Vladimir Lenin is rumoured to have once said, “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen”.
And while we’re no great fans of Mr. Lenin’s politics, we’re sure he would agree that this year has felt like a decade or longer.
So in our recap of the year, handily organised for you in an A-Z format (check out part one herecheck out part one here), we’re reflecting on all the big news from the past 12 months.
N – News Media Bargaining Code
Following Labor’s landside federal election earlier this year, the Albanese Government will introduce a new incentive to force big tech companies including Meta to continue paying media publishers for news. The revitalised incentive is designed to ensure Australian news publishers are compensated fairly and that local content continues to be prioritised on streaming platforms and social media.
As part of the proposed initiative tech platforms who refuse to sign content deals will either have to pay a percentage of their total revenue generated in Australia, or revenue from digital advertising.
O – Omnicom
The biggest story of the year first came to light in December of 2024, when Omnicom announced that it would acquire IPG. The news from this ginormous takeover that involved two Madison Avenue giants, trickled right through 2025.
But, it wasn’t until late in November until the acquisition was completed and chaos ensued. Thousands of jobs were lost, and agencies within the hold co’s were retired.
You can read B&T’s breakdown of the takeover and who it affects here.
P – Paramount
Paramount’s year ramped up in July when it was bought out by Skydance.
Skydance, which is owned by tech scion David Ellison, was merged with Paramount Global after agreeing to buy the Redstone family’s controlling 77 per cent stake in the business.
The merger would combine one of Hollywood’s iconic production studios and global media empires with its commercial partner of 15 years. Paramount and Skydance have partnered on recent hit films including Top Gun: Maverick and Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning.
To round out a whirlwind 2025, Paramount lodged a hefty $163 billion bid to buy Warner Bros. only a few days after Netflix had its own bid accepted.
Q – Queensland
The state of Queensland has had quite the year. Beginning in May, Queensland played host to the unmissable 2025 Cairns Crocodiles. It was a standout festival that drew over 2,100 attendees, which helped cement its place as a must-attend event for the region’s most ambitious brands and creative minds.
During the standout festival, the inaugural Cairns Hatchlings winners were revealed. This is an awards program designed to elevate emerging creative talent from across APAC.
Then Publicis Worldwide took home the QLD/Other States/Territories/ Agency of the year at this year’s B&T Awards. This was thanks to the agency driving impressive results for its clients including Subway, and winning 15 new clients over the course of the year.
Not to mention the States complete sporting triumph of winning the AFL, NRL and the State of Origin.
R – Revolver
History was made this year as Revolver became the first Australian production company to win the Palme d’Or at Cannes Lions.
The win for Revolver was in addition to winning the Film Craft and Film Grands Prix. The Film Craft Grand Prix was shared with Bear Meets Eagle on Fire for their work on Telstra’s ‘Better on A Better Mobile Network’ campaign. The Film Grand Prix was awarded to Steve Roger’s ‘Considering What?’ for Channel 4’s coverage of the Paralympic games.
S – Seven + SCA
In a year littered with mergers and acquisitions, this was one of the biggest in the media landscape. Back in September, Seven West Media and Southern Cross Media Group Limited (SCA) agreed to merge SCA’s radio and audio assets with Seven’s TV business into one unified company.
Two months later and Australia’s competition watchdog, The ACCC gave it the tick of approval. It concluded that the proposed acquisition is unlikely to substantially lessen competition in any market in Australia, and subsequently gave it the go ahead.
T – Tariffs
US President Donald Trump is many things. But one thing is certain, he’s a big fan of tariffs.
Now, regardless of whether his policy actually works is by the by. It has been having a significant impact on Aussie businesses and, consequently, the media and advertising market. In fact, the aforementioned News Media Bargaining Code has even been pulled into the discussions around softening Australia’s tariff burden.
What’ll happen next year remains to be seen.
U – Upfronts
We love an upfront here at B&T. There are precious few occasions in our industry when we get to indulge in arancini these days, but you can always be certain that the upfronts will deliver on the mouth-burning deep fried rice delights.
Anyway, the biggest news of this year, perhaps, was the paucity of offerings from the TV networks, while ARN really upped its game.
YouTube’s Brandcast, yet again, delivered soaring rhetoric as well as some, erm, interesting numbers on audience engagement. Amazon also hosted its first upfront at the Hordern Pavilion and wheeled out Pat Cummins.
V – Vogel
We thought long and hard about what the ‘V’ of this year would be. Peter Vogel, the owner of Adland’s biggest hands and CEO of Wavemaker, was seen celebrating his team’s runaway success at B&T’s many awards throughout the year. Vogel always brings the laughs, smiles and love.
W – Wavemaker
The Positive Provocation agency did it again this year. From flying a plane banner across Sydney’s coastline, soaring from Cronulla to Manly, for Maybelline to cleaning up the Media Agency of the Year category at the B&T Awards, Wavemaker is a mainstay of the Australian media landscape, and this year proved no different.
Wavemaker won Media Agency on the back of an outstanding culture, commercial success and, most importantly, powerful work. As 2025 draws to a close, we’re sure Wavemaker is already rubbing its hands together, planning something epic for 2026.
X – X
It was a toss-up between xylophone and X.com this year but Elon Musk’s social platform took it.
When it was Twitter, the platform was quite the big deal. But now it has faded from prominence somewhat and appears to be littered with some of the most objectionable people in the world.
It’s a study in a fall from grace and then some.
Y – Young People
Young people have had quite the year. The under-16 social media ban finally came into effect on 10 December, after campaigning efforts from Supermassive and FINCH.
The campaign, co-founded by Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli and FINCH’s Rob Galluzzo, sparked a national conversation on protecting young Australians online.
The Hatchlings is a competitive program designed to showcase emerging talent within the advertising, marketing and media sectors.
Participants compete across seven categories representing various industry disciplines. Open to all ages and a diverse range of backgrounds, with three to eight years of media experience in the Asia Pacific region, the program emphasises the belief that true talent and creativity transcends age and background.
Z – Zuckerberg
It was between zebra and Zuckerberg, and we reckon the latter has done more to shake up our industry this year, though believe us, we wanted to profile the savannah-trotting creature.
Meta CEO Zuckerberg has been ringing the AI bell this past year. Meta’s vision to go “all in” on AI, with plans to redefine advertising using the technology, includes AI agents.
Zuckerberg claims that AI has already made advertisers better at targeting and finding the audiences that will be interested in products.
Meta’s goal is “to make it so any business can tell us what objective they are trying to achieve, like selling something or getting a new customer, and how much they are willing to pay for each result and we do the rest”.
Businesses used to have to generate their own ad creative and define what audiences they wanted to reach, but Meta hopes that AI will target and find audiences, and only keep improving on that front.
