WPP Media keeps Coca-Cola media account in Australia and NZ
Omnicom won North America, Dentsu held Japan and South Korea, and EssenceMediacom’s OpenX unit continues locally, with rollout from 1 December.
Editor's picks
Marketing
All marketing
Salesforce buys Braze to plug Marketing Cloud gap
Salesforce will pay US$47.50 a share, a 58% premium, for Braze’s real-time engagement layer, and Sydney-founded Canva is among its 2,770 customers.
Media & advertising
All mediaABC lifts scripted slate by 50% under Hugh Marks
Mumbrella said commercial TV spend on Australian adult drama is down 44% since 2019-20; the broadcaster will double premium children's titles and add Fortitude Valley, Rural Crime Unit and The Great White.
News Australia exec says AI agents may handle half of ad spend
Paul Oyama put the forecast at 50% or more globally by late 2028; AgenticAdvertising.org formed a local chapter on 21 October 2026.
TVSN to close after buyer talks fail
Direct Group said buyer and investor talks produced no binding deal, with a $30m clearance planned and Caju Designs seeking payment.
OpenAI will rewrite ChatGPT ads without sign-off
PPC Land says the default begins 30 October, while the help page says 29 October; Virgin Australia, Xero and Budget Direct are among brands using the local platform, with one toggle to opt out and no per-version approval.
Lu & Jarch replace Carrie and Tommy on Hit drive
Michael Clarke joins Nath Roye and Emma Chow on 2DayFM Breakfast from 11 January 2027, with shareholders to vote on the Seven Media Group rename on 5 November.
Cuttable raises A$20m led by Airtree for its AI ad platform
Sam Kroonenburg, A Cloud Guru co-founder, is behind the Melbourne software used by 440-plus ecommerce brands including Cotton On and Kathmandu to make creative from their own photos and video.
ACMA warns former AFL players over offshore casino ads
Carolyn Lidgerwood said influencers are “firmly on notice”, with penalties up to $65,520 for each illegal gambling promotion, a January ISP block request and a ban on athletes in licensed wagering advertising from 1 January 2027.
Spotify lets podcast listeners pay for fewer ads
Creators in Australia can now charge for memberships and keep 90%; inserted advertising is removed for members, host-read sponsorships stay, and Australian audio buyers lose some addressable inventory.
Carrie Bickmore and Tommy Little exit as Will & Woody do too
SCA has set the final show for Friday 11 December, with about 125,000 listeners across five capitals and both SCA and ARN rebuilding national drive for 2027.
People & moves
All moves- 22 OctPHD Australia promotes Ali Jones to Sydney MD
- 22 OctTBWA promotes Ricci Meldrum to chief of staff
- 22 OctLeah Jackson leaves WPP Media for a client-side role
- 21 OctToni Frith leaves Dentsu after nearly 15 years
- 21 OctKathryn Fink becomes SBS chief content officer
- 20 OctCarol Choi to run Disney in Asia Pacific as Luke Kang retires
AI
What the answer engines and agents are doing to your traffic, your budget and your job.
Cloudflare helped ChatGPT find the web it missed
Cloudflare gave OpenAI data from about 1% of its network, finding hundreds of millions of pages. Australian sites should check OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot settings.
Technology
All technology
Meta fined US$25bn over Cambridge Analytica privacy claims
auDA exempts existing .com.au names after COSBOA backlash
Governments take websites offline as PHP attacks begin
Wells says Meta faces the teen ban’s first court test
Apple cuts off email IDs on half of Australia's mobile web
Meta reportedly pulled AI clause overseas, kept it here
Australians could switch off algorithmic feeds under duty law
Meta rolls out Facebook feed controls as Canberra plans off switch
The Index
Rankings by industryOpinion
Google's AI citation rate will be set by whoever signs first
On 18 June 2026, Google published a public policy post announcing it would pay websites whose content contributes to the "freshness and factuality" of its generative AI responses.
AI safety scores may measure test-taking, not real behaviour
Two things happened within 24 hours of each other, and the coincidence is uncomfortable for anyone who buys AI services on the strength of a safety score. On 9 September 2026, Jacob Coxon posted a resignation thread that named both Anthropic and OpenAI directly.
CMOs spend 15% on AI but only 30% can scale it
Put two numbers next to each other and see what happens. CMOs are allocating an average of 15.3 per cent of their marketing budgets to AI in 2026, but only 30 per cent of their organisations have the readiness to scale it.
Research
All researchOpenAI's own API misses what ChatGPT cites
Researchers say Google and the company’s interface together identified 26-28% of referenced pages in an 11 October 2026 preprint, not peer reviewed.
Australians research with AI but won't let it buy, ACAM finds
Bench Media finds 38% of marketers sign off AI strategy unchecked
Half of US consumers now use AI to find local businesses, SOCi finds
One in five Australians will ask AI about Christmas gifts, IAS finds
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