What is it with alcohol and the media industry?

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Welcome to an end-of-week update from Unmade. Today: Why can’t the media industry have a good time without a drink?

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A (heaps) normal night out in medialand

The DPA held its Independents Day event in Eveleigh

Last night was the first time I’ve been to an Upfronts party where not drinking alcohol was as easy as joining in.

I’d love to see that normalised. The event was the Digital Publishers Alliance’s Independents Day. I’ll return to the substance of the DPA presentations in tomorrow’s Best of the Week email. It was a contrast to other events.

This year’s Upfronts season was kicked off a fortnight ago at the Ooh Media Outfronts, held at the Overseas Passenger Terminal in Sydney. My experience at the Ooh Outfronts could have been virtually any other Upfronts, or indeed media industry party of the last two decades, by the way. It just happens to be fresh in the memory.

At the time, it was such an unremarkable moment I didn’t give it another thought until now, but it does sum up the difference in choosing to drink or not drink. Coming to the top of that long OPT escalator, I was among the earlier arrivals. Lined up were a dozen or so waiting staff with trays of welcome drinks.

I do drink alcohol by the way, but don’t always want to. Scanning the trays, there was nothing available that was non-alcoholic.

At the far end of the long space where the pre-presentation welcome was happening, was a bar where the drinks were being prepared. I walked perhaps 50 metres across that empty space, picked up a glass of water that was sitting on the counter, and then walked back to rejoin the party.

I never gave it another thought, and on another night, I’m sure I’d have just gone with the flow and grabbed the champagne.

I recognise that even talking about that infinitesimally small inconvenience sounds utterly privileged. Poor me. A media company flew me to Sydney, put me up at a nice hotel, but made me walk 50 metres to get an alternative to my free champagne.

However, my point is that it’s often the case at industry events that it’s much easier to default to the alcoholic option.

I have to acknowledge, there were plenty of times where that was also the experience at Mumbrella events back when I was an owner. Even after I began to notice and try to do something about it, it was a constant battle with the venues.

Somebody explained to me that many venues charge for their catering “on consumption”. So the margins are much better for the venue if they can keep everybody drinking. At the Mumbrella events, even after we’d get really specific about wanting non alcoholic drinks equally available, at least half the time when I checked out the lineup of waiting staff when we opened the doors, we’d have to remind them about the non alcoholic drinks.

Which brings me on to yesterday’s DPA event. It was held in Eveleigh, at yet another one of the Grounds venues.

Walking into the party after the presentations, yes there were trays of beer and wine, but juices too.

But the thing I really noticed - and it really is remarkable that it’s remarkable in 2024 - was that tins of the no-alcohol beer Heaps Normal circulated all night, alongside all the other choices. Normally at these events, waiting staff hover with wine bottles to keep topping up glasses, and alcoholic beers circulate on trays, but anybody wanting the no-alcohol alternative needs to awkwardly break off their conversation and go and hunt for it. Of course it’s there, but it’s just not quite as easy.

Human behaviour is about nudges. That’s the whole idea behind behavioural economics. So the nudge is towards the easier path of simply grabbing the alcohol as it goes past.

This is an industry which has it’s fair share of people with difficult relationships with alcohol. At previous industry events I’ve seen people damage their career prospects while out of control. We make the social side of the business unnecessarily difficult for them. But as the DPA event proved last night, it doesn’t need to be with quite small changes.

Most people last night still seemed to be enjoying the alcoholic choices. Good on them, And I’ve no idea if the freely circulating Heaps Normal was the choice of the DPA, or the policy of the venue. But I’d love to think there could be a time when the option of not drinking is just as normal. Or even heaps normal.

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Unmade Index treads water

There was no clear direction on the Unmade Index yesterday. Domain lost 1.7%, while its majority owner Domain slipped by 0.4%.

IVE Group was the only one of the larger stocks to see solid positive movement on a middling day, up by 2%. Enero, owner of ad agency BMF, improve by 1.4%.

The Unmade Index slipped by 0.15% to land on 442.4 points/

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Time to leave you to your day.

I’ll be back with more tomorrow in Best of the Week, written during today’s trip home to Tassie. As well as last night’s DPA Independents Day, I’ll be thinking about some unusual manoeuvres on the Domain board, and might return to the topic of the ructions at Mutinex.

Have a great day.

Toodlepip…

Tim Burrowes

Publisher - Unmade

tim@unmade.media

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