In this fascinating and wide-ranging discussion with branding and advertising guru, President and Regional CEO of TBWA, Paul Bradbury, we discuss recent developments in advertising markets and consumer trends. We use company examples such as Gatorade and Telstra to bring the branding process alive. Paul makes one of the biggest calls in the history of the Good Investing Podcast by saying social media has peaked and he explains why he thinks this is the case. He speaks of how people's media consumption patterns and behaviour have changed including the emergence of the "you only live once" mentality which is possibly contributing to stronger than expected discretionary consumption. We discuss two campaigns that are making a real change to the social landscape, signifying the potential social power of advertising, before we move into the ranking of the Greatest Five Ads in the history of Australian advertising. Will your ranking be the same as Paul's?

0 min 45 secs Summary of the episode
1:30 Paul Bio and who is TBWA
4:20 What is the disruption component of TBWA, what does that mean and the Gatorade example
8:20 Multi-media channels have changed the campaign approach
12:30 Current ad markets and media spend. The consumer “you only live once “ mentality leading to higher than expected discretionary spending
17:01 The way advertising is moving... away from the straight 30 second spot
20:20 The challenge in targeting consumers
22:05 The share of advertising the big platforms attract Meta, Google etc. Has social media peaked?
24:30 Case study - The Telstra account “+61”
29:00 Advertising making a real social difference. Mastercard ball kids and Classify "C” for Consent
36:30 How AI will impact the advertising industry... looking forward, not looking back
38:50 The greatest five ads in Australian advertising history quiz (using a very low tech approach...)

Links to Mastercard ball kid campaign https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GosY_5SPa_c
Link to the Classify "C” for Consent campaign https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydrhk51SqFQ

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What has Shane Watson learnt on the cricket field that is applicable to business? A lot... and it is all in his new book, The Winner’s Mindset, released in January 2024. Yes there is some cricket talk on Ep#31 of the Good Investing Podcast, but the real focus is on what Shane has learnt over his career about how the mind works, the mistakes he has made and how to motivate and help people to perform at their best as often as possible. We read an earlier edition over summer and what struck us was Shane’s honesty and openness but also the applicability of a lot of what he wrote to the business world.

Shane talks about the difference between Mindset and Skillset, how the conscious mind works vs the unconscious mind and the fact that confidence cannot be about results. Very true in sport, life and investing. Yes, we all strive for good results but we can’t control whether we achieve them. He talks about his performance equation, mental toughness – again equally applicable to the sporting field as the Boardroom and his ACT model. We even have for the very first time a Good Investing Podcast competition where listeners can win the book, personally signed by Shane. The first five people that correctly answer the question, “Who is the best slip fielder Shane has ever seen?” receive a signed copy of his new book. Entries are to be emailed to support@ethicalpartners.com.au. How good!

Link to buy the book: https://shanewatson.au/

Link to BEON Performance: https://www.beonperformance.com/

Highlights

2 min 10 sec The great Good Investing Podcast competition – see the end of the show notes below for details

2.56 Shane’s book, “The Winner’s Mindset” and its relevance to both sport and business. Available 31 January 2024 here https://shanewatson.au/

8.00 The meeting that changed Shane’s life and flying immediately to Charlotte, USA to learn a critical set of new mental skills

13.30 The difference between mindset and skillset… being able to access your skills more often

16.20 Conscious mind vs unconscious mind, what you have control of and when

19.20 The link through to “gut feel” – bringing together what has accumulated in your unconscious mind to make your best decision at that point in time

21.25 Confidence should not be about results… it needs to be based around different factors

25.00 Confidence needs to be about preparation and focus

27.50 Shane’s performance equation… A x B = Results. The “B” factors can’t be controlled so therefore you can’t control results

31.00 Being “results driven” but not be constantly focussed on results only because results can’t be controlled

35.16 How to deal with major disappointments

38.01 The ability to “switch on” and “switch off” and being able to perform for a longer period of time. Conserving your mental energy.

44.35 Social media and distractions

49.05 Mental toughness – what is it and how do you develop it?

54.20 Shane’s seven rules of mental toughness

58.10 The ACT Model… you at your best

1 hr 20 secs BEON Performance – the business. Bringing these skills to the workplace

1.05 40 secs Shane answers the cricket questions you always wanted to ask him

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This is just a short preview of the upcoming episode of the Good Investing Podcast featuring star cricketer and all round good guy, Shane Watson. And believe it or not we don’t talk much about cricket… well there is some cricket talk… but the real focus is on Shane’s book “The Winners Mindset “, which has just been released. We read an earlier edition over summer and what struck us was Shane’s honesty about his own struggles but also the applicability of a lot of what he wrote to the business world.

Shane talks about the difference between Mindset and Skillset, how the conscious mind works vs the unconscious mind and the fact that confidence cannot be about results. Very true in sport, life and investing. Yes we all strive for good results but we often can’t control them. He talks about his performance equation, mental toughness – again equally applicable to the sporting field as the Boardroom and his ACT model. So don’t miss the Good Investing Podcast Ep#31 featuring Shane Watson out soon.

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Understanding who Mark Hutchinson is, goes a long way towards making an assessment on whether FFI will be successful in achieving its ambitious plans. Its plans of course are to become a green energy leader in transitioning away from fossil fuels, by first leading by example and operating its sites on a real zero carbon basis by 2030. Mark explains that while its goals may be good for the planet it is also most definitely good business (saving a billion litres of diesel each year for a start!). Be first mover and reap the rewards. We learn about what drives Mark and his views on what good (and bad) leadership looks like. Once we get a feel for this, it becomes clear why he took on one of Australia’s most challenging and potentially rewarding roles – CEO of FFI. Providing rare insight into the inner workings of FFI, Investment Director Nathan Parkin makes his long-awaited return behind the gold and green microphone to draw out the very best from Mark. Disclosure: The Fund has a position in Fortescue (ASX:FMG).  

1 min 58 secs Who is Mark Hutchinson?

3.30 Mark – 24 years at GE and the GE culture and leadership including Jack Welsh stories and leadership thoughts

7.35 GE learnings and how that is relevant to FFI

8.20 Mark on what you learn from bad leaders

10.35 FFI and working with anybody

12.15 Taking your opportunities and taking risks

13.00 Motivation for taking the top job at FFI

16.01 How to adapt to a new culture – making the move to China and taking a leadership role there

21.05 Matching personal values to the role at FFI

25.10 Get the ethics wrong…and what’s the point?

26.27 Not-for-profit involvement and what it teaches you

32.20 What does success look like in 2030?

33.40 Final Investment Decision (FID) on green projects within FFI… the process

37.50 The main risks

43.20 “Humble” leadership is critical

46.40 Advice to your 21 year old self… “don’t worry!”

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The financial services industry can be one of jargon, complexity and sometimes more than a little bit of bluff. In this exciting episode, Matt Nacard interviews Investment Director, Nathan Parkin, and asks him the 15 questions you have always wanted to ask, but haven’t wanted to or haven’t been able to ask. We also include a bonus, “What’s a cap rate?” question which has been more than once quietly asked on sales desks around town. If you enjoy this episode, send us more questions to support@ethicalpartners.com.au and we will gather them up for a future episode.

15 Questions

1. Ethical Partners is a quality value manager – what does that actually mean?
2. You say that you try to buy companies cheaply but if these companies are actually good quality, then why do they sell at a discount?
3. How do you “limit the downside” when investing
4. Is risk best managed in a computer model or is there a better way?
5. Why shouldn’t I put my money in a passive index tracker or etf because the fees are so much lower.
6. Do you like a stock more or less if it falls?
7. Your investment process of - low debt, profitable companies, good management and ESG - looks a bit simple – how can they work when markets are so complicated?
8. What are the advantages of a company having a good balance sheet? Or the downside of having a poor balance sheet?
9. Why is it the case that when companies make big acquisitions they are likely to be stinkers not stonkers?
10. What does the term “trimming the flowers and watering the weeds” refer to in investment circles?
11. What is the number one thing that drives a CEO? (Incentives - can talk about STI and LTI etc)
12. What is the biggest mistake made by investment analysts?
13. Why do most IPO’s fail. What goes wrong?
14. When a stock in your portfolio falls and continues to underperform, when do you decide you’ve made a mistake and sell out?
15. When you're talking to companies about sustainability topics what do you ask them?

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Sebastian Robertson recently stepped down from batyr - the organisation he founded 12 years ago. batyr is a preventative mental health charity which has reached over 355,000 young people through evidence-based programs. We talk about why and how Sebastian started batyr and what his plans are for the future. Where this podcast fits in to the broader Good Investing thematic is partly around mental health in the workplace (see Ethical Partners major report of March 2023 - “Promoting mental health and wellbeing in the workplace”), partly around leadership succession planning and also around how to manage a start up business. Not that many people have started a charity and a separate commercial business – and I’m referring to birdi – the aerial intelligence company, Sebastian’s latest venture. There is a lot to learn and absorb from this episode including insights into how parents can talk to their kids about these issues.

Highlights

1.03 Longest introduction ever

8.40 Episode summary

9.45 Seb’s background (including rare facts not known by many)

14.35 Celebrating Seb stepping down from batyr

16.40 Seb’s story in his words

17.55 Leaving behind the support network

26.05 The link with peers

27.40 What can parents do and say?

30.01 Why a start up?

34.30 The hospital model vs prevention            

37.05 Succession planning – The three stages

45.48 Top 5 batyr moments

57.00 Mental health in the workplace

59.02 The Report: Promoting mental health and wellbeing in the workplace

106.55 Establishing birdi - the aerial intelligence company

Link to Promoting mental health and wellbeing in the workplace: https://www.ethicalpartners.com.au/post/mental-health-and-wellbeing-in-the-workplace

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In this special edition, Nathan Parkin, Investment Director, Andrew Wilson, Portfolio Manager and Matt Nacard, CEO and Analyst take a detailed look at six companies that are underneath the radar of many investors. Listeners may never have heard of some of these companies, or perhaps the company may have a macro theme seemingly against it or maybe they are out of favour for a company specific reason.

These six companies – CSR, Nobleoak Life, Qualitas, Cleanaway, ASX Limited and Eureka Group Holdings – all make it through the Ethical Partners investment process and are all currently owned by Ethical Partners. We run through why we like their prospects which should give listeners an insight into how, utilising our investment process, we look at companies. Listeners also get to try their luck in the underneath the radar Quiz…

The material within this podcast is not a recommendation to buy or sell any of the companies mentioned or any other company. The Podcast is also not designed to provide general or specific advice. For advice about investment decisions you should see your financial advisor.

Highlights

2.20       What is an Underneath the Radar company?

3.00       The Quiz

4.00       The investment process

7.32       CSR plus Q&A

16.20    Nobleoak Life plus Q&A

25.44    Qualitas plus Q&A

35.40    Cleanaway plus Q&A

41.30    ASX Limited plus Q&A

50.15    Eureka Group plus Q&A

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Following on from a very popular and insightful Part A, in Part B of the discussion we focus on the outlook for residential markets and discuss Australia’s housing shortage. Yes, that is an issue but the more pressing concern is housing affordability. We talk government policy and get Tarun’s view on potential policy changes at both the state and federal level. Tarun gives his view on other asset classes such as retail, office and industrial. It sounds like he is quite pleased that Stockland made some early tough decisions on its retail portfolio and that it finds itself with limited office exposure. We get a sneak preview of some of the key elements of Stockland’s refreshed sustainability strategy and get a better understanding of Tarun’s focus on Return on Invested Capital (ROIC). We close on Tarun’s hexagon of happiness – a concept we all should be thinking about.

0.15 What is “land lease” and how does it work?

3.31 The scope and scale of the land lease business and how it can grow for Stockland

4.50 Tarun’s first big move and why Stockland has high conviction in the asset class

8.18 Australia’s housing shortage – how to address the housing supply issue

11.20 Currently the biggest issue is not a supply problem, but an affordability problem

13.30 Possible Government policy change – demand and supply side measures

17.30 How tough are office markets?

19.25 The main differences between the US office markets and Australia’s office markets

21.00 Retail – mixed outlook; sub sector specific

22.30 The four pillars of Stockland’s Sustainability Strategy – Decarbonisation, circularity, social impact and resilience

26.45 A Good Investing Podcast scoop? No, not really.

28.10 Focus on Return on Invested Capital (ROIC)…. A shift away from just Funds From Operations growth (FFO)

32.30 What Tarun is reading at the moment; how Tarun deals with stress and his hexagon of happiness; attributes of a good leader

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