Following the $1.3bn ME Bank acquisition last year, Bank of Queensland is consolidating its media across BoQ, ME and Virgin Money as it positions to become a "compelling alternative" to the big banks and doubles its retail network. Although BoQ is pursuing a multibrand strategy, it is consolidating media, held by OMD, Initiative and Performics respectively. BoQ's Group Executive Retail Banking and ME Bank CEO, Martine Jager, was previously Westpac's Chief Digital and Marketing Officer who oversaw Westpac drop WPP's GroupM without a market review to Publicis 18 months ago.

Mindshare has won the Blackmores media account, with the vitamins firm pushing its master brand overhaul both domestically and into Apac. The account had been held by Omnicom's Hearts & Science.

Lexus has confirmed it is consolidating creative for brand and retail into Publicis, with the holdco following its US-blueprint for the carmaker and setting up a bespoke agency to handle the business. Meanwhile, Lexus CEO John Pappas said the Toyota-owned carmaker "aims to evolve Lexus into a brand focused on battery-electric vehicles".

Apple is pitching its suite of privacy services to consumers in a new ad showing a young woman discovering an auction of “digital treasure trove” of her private data. Apple’s own ad business in the App Store has grown dramatically over the past year, but the company insists it segments users in big groups and doesn’t use or sell data.

PHD Australia has relaunched its content division as DRUM, taking the name of the global network as content production surges.

The Media Store has added two senior hires to its Melbourne operation. Nicole Boyd joins from MediaCom to head-up client service, while Jeff Ott will lead performance media.

Audience Precision has hired Monia Montefusco. The three-time MFA Award winner joins Haydon Bray's unit as Client Partner as the firm "brings in new business with a global remit". 

CommBank has moved to the next phase of its plan to build a huge loyalty platform of linked services for banking customers. The bank has spent the last three years buying into and scaling start-ups. Now it is bringing them together and launching loyalty scheme Yello to six million retail banking customers in a bid to retain customers in the face of global competition from big tech while getting ahead of incoming data privacy regulatory changes.

OMA Chair Charles Parry-Okeden has joined the World Out of Home Organisation board, joining the global industry body alongside Dave Roberts, CEO of Primedia Outdoor in Africa.