In this op-ed, Integral Ad Science‘s country manager ANZ Jessica Miles looks at the challenges for marketers in cutting through to consumers amid the AI-generated slop that now makes up a large proportion of internet traffic. With several key lessons from Cyber Monday, Miles urges Aussie marketers to plan for what’s next in the retail sprint before Christmas.
With Cyber Monday now behind us, Australian marketers are taking stock of what has become one of the most unpredictable holiday seasons in years. While retail momentum remains strong, this year’s surge has exposed a deeper truth about the digital landscape: consumers are more active online, but the environments they browse are increasingly overwhelmed by AI-generated, low-quality content.
For marketers, the challenge wasn’t just capturing attention during the Black Friday–Cyber Monday window, it was ensuring their spend landed in places that actually warranted it.
The question heading into the final stretch of 2025 isn’t whether AI has reshaped the media ecosystem; it clearly has, but whether advertisers can keep pace with an explosion of AI-generated “slop” sites designed to monetise impressions rather than deliver value.
With Europol forecasting that AI-generated content could make up 90 per cent of the internet by 2026, this year’s holiday period has offered a preview of what’s to come: templated pages, cluttered ad layouts, auto-refresh tactics, and spun content that mimics legitimate publishing while delivering minimal consumer engagement.
Post–Cyber Monday: Scale Exposed the Cracks
Australia’s retail foundations remain solid. The Australian Retailers Association expects around 4 per cent holiday growth this year, building on the $73.1 billion spent during last year’s pre-Christmas period. Early signals from this year’s Black Friday–Cyber Monday cycle suggest high consumer participation, with strong online activity across mobile, social and e-commerce channels.
But peak periods magnify inefficiencies, and this year was no exception. The ANA’s Programmatic Supply Chain study continues to ring alarm bells: 21 per cent of impressions and 15 per cent of spend funnelled into Made for Advertising (MFA) environments. Locally, MFA traffic surges mirrored global trends, with sharp spikes over the Cyber Weekend window as low-value inventory flooded exchanges.
Australia 2024 data revealed sharp spikes in MFA traffic, 48 per cent, over Christmas Eve and day. In the heat of holiday competition, Australian marketers face a choice: invest in high-quality, brand-safe environments or risk fuelling inefficiency.
Where Holiday Risk Intensified
Not all placements prove equal. Industry analysis shows that high-quality sites continue to outperform, delivering up to 91 per cent higher conversion rates and meaningfully lower cost-per-conversion, while cluttered pages correlated with weaker engagement and inflated costs.
And, as expected, fraud risk climbed alongside competition: non-optimised holiday campaigns saw fraud hit 10.9 per cent late last year, compared with under 1 per cent on campaigns leveraging rigorous verification and real-time quality controls.
Heading Into December: A Smarter Playbook Is Essential
As marketers transition from Cyber Monday into the final retail sprint, a clearer performance blueprint is emerging.
Filter out low-quality inventory before bidding
Dynamic MFA and clutter detection with real-time IVT defences proved more effective than static blocklists alone.
Lean into attention metrics, not impression volume
Mobile display time-in-view remained strong across Cyber Weekend. Attention-based optimisation consistently separated meaningful placements from low-value noise.
Use contextual intelligence to stay relevant during peak competition
Static keyword lists often blocked credible content but missed AI-generated spam. More nuanced contextual and suitability frameworks helped maintain both relevance and protection.
Demand greater supply-path clarity, especially in retail media and CTV
As retailers leaned into monetising their ecosystems, measurement standards varied widely. Viewability, IVT and suitability are now essential baselines across all buying routes.
Keep holiday campaigns fluid
Real-time measurement and mid-flight optimisation were critical this Cyber Weekend. Marketers who shifted budget dynamically into high-performing environments saw materially better efficiency and returns.
The Post–Cyber Monday Takeaway: Quality Will Decide December
AI-generated content and low-quality inventory shaped much of this year’s Cyber Weekend. The coming weeks will be defined not by who spends the most, but by who spends most intelligently, prioritising trusted environments, measurable attention, and supply paths that deliver genuine value.
In a season where noise is multiplying and consumer journeys are fragmenting, media quality has become one of the most reliable differentiators. The brands that maintain discipline now, as the holiday race accelerates into December, are the ones most likely to turn peak demand into meaningful, measurable growth.
