The Australian advertising industry is in for another stifled year of growth according to GroupM’s This Year Next Year report for December 2023, with the WPP investment arm forecasting a marginal 0.9% year-on-year (YOY) growth in ad spend for 2024. The report, launched with global figures last week, came in with the lowest forecast for the Australian market, compared to figures released by IPG Mediabrand’s Global Ad Forecast from Magna and Dentsu’s Global Ad Spend Forecast in the last week. GroupM forecast growth for 2023 to be flat, coming in at 0.2% YOY, though pointed to pockets of growth ..read more

Media company Atomic 212° celebrated 2023 with an offsite event in the Blue Mountains for its Darwin, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne staff. The announcement: Australia’s biggest and fastest-growing independent media agency, Atomic 212°, has celebrated its success in 2023 by taking its entire staff from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Darwin on a three-day offsite in the NSW Blue Mountains. The event, called Atomic 212° Out Of Office, capped a big year for the agency, with a string of account wins and retentions, and the addition of new staff around the country. It also co-incided with the ag ..read more

Richard Kingsmill is departing ABC and triple j after a 35-year stint with the national broadcaster, during which time he was vital in shaping the sound and style of the youth station. Kingsmill started at triple j in 1988, the year before the station went national. Soon he landed an on-air role, and became the station’s music director in 2003. Kingsmill stepped into the group music director role in 2017, overseeing triple j, triple j Unearthed, Double J, ABC Local, and ABC Country. “I started with a lot of passion, but pretty modest skills to be honest,” Kingsmill said of his career. “I’m in ..read more

Agent99 PR has taken on Australian Macadamias as a new client, while helping the brand’s industry launch the ‘Make it Special’ campaign. The announcement: Award-winning independent agency Agent99 PR are excited to announce the extension of their FMCG portfolio, with the addition of Australian Macadamias, the brand representing the Australian macadamia industry. Agent99 was onboarded to support the industry’s educational campaign, Make it Special, by launching an integrated PR, social, event and ambassador led strategy to help build greater understanding of macadamias, their health benefits a ..read more

The StandardX, Melbourne has signed up to be a new client for creative agency Example. The announcement: Independent earned creative agency, Example, has extended its travel and lifestyle portfolio with new hotel client, The StandardX, Melbourne. Example has been engaged by Standard International as its Australian PR partner and is charged with launching the new hotel via earned media and a targeted influencer approach, as well as debuting The StandardX brand in the Australian region. Harking back to the brazen, surprising nature of the original The Standard, Hollywood, The StandardX has bee ..read more

The Newsreader leads the nominees for the 2024 AACTA Awards, with the ABC drama up for a whopping 15 awards. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart is up for 12 awards, while Colin From Accounts and Deadloch both locked down ten nominations apiece. Filmwise, Warwick Thornton’s The New Boy, starring Cate Blanchett, secured 12 nominations, while supernatural film Talk to Me, starring Sophie Wilde and Miranda Otto, the directorial debut of brother team Danny and Michael Philippou, scored 11 nominations. Damian Trewhella, CEO of the Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts,  said: “Congratul ..read more

Sling & Stone will now “lead public relations and influencer marketing” for Tātaki Auckland Unlimited within Australia. The announcement: Sling & Stone, the communications agency known for working with ambitious brands shaping the future of travel and tourism marketing, has been selected by Tātaki Auckland Unlimited to lead public relations and influencer marketing in Australia. Tātaki Auckland Unlimited is Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland’s economic and cultural agency committed to making the Auckland region a desirable place to live, work, visit, invest and do business. Sling & Stone w ..read more

Dentsu has released its annual global ad spend forecasts, foreshadowing a “challenging macroeconomic background” and another year of slowing year-on-year (YOY) growth for 2024. Globally, dentsu has forecast ad spend to grow by 4.6% YOY in 2024, ahead of just 2.7% YOY growth in 2023. The advertising group attributed much of the growth to media price inflation in 2023, with ad spend at constant prices actually declining by 0.7%. After a record 2022, growth was even more minimal in the Australian market, with the forecast for 2024 levelled at a marginal 2.3% YOY, after a very slight YOY rise of ..read more

Stan has today launched a new documentary following two of Australia’s best investigative journalists’ quest to uncover the truth of war veteran Ben Roberts-Smith. The feature length film, ‘Revealed: Ben Roberts-Smith Truth on Trial’, delves into Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters’ five-year pursuit of Roberts-Smith, as they look to expose the decorated veteran for committing war crimes in Afghanistan. It traces the origins of the journalists’ controversial 2018 reports, and the subsequent story on Nine Network’s 60 Minutes, to the recent defamation trial earlier this year, where Roberts-Sm ..read more

Challenger internet provider Superloop has appointed Publicis media agency Zenith Australia to handle media strategy, planning, buying and research across all channels. Mumbrella understands that a competitive pitch did not take place and an incumbent could not be confirmed, however, Omnicom Media Group’s (OMG) Hearts & Science were credited with media in the brand’s most recent campaign. Zenith Australia’s Sydney office will commence work with Superloop from 1 March 2024, with the appointment marking the consolidation of Superloop’s agency roster under the Publicis Groupe banner. Creativ ..read more