This year has been dramatic, globally, locally and politically. It’s been a rollercoaster in media and marketing too. Here we look at the biggest stories of 2016 and the moments likely to impact the industry next year.
January
2016 started with a bang with Optus announcing its six-strong roster of creative agencies and handing its media business to UM in the first week of the year. Coca-Cola revealed it was overhauling its global marketing and brand strategy bringing about the biggest change in its marketing operations in its history. It unified its four core brands; Coke Zero, Diet Coke, Coke Life and Coca-Cola under one single strategy and budget. M&C Saatchi made waves for the controversy around its 21st birthday celebration, which drew stark criticism for the choice of burlesque entertainment and reignited discussions around sexism in the industry. January saw Australia’s last hope to crash the Super Bowl rest on the shoulders of an Australian film-maker and a baby trying to escape the womb. Woolies announced its intentions to ditch its failing Masters Home Improvement business as well as Home Timber and Hardware. Meat & Livestock Australia caused a stir with its Australia Day ad starring Lee Lin Chin winding up vegans with its ad reminding people ‘lamb brings people together’ on the national holiday. KFC brought back Plucka Duck, the world – and industry reacted to David Bowie’s death.
February
Finalists for the sought after AdNews Agency of the Year Awards were unveiled in February and there was big news in the creative world after Woolworths dropped Leo Burnett and handed its creative business to M&C Saatchi without a pitch. Channel Seven launched a new film and entertainment channel named 7flix. The copycat move followed Channel Nine’s launch of its new free-to-air lifestyle channel, 9Life, which it first announced at its upfronts in 2015. In February AdNews broke the news that after nearly a decade at Dentsu Aegis Network Australia, CEO Luke Littlefield had left the business and Simon Ryan, former CEO of Carat, stepped up to replace him. Saatchi & Saatchi acquired customer experience agency MercerBell, as both aim to expand their offerings; more details emerged about how Optus could show EPL via a customised streaming service; Kellogg and Nestle were slammed by consumer advocacy group Choice for sugar-coating the truth with “marketing trickery”; ANZ took its GAYTMs to the next level for Mardi Gras and as part of the “Say it with Pepsi” global campaign, Pepsi introduced emojis to Australia on cans and keyboards.
ANZ's GAYTMs
March
The biggest news in March is always who takes out the coveted AdNews Agency of the Year gongs. This year’s awards 
saw The Monkeys take out two awards, NSW Agency of the Year and Independent Agency of the Year, with the shop ultimately named Agency of the Year. Other winners on the night included Isobar, Clemenger BBDO, M&C Saatchi and Atomic 212. It wasn’t all glitz and glamour in March however, with Dentsu Mitchell revealing it was laying off 3% of its 150 staff as it shaped its new business strategy under new leadership. March also saw Optus begin the promotion of the English Premier League, after it acquired the exclusive rights to broadcast the league beating Fox Sports in a bidding war. It called for people to register their interest for the games. The Publicis Groupe announced a major restructure of its operations, consolidating its six media brands into four. It saw the network retire the Starcom Mediavest and ZenithOptimedia names. In addition, Vivaki capabilities were integrated into Publicis Media’s Global Practice model. Peter Wiltshire left Nine Entertainment to be replaced by Michael Stephenson, while Telstra CMO Joe Pollard set about restructuring the media and marketing teams at the telco. Instagram revealed a controversial update to its algorithm and the end of the chronological feed.
April
April fools, Snapchat and media pitches are what filled the month of April. The first day of the month is always one where it’s difficult to differentiate between the real and the fake, and brands pile in, with the likes of Messina, Groupon, Airtasker and Contiki all getting involved. Many were taken in by the AdNews stunt story which claimed MLA had dropped The Monkeys because founder Mark Green had gone vegan. April 2016 wasn’t all fun and games however, with much of the industry swamped in the continuing ‘mediapolooza’ of pitches. Coles and Tourism Australia were getting to the pointy end. New media darling Snapchat set up shop in Australia, with the new media power player commencing its hunt for an MD. Aldi found itself in hot-water accused of breaching Australian copyright law. An investigation by AdNews discovered print, outdoor, and potentially TV and radio spots for the ‘Like Brands. Only Cheaper’ campaign are susceptible to successful claims of copyright infringement. Matt James was appointed CEO of the restructured Publicis Media.
AdNews' April Fools prank
May
Two of the biggest media pitches of the year concluded in May. OMD won buying and planning duties for supermarket giant Coles from incumbent UM, which had held the business for 13 years. A follow up announcement saw OMD also taking the Target business from UM, also a part of the Wesfarmers group. Later in the month UM had its moment winning the coveted Tourism Australia account from OMD. Atomic212 won one of its largest pieces of business by securing Origin Energy’s media buying and planning work from Mindshare. May ushered in a new era for Google with Jason Pellegrino taking the reins of its Australia and New Zealand operations following Maile Carnegie’s exit. Pellegrino was promoted internally from head of sales, operations and strategy. Pandora marketing director Nicole McInnes left suddenly in the wake of allegations of corporate bullying within the business emerging in New Zealand. AdNews also held its Media Summit, attracting the cream of media and marketing world to discuss pressing issues at Randwick Racecourse.
July
Mid-way through the year, and media pitches and reviews were showing no sign of letting up. UM won the Lion media pitch taking the account from Bohemia, while Bohemia’s woes continued as Vodafone called a review, and appointed GroupM. Several big brand campaigns kicked off with Telstra introducing the new tagline ‘Thrive On’ as the telco positioned itself as a tech company that brings people together. NAB launched a repositioning campaign that pushed the bank’s products as being about more than money. M&C Saatchi revealed the bespoke spin out agency it set up for Woolworths and the first of the new work it has created for the supermarket. The world went crazy for Pokemon Go and kicked off a frenzy of mobile gaming as everyone became obsessed with catching the digital cutters in the augmented reality game. Nintendo’s market cap soared to $28 billion and shares jumped 25% almost overnight as the craze took hold. AdNews published its final fortnightly print edition.
AdNews final fortnightly print issue
June
June began in fiery form with marketing and brand professor Mark Ritson calling digital marketing a “tsunami of horseshit” in what would become a consistent challenge to the likes of Facebook and Google. Ritson’s prickly rhetoric stems to a ‘deluded’ trade press and dodgy metrics. IPG Mediabrands boss Danny Bass returned fire by asking Ritson ‘who the f*** are you’ in what was one of the most passionate industry stoushes of the year. In the US, where all eyes were on transparency, the Association of National Advertisers released its damning report claiming media agencies are not transparent and are disconnected from clients. The report was a sobering moment for the global media buying industry, which was forced to defend itself against rebates, value banks and kickbacks, shining a firm spotlight on the client agency relationship. Meanwhile, Facebook signs a deal with Australian data analytics company Quantium to effectively close the loop between online and offline consumer behaviour. Also in June, drinks giant Lion parted ways with independent agency Bohemia. Cannes dominated June as always as thousands of industry execs descended on the South of France. Australia took 71 gongs overall at the annual Cannes Lions Festival, and New Zealand netted an impressive 54. Brexit rocked Europe.
https://twitter.com/EmilyJosephx/status/746259413988696064August
August was dominated by digital misreporting. Nielsen admitted to misreporting certain YouTube ratings by up to half, in its Online Ratings over 18 months, while Facebook revealed it too had been miscalculating some of its video view metrics. It admitted that it had been over-inflating video view metrics by as much as 80%. The revelations sent ripples across the industry demonstrating that digital measurement continues to be flawed and adding weight to criticisms of Facebook’s black box approach and lack of independent metrics. Instagram launched its copy-cat Snapchat feature Story as it attempts to maintain the youth audience which has flocked to Snapchat. The Bachelor captured audiences’ hearts, and earned Ten a ratings winner, as Richie stepped up to the plate to find love. The diversity and equality debate rages on and in August independent creative agency Banjo found itself in the midst of allegations of a racist incident during a recruitment process. Pacific Magazines made the first of a number of rounds of closures and job cuts, axing Prevention magazine. Meanwhile, brands and sponsors turned their attention to the Rio Olympics with Woolworths, McDonald’s, Visa and more launching brand campaigns in the run up to the Games. Seven also rolled out its multiplatform viewing options.
September
In September AdNews broke the news Dentsu Aegis Network in Japan had been overbilling Toyota for digital work. The story was picked up across the world and it was later revealed the overcharging impacted 100 of Dentsu’s key clients. The scandal kicked off the debate around transparency, with many questioning Dentsu’s dominant presence in the Japanese market. A dual between Optus and Foxtel over EPL broke out with Optus VP of regulatory and corporate affairs David Epstein slamming Foxtel’s Peter Tonagh after he made a remark that streaming was inferior to satellite for live sport. AdNews readers were thrown into panic when Seven confirmed Australia’s Cheapest Weddings had been pulled after just three episodes and moved online after poor ratings. The TV battleground continued with Stan announcing plans to flip the Netflix model upside down and Foxtel targeting the SVOD market. While TV was fighting it out for the biggest stake, Telstra was hailing online video king with CMO Joe Pollard saying the telco’s investment in YouTube for its latest campaign was the most successful in its history at Google’s annual BrandCast event. September also marked the launch of the new look AdNews as a monthly print title.
AdNews first monthly issue
October
Weight Watchers caused a stir in October with a PR stunt that backfired big time and offended women. OohMedia continued its acquisition trail in 2016 with the $68 million acquisition of the Executive Channel Network while the premiere of Todd Sampson’s Body Hack made headlines. The TV show debuted on Ten and saw the Leo Burnett chairman punched in the face. Furore exploded among millennials when a News Corp columnist said they’d be able to afford homes if they gave up their beloved #SmashedAvo breakfast and quick thinking brands jumped on the outcry with clever reactive ads. UM reigned supreme at the MFA Awards with its Make Lego the Star of Christmas picking up the Grand Prix. In pitch news, Bupa announced plans to consolidate its creative and media, Pharmacare parted ways with MediaCom and Aldi’s media account review made headlines. Aimee Buchanan joined a handful of female agency CEOs as she took the helm of OMD.
The Weight Watchers stunt that backfired - big time
November
November 2016 was historic – not just for advertising, but the entire world. Donald Trump won the US election and is due to be sworn in as the 45th President of the United States in January 2017. His victory surprised many. Closer to home, in November, AdNews revealed the 2016 Power List. It named Senator Mitch Fifield, Communications Minister, as the most powerful and influential person due to his control over media reform and infrastructure projects such as the NBN. The list proved to be as controversial as ever. Facebook revealed a host of additional errors and instances of misreporting of its metrics and a push to be more transparent with advertisers. Mel Fein was named the CEO of Initiative, following Lee Leggett’s surprise exit earlier in the year and Foxtel brought creative duties for the entertainment and Fox Sports brand under one agency for the first time retaining TBWA after a pitch. Twitter Australia boss Karen Stocks exited the business as it made cuts to around 12 roles locally. Christmas ads began rolling out with UK department store John Lewis again winning hearts and minds with its festive campaign. Lauded creatives Paul Nagy, Darren Spiller and Andy DiLallo left their posts at Clemenger, DDB and M&C Saatchi respectively.
December
As the year draws to a close, things aren’t showing any signs of slowing down. So far, we've seen Russel Howcroft announce he'll be joining PwC next year, APN Outdoor and Ooh Media move towards a mammoth merger and Domain come out swinging at rival REA. This year has been an eventful one, and 2017 isn’t going to be any different.
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