difficult for that to work in Australia,
Speaker 1: But does that work in America? What's your experience? Obviously
Speaker 1: you're living there, you've seen the film wells being there.
Speaker 1: What's your experience with regard to how it's been received
Speaker 1: in the US?
Speaker 2: I think it's it's funny with the news, so it's
Speaker 2: you're very right that it's it's not shocking, and the
Speaker 2: new cycles such as it is, that it wasn't overly
Speaker 2: discussed too much. People were very quick just to get
Speaker 2: into the details of this being I think the most
Speaker 2: expensive aquahigher, or maybe the second most expensive aquahigher in history.
Speaker 2: And so for all the theater and whatnot, it's it's
Speaker 2: almost table stakes to be this self aggrandizing and this
Speaker 2: to paint an image of oneself as something like a
Speaker 2: deep thinking god is kind of par for the course
Speaker 2: in tech right now, right, isn't it?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yes, no, I agree, And so my I suppose
Speaker 1: my assumption is that you know, you, there's probably an
Speaker 1: investment community that would get excited about it, and the
Speaker 1: community I'm imagining just just as I say, they just
Speaker 1: get pumped by the notion that so Johnny and Sam
Speaker 1: are going to get together to create something brand new,
Speaker 1: and they just they just go, this is exciting. Where
Speaker 1: do I point my money? Right? Because the I mean
Speaker 1: my time in New York, you know, I remember fondly.
Speaker 1: Really the vast majority of conversations that you would have
Speaker 1: over lunch or at dinner or whatever, is in fact
Speaker 1: about ideas, investments, companies that are going well, outstanding executives.
Speaker 1: It is like we might talk about footy.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, about Collingwood. They speak about ideas the
Speaker 2: way we speak about Collingwood's frontline exactly.
Speaker 4: It's much fashioned.
Speaker 2: It's funny just to touch on the language that we've
Speaker 2: gotten so used to hearing from these people. Towards the end,
Speaker 2: when Sam Oltman says, I think this will be one
Speaker 2: of those moments of just an absolute and that he
Speaker 2: does the dramatic pause, an absolute embarrassment of riches of
Speaker 2: what people go create for collective society, and Johnny says,
Speaker 2: I am absolutely certain that we are literally on the
Speaker 2: brink of a new generation of technology that can make
Speaker 2: us our better selves. Like the Mayo on this is incredible.
Speaker 1: Right but parf the course right now, wearable. I think
Speaker 1: wearables are really interesting. So I mean you can already
Speaker 1: get a pair of ray bands, can you not? Which
Speaker 1: have got the cameras and you can do the Google
Speaker 1: search and you can listen via the arms on the sunglasses.
Speaker 1: I've been meaning to get myself a pair of those,
Speaker 1: because that strikes me is actually a really good idea.
Speaker 1: How are they going in the US? You hardly see
Speaker 1: anyone wearing them here well, and that's.
Speaker 2: Honestly, Russ. It gives Yeah, I'm selling hard right now.
Speaker 2: We've got metas ray bands. You've also got so that
Speaker 2: video from open Ai, I think was purposefully timed to
Speaker 2: release at the same time as Google Io twenty twenty five,
Speaker 2: so they're big festival and they were demoing their new
Speaker 2: Android XR prototype glasses. So you have open Ai, Google
Speaker 2: and you know, we know Apple's done their vision. Recently,
Speaker 2: everyone is racing towards a wearables and to these glasses.
Speaker 2: And one thing that just gives me so much joy
Speaker 2: is that we as a society have repeated have repeatedly
Speaker 2: said no to these things. It feels like once every
Speaker 2: three months, some billionaire pops up and tells us to
Speaker 2: get in the helmet and we say no, thank you.
Speaker 4: He why would I do that?
Speaker 2: So do you think, like, does computing need this form?
Speaker 2: Is this natural? Or are they just inventing a problem.
Speaker 1: Oh, there's no doubt in my mind that wearable. Let's
Speaker 1: just go with the glasses. There's no doubt in my
Speaker 1: mind that the vast majority of humans on Earth will
Speaker 1: be wearing those classes within before this decade's out. I'm
Speaker 1: convinced of that. You know, I think that they're just
Speaker 1: going to be the utilitarian must have. Genuinely, I think
Speaker 1: that's what's going to happen, because you can just see
Speaker 1: so many practical uses and not the least of which
Speaker 1: they then do a co lab with let's say, well
Speaker 1: as they have done with a ray ban, so they
Speaker 1: don't have to look clunky, they can look cool, they
Speaker 1: can look as cool. You know, the glasses that I've got.
Speaker 1: I rather they love the classes I'm wearing at the moment.
Speaker 1: So if they can be turned into a wearable which
Speaker 1: has got all the joys of modern tech involved, I'm
Speaker 1: going to bring it on. I mean, look, Freddie, maybe
Speaker 1: this is something that happens as you get older. As
Speaker 1: you get older, you get more and more nervous about
Speaker 1: someone's name that you've forgotten. So I'm imagining that my
Speaker 1: glasses are going to look over there's Genevieve over there,
Speaker 1: she's our producer. If I've had a senior moment, I've
Speaker 1: forgotten Genevieve's name. It's just my glasses. They're just going
Speaker 1: to tell me. They're going to say, there's Jen right,
Speaker 1: and by the way, she produces admission. So I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm very convinced that that's the case. And then
Speaker 1: what will then happen is the robots, Tesla robots, the
Speaker 1: Tesla robot, and you're wearable. They're going to be best
Speaker 1: friends and they're going to help you have a I hope,
Speaker 1: have a better life. There is, though, that nonsense where
Speaker 1: Zuckerberg said the other day that he's excited about AI
Speaker 1: because he thinks it's going to solve loneliness. I mean,
Speaker 1: give me a break, it'll do the opposite. So there's anyway,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of there's a lot changing for Addie.
Speaker 2: There's a lot changing. And yeah, I'm it's it's it's funny.
Speaker 2: That does seem to be I totally get it. We
Speaker 2: sort of in some ways treat it as inevitable that
Speaker 2: we're all going to be doing this, but we're also
Speaker 2: all very cognizance of the risks of it. No one
Speaker 2: wants to be receiving ads against their eyes. We're all
Speaker 2: terrified of, you know, atrophying our brain muscles as well.
Speaker 2: And I think it's it's interesting to see. I think
Speaker 2: open Aye is going to be interesting because I don't
Speaker 2: think they're going for glasses. They're going to have like
Speaker 2: a pin. I think it's rumored something that will like
Speaker 2: a broach on a brooch on your shirt and we'll
Speaker 2: have a little camera and you can check your phone
Speaker 2: and maybe in your headphones it might speak to you
Speaker 2: through that. So I think they're smart to not go
Speaker 2: directly for the glasses because I think there's there's something
Speaker 2: to get over the fact that I don't. I'm going
Speaker 2: to feel uncomfortable if everyone I'm talking to is wearing
Speaker 2: a body cam, you know. Ah, it's this surveillance constant
Speaker 2: and the fact that you're being filmed at all time, Like,
Speaker 2: I think there's something there that no one's really addressing.
Speaker 2: That we're all going to be on record all of
Speaker 2: the time, which is a big barrier for us to
Speaker 2: get over.
Speaker 1: I went to a pizza making lesson the other day, Freddie,
Speaker 1: and the pizza maker had his ray Ban camera glasses
Speaker 1: on and and he said to us, you know, warning,
Speaker 1: I am filming the the pizza making lesson, and he
Speaker 1: was filming it because he then turned that into like
Speaker 1: within minutes, content content for his pizza making website. And
Speaker 1: I thought, well, I wasn't really offended by the fact
Speaker 1: that he was filming, you know, the class. So I
Speaker 1: don't know, Freddy. I think people, I think we might
Speaker 1: get over it quite quickly. You know. It's like I
Speaker 1: remember very well the first person I saw speaking on
Speaker 1: the tram on a mobile phone, and it was like,
Speaker 1: do you reckon? You are dickhead? Right, Yeah, Within a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks, everyone's on the mobile phone on the tram,
Speaker 1: so I think that these things they do because in
Speaker 1: the end, the utility of it is what outs it.
Speaker 1: Utility will out I reckon.
Speaker 4: It's yeah, I mean, God help us.
Speaker 2: I think you're right, it's coming, but I'm not excited
Speaker 2: about it.
Speaker 1: Rus tell me about web tunes, web tunes.
Speaker 4: Web turons.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean so like Tobacco, I was so.
Speaker 2: My neighbor very.
Speaker 4: Kindly invited me to a party this week.
Speaker 2: At party they were hosting downstairs, and everyone there that
Speaker 2: the neighbors in publishing, and everyone there was in publishing, naturally,
Speaker 2: and it was it was I spent most I'm so
Speaker 2: ashamed of how I was acting because everyone just kept
Speaker 2: mentioning books as if everyone just reads like all of them.
Speaker 4: All the time.
Speaker 2: You read a lot of books, yeah, but these people
Speaker 2: are on another level. They'd say like, oh, well, yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm I've just come off the back end of Emma Desktops.
Speaker 2: You know, we all wear up, and I'd have to
Speaker 2: be like, oh, that was you, congratulations, that's awesome. But
Speaker 2: I regret asking or not asking, like, how do you
Speaker 2: all have the time to read all of this book?
Speaker 2: Surely no one has time for this anymore. And that's
Speaker 2: why I was so excited when I found out this
Speaker 2: week about something called webterns. So this is this is
Speaker 2: something coming out of South Korea and it's essentially digital
Speaker 2: comics designed for vertical scrolling on smartphones.
Speaker 1: So I've been seriously how obvious obvious?
Speaker 2: It's so obvious, and yet it's just no one's for
Speaker 2: whatever reason.
Speaker 1: I've been like, one's done it.
Speaker 2: Yes, we've been.
Speaker 4: I've been thinking about it.
Speaker 2: I've been talking about it for a while, ever since
Speaker 2: a Cantar report last year came out saying that Australian's
Speaker 2: what is it one in three Australian students can't read proficiently,
Speaker 2: saying okay, well maybe it's time we revisit the book.
Speaker 2: And South Korea is only bloody gone and done it
Speaker 2: with this vertical scrolling. So right now, the market for
Speaker 2: web turns is valued at about nine billion dollars, so
Speaker 2: that was in twenty twenty four. They're expecting it to
Speaker 2: be worth nearly one hundred billion by twenty thirty three.
Speaker 2: So this is a huge, huge industry.
Speaker 1: And the fact that it's what I need to do.
Speaker 1: I suppose I just need to Google search web two.
Speaker 2: Yes, so there are I think there are two main
Speaker 2: platforms you go to right now, web Turn and Cacao
Speaker 2: Entertainment sort of the two big players right now. And
Speaker 2: it's really interesting because it's just a way for really
Speaker 2: independent creators, and you can imagine how it's only going
Speaker 2: to get easier and easier for a single solo artist.
Speaker 2: They're using, you know, maybe chat JBT to help generate
Speaker 2: the images to create a series that's really really just
Speaker 2: aimed at someone on the tram saying I would like
Speaker 2: five minutes of your time and you're just going to
Speaker 2: swipe through this this comic book that I've made for you.
Speaker 2: And it's really interesting how quickly these ips are profligrating
Speaker 2: into the rest of the world. So websterms such as
Speaker 2: Solo Leveling and Tower of God have already been turned
Speaker 2: into anime series and are being considered for live action adaptations.
Speaker 2: So like it's a new It sounds obvious, but it's
Speaker 2: it's a really I think the most exciting aspect of
Speaker 2: it is just the democratization of people being able to
Speaker 2: pitch and make essentially storyboards for a new IPS to
Speaker 2: go out into the world. I'm really excited. I mean,
Speaker 2: what do you do you have any fears about this?
Speaker 2: Are you as excited as I am?
Speaker 1: You totally. As soon as you articulated what it was,
Speaker 1: it's like, well, that'll work, you know, as as we've
Speaker 1: discussed many times before, Freddy the obvious. The obvious always works,
Speaker 1: you know, So there's something about it. I suppose it's
Speaker 1: just the It'll be just intuitive and it will work.
Speaker 1: It'll work brilliantly. And Charlie Harcroft comes to mind as well, Freddy,
Speaker 1: I mean he needs to be well, he needs to
Speaker 1: be made aware of web tunes, because I reckon that'll
Speaker 1: be in his wheelhouse.
Speaker 2: It's it's absolutely up his wheelhouse. I hadn't thought of that,
Speaker 2: like just for people and you and your family of
Speaker 2: you know, rich heritage of cartoonists to suddenly have a
Speaker 2: place where they can go and put out really exciting,
Speaker 2: new quirky work. And people might say, oh, well, you
Speaker 2: know Instagram carousels, why not there. I think it's it's
Speaker 2: almost like it's a bit like the writer's room. Having
Speaker 2: a space that's just dedicated for a particular art form
Speaker 2: just makes it so much more exciting and audiences get
Speaker 2: to focus.
Speaker 4: I'm thinking that probably.
Speaker 2: The next the next bluey will start as a web
Speaker 2: turn I'm sure of that.
Speaker 1: Nice, nice, nice Freddy. Well, keep your eye peeled for
Speaker 1: that particular content and then see if you can get involved.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, and in fact, I mean how to use it
Speaker 1: in an advertising sense as well. I'm sure that you
Speaker 1: and your agency colleagues will be thinking, Okay, how can
Speaker 1: we actually use this new form of storytelling to tell
Speaker 1: brand stories? I mean, don't be shy from doing that.
Speaker 1: Pretty you know, I was thinking about you at that
Speaker 1: in that New York publishing party. You would have been
Speaker 1: like a pig and shit, there.
Speaker 2: Mate, I was. I'm embarrassed by how poorly I did.
Speaker 4: It's just like.
Speaker 2: You think you read Russ and then you meet someone
Speaker 2: whose job it is to read and you realize that
Speaker 2: these is just another world entirely, and you start. I
Speaker 2: was walking prior to that night, I was thinking, oh,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm a bit of a bookworm or whatnot.
Speaker 2: And to them, ah, to them, they probably thought I
Speaker 2: was struggling on the consonants.
Speaker 1: It was sure, that's not well, well there you go,
Speaker 1: there you go. And so your ambition, you're reading ambition
Speaker 1: has been heightened, and that's a good thing.
Speaker 4: That's true. That's true, or I'm just going to become
Speaker 4: a web turn sort of guy. I feel like I'm
Speaker 4: maybe more of a web turn sort of consumer.
Speaker 1: Now I want to talk to you about a register
Speaker 1: for Rowan. So register for Rowan. Old school friend of mine, Freddy,
Speaker 1: his son. When he was eighteen years of age, he
Speaker 1: was diagnosed with my loma, so acute my lord leukemia
Speaker 1: in fact, and he is in remission now, but he
Speaker 1: does need to have a transplant. And as I was
Speaker 1: reading about him Rowan, I thought of you, Freddy, because
Speaker 1: you and the Good Ones were responsible, of course for
Speaker 1: making a campaign. So can you tell us about that?
Speaker 2: Yes, so, yeah, it was back I'm trying to think
Speaker 2: when it was back in it must have been twenty
Speaker 2: twenty where we were a good One creative. We were
Speaker 2: contacted by a charity called Australian Marrow Match, and the
Speaker 2: charity came about from a family like in a similar situation,
Speaker 2: who someone in their family had been diagnosed with blood
Speaker 2: cancer and had received a stem cell transplant.
Speaker 4: And the fact of I guess for people who.
Speaker 2: Aren't aware of it right now. So if you are
Speaker 2: someone that needs a stem cell transplant, I think there's
Speaker 2: about eleven hundred Australians every year who need one and.
Speaker 1: Yep, that's entirely correct, yes.
Speaker 2: And so only about forty thousand Australians are on the
Speaker 2: donor registry. So you have to sign up to go
Speaker 2: on this registry. And the thing is that it is
Speaker 2: so rare to have a match someone. So in the
Speaker 2: case of Rowan, I believe it's like his siblings are
Speaker 2: only about fifty percent matches, and you really need someone
Speaker 2: who's like close to one hundred percent really for a
Speaker 2: successful transplant to go through. So like Australia is in
Speaker 2: a pretty dire position and eighty percent of donations will
Speaker 2: come from overseas. So Australian Marrow Match flew us out
Speaker 2: actually to Tasmania to meet a man named Mark Reid, who.
Speaker 4: Father of three boys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, father of three boys, who had gone through the
Speaker 2: ordeal of blood cancer and yet the stem cell transplant
Speaker 2: had saved his life and you hear these sort of things,
Speaker 2: and we were there to make a documentary about him,
Speaker 2: and I remember interviewing him actually very clearly, and him
Speaker 2: talking about his first day back from the hospital when
Speaker 2: the doctors had said, you know, we think you're going
Speaker 2: to make it after you know the stem cell, the
Speaker 2: transplant's taken. You know, you think, we think you're going
Speaker 2: to be okay. And because you know, he'd had to
Speaker 2: do it all in Melbourne, he'd been sort of away
Speaker 2: from his family during this whole just awful ordeal, and
Speaker 2: he was talking about just the the contentment he felt
Speaker 2: sitting on the couch watching a game of footy with
Speaker 2: his sons and his wife.
Speaker 1: First aid back, Yeah, and it was just now you registered, Freddy,
Speaker 1: did you not?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I did, Yeah, And I think so it's you've got
Speaker 1: to be eighteen to thirty five in order to register.
Speaker 1: I think that is also correct.
Speaker 4: Yes, that's right.
Speaker 1: And why is that the case? Why? Why why couldn't
Speaker 1: I do it? Well?
Speaker 2: I think you. I think what they want is eighteen
Speaker 2: to thirty five year old men because you men particularly,
Speaker 2: they have just more mass and so more stem cells
Speaker 2: to give, and eighteen to thirty five because they're really
Speaker 2: good at producing them from that age. So yeah, that's
Speaker 2: what they're looking for. And these people as well, less
Speaker 2: likely to have any sort of complications of their own.
Speaker 2: Generally they're pretty healthy. So I actually got the call
Speaker 2: up for a donation, and the process you go through
Speaker 2: from when they call you up to when you actually
Speaker 2: give the donation. There's quite a bit of time actually,
Speaker 2: because what they have to do on their end, whoever's
Speaker 2: receiving the transplant, a lot of the time they'll go
Speaker 2: through another bout of chemo I think it is, and
Speaker 2: they're essentially trying to get their own stem cell count
Speaker 2: down to as close to zero as they can before
Speaker 2: it gets too dangerous, before they can load you up
Speaker 2: with the new stuff. So and when they're going through
Speaker 2: that process, the worst thing that could happen would be
Speaker 2: someone drop out or you know, it comes up with
Speaker 2: their own like. So it's the person on the receiving
Speaker 2: end of the transplant is going through a risky process
Speaker 2: and there's a lot of trust in the since signing
Speaker 2: up that when the time comes and if they've said yes,
Speaker 2: that they're going to stick it through.
Speaker 1: Good Man, Okay, so you've made a film about about
Speaker 1: a gentleman who has gone through has successfully gone through
Speaker 1: that process. My friend's son, his name is Rowan And
Speaker 1: if people who are listening are interested between the ages
Speaker 1: of eighteen and thirty five, I know that my mate
Speaker 1: he would really appreciate if you go to the website
Speaker 1: register for Rowan. That's one word, register for Rowan. We'll
Speaker 1: put it on the show and maybe we can put
Speaker 1: a link to your story as well on the show. Freddie,
Speaker 1: so register for Rowan and I know it would be well,
Speaker 1: I mean one of the right words on this one.
Speaker 1: Appreciated is nowhere near a strong enough word.
Speaker 2: Absolutely right, best thing I ever did. So I would
Speaker 2: highly recommend that everyone go sign up. Takes not too
Speaker 2: long at all to do it, to get swabbed. And yeah,
Speaker 2: if you're lucky enough to get the call up, you'll
Speaker 2: spend the rest of l thanking God.
Speaker 1: You did well done, Freddy. Okay. Inclosing, what are you reading?
Speaker 2: I'm reading right now and the week suffer what they must,
Speaker 2: which is a history of trade surpluses and deficits and
Speaker 2: how the birth of the Euro led to Greek's crisis
Speaker 2: posed too yes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's very interesting. Maybe the last time
Speaker 1: I was in Greece they were just talking about how
Speaker 1: much they hate being part of the Euro or like
Speaker 1: like the local public and or what whoever I was
Speaker 1: talking to, he said, well, you know what, in the
Speaker 1: old days, the Germans would come down here to Greece
Speaker 1: with their Deutsche marks, and they turned the Deutsch marks
Speaker 1: into the what's the what's the Greek one? What was
Speaker 1: the great one called Drachma? Was it? It might be
Speaker 1: a track anyway, they Yeah, they turned they turned the
Speaker 1: deutsch marks into the local Greek currency and think they
Speaker 1: were rich. And what they would then do, of course,
Speaker 1: suspend it all right, So they weren't very like your
Speaker 1: average Greek punda wasn't very happy about being involved with
Speaker 1: the Euro So maybe you can just tell me all
Speaker 1: about it. I'm not sure I'm going to read that one,
Speaker 1: but you'll have to tell me all about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll do my best to make sense of Frankly,
Speaker 2: quite a lot of economic gobbledegurg from my years. Maybe
Speaker 2: there'll be a web turn about it someday.
Speaker 1: Good stuff. Well, I'm Freddie, Thanks us, thanks for listening.
Speaker 1: You can subscribe to Admission wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2: And follow us on Instagram at Admission Podcast. You can
Speaker 2: send us a message and add an idea anything you
Speaker 2: reckon we should talk about.
Speaker 1: You can also follow me Russell Holcroft on x or LinkedIn,
Speaker 1: and of course you can hear me on three out
Speaker 1: of breakfast every morning with the inimitable ros Stevenson. Chat
Speaker 1: to you next week, Freddy so here