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A year on from debuting its family of creative AI models, Adobe has used this year’s annual Las Vegas Summit to detail the latest ways it’s extending the tentacles of generative AI capabilities into all aspects of the content supply chain and across its Experience Cloud suite for marketers. It’s a play that brings AI directly into the tools marketers are using for everyday tasks. On hand to tout the benefits of the vendor’s martech platform and growing automation and AI capabilities was giant health brand, Pfizer. The vaccine maker cited 50 per cent-plus productivity gains plus 75 per cent faster content creation and is now eyeing bigger gains – a five-fold increase in content productivity via rapid adoption of Adobe’s tools and up to $1 billion in near-term value off the back of its broader AI play.

One of the top global bosses for the Paramount+ streaming service, Marco Nobili, was in Australia this week in the lead-up to the launch of an advertising subscription tier for Paramount+ and he expects the $6.99 entry point will “take a lot of volume”. The newly minted President for Network 10, Head of Streaming and Paramount regional lead, Beverley McGarvey, acknowledged broadcaster BVOD services were never likely to replace linear’s TV’s audience erosion alone but when audiences from its SVOD, BVOD, linear and FAST – or free digital ad-supported linear TV channels – are bundled, the business is “getting closer to a one-for-one” replacement of linear TV. But both execs say that’s also less important than the business economics of a combined subscription and advertising business. Australia is in Paramount’s top tier globally for SVOD ARPU – or average revenue per user.

The 24^th edition of the Edelman Trust Barometer shows a 4 percentage point lift in trust sentiment across Australia, bringing us out of negative and into neutral territory. But underneath the topline figure is a bubbling pot of fear and scepticism, particularly with regards to new innovations such as AI and the way they’re being managed by government and business. Existential concerns prompted by technology – specifically cybersecurity and information wars – are also now superseding personal economic fears around inflation. This is despite the fact Australia’s wealth gap is playing a direct role in how we view and embrace innovation. For Edelman Australia CEO, Tom Robinson, increasingly politicised views plus the echo chamber of relying on peers and ‘people like me’ as trusted sources of information over and above government, business leaders, scientists and technical experts, is another worry. The message for brands and businesses? It’s time to reset thinking on business-government partnerships, spokespeople and messaging and turn up the dial on listening and nuance.

Archies Footwear's big bet on high quality content pays off as six times Golden Foot champion Yanderas Janderas proves a social media super star, driving higher sales and strong brand engagement. 35 million views later, the brand has achieved an average post-engagement increase of over 30 per cent. It's a second time collaboration for Archies Footwear head of marketing Ruben Thompson and the team at ODV. They first worked together on a campaign for NZ bathroom products brand Two Dudes.

Hello Social has broken cover on plans to step beyond social and into full service. MD Sam Kelly thinks there's a gap in the market for effective end-to-end agencies – and said the firm has already been filling it, using social media as a “Trojan horse” to sneak onto rosters and into agency villages to pick up wider work and build out its capability. The Surry Hills agency is now officially rolling out Hello Talent, Hello Media, Hello PR and Hello Create, alongside an expanded creative, studio and production division. MD Sam Kelly reckons there’s huge demand from brands for agencies that can drive campaigns in between big brand moments – but “don’t want to spend $2 million bucks just to play”. Now he’s eyeing more rosters.

Almost 18 months on from its belated official move into the bustling retailer media sector – and widespread calls from brands and suppliers for retail media networks to ‘close the loop’ on advertising’s ‘causality’ to customer purchases – Coles 360 briefed 250 suppliers last week on a measurement platform it has custom-built with global retail data specialist, Circana. The launch of 360Impact, led by former Meta marketing science boss Andy Ford, outlined ambitious plans for the scaled use of control groups in physical and online stores to prove advertising across Coles owned media assets directly stimulates demand at the checkout. 

The Formula One Australian Grand Prix is fresh off another record breaking year of attendance that Australian Grand Prix CEO Travis Auld hopes signals the event's endurance in the Australian sporting landscape. But he says evolving off-track entertainment – and working out how to get more people into the event without ruining it – are key to putting it into the same league as the Australian Open. Paramount ANZ's GM of ad sales, Nick Bower, says local brands are queueing for sponsorships despite restrictions. He's hoping Paramount still holds the rights in three years time.

Legacy martech is not delivering the kinds of returns organisations want, and boards are reticent to keep filling the funding budget at a time of significant market constraint, according to a new study by technology research firm Forrester. Getting the balance right is an even tougher assignment for APAC marketers who face even greater challenges than their North American and European peers. Martech can no longer stand alone as self-service capabilities that CMOs license from multiple SaaS vendors using their operating budgets, say the analysts who warn that even the most well-thought-out independent martech stack is no match for a well-integrated technology ecosystem that includes martech capabilities as core components.

Nine is the latest media major to go large on a customer data platform (CDP), selecting Adobe over Tealium and Salesforce in a project that has just started its implementation phase. The move will help the media giant orchestrate its 20 million signed in users across its publishing ecosystem, and improve experiences for those consumers and commercial opportunities for clients. It also means Nine it better placed to deal with Chrome's cookie deprecation, new privacy rules out of Canberra, while also building capabilities on one of the fastest growing advertising sectors in Australia: Retail media.