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Former Youtube global marketer Anna Bateson thinks newsmedia may have to restructure its model around creators – read news influencers – amid declining trust and a social surge to individuals over institutions. But the Guardian Media Group boss indicates the masthead is hedged, with reader revenues now circa 60 per cent of the total and donations per supporter rising. Meanwhile the march of the right is powering audience gains across the left. Guardian readers globally, she says, can't look away from Trump. Locally the masthead has to walk a tightrope with her former employee after hiring 60 staff via bargaining code cash – but shrewdly nailing a five-year deal. Guardian Australia MD Rebecca Costello said Capital Brief boss Chris Janz is on the money in claiming Google is now applying the squeeze to terms and tenures. "That is fact," per Costello. "They're a smaller deal than they were."

The full weight of Warner Bros. diverse content slate from acclaimed HBO franchises to DC Universe and Discovery will hit Australia consumers in coming days via a launch campaign offering another subscription service, Max, with ad tiers. While Foxtel’s Binge looks to be most affected by Max – it has carried much of the content now headed to Australia’s latest streaming service  – circa 500,000 of Foxtel's 1.4m set-top box subscribers, who get the Foxtel Go app in their bundle, are expected to sign-on free to Max at launch. Meanwhile, media buyers are adjusting to volatility in viewing and audience delivery on streaming services versus BVOD and live broadcast streaming patterns.  

AI won't nibble at the edges at customer experience. Instead, it has the potential to devour current practices. For businesses that get it right, the feast is worth US$860 billion. But according to fresh research from McKinsey and Co along with Qualtrics, most companies are still stuck in pilot mode, paralysed by fear and fragmented strategies. The result? A massive missed opportunity, as AI-powered competitors race ahead, redefining customer interactions in real time.

Brands will soon be confronted with a choice: Employ AI to make cheaper, more plentiful ad creative so you can keep chasing a prospect with iterative messaging until they finally click yes, or risk pissing off said consumer while doing it, says The Coca-Cola Company’s chairman and CEO, James Quincey. Speaking today at this year’s Adobe Summit, the beverage giant chief has no immediate plans to remove the real humans from its advertising, even after attaining cost and efficiency gains from its first generative AI-made holiday campaign at Christmas. But he admits the enticement of cheaper, faster, infinitely more personalised campaign creative at scale using AI is a lure most marketers are going to be hard pressed not to swallow – and that could prove seriously problematic. The last great hope? Live events.

Cracking America is the mark of any great brand. Leigh Barnes, Americas President and Chief Customer Officer at global Australian travel firm Intrepid is relocating his family – literally today – to Seattle, home of grunge, and walking a tightrope as a DEI, purpose-driven B Corp business in the age of Maga corporate. He's getting "slapped around the head" a little and is working through what adjustments he may need to make in a sensitive political environment. Still, Intrepid in the US is cutting a contrarian brand-powered swathe through the performance-driven marketing echelons and it's working. Organic search is through the roof as a "cocktail" of traditional above-the-line brand advertising and PR storytelling rapidly moves the needle, though AI chatbots may have a hand. Direct business is working so well that Barnes must now build out US partnerships akin to its early ANZ work with Flight Centre or risk over-reliance on fickle online platform gatekeepers. But, to the chagrin of "Russian bot farms". he's confident Intrepid will soon be a billion dollar company.

One-time ADMA chief Jodie Sangster, ex-World Vision and Deloitte CMOs Louise Cummins, Rochelle Tognetti and former strategy lead at The Works, Douglas Nicol, are self-funding – for now – the launch of a new industry body: The Australian Centre for AI in Marketing (ACAM). Sangster says it’s not aiming to be another industry association, more a ‘pro-purpose hub’ that makes AI learning accessible and practical for all marketers. But the foursome are simultaneously launching an AI consulting business – dubbed Air, an acronym for AI ready – via which they hope to fund ACAM. They already have some big name CMOs on board. Next up, they're benchmarking marketers on how AI-ready they are.

Three years ago, Australia was on “a CDP bender”, with marketers wooed by the prospect of a single source of truth linking disparate customer data and the ability to slash customer acquisition costs, activate more smartly and efficiently, delivering personalisation at scale while insulating against a twin pincer of a looming cookie cull and major privacy tightening. In other words, “invest in a CDP and – boom – the money rains down”, per one market observer. Three years on, the landscape has changed, use case development has often stuttered – and a lot of contracts are up for renewal. Sitecore CEO Dave O’Flanagan, mParticle CEO Michael Katz, Forrester’s Joe Stanhope, Adobe’s Gabbi Stubbs, Salesforce’s Leandro Perez and others weigh in on where next, and how.

The Australian Grand Prix (AGP) is done but F1 is flying – audiences are soaring and women are some of the fastest growing cohort. Hence more brands piling in – and getting serious traction – despite tier one sponsorship packages being almost instantly sewn-up. Marketers are therefore getting creative to find other ways in. Pernod Ricard's St Hugo, four years into its partnership with driver Daniel Ricciardo, has recorded a 12 per cent YoY growth in sales, with a primarily owned and organic social media approach. TCL Electronics has also taken the local approach activating at Melbourne Alfred Park as an official AGP sponsor since 2022. Others, including Chivas Regal, and Australian tech start-ups Airtasker and Airwallex, are racing to grow globally with F1 team partnerships. 

In retail, a 4X return on investment isn’t just a win - it’s a wake-up call. When Accent Group switched on its new customer data platform (CDP), the results blew away early expectations, delivering four times the ROI projected in its business case. Digital marketing performance surged, with the first YouTube campaign hitting a 100% match rate. For a business that has grown into a billion-dollar retail powerhouse, mastering customer data at scale isn’t just an upgrade - it’s a necessity. But while the right tech stack is critical, Accent’s biggest challenge wasn’t implementation. It was ensuring the entire business - from marketing to operations - actually used the system to drive smarter, more profitable decisions.