In The Know: Media Industry Update MAR 2026
The media pulse decoded by your agency.
Contents:
- AI has moved from Capability to Consequence
- Upfronts Update
AI Has Moved From Capability to Consequence
Over the past few weeks, a series of signals have pointed to a more structural shift in AI’s role:
- Atlassian’s job cuts, tied to an AI-first repositioning, signal workforce and role redesign is already underway
- AI infrastructure is accelerating, with investments like AirTrunk’s $300m battery storage commitment reshaping energy demand
- Government focus is leaning into AI-driven productivity, but with an observed gap in readiness, governance and practical implementation
- AI is beginning to influence physical environments, from real estate decisions to the future shape of tech hubs
Individually, these stories feel disconnected. Together they point to something bigger. AI is no longer a capability layer. It is starting to shape real-world outcomes across jobs, infrastructure, investment, and how cities evolve.
What This Means & Why It Matters
The industry conversation is still anchored in how AI improves media, creative and optimisation. That is only part of the picture.
The bigger shift is happening on the other side of the ad. AI is changing the customer.
Early indicators are already emerging:
- Rising economic uncertainty and job anxiety
- Shifts in risk tolerance and purchase behaviour
- Compressed attention, with less exploration and more action on pre-filtered information
- Growing reliance on algorithmic recommendations to inform decisions
This fundamentally changes the context in which advertising works.
- Attention is more fragmented and under pressure
- Decision-making is increasingly mediated by AI systems
- Consumers are navigating higher levels of uncertainty
Advertising is no longer just competing with other brands. It is competing with recommendation engines, search outputs and AI-assisted decisions.
The Shift In Our Industry
The focus needs to move beyond how AI improves marketing to understanding how AI is reshaping the human receiving it:
Their economic reality
Their decision-making process
Their trust and risk calculus
Their cognitive load and attention
This is the shift that will define how strategy is built, how effectiveness is measured, and ultimately, what works.
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Upfronts Update
Across OOH, audio and broadcast, different changes are pointing in the same direction:
- Measurement is becoming audience-first and movement-based
- Planning is moving toward deduplicated, incremental reach
- Media is being packaged and traded as ecosystems, not channels
The tools are getting better and more accessible. That means advantage is no longer built on access, but rather on how intelligently you use it.
MOVE 2.0: OOH Measurement shifts from location to audience
MOVE 2.0 has arrived. The new OOH measurement standard marks a change from site-based metrics to audience-first modelling built on real movement data. It provides a clear view of who is exposed and how often, while bringing richer audience profiles, real trip behaviour, and seasonal movement patterns into planning.
AG View: OOH is becoming more accountable, and the edge will come from how well the data is interrogated, not just used.
Nova: Smarter Audio Allocation goes Incremental
Nova introduced its Audio Planning & Optimisation platform, enabling investment to be allocated across audio environments based on incremental reach.
AG View: Importantly, this will allow for a decrease in media wastage from duplicated reach if the intention is to find new audiences. Prioritise planning for new reach and managing audience growth across audio environments.
oOh!: Audience scale meets real-world impact
oOh! positioned OOH as a superpower in the attention crisis, driven by creative distinctiveness, salience and consistency. Creative alone can account for up to 41% of ROI, meaning impact isn’t just about where you show up, but how.
AG View: With the same locations and spend, stronger creative delivers stronger results. Creative becomes a performance variable; the multiplier in an attention-constrained market.
Nine x QMS: OOH becomes part of the video ecosystem
Nine’s partnership with QMS signals the continued shift toward ecosystem-led trading, bringing OOH further into integrated buying environments. By connecting premium video with high-impact OOH, advertisers can access audiences across screens and real-world environments within a more unified buy.
AG View: OOH is being bundled into broader attention systems. Planning needs to reflect how audiences move across screens and environments
SCA x Seven: Scale through Integration
SCA’s integration with Seven is another ecosystem-led proposition, connecting audio, broadcast and digital into a more unified commercial offering, making scale easier to unlock. Sports audiences stand out as the key advantage here.
AG View: Again, differentiation will come from how cleverly that scale is used, not simply accessed.
Final Thoughts
AI-driven systems make it easier and faster to optimise, combine and automate decisions. Inevitably, more of the work gets standardised.
That raises the bar on strategy. The opportunity for advantage lies in what isn’t standardised. That will come down to how intelligently data is interrogated and how well ad, tech and media thinking are brought together.
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