Coca-Cola has confirmed it will continue to work with WPP’s Open X as a global marketing partner after moving its North American media account to Publicis Groupe late last year.
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ACMA slaps Circles.Life with $413,160 fine for identity verification failures
Circles Australia, operating under the name Circles.Life, has been fined $413,160 by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) for failing to adhere to customer identity verification rules. The breaches occurred 26 times over January and February 2024, involving the transfer of mobile phone numbers without adequate identity verification.
OAIC reports record high data breach notifications in 2024
A new report from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) reveals the government agency received over 1,100 data breach notifications from businesses and government agencies in 2024, marking the highest annual total since the introduction of mandatory data breach notification requirements in 2018.
Coca-Cola extends global partnership with WPP’s Open X
Coca-Cola has confirmed it will continue to work with WPP’s Open X as a global marketing partner after moving its North American media account to Publicis Groupe late last year.
Keystart appoints Liam Loan-Lack as first chief customer officer
Former marketing chief for My Muscle Chef, CMC Markets and one-time agency executive, Liam Loan-Lack, has emerged as the new chief customer officer at purpose-driven home loan provider, Keystart.
Boomi chief warns on agentic AI chaos as firms undercook governance risk, process oversight collapses
The global technology sector is promising an agentic AI revolution with software agents that think, act, and optimise without human prompts. But there are warnings that enterprises may be sleepwalking into chaos: unleashing ungoverned digital workers without the infrastructure, definitions, or controls to manage them. Prepare for a “spaghetti factory of chaos”, warns Boomi AI chief Mike Bachman – and the next race by big tech to lock brands into their stacks. Plus, some big bills, unless firms rapidly get governance in place, before trying to put 1,000 agents back in the box.
Airbnb makes expanded marketplace move, but Australians head for Japan, Vietnam in hunt for value
Airbnb aims to refire growth engines with a broader marketplace expansion, while taking the fight to hotel chains relishing regulatory tightening on short-term rentals, and eyeing a billion dollars in global incremental revenue. Locally country boss Susan Wheeldon, an ex Virgin, AMP Capital and Google exec who grew up in outback Queensland, sees regional benefits (and lists the local destinations Australians are booking for winter) and more money for the “micro entrepreneurs” she claims are joining the platform in droves to power its services push. But while financially-squeezed Australians are willing to cut everything bar food and travel, where they are spending those dollars may irk Tourism Australia CMO Susan Coghill.
Brand resilience: Suncorp’s Mim Haysom launches next phase with talking houses, hyper-personalisation, ‘ethical AI’ – but ‘creepy’ line not crossed
Suncorp has underpinned its brand – and helped power profit – through a focus on resilience, winning global accolades in the process. Its latest push, Haven, debuts this week, bringing highly personalised data sets and AI technologies into a democratised digital tool to help Australian homeowners practically understand the extreme weather risks their homes face. The data goes deep and narrow, but EGM brand and customer experience, Mim Haysom, isn’t worried about crossing the creepy line with a localised tool that has your own home talking to you about its structural state. Instead, she sees it as a natural extension of a multi-year, award-winning brand narrative that’s lifted key internal metrics including consideration (+7 per cent), NPS (+6.6 points) and market share (+4 per cent) while helping increase Commonwealth Government resiliency funding by $2.6 billion.
Adyen report highlights surge in AI adoption among Australian shoppers
Adyen’s 2025 Retail Report has revealed a significant increase in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by Australian consumers for shopping purposes. Over the past year, there has been a 45% rise in Australians utilising AI in their shopping activities. Currently, one in three Australians is using AI to assist with tasks such as choosing outfits, planning meals, and discovering new brands.
Kahneman subverted: Behavioural economics weaponised as dark patterns pump ecom, platform profits – prepare for legal change, warns Consumer Policy Research Centre
Lawmakers around the world are setting their sights on ‘dark patterns’, the way consumer choice is manipulated wholesale by companies for profit – either directly by upselling and herding them into higher yielding decisions, or locking them into services, or “data grabs” that can be monetised indirectly. Australia is next off the rank, and businesses should take action now, starting with UX design, according to Chandni Gupta, Deputy CEO of influential think tank the Consumer Policy Research Centre, who’s work underpins key planks of the ACCC’s regulatory overhauls and which holds sway in Canberra.Dark patterns are “entrenched” across the digital economy – with companies “reverse engineering” the “nudge” principles of Daniel Kahneman’s behavioural economics to serve profit rather than help people make better choices, says Gupta. Already, the likes of LinkedIn, Amazon, TikTok, Meta and Epic Games have run afoul of regulators, while ticketing platform StubHub has conducted experiments that show the double-digit profit impact of manipulating consumer choice via hidden costs. Gupta, back from a global tour or regulators, lawmakers and enforcement bodies, and armed with a fresh report on her findings, says the practice is so widespread across the digital economy that most young adults have probably never lived in a world where they are not being manipulated. AI risks “supercharging” the practice – and making dark patterns darker still.But Gupta warns businesses to prepare for regulation, enforcement and redress, with the Australian government committed to a ban on unfair business practices – and a strong overlap between dark patterns and the Privacy overhaul now gearing up for its second act. She sees profit upside for those that overhaul UX design now “to put the person and their wellbeing at the centre” rather than “waiting to be caught”.