Pure Intel Executive Briefing

Executive summary

This briefing highlights critical shifts in how brands must approach digital presence and customer engagement. AI is fundamentally changing search visibility and content strategy, while the retail sector is blending physical activations with local Out-of-Home media for direct consumer interaction. The agency landscape is also evolving, with new models focused on upskilling in-house teams and leveraging seasoned expertise.

AI reshapes search visibility and content strategy

New analysis shows that only 14.4% of ChatGPT responses typically require a web search, with 75.9% of targeted site searches focusing on brand websites, indicating a shift towards seeking official, first-hand information. Concurrently, Google is intensifying efforts to block scrapers, affecting third-party rank tracking tools through methods like IP blocking, CAPTCHAs, and injecting bad data into search results. This landscape necessitates a content strategy that moves beyond generic homepages, advocating for dedicated pages built around specific problems, industries, or job titles to satisfy the detailed queries now posed to frontier AI models and ensure visibility in an evolving search environment.

Brands integrate physical activations and local OOH for direct engagement

Online fashion brand Petal & Pup launched its summer collection with an immersive gelato shop takeover, blending PR, influencer marketing, and customer experiences to bring its digital presence into the physical world and capture first-party data via QR codes. This trend is amplified by media companies like QMS, which has launched the "SHOP" Retail Out of Home network, consolidating over 1,300 screens across local retail destinations to reach more than 16 million monthly shoppers. These developments underscore a growing focus on tangible consumer touchpoints and integrated "sofa to store" journeys, as seen with McDonald's McCafé Tray Bag, which leveraged fan behaviour to turn a utilitarian item into a lifestyle accessory.

Agencies pivot to in-house upskilling and experience-driven social strategies

Paul Coghlan, co-founder of Moonsail, is launching Rudder, a new business dedicated to upskilling in-house marketing teams and enabling them to lead creative internally. This shift coincides with independent agencies like Banter securing new clients for its "Grown-Up Social" offering, which prioritises experience and commercial acumen in social media. These movements reflect an industry increasingly valuing the deep expertise required to navigate complex marketing challenges, whether by building internal capabilities or partnering with agencies that bring seasoned judgement to brand engagement and measurable results.

Major organisations deploy AI for enhanced engagement and cost efficiency

The Australian Open has partnered with Adobe as its official AI Marketing and Creativity Partner, aiming to deliver more personalised and connected fan interactions globally and year-round. Similarly, Netflix has deployed AI on approximately 300 titles across various production stages, from previsualization to VFX, with an executive noting the potential to reduce production costs by around 40 percent on certain projects. These examples highlight a growing strategic integration of AI to not only enhance customer engagement and creative output but also to drive significant operational efficiencies across different sectors.

Marketing professionals are currently navigating an unusual delay in Google Search Console performance data, impacting critical SEO insights. Concurrently, new guidance highlights how agencies and platforms can leverage 'powered by' footer links to enhance SEO ranking authority and improve lead attribution, transforming them from mere decoration into strategic assets.

Optimising 'powered by' links for SEO and lead generation

Agencies and platforms often overlook the strategic value of 'powered by' footer links, treating them as mere decoration rather than assets for SEO and lead generation. When implemented correctly, these links can pass ranking authority for SEO and track which client site sends a lead. Best practices involve ensuring the link is 'dofollow', uses descriptive anchor text or a title tag for logo links, leads to a relevant and convert-optimised destination, and is trackable via analytics. This approach allows organisations that build or host sites to harness these small credits to drive authority and attribute leads back to their own operations, transforming a common footer element into a valuable marketing tool.

Google Search Console performance data experiencing unusual delays

Marketing teams are currently facing significant operational challenges due to an unusual delay in Google Search Console's performance reports. The reports are showing a lag of over 64 hours, a rare occurrence for this essential tool that typically updates within a few hours. This delay, following a recent spam update, directly impacts SEOs and site owners who rely on these metrics to monitor their site's performance in Google Search results and to make informed, timely adjustments to their search strategies. While Google fixed a similar extended delay in December 2025, the current lag means marketing professionals are operating with outdated search performance data.

Today's briefing reveals significant shifts in retail, as established department stores face brand pullbacks while successful online-first brands continue to invest in physical footprints. Top agencies are recognised for delivering measurable commercial impact, and the Australian travel sector demonstrates robust advertising market resilience.

Department stores face brand exodus and evolving concession models

The retail landscape is seeing major shifts as Country Road Group plans to remove nearly 100 concessions, including Witchery and Mimco, from David Jones. This follows similar pullbacks from luxury labels like Dior, Gucci, and Chanel. The move highlights challenges for traditional department stores, particularly when brands have strong direct-to-consumer channels and their own standalone stores. Country Road Group's own financial results, with a 0.2 per cent adjusted EBIT margin on over $1 billion revenue in FY26, suggest internal pressures to re-evaluate physical distribution strategies. This trend underscores the need for department stores to offer compelling reasons for customers to visit and for brands to justify every physical touchpoint, especially as online options proliferate.

Online-first brands accelerate physical retail expansion

Countering traditional retail challenges, successful digitally native brands are actively expanding their physical presence. Adore Beauty opened its largest store yet in Melbourne Central, marking its fourth opening this year and aiming for a total of 25 stores by year-end. This flagship focuses on "formulas, results, exceptional service and expert advice," with an advanced treatment menu and over 150 brands. Similarly, Djerf Avenue, a DTC apparel and lifestyle brand reportedly generating $36 million in annual sales, launched its first physical store in New York after successful pop-ups. These moves demonstrate a strategic investment in physical retail to enhance customer experience, build community, and drive growth for brands that originated online.

Australian travel ad spend surges despite economic pressures

Australia's travel and tourism sector is demonstrating robust market confidence, with advertising spend increasing by 8% to over $153 million in the March quarter. This growth defies broader cost-of-living pressures, indicating strategic investment by marketers to maximise return on investment and connect with consumers. Nielsen Ad Intel data shows TripADeal as the biggest spender, followed by Virgin Australia and Flight Centre-owned Ignite Travel. Rose Lopreiato, Nielsen Ad Intel's Australia Commercial Lead, highlighted this as a strong indicator of how advertisers are prioritising spending to forge lasting connections. The sustained investment signals a resilient demand for travel experiences and an aggressive push by brands to capture market share.

Agency effectiveness honoured for driving commercial growth

The Australian agency landscape is heavily focused on demonstrating measurable impact, with Special Australia and Uber Eats winning the Grand Effie and Effective Agency of the Year at the Australian Effie Awards. Their joint entry, detailing Uber Eats' expansion to an "Anything" delivery brand, was lauded for its strong commercial results across revenue growth, market share, and profit ROI. The jury recognised the strategic ambition to evolve the brand without losing its established equity, backing long-term brand building over short-term gains. This award underscores the critical role of agencies in enhancing brand visibility and directly contributing to significant business growth and market defence.

Executive summary

Global advertising spend is set to climb significantly in 2026, yet marketers face substantial waste in programmatic channels. Artificial intelligence is rapidly redefining competitive landscapes in retail search, while major agency groups are realigning leadership and strategies for the evolving media environment. These shifts highlight a critical need for smarter investment and proactive intelligence across all marketing functions.

Marketers waste billions on Made-for-Advertising sites

Advertisers wasted an estimated $13 billion on Made-for-Advertising (MFA) sites in 2023 alone, according to the Association of National Advertisers. These sites, designed solely to siphon programmatic ad budgets, comprised 21% of programmatic ad impressions and attracted 15% of ad spend. MFA sites publish low-effort, often machine-written content, pack pages with ads, and acquire cheap traffic through arbitrage, creating a business model that provides zero value to brands beyond generating impressions. This extensive waste means that only 36 cents of every dollar entering a demand-side platform effectively reaches the end consumer, with 35% lost to low-value environments like MFA sites, highlighting a critical need for greater scrutiny in programmatic media buying.

AI reshapes competitive landscape in retail search

Artificial intelligence is fundamentally altering how consumers discover retailers, presenting a new competitive dynamic for brands. A study found that when customers asked AI for appliance retailer recommendations, previously untracked businesses appeared prominently, with one online retailer named in 99% of AI answers for appliance questions. The competitive set identified by AI models like OpenAI, Gemini, and Claude often differs significantly from traditional market tracking, and even shifts based on the specificity of the consumer's query, such as asking for "real-time availability" versus "best retailer." This means retailers tracking only established competitors risk missing significant business volume directed elsewhere by AI-driven search, necessitating a re-evaluation of competitive intelligence and presence on the "AI shelf."

Global ad spend surges, driven by performance channels

Global advertising spend is projected to grow by 11.9% to $1.34 trillion in 2026, following 10.0% growth in both 2024 and 2025, according to WARC Media. This expansion occurs despite consumer pressures and geopolitical uncertainty, fuelled by corporate AI investment and major events like the Olympics and FIFA World Cup. Performance-oriented channels continue to dominate, with social media, search, and retail media expected to account for 66.4% of global ad spend in 2026, rising to 70% by 2028. Social media is forecast to be the fastest-growing channel, increasing 21.3% to $394.6 billion this year. Technology and electronics is predicted to be the fastest-growing product category, up 20.7%, with social media making up 40.2% of its ad spend. This indicates a sustained shift towards measurable, agile channels.

Agency landscape sees leadership shifts and strategic realignments

The agency sector is undergoing significant strategic shifts and leadership changes, reflecting the evolving demands of the AI era. WPP has appointed Tyler Turnbull, currently Global CEO of McCann, as its new CEO of WPP Creative from early 2027. Turnbull is tasked with integrating WPP's creative offerings with its media, data, production, commerce, and technology capabilities to create a new kind of growth partner for clients. Concurrently, Accenture has ceased reporting specific revenue figures for its Song marketing and creative arm, folding it into a new "Reinvention Services" line. This move, noted by Forrester analyst Jay Pattisall, complicates competitive comparisons and raises questions about Song's global media ambitions and the impact of AI on labour-based work, suggesting a broader re-evaluation of how large consultancies position their marketing services.

Executive summary

AI is fundamentally reshaping retail and marketing operations, automating tasks from shopping to content creation and leading to significant efficiency gains for brands. Concurrently, the Australian automotive market is undergoing a clear transformation with electric vehicle sales now surpassing petrol cars. As AI's influence grows, agencies are navigating the adoption of agentic media buying amidst increasing calls for robust governance and human oversight. In content strategy, microdramas are emerging as a multi-billion-dollar global market, while YouTube retention strategies highlight the increasing value of focused audience attention.

AI redefines retail and marketing operations

Artificial intelligence is transforming retail and marketing, automating routine tasks and enabling personalised, experience-driven consumer interactions. Research by Mars, Kantar, and Synthesis indicates AI could automate repeat purchases, shifting physical stores and digital platforms towards discovery, with AI referrals to e-commerce increasing 752 per cent year-on-year in the 2025 holiday season and projected to reach US$788 billion by 2035. Companies like Shopify are integrating AI into their Canvas editor to simplify storefront management, making custom components conversationally accessible for merchants. Woolworths is using AI internally to field 7000 employee inquiries per week, escalating only one in 10 to a human, and has reduced weekly catalogue production time from a week to a few hours. Colonial First State has cut customer journey deployment times from weeks to hours and doubled its campaign output using automation for event-driven engagement. This widespread adoption extends to agentic commerce, with the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) rolling out in the US and coming to Australia and Canada next year, enabling direct checkout on AI surfaces.

Australian automotive market sees major shifts

Australia's automotive landscape is undergoing a significant transformation, marked by a surge in electric vehicle (EV) adoption and a generational shift in consumer preferences. Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) outsold petrol cars in Australia for the second consecutive month in September, representing 24.9 per cent of new car sales. Combined EV sales (BEV and plug-in hybrid) reached 34.5 per cent of the market, increasing 119 per cent year-on-year. This growth is set to continue with new models entering the market, such as the Nissan Navara Pro PHEV ute, confirmed for Australia in 2027. Meanwhile, the value of classic Australian muscle cars is declining, with prices for an HSV GTSR W1 dropping to $287,000 from $350,888 in 2024. This trend is attributed to younger buyers having less emotional connection to the traditional Holden vs Ford rivalry, instead gravitating towards 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s Japanese and European cars. Even newer EV models like the Hyundai Inster are seeing price cuts and feature reductions to remain competitive.

Agencies grapple with agentic AI and governance

The marketing industry is rapidly moving towards agentic AI in media buying, with some Australian adtech figures predicting it could become mainstream as early as 2027. Major agencies such as Dentsu's Carat, Tinuiti, and Stagwell Media are launching initiatives for agentic planning, buying, and optimisation, with some clients already adopting these solutions. However, this rapid adoption is met with client concerns about "rogue agents" and a need for strong governance. Agencies are addressing these fears by emphasising human oversight and control within their agentic systems, recognising that human accountability is central. On the AI development front, Anthropic has updated its usage policy for Claude, banning "sustained and needless abusive or cruel behavior" towards the AI model, alongside new restrictions on election interference, weapons development, surveillance, and health/financial misuse. Similarly, the UK's financial regulator (FCA) is applying existing principles-based frameworks to AI use cases, demanding that firms monitor outcomes and defend algorithmic decisions within existing accountability structures, underscoring that AI adoption is more a governance challenge than a technology one.

Microdramas and YouTube lead content strategy

Content strategy is evolving rapidly with new formats and platforms commanding audience attention. Microdramas, 60-90 second "sensational" episodes, are projected to be a US$14 billion global market in 2026, with 50 per cent of Australian internet users aged 18-64 watching them in Q3 2026, primarily on social media. This highlights a growing consumer appetite for bite-sized, addictive narratives. Simultaneously, YouTube retention (average view duration) is becoming a critical metric, driving algorithm distribution and business outcomes, with TV viewership on the platform increasing over 60 per cent in the past year, indicating a shift towards focused audience attention. This trend reinforces the need for compelling long-form content. Furthermore, the role of AI in content creation is expanding, with 86 per cent of advertisers using or planning to use generative AI for video ad creative, especially among small and mid-sized brands. Platforms like TikTok are also increasingly used as search engines by 49 per cent of US consumers, making video-first content essential for discovery. Brands are also leveraging platforms like Pinterest to expand content promotions by sponsoring eligible creator Pins, even without pre-arranged partnerships.

Executive summary: Australasia's media landscape is undergoing significant shifts with a major acquisition, while digital content monetisation continues to favour ad-supported streaming. Consumer behaviour is evolving rapidly, with a majority of Australians now leveraging AI for shopping decisions. Furthermore, marketers face a clear commercial imperative to improve ad accessibility, as uncaptioned TV advertisements result in substantial lost reach and revenue.

Major media conglomerate reshapes Australian landscape

The Australian media sector is seeing a significant structural shift as Paramount Skydance completed its $A160 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery. The combined entity, now known as Paramount Australia & New Zealand, a Skydance Corporation, integrates Network 10 with HBO Max and Warner Bros. Discovery's pay TV channels. This move follows the ACCC clearing the acquisition in June 2026, finding no substantial lessening of competition. The expanded company aims to leverage combined talent, resources, and reach to tell stories across various genres and platforms, signalling a new era of competitive content delivery in the Australian market.

Australians embrace AI for shopping decisions

Australian shoppers are increasingly turning to artificial intelligence to guide their purchasing choices, with nearly two-thirds (62%) expecting to use AI for at least one holiday shopping task, from finding deals to product discovery. This trend is particularly prevalent among younger Australians, with 70% of 25-34-year-olds using AI occasionally when shopping, compared to 45% overall. Retailers are responding by investing in AI-generated content (51%), virtual assistants (46%), and optimising their stores for AI recommendations (45%). While 41% are comfortable with AI building their cart, only 29% trust it to make a purchase on their behalf, highlighting the critical role of trust and clear value in AI-assisted retail experiences.

Streaming ad tiers dominate audience monetisation

Despite consumer sentiment regarding increased advertising, ad-supported streaming tiers are proving commercially successful, with Australia’s SVOD market growing by 5% to 26.6 million services by June 2025, and FAST audiences growing over 40% year-on-year to 2.3 million Australians. Data from Kantar indicates that ad-supported streaming tiers were in 30% of Australian households by Q1 2025, up from 12.5% a year prior. Furthermore, around half of new subscribers to services offering an ad tier are choosing the ad-supported option, a figure that rises to 60% for Netflix. This trend suggests a strong willingness among consumers to accept ads for a more affordable viewing experience, leading 71% of ad buyers to expect increased investment in ad-supported subscription streaming in 2026.

Uncaptioned TV ads cost brands millions in lost reach

Australian brands are significantly underperforming in accessibility, with an estimated $200 million lost annually by failing to caption TV advertisements. This impacts 5.5 million D/deaf or hard of hearing consumers, and a broader audience where half of all Australians under 35 actively choose to watch video content with captions turned on. The current media landscape sees television programming mandated to be captioned, yet this requirement does not extend to the commercial breaks. Marketers are urged to update media plan spec sheets to include time-coded caption files as a default requirement to ensure broader reach, enhance emotional resonance, and improve campaign ROI across diverse viewing habits.

The media landscape is undergoing significant consolidation with a major merger, while regional broadcasters face viability challenges. Marketers must adjust to earlier holiday shopping patterns amidst tighter consumer budgets. Australian ad spend saw a slight dip in August, though year-to-date figures remain positive, with outdoor and pure play video leading growth. Meanwhile, AI is increasingly disrupting search visibility and demanding new measurement strategies for e-commerce platforms.

Major media landscape reshuffle

The global media industry is witnessing significant consolidation, with Paramount completing a $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, forming a new entity called Skydance. This merger unites legacy film studios, TV networks, streaming services and news organisations to compete with giants like Netflix and Disney, reshaping content production and distribution. Simultaneously, challenges persist in regional broadcasting, as WIN Television is ceasing Network 10 broadcasts in several Australian regional areas due to high transmission costs, digital disruption, and declining audiences and advertising revenue. These shifts highlight a fragmenting media consumption environment and ongoing financial pressures, compelling marketers to rethink audience reach strategies across diverse platforms.

Early holiday shopping requires strategic timing

Consumers are starting their holiday shopping earlier than ever, with 49% of respondents in a Sprout Social Q3 2026 Pulse Survey indicating they are more likely to buy from campaigns launched as early as August. This trend, especially pronounced among Gen Z (66%), comes amidst tighter consumer budgets, intensifying competition for every dollar. Brands should adopt a nuanced approach: leveraging August and September to build awareness and consideration through gift ideas and seasonal inspiration, then escalating full holiday messaging in October and November. This strategy allows for early engagement and testing of what resonates, optimising campaign effectiveness before peak shopping periods.

Australian ad spend shows mixed signals

After three consecutive months of growth, Australian ad spend, as measured by media agency bookings, experienced a 3.4% decline in August. Despite this monthly dip, total ad spend for the first eight months of the year remains up 0.7% compared to the same period in 2025. Performance varied across channels, with traditional media largely stable; outdoor advertising notably grew by 10.7% in August, and pure play video increased by 13.8%. Conversely, digital ad spend is tracking 7.1% behind, with content sites, search, and social media all trailing previous year's levels. Government advertising surged 44.4% year-on-year, and wealth management ad spend rose 28.6%.

AI disrupts search rankings and e-commerce visibility

Google’s ongoing September 2026 spam update continues to cause significant volatility in search results, leading to user complaints about increased spam and some sites reporting substantial revenue drops. This instability coincides with the growing prominence of AI in consumer research, with 94% of business buyers and 42% of consumers now utilising AI search, as reported by Forrester and NielsenIQ. Despite challenges in direct attribution, brands must prioritise AI readiness, especially in e-commerce where Australian brands lag in areas like product descriptions for AI shopping assistants. Measuring AI search ROI remains complex, requiring tracking indirect signals and conversion rates from AI-influenced interactions to estimate its true value.

Executive Summary

The media landscape is undergoing a significant shake-up with the formation of a new entertainment giant. Marketers face evolving challenges in content creation, with in-house production teams needing to address critical skill gaps as their scope expands. Furthermore, artificial intelligence is reshaping search discoverability and brand mentions, demanding new optimisation strategies, while digital twins present an underutilised tool for corporate crisis readiness.

New Entertainment Giant Formed by Media Consolidation

The merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery under Skydance is set to create a media conglomerate rivalling Disney and Netflix in scale. David Ellison will lead as Chairman and CEO, with Ynon Kreiz as Co-CEO, overseeing a vast empire that includes Paramount+, Pluto, and HBO Max under Casey Bloys, and film studios run by Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg. This consolidation significantly alters the competitive landscape for content creation, distribution, and advertising, presenting new dynamics for brands seeking partnerships or navigating audience reach across major platforms. Skydance has announced the senior executives who will run the combined entity.

In-House Production Confronts Specialised Skill Gaps

While in-housing is now a permanent fixture in Australian advertising, with 86% of brands valuing it equally or better than agency rates, internal teams often lack the specialised production skills needed for ambitious campaigns. Marketers and project managers are increasingly taking on complex responsibilities like talent contracts, insurance, and post-production, which traditionally fall to experienced producers. This capability gap creates significant risk when high-volume social or quick-turnaround work evolves into multi-market rollouts or paid campaigns, highlighting a need for investment in professional production expertise within in-house models.

AI Reshaping Search Discoverability and Brand Mentions

Google is intensifying spam updates, leveraging AI to combat the "growing flood of AI slop" and low-effort content, which now poses a greater problem than link spam. Simultaneously, a new discipline of Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is emerging to track brand visibility within AI answers, as buyers increasingly compare vendors directly within these responses. Platforms like Omnia are designed to record brand mentions, cited sources, and competitor framing within AI answers, revealing a critical gap where traditional SEO focuses on clicks, but not on recommendations that bypass website visits. Google AI Mode, for instance, cites an average of 13.8 domains per answer, while AI Overviews cites 9.2 domains.

Digital Twins Underutilised for Proactive Crisis Readiness

Despite 70% of C-suite technology executives at large enterprises exploring and investing in digital twins for operations and supply chain optimisation, few are applying this technology to rehearse crisis scenarios. Recent incidents, such as a software update crash affecting 8.5 million Windows devices and a ransomware attack exposing personal health data of up to 1 in 3 Americans, have incurred documented losses exceeding $7 billion in the first half of 2024 alone. This highlights a significant strategic gap in leveraging digital twins for proactive crisis management, a capability that could mitigate billions in potential damages.

Executive summary

This briefing highlights two key operational shifts impacting marketing and e-commerce. AI-driven profit recovery tools are emerging to help marketplace vendors and shippers reclaim significant revenue lost to invoicing errors and deductions. Concurrently, new marketing technology simplifies and centralises multi-channel product communication, boosting operational efficiency and customer experience.

AI-driven profit recovery for marketplace vendors

Businesses operating on platforms like Amazon Vendor Central or Walmart Retail Link, especially those exceeding $1 million annually, can now leverage AI-powered audit engines to recover significant lost revenue. A service named Margin Pro by Threecolts analyses vendor remittances, marketplace reimbursements, and parcel invoices to identify and file claims for deduction errors, which often go unnoticed as only 37% appear in standard reports. This approach typically recovers 1-3% of total annual revenue and can save most businesses 10-30% on parcel costs without altering carrier or delivery speeds. The fee structure is based on a percentage of recovered funds, ranging from 15% to 25% for vendor and FBA reimbursements, and up to 20% for parcel savings.

Centralised multi-channel product messaging

Marketing and product teams can now streamline multi-channel customer communications through integrated notification infrastructure. Platforms like Knock enable the deployment and automation of product messages across email, in-app, push, SMS, and chat from a single system, reducing reliance on engineering for routine updates. Product managers can change templates or in-app guides without shipping code, while maintaining version history. This centralisation handles lifecycle messages, promotions, and transactional mail, allowing users to opt out by channel, workflow, or category. One user reported a 27% improvement in first response time and 32% faster ticket resolution rates by implementing a new notification centre.

The media landscape is shifting significantly with the new corporate identity for the combined Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery as Skydance, alongside Rogers Communications' consolidation of its extensive sports and media holdings. Simultaneously, Google is enhancing its Loyalty Customer Match program with AI integration and global expansion, while the events sector demonstrates substantial returns from unified technology platforms and first-party data strategies.

Major media consolidation reveals new corporate identity

David Ellison announced that the combined Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery entity will be named Skydance, with Paramount and Warner Bros. operating as sub-brands to retain their distinct identities. The new company plans to change its stock ticker to SKYD and move its listing from Nasdaq to the New York Stock Exchange. Additionally, George Cheeks is expected to oversee Skydance’s television studios, including Warner Bros. TV and Paramount TV studios, post-merger. This restructuring creates a significant new player in the entertainment industry, necessitating that marketers understand the evolved brand hierarchy for future content partnerships, advertising placements, and media strategy as the entity focuses on revenue generation and operational rationalisation.

Rogers Communications consolidates sports and media empire

Rogers Communications acquired the remaining 25% stake in Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) for CAN$4.35 billion (US$3.1 billion), becoming the sole owner of the company behind the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors. Rogers will establish a new business unit, Rogers Sports, combining MLSE with the Toronto Blue Jays. Keith Pelley will return as president of Rogers Media, overseeing its extensive portfolio of 30 TV networks and over 40 radio stations, including Sportsnet. This strategic consolidation creates a unified sports and media powerhouse in Canada, offering brands enhanced opportunities for integrated sponsorship and advertising across major sports franchises and broadcast channels, driven by an experienced media leadership.

Google Loyalty Customer Match expands globally with AI

Google's Loyalty Customer Match program has expanded its capabilities to include AI Mode and Gemini, now available in 14 countries with the addition of India, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, and Spain. The program's updated guidelines clarify that loyalty participation is open to non-advertisers and explicitly defines eligibility criteria such as loyalty points and completed orders for free listings. It also specifies that free-to-join programs cannot mandate eventual payment, including certain free trials. This expansion provides retailers with broader tools to leverage their customer loyalty data within Google's ecosystem, enabling enhanced targeting and personalisation capabilities to better engage high-value customers across a wider array of global markets.

Integrated event technology drives significant ROI

Supanova Comic Con & Gaming expanded its partnership with Leap Event Technology, integrating its ticketing, event app, onsite capabilities, and marketing services with its first-party audience data. This strategic integration resulted in a 50x Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) and a 32% year-on-year revenue increase. Supanova utilises Audience Republic to capture and analyse ticket purchasing behaviour, enabling the segmentation of communications for high-value customers, such as VIPs who are repeat attendees. This demonstrates how a unified technology stack and data-driven personalisation can significantly boost ad spend efficiency and overall revenue for large-scale events, as evidenced by a 70% EDM open rate for VIPs.