Tuesday March 17, 2026
Is Kyle Sandilands about to buy ARN?
Kyle Sandilands is approaching a critical deadline in his dispute with ARN, with reports suggesting the broadcaster could move to terminate his contract while talk grows of a possible play for the network itself.
The speculation follows two weeks of escalating fallout between ARN and its biggest radio star, after The Kyle and Jackie O Show was pulled from air and Sandilands was accused of serious misconduct over his on-air clash with co-host Jackie ‘O’ Henderson.
What is happening between Kyle Sandilands and ARN?
ARN reportedly gave Kyle Sandilands 14 days to “remedy” what it said was a breach of his contract following the February 20 incident on air. That deadline falls on Tuesday, March 17. Hey, wait a minute, that’s today!
Multiple reports say Sandilands expects ARN to terminate his deal. His current contract, which runs to 2034, is understood to be one of the biggest agreements in Australian radio.
According to reports, Sandilands’ legal team remains confident it can challenge ARN’s position. If he is not reinstated, there is also speculation he could push for a payout tied to the remaining value of the contract, which is allegedly around AUD$88m.
Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O
Why are people talking about Sandilands buying ARN?
The biggest twist in the saga is the claim that Sandilands has discussed buying into ARN if he is pushed out of the business.
Sources close to Sandilands have told The Daily Telegraph that those conversations are early stage, with no suggestion that any deal is close.
The theory is tied to ARN’s current market cap (around AUD$100m) and the view among some close to the situation that prolonged uncertainty around Sandilands and Henderson is weighing on the company. That has fuelled chatter that a buy-in, or a broader takeover play, is being seriously considered.
Former radio executive and now seemingly full-time Kyle saga commentator Craig Bruce added to the intrigue over the weekend, saying he had been told Sandilands believed he would either be back on air by Wednesday or sacked on Tuesday. Bruce also repeated the claim that, if terminated, Sandilands could try to buy the network.
Bruce’s Laundy theory
Bruce has also speculated about whether recent talk around Sandilands meeting with Stu Laundy, whose father Arthur Laundy recently bought the Nine radio stations, was less about informal discussions and more about sounding out backing for a possible ARN move.
That remains unconfirmed. But the theory, as discussed by Bruce, is that Sandilands could seek support from the Laundy’s in a deal structure where Kyle focuses on taking control of KIIS while the Laundy family take the other ARN assets, including the GOLD network and the regional stations.
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At this stage, that is still market speculation rather than an established transaction. There has been no formal announcement of any bid, consortium, or financing arrangement.
What happens to The Kyle and Jackie O Show?
The dispute stems from the breakdown in the on-air partnership between Sandilands and Jackie ‘O’ Henderson. After the February confrontation, Henderson reportedly said she could no longer work with Sandilands, leaving the future of the show and their long-term deal in doubt.
Even so, reports suggest relations between the pair may have steadied somewhat behind the scenes. Whether that is enough to bring the show back remains unclear.
The collapse of the partnership would create a major commercial and programming problem for ARN. The KIIS breakfast show has long been central to the network’s strategy, audience profile and advertising pitch, particularly in Sydney and Melbourne.
A contract fight with wider implications
Bruce has described the dispute as one of the biggest contract battles Australian media has seen, pointing to the scale and length of the Sandilands-Henderson agreement. His broader point is hard to ignore: deals of this size are rare in modern media, and unwinding one is likely to be complex.
Any legal action would also unfold as ARN faces added regulatory pressure. The Australian Communications and Media Authority has imposed new licence conditions on ARN after investigations into repeated breaches of decency provisions.
Those conditions apply to KIIS FM stations in Sydney and Melbourne for five years and require tighter safeguards around offensive content, along with an independent governance audit.
What to watch next
The immediate question is whether ARN formally terminates Sandilands, reaches a settlement, or finds a path to put him back on air. Beyond that sits a bigger issue: whether takeover chatter is simply bravado, or the opening move in a more serious play for the future of ARN.
For now, the most important detail is this: one of Australian radio’s most consequential talent disputes has shifted from an employment matter into a broader fight over control, value and the future of a major media asset.
Oprah to interview woman at centre of Coldplay kiss cam saga
Kristin Cabot is set to give her only on-camera interview since the Coldplay kiss cam moment that turned her into one of the most talked-about figures of 2025, with Oprah Winfrey releasing the full conversation on Tuesday, March 17.
The interview, which will appear on Oprah’s YouTube channel and across podcast platforms, revisits the July 2025 incident that saw Cabot – who was estranged from her husband – filmed in the arms of her then-boss and then-married boss – Astronomer chief executive Andy Byron, during a Coldplay concert at Gillette Stadium in Massachusetts.
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What does Kristin Cabot reveal in the Oprah interview?
In preview clips released ahead of the full episode, Cabot says her estranged husband was also at the concert that night. She says her daughter messaged her as she arrived to say both she and Andrew were at the venue.
Cabot recalls wondering whether it would be awkward if the pair crossed paths while she was with Byron. But with more than 55,000 people in the stadium, she said she did not expect to run into him. Looking back, she says that may have been the better outcome.
Cabot also says her estranged husband already understood the nature of her relationship with Byron. According to Cabot, he knew the pair worked closely and socialised outside the office, including lunches and drinks.
A viral moment that reshaped careers
The original clip lasted only seconds, but quickly spread across social media after Coldplay frontman Chris Martin appeared to joke from the stage that the pair were either shy or “having an affair”. The footage became one of the most widely shared videos of 2025 and pushed both executives into a global spotlight.
Astronomer CEO Andy Byron and his HR chief Kristin Cabot were caught on the kiss cam at a Coldplay concert.
The fallout extended well beyond viral internet ridicule. Cabot and Byron both left Astronomer in the aftermath, and Cabot has since spoken about the personal and professional damage caused by the scale of the online reaction.
Previous reporting said Cabot was separated from her husband at the time of the concert and has since filed for divorce. She has also said she believed Byron was separating from his wife at the time, although Byron has not commented publicly.
Cabot turns attention to platform accountability
Another thread in the Oprah interview is Cabot’s criticism of technology platforms and the way viral content is monetised. She argues social media companies benefit financially when moments of personal distress are amplified at scale.
Cabot says the experience changed how she views the systems behind viral distribution, arguing that every click, share and like helps feed the economics of online attention. She frames that as a broader issue about accountability in the platform era.
That argument adds a media and technology angle to a story that first played as celebrity-adjacent internet gossip. For media observers, the interview shifts the conversation from scandal to the mechanics of virality, platform incentives and reputational damage.
Kristin Cabot
Why the Oprah interview matters
Winfrey has described the podcast appearance as Cabot’s only on-camera interview. That alone gives the release weight, particularly after months of speculation, tabloid coverage and fragmented accounts of what happened before and after the concert.
For audiences, the interview offers the clearest attempt yet by Cabot to reclaim control of the narrative. For the media industry, it is also another example of how a fleeting live-event moment can evolve into a global content cycle spanning social platforms, podcasts, tabloids and long-form interviews.
Top image: Kristin Cabot & Oprah Winfrey
How Michael B. Jordan's two full roles in 'Sinners' earned him one best actor Oscar
In Ryan Coogler‘s Sinners, the serious Smoke and the smiling Stack, are twins who have returned home to Mississippi to open their own club. And then one of them becomes a vampire.
The movie earned an historic 16 Oscar nominations for 2026, including Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan.
On March 16, Jordan won. And this is why: he not only played twins, but two very distinct characters main characters – simultaneously – through a remarkable, thoughtful performance.
‘You want me to play identical twins?’
Jordan told the LA Times about how Coogler pitched him the role.
“Then he told me about Sinners. It sounded fantastic, but he left out the vampires at first and left out the identical twins, and just kind of dropped those things along the way.
“I was like, ‘You want me to play identical twins? You could have led with that!’ But I’m a self-motivator. You give me a mission, give me a goal and I’m going to reach it.”
Initially, Jordan had Oscar-winning costume designer Ruth E. Carter to help delineate the twins externally – but it was more than just appearances.
Jordan said, “Smoke’s closed off and guarded, he’s planted, so let’s give him a size-too-big shoe because I wanted him to move slow and methodical.
“With Stack, we did a half-size too small to feel like he couldn’t sit still because that’s how he coped with his trauma — through his slick talk and smiling and laughing and going from one thing to the next because he wanted to f— move on from the pain like it didn’t happen.”
@reel.takes Replying to @Janet Michael B. Jordan gives 3 distinct performances in Sinners, but for some this still isn’t enough. I just gave Sinners a rewatch in preparation for the Academy Awards this weekend, and I wanted to talk about some of the aspects of his performance that jump off the screen. #sinners #michaelbjordan #academyawards #oscars #OscarsPostContest ♬ original sound – Reel Takes
Three ways Michael B. Jordan won Best Actor Oscar 2026
TikToker @reel.takes furthers the analysis of Jordan’s performance.
“The basics of a dual performance are physicality and voice,” he begins in one of his Sinners clips.
“The two voices are not alike at all, that’s because Michael B. Jordan was working with a dialect coach, who helped him craft two distinct voices.
“Stacks talks in a higher pitch, and he generally is talking faster… His jaw, the way he moves when he talks – everything about him is looser.
“With Smoke, everything around his mouth and jaw is tighter and more reserved. Smoke is very direct, very blunt.”
The creator also makes the point that Jordan actually plays a third character – the vampire version of Stack (sorry, a spoiler, but a publicly known one) – making his overall performance in Sinners even more outstanding then many viewers realise.
Top Image: Michael B. Jordan wins 2026 Best Actor Oscar
Dentsu ANZ appoints Danica Bellchamber
Dentsu has appointed Danica Bellchambers to a newly created chief data and technology officer role.
Bellchambers will commence on 11 May and join Dentsu ANZ’s executive leadership team, with the role bringing together data, technology and AI as a horizontal capability across its media, creative and experience practices.
The appointment reflects Dentsu’s broader push to connect those capabilities more closely across client work and internal operations.
The new role has been created to unify existing data and technology capability across the business, with Bellchambers tasked with building a more connected strategy across teams already working in those areas.
Rob Harvey
Rob Harvey, CEO of Dentsu, said the appointment builds on work already underway inside the business.
“Danica is exactly the leader we need at this moment. We’re already doing great work across data, technology and AI, and her appointment is about accelerating that momentum and connecting our capability more deeply across the organisation.
“She brings deep expertise that will help us scale what we’re doing well and deliver even greater value for our clients. Our focus is firmly on client impact, and Danica’s leadership will play a key role in helping us deliver more modern, integrated and effective outcomes. I’m excited to welcome her to the team as we continue to move forward with confidence.”
Bellchambers’ past experiences
Bellchambers joins from Nine Entertainment, where she was head of product, AI, leading AI product strategy across content, audience and commercial use cases.
Before that, she held senior leadership roles at Clemenger BBDO, where she led data science and analytics capability for clients, embedding advanced analytics and AI into marketing and creative solutions at scale.
Bellchambers on her new role
In the role, Bellchambers will draw on Dentsu’s global AI products, platforms and partnerships while building solutions tailored to local client and team needs across Australia and New Zealand.
Bellchambers said the opportunity reflected a strong ambition already present across the business.
“There is a clear, bold ambition at Dentsu to unify people, data, and technology to supercharge creativity.
I’m excited to work with the talented teams already in the business to build on their strong foundations and architect a high-performance data and AI strategy, leveraging the strength of our global capabilities to deliver high-impact, local results that drive our clients’ businesses forward.”
Top Image: Danica Bellchambers
JCDecaux: Why the $20m MOVE switch is OOH’s best weapon
The Australian Out of Home (OOH) industry has officially crossed the Rubicon.
The mandatory hard switch took place on 16 March. Now, the Outdoor Media Association’s $20 million MOVE platform serves as the sole trading currency for the sector.
The industry has officially left behind the static averages of MOVE 1.5. Instead, the new system models a synthetic audience of 2.2 million Australians. It uses this data to predict the reach of over 180,000 outdoor advertising sites nationwide.
For JCDecaux Co-CEOs Max Eburne and David Watkins, the transition to the new currency provides the ultimate tool to prove the channel’s worth against digital and broadcast rivals.
“The single biggest advantage this gives Out of Home is competitive credibility,” Eburne told Mediaweek. “MOVE allows Out of Home to stand alongside digital and broadcast with a level of measurement depth and granularity that removes ambiguity in planning discussions.”
Watkins noted that this new granularity drives the growth of programmatic trading and demonstrates effectiveness through Marketing Mix Modelling (MMM).
“When competing directly for budget, credibility and comparability matter. MOVE strengthens both,” Watkins said. “It gives planners clearer evidence of how audiences move, when they move, and how that movement intersects with specific assets.”
Precision at scale
The updated MOVE data confirms that Out of Home advertising reaches 97% of Australians weekly. However, the JCDecaux leaders noted that their conversations with agencies moved beyond pure brand awareness long ago.
“What the 97% figure does is remove any lingering hesitation around scale,” Eburne explained. “It shifts the conversation from ‘does Out of Home reach enough people?’ to ‘how do we deploy that reach most effectively?’”
This shift toward sophisticated, data-led deployment aligns with JCDecaux’s recent internal restructuring.
In February 2026, the company appointed former Australian Radio Network executive Angus Leech to the newly created role of national director of revenue. The appointment coordinates how the business monetises a market that is becoming increasingly data-driven.
The MOVE board alongside a JCDecaux installation. Image: supplied
Measuring genuine attention
As its cornerstone feature, the new MOVE platform introduces Visibility Adjusted Contacts (VAC), replacing older legacy metrics.
Rather than counting the potential audience that could see an ad, VAC measures the estimated number of people who actually looked at it.
“In a fragmented media landscape, attention is scarce,” Watkins said. “A currency that moves closer to measuring it strengthens the commercial case for Out of Home. Visibility Adjusted Contacts shifts the conversation from how many people could see an ad to how many are likely to have actually looked at it.”
By incorporating attention signals, VAC provides planners with a stronger basis to differentiate between formats, environments, and placements based on exposure quality.
Validating the strategy
The progression from gross audiences to VAC directly reinforces the “Be Seen. Be Remembered.” brand positioning that JCDecaux launched last year.
The positioning argues that mere exposure is not enough, and that ads need to drive actual memory encoding.
Watkins said the evolution of MOVE brings the industry currency closer to reflecting that reality. He highlighted that JCDecaux already operates this way through UNIVERSE, its proprietary planning ecosystem. It combines audience movement data, behavioural insights, and network intelligence.
The new hour-by-hour, 365-day granularity will also change how creative agencies approach outdoor campaigns.
“Greater granularity across the year gives creative agencies more confidence to design for context, not just coverage,” Eburne said. “When planners can see how audiences shift by time of day, season, holiday period, or travel patterns, creative can be aligned more deliberately to those moments.”
Whether messaging reflects commuter peaks, retail cycles, or airport dwell times, both leaders believe that better data does not replace creativity. It sharpens it.
Feature image- JCDecaux Co-CEOs, Max Eburne and David Watkins
Are you deliberately ignoring 37% of Australia?
Nathan Patrick, commercial director of regional, Nine
I’m approaching my 20th year in this industry, which I love, and I’m often asked what keeps me up at night. The truth is … everything. All the “I should haves” are what keep me awake.
Our industry is moving and changing at a rapid pace. When you’re running that hard and fast and never stop, you are bound to miss a lot of what is around you. And right now, what many are missing is a massive segment of the consumer market.
Missing the massive consumer market
The consumer is at the heart of it all, yet 37 per cent of Australians are excluded if you don’t buy Regional. Would you deliberately ignore the population of New York City if you were launching a campaign in America?
Or, to put it another way, would you ignore a market almost twice the size of New Zealand? How about launching a new product and deliberately excluding 14 of Australia’s 19 major cities?
But perhaps it is time we stop obsessing over places and start talking about people.
Where are your consumers actually going? The latest Regional Movers Index paints a very clear picture: they are leaving the cities. Sydney and Melbourne are driving a massive exodus, accounting for 95 per cent of the net outflow from capitals.
Meanwhile, net migration to regional areas is 26 per cent higher than to capital cities. Places like the Sunshine Coast, Greater Geelong and regional NSW are booming.
The regional migration boom
And here is the kicker: the data shows they are staying. Inter-regional mobility has hit record lows, meaning these regional populations are stabilising and growing deep roots.
If your audience has literally packed up and moved, why hasn’t your media plan moved with them?
Fact: Regional Total TV (TTV) reaches 12 per cent more people today than live broadcast did 10 years ago. It is just consumed differently. Fact: 44 per cent of Regional TTV viewers are under 40, and 41 per cent of Live broadcast viewing is consumed by those under 40.
Challenging the defensive mindset
In this fast-paced environment, those accountable for growing profits for their clients or shareholders need to look at the evidence.
Chasing the easy execution or a short-term win at the expense of genuine growth is something we are all seeing too often. We have to slow down enough to look at what actually drives outcomes.
Over the past 18 months, Nine has been working with clients to prove the effectiveness of TTV, and the results are in. TTV creates a sales impact that lasts twice as long as other media channels. For one week of TV activity, advertisers can get eight weeks of sales effects.
Armed with data like this, when I ask clients what their plans are, I am asking because I care. Yes, I work for Nine. Yes, I have targets.
But it is fundamentally because I genuinely care about driving outcomes.
Time for full transparency
Over the years, I’ve watched buyer behaviour shift, often becoming defensive. I hear, “We didn’t have enough money, so Regional was pulled,” or “Metro was our focus”.
But for a partnership to truly work, I believe in full transparency. We talk about accountability a lot, but how can we be accountable if we aren’t educated on the facts?
If I’ve hit a nerve, then you’re asking yourself a question. And that is all I want our industry to do: challenge the status quo.
After all, I’ve learnt the most from colleagues I’ve disagreed with.
Source: RegTAM Regional 5 Agg Jan-Jun 2015, Nine Content Affiliates, Seven Content Affiliates, 10 Content Affiliates, SBS Network, ABV Network, Broadcast TV, Avg Monthly Reach, P18+, Consolidated 7.
Source: TVMAP VOZ Analyser, VOZ Data 5.9 © OzTAM Pty Limited 2023, Regional 5 Agg, Jan-Jun 2025, Nine, Seven, 10, SBS, ABC, Total TV, Avg Monthly Reach, P18+, Consolidated 7.
Source: TVMAP VOZ Analyser, VOZ Data 5.9 © OzTAM Pty Limited 2023, Regional Combined, 01/01/2025 – 27/09/2025, Nine, Seven, 10, SBS, ABC, Average Monthly Reach, Consolidated 7.
Source: Regional Movers Index Jun 2025 Quarter Report.
Source: Mutinex, 2025.
Feature Image- Nathan Patrick, Director of Regional, Nine: supplied
ADMA launches podcast on how marketers can lead with AI
The Association for Data-driven Marketing and Advertising (ADMA) has released a new podcast episode examining how marketers are adopting artificial intelligence and where the industry still needs to close capability gaps as AI becomes embedded in day-to-day work.
Hosted by Anthony Toovey, a strategic advisor at ADMA, the episode features a discussion with Daniel Bluzer-Fry and Lisa Talia Moretti, co-authors of the ADMA AI Talent & Trust Report, and examines how marketers can use AI ethically while strengthening the human skills that remain central to marketing leadership.
The conversation draws on findings from ADMA’s 2025 State of AI in Marketing Survey, which surveyed more than 1,000 Australian marketers.
Adoption is moving faster than formal training
According to the survey, 75% of marketers now use AI weekly, pointing to how quickly the technology has moved into everyday workflows.
At the same time, only 29% of respondents reported having undertaken formal training, highlighting a gap between adoption and capability as businesses continue to experiment with new tools.
Andrea Martens, CEO of ADMA, said the podcast arrives at a critical moment for the sector.
“AI is transforming marketing at an extraordinary pace, creating powerful new opportunities for marketers to innovate, experiment and deliver more meaningful customer experiences.
“However, the long-term value will depend on how responsibly we use it. As adoption accelerates, marketers have a critical role to play in balancing innovation with accountability to protect consumer trust, strengthen brand integrity and unlock the full potential of this technology.
“This podcast forms part of ADMA’s commitment to supporting the industry with practical insights, research and education, so marketers can build the skills, confidence and governance frameworks needed to lead in an AI-powered future. Making the ADMA AI Talent & Trust Report freely available is another way we’re ensuring marketers have the knowledge and tools they need to navigate this shift with confidence.”
Why marketers are positioned to lead AI adoption
Alongside the podcast, ADMA has made its AI Talent & Trust Report available as a free resource, bringing together views on workforce change, governance and strategy from industry contributors including Tom Goodwin, David Phillips, Siobhan Savage and Peter Leonard.
Toovey said marketers are well placed to shape how organisations adopt AI because of the way the profession balances experimentation and risk.
“Marketers possess the mindsets to be frontrunners in organisational AI adoption: we are curious, we are experimenters, we are innovators. But we are also brand protectors and the reputational risk is huge,” Toovey said.
“The podcast explores the role marketing must play in an AI age and what leaders need to do now to ensure AI becomes one of the most powerful tools marketers have ever had access to, and not a liability.”
Governance remains the missing layer
Dr Sage Kelly
Sage Kelly, regulatory and policy manager at ADMA, said many organisations are still missing the governance frameworks needed to support responsible AI use.
“Marketers are embracing AI enthusiastically, yet most organisations lack the safeguards and governance frameworks needed to manage emerging risks.
“ADMA provides educational resources to help marketers stay up to date on regulatory reforms and requirements in this fast-changing environment – from courses covering the laws marketers need to know to regulatory sessions, toolkits and practical resources designed to support responsible use.
“These resources help marketers build the governance knowledge and safety frameworks they need so they can continue doing what they do best – creating meaningful customer experiences while protecting trust.”
Top Image: Andrea Martens
Want to get 70% more out of your paid social advertising? Do this
By Sam Boardman, Director, Vonnimedia
It’s undeniable that social has become the number-one flywheel for brands to build relevance in 2026.
At the same time, brands keep throwing money into Meta’s algorithm like an addicted gambler playing the pokie machine, hoping to hit the “jackpot” by guessing what works with their paid social ads. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Paid social is the first time in the history of advertising where we can measure the performance of creative, live.
It’s also the first time in history that (if you organise yourself well enough) you can do something about it, potentially saving you millions a year in advertising or getting millions more in value from your investment.
Also, customers prefer good ads – so give them that.
We’ve built an approach that works for our clients that would be rude not to share, so you can take the guesswork out of the content creation process for your ads. We call it our ‘creative performance framework’.
Here’s how it works.
Now that we can measure creative performance, we believe (and have achieved with our clients) that every good ad can be broken down into “why” it’s successful. If you know “why” an ad is successful, with finite creative resourcing, it makes sense to spend more time making ads that are based on previous successful ads versus the ads that you know weren’t a success.
Makes sense, right?
Ok, so how do you do it. You need three things:
• A strategic framework that we can organise and allocate resourcing
• A way to measure this framework (the variables used to analyse your ad creatives)
• Guidelines and guardrails to continue to spark creativity and maintain relevance.
The creative performance framework provides guidelines for strategists and content production teams to align their resourcing and execution capabilities to meet the requirements for creating great ads.
Whilst there’s no exact science to content creation, we’ve found the 60/30/10 structure to be the most effective for creating something that delivers incremental improvements day in, day out, whilst being simple enough to communicate across the teams involved.
The 60/30/10 reflects the percentage of ads created in each of the categories:
• 60%: Tweaking of top performing ads – this typically involves remaking the same ad for a different demographic, changing out the talent or adjusting a hook. The message is consistent, the creative looks different.
• 30%: are re-shoots of winning messages (unique selling propositions, collation and re-edits of existing content) in fresh ways – changing the script, the location, the talent but keeping the core underlying message. This helps push beyond just a remake of the same ad.
• 10%: completely new ads. We know the next best ad could come from a great concept, so to keep the ad account fresh and ideas rolling, we dedicated 10% of content creation to test a completely new concept.
Every creative is made up of variables that influence buyer decisions. From the message to the setting, the placement, the hook, the CTA – all things that influence the behaviour of customers when they consume an ad.
Now you know the framework, it’s all about execution. This is where brands fall over, waiting too long to iterate on their content before blasting through hundreds of thousands of dollars in media spend on inefficient creative.
The brands we see doing this well are introducing new content using this model multiple times a week, constantly hunting for the next ad to deliver a step change in their business.
If this is new to you, aim for monthly, with the goal of implementing the framework fortnightly by six months from now, then weekly.
If you’re reading this and thinking, “Wow, it’s going to cost me a fortune in studio time, expensive production, location shoots – you name it,” you’ve got the traditional content creation model wrong. Take fashion lifestyle Comfrt for example – they execute 15,000 creatives with a marketing team of four people.
You need to get creative and leverage your customers, creators, and editors to utilise the mountain of content in your drives to create consistent, fresh content.
Cut losers quickly, scale winners quickly
The importance of this process is continuous improvement. You should know very quickly, with the right ad testing strategy, whether the ad will perform or not. Ensure you have a clear testing framework to measure performance; don’t leave this to gut feel.
We’ve moved past the point where “creative” and “data” are two different departments. In the modern social flywheel, they are the same thing.
The brands that thrive in the second half of this decade will be those that realise great ads aren’t found in a vacuum – they are created through ruthless experimentation and taking risks.
Kate O'Loughlin: Marketing lessons from the rise of run clubs
‘Obsessed’ is a monthly deep dive into social and cultural trends that can help marketers inform the way they think. Led by Kate O’Loughlin, Initiative strategist and self-confessed obsessive, ‘Obsessed’ will be a magic school bus to expand marketing mindsets and help brands remain relevant amongst an ever-changing cultural landscape.
I’m obsessed with the run club “boom” happening across Australia.
Fitness is forever popular and fills feeds more than most content. However, increasingly, the tone and focus of this content is changing. In recent years, the focus of fitness addicts has been driven by traditionally ‘boutique’ workout classes, with choices like Pilates experiencing 250% growth from 2021 to 2022. This has been driven, in part, by lifestyle and fitness influencers, who promote classes or their own boutique apps such as Tammy Fit, Sweat, or Kic.
The simple, easy to access, and traditionally unglamorous sport of running has never been high on the fitness agenda… until now.
@riley.hemsonIts not that I dont believe you ? Doing it for the girlies ? Realistic running diaries ???♀️♬ original sound – Rileyj
While not an exclusive sport, running has been associated with the physically elite. Nothing about running a 21 kilometre half marathon screams ‘everyday fitness’.
In 2024, this changed, as influencers like Riley Hemson and Madii Bennett began documenting ‘realistic’ run diaries and broke down the misconception that running had to be quick. According to TikTok’s creative centre, #running is now the number two sports hashtag in the county (outperforming #rugbyleague and #pilates).
@madiibennett5 KAAAAA-CHOWWWWW ??♀️⚡️ #realisticrunningdiaries #runtok #beginnerrunner #postpartumrunning #plussizerunner #realisticrunclub #fyp #foryoupage #nikerunclub ♬ original sound – Madii Bennett
Coinciding with the seemingly increased accessibility of running across social media has been the boom of run clubs. In Sydney, the ‘Unofficial Runclub’ has gone from 50 to sometimes 1,000 attendees participating in the group’s early morning run. Bronte’s ‘The 440’ (a 5am Saturday morning run) has got hundreds of weekly attendees as well as spin-off clubs across Australia and the US.
There are clear takeaways here for brands. As marketers, we should all be obsessed with run clubs.
Accessibility is everything
The rising cost of living has put pressure on increasing the accessible options available to Australian consumers. Elite gym classes not only require money to attend, but are also accompanied by pressure to wear specific exercise brands or consume specific supplements.
Running, however, has a ‘get up and go’ mentality, made clear by the presence of varying fitness abilities on TikTok. To replicate this behaviour, brands should look to show varying product use cases now more than ever. By demonstrating multiple audiences using products or services in different ways, brands can increase their image of accessibility.
Connection > transaction
Too often, digital communities can’t permeate into consistent real life collectives. Running subverts this. While the trend of ‘realistic run diaries’ started online, it has been quick to emerge offline in the form of grassroots run clubs. As marketers, too often we forget that our shoppers are people before they are customers. Brands that facilitate connection by promoting and supporting the creation of third spaces will win out.
For example, could an e-commerce brand create physical ‘returns’ spaces to solve customer frustrations? Can online publishers promote IRL ‘article clubs’ for readers to meet and discuss content? The opportunities to bring our audiences together are there, we just need to be brave and take them.
The search for D&Ms
Deep and meaningful conversations (D&Ms) are not new, or exclusive to running. The joke of having D&Ms in a club smoking room still rings true. However, the rise of run clubs proves that deeper relationships are increasingly important to consumers, and brands should take note.
Powerfully true insights have never been more important. Brands that release products with a surface-level understanding of their consumers will risk failure. Now more than ever, it’s critical we hold ourselves to account and ask ‘why?’ when planning new product or campaign launches. Those who fail to do so will quickly be called out.
While we don’t need to purchase a pair of Hoka sneakers or gear up for a 5am run from Bondi to Bronte, marketers and brands alike should be running (ha) to embrace the lessons, and learn from the consumer behaviours, attached to the rise of run clubs.
As we see inflation fall over the coming year, it will be interesting to monitor consumer sentiment through the lens of running, and whether we see an increased push for connection still, or a reversion back to the status quo.
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See also: Kate O’Loughlin: The Carnival World Cruise: brand titanic… or life raft?
Top image: Kate O’Loughlin
SXSW 2026: creativity, creators and the death of internet fun
Monique Harris, chief executive officer of Convo Media, shares her latest dispatch from South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin.
Could the internet be fun again? If anyone could make the case, it was BuzzFeed co-founder Jonah Peretti.
His SXSW session, “Enough with the Bullsh*t: Let’s Make the Internet Fun Again,” generated plenty of chatter overnight.
Before he even got into the substance of the talk, Peretti had to deal with a small SXSW curveball, his slides weren’t working and when they finally appeared they were in the wrong order.
He ended up improvising much of the talk, which, if anything, made the session even more impressive.
Jonah Peretti presented, ‘Enough with the Bullsh*t: Let’s Make the Internet Fun Again’. Image: supplied
Optimising the internet to death
His core argument was something many of us at SXSW seemed to agree with: the internet has become a bit… boring.
Peretti argued that social platforms have slowly shifted from the weird, creative, joyful place the internet once was into something far more optimised and predictable.
Instead of people sharing funny, surprising things with friends, platforms now optimise for engagement metrics, outrage and content formats that the algorithm knows will perform.
In his words, the internet has been optimised to death.
A surprising take on AI
Interestingly, while many SXSW speakers over the first few days have warned about the dangers of AI, Peretti took a slightly more optimistic angle.
He suggested AI could actually help bring creativity back if it’s used as a tool for experimentation rather than just another way to mass-produce content.
His point was that AI should help people play with ideas, remix culture and create new types of interactive media, not simply become a content factory churning out more of the same.
The shift to smaller spaces
Another interesting prediction was that the future of the internet may move away from giant public feeds toward smaller, more social spaces.
Think group chats, niche communities and collaborative content created with friends rather than broadcast to the entire internet.
Peretti said BuzzFeed is already experimenting with formats designed to bring that sense of play back online including social quizzes, collaborative content and tools built for small groups rather than mass audiences.
The line I kept hearing people repeat afterwards summed it up nicely: “The internet became optimised for performance and lost its sense of play.”
The idea that technology might actually help make the internet fun again felt like a refreshing take.
Rhett & Link, the ‘Internetainers’ delivered ‘The Mythical Model: Next Gen Creator-Brand Partnerships’. Image: supplied
The evolution of creator partnerships
Another session that caught my attention was “The Mythical Model: Next Gen Creator-Brand Partnerships.”
The discussion led by creators Rhett & Link, centred on how the creator economy is evolving beyond simple influencer posts into something far more sophisticated.
Successful creators increasingly operate like full media companies producing shows, launching products, running podcasts and building highly engaged communities.
The message to brands was clear: treat creators as content partners, not just distribution channels.
The most effective collaborations are those woven directly into the storytelling rather than awkwardly bolted on as sponsored posts.
Driving full-funnel outcomes
What was particularly interesting from my marketing perspective was the conversation about extending creator partnerships further down the funnel.
Increasingly brands are looking for ways to amplify influencer-led content beyond the creator’s own channels and place it into relevant media environments where it can reach broader audiences.
Cake Shop’s Luke Hills, and Georgina Woodburne, James McAtamey, of McAtamney & Advisors, Monique Harris of Convo Media. Image: supplied
That shift opens an interesting opportunity for content-led advertising models by taking creator storytelling and distributing it in contextually relevant environments where it can scale, build engagement and move closer to full-funnel outcomes.
In a world where audiences are increasingly sceptical of traditional advertising, creators with loyal communities amplified in the right media environments may become one of the most powerful ways for brands to connect with consumers.
Great news for those of us in the content advertising world.
An Australian wrap-up
To cap off Day 3, SXSW organisers hosted an event for the Australian delegation, a chance for ANZ attendees to compare notes and share highlights from the week so far.
As you would imagine, an open bar and a room full of Aussies is always a risky combination.
By all accounts the organisers had to extend the bar tab because we were all having too much fun networking and swapping stories to leave.
Here’s to another big day of inspiration and ideas at SXSW tomorrow.