The winner of 2025’s Champion of Change Award at the B&T Women in Media Awards has highlighted why making change in the industry doesn’t need to feel scary or “out of reach”, but rather something gradual that can start off as small steps.
Speaking with B&T during a recent interview, The Media Store’s Jacquie Alley explained the way she felt on stage when receiving her award was “a big mix of emotions”.
Funnily enough, though, the emotions came earlier in the night when her dress unexpectedly ripped and she found herself struggling to come up with a solution.
As she sat down at her table, the zipper of her brand-new dress split from top to bottom.
“I think I’ve just lost my zipper,” she told her colleague, who quickly confirmed that was indeed the case, and suggested they quickly head to the bathroom.
The community and “feeling of support” inside the bathroom was something she said she had never experienced at an awards ceremony.
Her husband, otherwise known as her “chief solutions officer”, headed to the audio desk to find anything that could help, while one of Alley’s colleagues arranged for safety pins to be Ubered to the venue.
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Strangers and colleagues gathered in the bathroom, throwing around ideas to try and salvage the dress — from removing the sleeves and tying them around her back, to attempting to find a way to secure the broken zip.
“I just loved the whole night because this is where that kind of whole community sisterhood came alive for me,” Alley told B&T. “Strangers, my team, everyone was coming in to help me.”
Eventually, her husband managed to use pliers and wires from media pins to get the dress back together, with safety pins providing some additional support.
And just as Alley returned to her table, the night took another unexpected turn, as she was announced the winner of the Champion of Change category.
“I was so relieved that the dress was now at least holding together, and then my name got called out,” she said.
Her husband then gave her one final piece of advice: “Make sure you tell this story”.
So, Alley walked onto the stage holding the back of her dress and opened her acceptance speech with the wardrobe malfunction.
“The thing I love about this night more than anything is this really beautiful sisterhood,” she said. “A lot of us are up for awards. Not many of us win them, but that doesn’t really matter. Like the fact that strangers would come and help each other when they could have been out there drinking with their friends.”
For Alley, the experience became a perfect example of the message she wanted to deliver from the stage: if people believe something in the industry needs to change, they have a responsibility to do something about it.
“There’s a lot of talk in our industry about things we’d like to see changed, but often not a lot of action,” she said. “If you believe something should change, then I feel that it’s your responsibility to do something about it. And it doesn’t need to be big. Sometimes it can be small, but together we can do amazing things.”
That philosophy is reflected in Alley’s own work at The Media Store, where she has sought to embed equity, allyship and cultural change into the agency and wider industry.
She has overseen a gender-balanced senior leadership team, a pay gap in favour of women and 100 per cent of promotions awarded to women during the judging period.
Her work has also extended beyond the agency, including through the IMAA’s Female Leaders of Tomorrow program, where she has helped create greater opportunities for women and support emerging leaders.
Alley says her instinct to challenge the status quo has been with her since childhood.
“I would always sit, even in classrooms, asking why we’re doing something the way we’re doing something,” she said. “I’ve always been really curious.”
But she said one of the biggest changes throughout her own career has been learning to back herself.
Earlier in her career, she “didn’t have a mentor” and struggled to find women in the industry who represented the future she wanted for herself.
“I didn’t see a lot of great modelling,” she said. “Now that I think about it, I also didn’t see a lot of mums with more than one child.”
As a result, Alley became determined to create the kind of role modelling and support she wished she had encountered earlier in her career.
“I believe the practice of courage is what builds confidence,” she told B&T. “A lot of women say they want confidence, but they don’t want to be uncomfortable, and we need to keep being uncomfortable.”
For Alley, that means encouraging younger women to bring more of themselves into the workplace, including the messy and imperfect parts.
“I think to bring your humanness into the room is what engages people more than anything,” she said.
It is something Alley demonstrated herself on the night she won the award. Rather than allowing the dress malfunction to derail the evening, she embraced the situation, returned to the room and ultimately used it as part of the message she delivered to the industry.
She says the experience also reinforced her belief that leadership is not about avoiding uncomfortable moments, but stepping into them.
“Life’s going to throw you really uncomfortable things,” Alley said. “The power of leadership is to not run away from it but to step into it.”
Alley is now a mother to four sons.
“Starting out in this industry I didn’t see a lot of mums with more than one child,” she said. “I wanted to have a big family. I didn’t see a lot of role models and I didn’t have a mentor, so I was very determined to try and change that for the next generation.”
Her four sons are also now beginning to see the industry from the inside, with one having recently started working in media himself.
Alley says she is proud that he has chosen to enter the industry and is pleased to be able to share the experience with him.
“We come home from work and we can talk about the industry together. It’s pretty cool.”
For her, his move into the industry is just another example of how representation and role modelling can have an impact beyond the immediate moment.
