Ashley Regan

1 week ago | adnews.com.au | Ashley Regan

IPG media agency UM has made the role of managing director Sydney redundant, seeing Ben McCallum leaving the agency effective April 17.  UM confirmed the exit with AdNews citing "the changing needs of business and position the agency for growth". McCallum has lead the Sydney office since his appointment in early-2021. Prior to that he held senior leadership roles at Mediacom for nearly five years, most recently as MD.

1 week ago | adnews.com.au | Ashley Regan

Consumer sentiment, once hopeful, has turned pessimistic with uncertainty over US president Donald Trump's trade tariffs. According to an economic misery index, consumers are feeling more miserable as the inflation rate, unemployment rate and interest rates go up. Inflation is largely under control across the globe, but geopolitical tensions and tariffs are causing uncertainty on whether inflation is going to stay under control, particularly in countries such as the US.

2 weeks ago | adnews.com.au | Ashley Regan

Credit: Sasun Bughdaryan via Unsplash    https://unsplash.com/@sasun1990Newcastle Greater Mutual (NGM) Group has appointed agencies after taking its retail creative accounts to pitch, AdNews can reveal. NGM has re-appointed independent agency Enigma to its Newcastle Permanent account. And appointed independent It’s Friday to its Greater Bank account. AdNews revealed the account went up for pitch as “part of a normal review" in November.

2 weeks ago | adnews.com.au | Ashley Regan

GroupM, UM and Accenture are the final shortlist for top ten advertiser Optus' media pitch, AdNews can reveal. The media pitch is run in tandem with the creative pitch. Both are expected to come to an outcome by June. The telecommunications company's incumbent media agency is IPG's UM. Insiders say Accenture is the frontrunner for the media account but some believe it is a two horse race between GroupM and UM.

2 weeks ago | adnews.com.au | Ashley Regan

Automation and artificial intelligence (AI) are reshaping roles at advertising agencies, replacing and rewriting more jobs. The number of people in the industry is falling, with the latest MFA Census reported a decrease of 2.7% to 4,650. This is at least partly due to rapid increase of AI and a rethinking of traditional roles, agency CEOs told AdNews. These include those roles that add little value to the media planning process, Havas Media CEO and MFA deputy chair Virginia Hyland said.