As Day Two of Cairns Crocodiles kicked into full gear, the Crocs chaos spilled well beyond the conference rooms.
Between packed keynotes and delegates frantically juggling coffees, with the agenda in one hand, and their pen and paper in the other, they then slipped away into a stacked lineup of side events that delivered everything from towering seafood platters and waterfront sunsets to super yachts, trivia mania and enough AI talk to completely fry a chatbot.
What started as casual chit-chat quickly turned into proper networking as the night rolled on. While some events did feel like group therapy for marketers navigating AI chaos, others felt more like a real life game show spiralling beautifully out of control. Everywhere you looked, there were packed venues, loud laughs, clinking glasses and some extremely happy faces.
Have a scroll and discover everything that went down on Day Two.
Lunch, Learnings & Lots Of AI Talk At Criteo’s Cairns Catch-Up
As delegates tucked into lunch in a room inside the Cairns Convention Centre, the energy quickly picked up for Criteo’s packed Lunch & Learn session, with attendees leaning in to hear more as the conversation went from AI, to commerce media and eventually the future of retail advertising.
Hearing from Rob Grogan, Brook Powell, Harrison Bland and Liam Conney, the panel unpacked how brands and agencies are adapting to rapidly changing consumer behaviour, fragmented retail media platforms and the growing influence of AI across marketing and commerce.
One of the biggest talking points was how AI is already changing the way teams work internally. Grogan revealed Lion had recently signed an enterprise deal with OpenAI, describing the business as being in a phase of “discovery and adoption” as staff experiment with new ways of working.
Conney said AI was already helping free up time across PepsiCo’s teams, particularly when it came to reporting and data analysis.
“What used to take a week to stitch together is now down to one morning,” he said. “It allows us to focus on the things that are actually going to move the needle.”
Retail media fragmentation also sparked lively discussion among the panel, with the group agreeing that inconsistent terminology and reporting systems across retailer platforms were creating headaches for both brands and agencies.
“Each individual retailer has their own way of purchasing things through different interfaces,” Powell said. “Unifying that language would really help solve a lot of challenges.”
Friends Of Rhonda’s Brought The Loud, The Proud And The Necessary
Cairns’ favourite post-roast reset returned to the Crocodiles circuit with its signature blend of cocktails, chaos and collective exhale.
The Melbourne-based networking group for queers in adland took over Hemingway’s with the kind of energy that makes conference lanyards feel like a distant memory. Less agenda, more liberation.
At the centre of it all was founder Jules Stretch, better known in full flight as Mum the Drag Queen, steering the room with opinions, drinks and humour sharp enough to dissolve whatever post-panel fatigue had survived the afternoon.
Following the G-RUIN Industry Retro and Roast, guests did what Friends of Rhonda does best. They met people, made noise and laughed loudly.
Whether a long-time Friend or a first-time ally, the vibe was the same. Come as you are, stay for the company, leave considerably louder than you arrived.
Crowd Goes Crazy For EAT Quiz Show At Hemingway’s Brewery
The EAT-Experience Advocacy Taskforce session was back this year bigger, faster, better and louder than ever.
Hemingways presented by News Australia was a full house going off, the crowd went apeshit over the chance to win a break with a Flight Centre $4,000 travel voucher presented by EAT’s new founding partner Tapt Media or … have a break with a Kit Kat from Nestle.
The quiz cohosts Ricky Chanana (PubMatic) in the gold sparkly jacket and the dashing Fi Robert’s (MiQ) worked the crowd into a goddam frenzy.
Other incredible prizes included 2 VIP Rugby League World Cup box tickets including airfare to Brisbane thanks to MiQ, 2 x $100 Westfield gift vouchers donated by our good friends at PubMatic, 4 double Hoyts Lux movie vouchers thanks to the wonderful Val Morgan, a half day training workshop valued at $3,500 donated by the best in the business The Hummingbirds plus heaps of Kit Kats thanks to the B&T Powerlister Anneliese Douglass at Nestle.
The crowd was manic shouting “spin that wheel” and Hemingways was swept up into a quiz show mania. The two incredibly happy winners were:
Natalie Stanley from Pinterest who won the Tapt Media Flight Centre $4,000 voucher.
Or second big winner was Manuela Lopez from PubMatic for the money can’t buy prize thanks to MiQ the 2 VIP Rugby League World cup tickets.
How the hell are EAT going to top this for next year. No one went home empty handed, they all had Kit Kats with everyone a winner in some way and much wiser about how the industry can make a difference fighting ageism.
Taboola Takes The Open Web Off The Grid
As delegates stepped off the boat, and walked along the wharf they were greeted with a luscious view of greenery and the most perfect table set up one could expect.
Picture purple flowers lined down the tables, candles glowing, beautiful bird song, and fairy lights overhead.
There was something fitting about gathering the people who shape digital ecosystems on an island that required a private boat to get there.
Taboola chose Green Island as the setting for Realize, an intimate dinner that felt less like an industry event and more like a conversation that had been waiting for the right backdrop. Speaking to attendees was Taboola’s ANZ country manager Adam Payne, who thanked all attendees, and introduced his wider team,
When you strip away the conference rooms and the lanyards, it turns out marketers are actually quite good at talking.
It was a tight circle of industry pros, the sort of people who have strong opinions on performance metrics and even stronger ones on where the open web is actually heading.
Conversation moved the way it tends to when the setting earns its keep. As the bird song flowed through the venue, delegates enjoyed the beautiful views of a golden sunset. 
Perhaps it was the blue water, the pretty turtles or the company, but either way, Taboola and Realize had made their point without needing a slide deck to make it.
Seafood, Sunset Views & AI Reputation Talk At AANA/IAS’ Beachfront Drinks
With the Cairns ferris wheel glowing across the Esplanade and a warm ocean breeze rolling through Whiskey & Wine, industry leaders gathered beachside for AANA and Integral Ad Science’s special edition of Directors Cut, an evening designed for the industry’s future CMOs.
As guests settled in with seafood platters stacked high with fresh prawns, oysters, ceviche and countless other dishes making their way around the room, the atmosphere quickly shifted from relaxed networking to full on engagement.
Hosted by AANA’s Jane King and Jessica Miles from IAS, the session soon handed the mic to award-winning strategist Nicole Hatherly, who had attendees scanning QR codes, AI-searching themselves and comparing surprisingly accurate (and terrifying) results from large language models.
When attendees were asked who had never attended a Directors Cut before, almost every hand in the room shot up, setting the tone for an energetic and highly interactive evening.
One of the biggest talking points of the night centred around how AI is already building professional reputations online — whether people realise it or not.
“We often get asked, ‘Do you Google yourself?’” Hatherly said. “Now we’re starting to ask, ‘Have you AI’d yourself?’”
Hatherly walked the room through how platforms like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are pulling information from LinkedIn profiles, company websites, old presentations, articles and third-party mentions to form detailed views of professionals online.
“If it can’t find the things someone is searching for about you, it’s going to make it up,” she warned.
The crowd became increasingly engaged as attendees tested searches on themselves in real time, including one guest who discovered AI could correctly identify him despite sharing a name and profession with another executive coach.
“That’s how fast it is actually learning who you are,” Hatherly explained.
The session also explored the shift from traditional resumes to personal thought leadership online, with Hatherly encouraging attendees to stop focusing solely on job titles and start sharing clearer points of view.
“AI isn’t scanning your title anymore,” she said. “It’s scanning what you think.”
July Co-founder Shares Aussies Success Story At Atlassian Lunch
Sunita Gloster and July co-founder Athan Didaskalou stole the show at Atlassian’s inspiring lunch at Sails yesterday.
Launched in 2018 by Didaskalou and Richard Li, July is a direct to consumer lifestyle luggage company that has 15 retail stores and partnerships with Qantas, the Australian Open and Australian Olympic team.
Didaskalou, who previously worked at Ogilvy DT, Thieves Coffee and toyed with the ideas of building a sex toy company and shellac, told the room that arrogance and naivety were important early traits when the pair started an Australian premium luggage company.
“You’ve got to be arrogant enough to think I could enter a category from day one and change it, and stupid enough to follow through with the idea,” he said.
“What could we do differently that hadn’t been done in the category before are innovating on things like changing the suitcases’ radiuses, making the cases round up, adding power banks to things and creating the world’s first integrated tracking into the TSA lock. These are things that typically wouldn’t make sense at a financial level but we gave it a go.”
July started out as a direct to consumer e-commerce retailer but now has several stores around Australia. Didaskalou said that each store has its own local charm that reflects the city it resides in, and that customer service, trust and reliability are values the company lives by.
A highlight of the July journey was providing the Australian Olympic team with July luggage for the Paris Olympic Games.
Industry leaders including David Jones’ James Holloman, Accenture Song’s Matt Michael, Perpetual’s David Higgins, MYOB’s Emma Grant, Uber’s
Michael Levine, Canva’s Brony Popp, Breville’s Melanie Neuer and Mastercard’s Annaliese Norman were gripped by Gloster and Didaskalou’s inspiring fireside chat over a delicious two course meal.
Smooth Sailing & Even Sharper Thinking With GumGum
Lucky guests had their minds blown by a stunning twilight cruise hosted by GumGum.
Guests boarded the magnificent Reef Unlimited ship, before graciously floating over the crystal clear waters of Cairns. As the sun slowly set on the high calibre guests, GumGum swooped in to steal the show.
The contextual advertising company captured the attention of A-list attendees with its Mindset approach, bringing together context, creativity and attention to spark meaningful connections, fresh perspectives and conversations that genuinely resonated.
Feeding the brain, GumGum served up fresh canapés that contained locally sourced ingredients, and a variety of beverages to keep guests hydrated. What a way to send off Day 2!
It Was So Nice Bucky Had To Steal The Show Twice
Thought adland was all quizzed out? Think again, as the media, marketing and advertising industry love a chance to show one another up.
Bucky returned to Hemingway’s Brewery after his ever successful pop quiz show on Day 1. This time he parked the quiz show and returned with a vivacious Trivia.
Presented by News this pub-quiz-style showdown delivered laughs, banter and allowed the brightest minds in the industry to flex their brain power. From celebrity knowledge to movies, music and polticians, the players got a chance to show off their trivia knowledge.
No trivia is complete without a winner. Taking out the crown was none other than Louise 6 who stole the show with thier quick thinking and invaluable ability to not crack under pressure.
Mutinex Delivers Creative Masterclass On A Super Yacht
On Wednesday night, senior marketers, including Ikea’s Kirsten Hasler, Jaguar Land Rover’s Gavin Merriman, Brad’s Amaury Treguer, DrinkWise Australia’s Nathan Kent, joined the crew at Mutinex, led by co-founders Henry Innis and Matt Farrugia, aboard a luxury yacht to learn more about the power of creativity.
Innis and head of marketing science Nicky Barton presented the findings of a landmark report on creativity and its impact on marketing.
Among the key findings of The Multiplier report is that creative shifts the dial more on return on ad spend (ROAS) than any other variable, including channel, format, publisher or funnel stage.
Mutinex’s study considers how each of these variables impacts sales by measuring the real sales outcomes of 66,000 campaigns from 167 business lines in Australia and New Zealand.
It found that if all other variables remain the same, but the creative changes in an ad, the ROAS can vary by as much as 48 per cent.
“We now know that the creative choice is the single largest factor explainable in impacting ROI. This is now central to how we think about the MMM market, and how the MMM should be assessing and analysing performance,” Innis said.
“I think it’s pretty much impossible to analyse ROI by channel.”
The research found that creativity mattered less in low attention advertising channels, such as social media.
Another important finding is the impact of building brand over time versus performance; in other words ‘wear in’ and consistency is important.
“There’s this whole thing in market right now of brands bringing back old ad campaigns or staying very static with their campaigns, and they’re actually seeing more uplift,” Barton said.
“We’re just saying the brand takes time to build, and patience is everything here. It takes time, and once it gets going, it has a bigger uplift towards the end.
“The three things we want to really take away are: firstly, brand takes time to build. Two, channels will have completely different effects and creative is so important within this. And, finally, it was always the creative.”
Mutinex has been on a tear in the past year, winning significant clients across the world, including Hershey in America.
It has also forged a partnership with WARC and now offers clients the ability to measure the impact of creativity in advertising and their marketing mix.
