Tracksuit’s Connor Archbold, R/GA's Michael Titshall on AI’s Ascent, “Collapse of Middle Ground”

The creation of Omnicom Oceania, merger of Clemenger, CHEP, and Traffik, DDB-Clemenger and DDB-FCB-McCann shake up, and entry of Wieden+Kennedy into the Australian market dominated the AUNZ headlines this year. But asked for their top of story of the year, a handful of executives from across AUNZ point to the way artificial intelligence (AI), and global platforms are reshaping the landscape.

Auckland-based brand tracking startup Tracksuit had a big year. It raised $38 million in a Series B halfway through 2025, and venture capital company Blackbird described it “one of the fastest-growing success stories in our portfolio.”

Co-founder and CEO Connor Archbold told LBB, “It’s been hard to walk three steps amongst marketers and agencies without hearing that AI is changing the landscape.”

He’s keeping a close eye on artificial engine optimisation (AEO), which is disrupting the 20-year-old search and social industry, and acknowledged the way AI is impacting workflows is “top of mind for many and seems to be changing weekly.”

​R/GA’s APAC CEO, Michael Titshall, came at AI differently. In his view, “the biggest story this year wasn’t about technology”. It’s a somewhat surprising response from the newly-independent agency’s global head of AI products. But he noticed a disconnect between AI-generated campaigns and those winning Grands Prix at Cannes, like Telstra and Bear Meets Eagle on Fire’s ‘Better on a Better Network’ or Motion Sickness’ ‘Make Best Place in the World to Have Herpes’.

The biggest story of the year then, Michael said, was “the collapse of the middle ground, forced by a strategic tension between algorithmic efficiency and creative taste. On one side, we saw the industrialisation of our sector. Gen AI tools and automated media platforms became a new engine of production, leveraged for speed and conversion.

“But at the same time, the market rejected sameness. The campaigns that truly won hearts – and the Lions – were the ones that focused on humour and craft. This proves that technically slick, but emotionally hollow marketing is forgettable. We know this validates the need for distinctiveness.”

Last month, Bureau of Everything led the launch of ‘Ausify Your Algo’, an initiative urging Australians to listen to more local music. Level Two Music’s managing director Jen Taunton believes the biggest story of the year is a “growing disconnect between global platforms and local culture, most clearly seen in the decline of Australian music visibility on streaming services.

“Just as the agency landscape has fractured, with smaller independent shops gaining ground and large networks restructuring, music discovery has become dominated by globalised models that struggle to reflect local nuance.”

Given music is a “powerful cultural shortcut”, this matters for brands, she said. A lack of local music can make campaigns sound and feel generic, and lose “local texture” at a time audiences are “increasingly sensitive to authenticity.” Homegrown Aussie and Kiwi artists like Troye Sivan, Lorde, and Kylie Minogue finding success overseas proves it’s an issue of local visibility, Jen argued, and “that’s where the opportunity lies for advertisers.”

“We’ve seen brands step in as cultural partners, not just media buyers, backing Australian artists as collaborators and on camera talent in locally made work that cuts through,” she said.

“Championing Australian music isn’t just a cultural play, it’s a creative and commercial advantage in an increasingly fragmented market.”

R/GA CEO Michael believes 2026 will prove “we can’t afford the middle ground.” The best brands and their agency partners will weave commerce and brand-building together.

“We aren't choosing between the machine and the soul; we’re connecting them. Growth requires a new design architecture. We need to design intelligent brand systems that ensure distinctive creative is measured by outcomes, not just outputs.”

Tracksuit is helping to measure those outcomes for brands like Movember, Showpo, Arnott’s, and Lyka. Across the year, CEO Connor has observed top CMOs moving away from an artificial separation of brand and performance, instead using the backdrop of technological change to refocus on “full funnel marketing and marketing science principles, with teams rebalancing their budgets toward building memory, distinctiveness, and salience.

“Great marketers are simply aiming to do great work across the entire funnel and lifecycle of their customers — measurable, consistent, distinctive and creative marketing that delivers real impact.”

And then there’s Hilary Ngan Kee, the partner and head of strategy at Motion Sickness, the Kiwi indie that has had a meteoric year, largely thanks to the wildly successful and aforementioned ‘Make New Zealand the Best Place in the World to Have Herpes.’

Weighing in on the top stories of the year, she offered up a haiku:

Brand death-by-merger
buried in an AI grave
Good year to have herpes