In The Know: Media Industry Update NOV 2025
The media pulse decoded by your agency.
Contents:
- From our Head of Strategy
- Latest on META
- 2026 Upfronts Wrap – continued
From our Head of Strategy, Casey Greig
This time of year is all about connection: checking in with clients, partners, colleagues, and the people who help us do our best work. Since t’is the season for genuine human exchange and reflection on what’s been achieved, sameness is the last thing any of us should settle for.
De-homogenisation has been a big topic in the agency lately (I wrote a piece about it HERE on LinkedIn). So let this part of our media industry update be a small nudge to pause, question one industry “default,” and make one decision this week that feels a little more intentional and a little less automated.
Latest on META
Meta has rebuilt the “first pass” of its ads system with a new AI engine called Andromeda. Called retrieval, it quickly sifts through tens of millions of ad options and selects a few thousand most likely to be relevant for a given user. Meta says this update has already lifted retrieval quality and made ads more relevant.
How it Worked Before (Old META)
- Broad buckets, more rules. The system relied on more manual settings and isolated steps, so personalisation was limited. Think “best ad for a group that looks alike,” rather than the “best ad for you.”
- More setup for advertisers. Marketers spent more time manually choosing audiences, placements, and budgets, than testing combinations to find what worked.
How it Works Now (New META)
- Individual matching by default. Andromeda narrows the ad pool for each person in real time, driving deeper personalisation and reporting an 8% lift in ad quality (Advantage+ campaigns).
- Built to scale creative. The engine is designed to handle the surge in ad variations (including GenAI assets), so the system can try more versions and match the right one to the right person. Meta reports advertisers who turned on Advantage+ creative’s AI features saw higher ROAS and conversion lifts in testing.
What Does this Mean for Your Business?
- Feed Meta variety. Upload multiple creative variants (images, formats, copy, messaging). Andromeda works best when it has more to test.
- Use Advantage+. Designed to find the right audience-creative-placement combo faster, Advantage+ should be central to your campaign setup.
- Refresh Creative, strategically. The system rewards freshness. Rotate creative ideas regularly but make each one meaningfully different. Don’t just tweak a headline; evolve the concept, hook, or format to keep the algorithm engaged and avoid fatigue without losing brand saliency.
Meanwhile on the TV front …
2026 Upfronts Wrap – continued
Paramount
Highlights: Paramount is doubling down on premium, contextual content environments that drive real brand impact. Big Brother anchors 2025, with a strong 2026 pipeline supported globally through Skydance, David Ellison, and LG Ads integration, creating frictionless pathways for brands to connect with audiences.
AG View: Paramount’s focus on context, attention, and precision trading reinforces our belief that quality environments beat quantity. Their growing global backing strengthens the long-term value of planning inside their ecosystem for brands seeking both scale and smarter relevance.
AG Best Use: Paramount is best considered for clients who want to invest in premium storytelling, contextual placements, and cross screen precision. Strategically considering their environments with AG’s segmentation and attention frameworks could foster great outcomes.
Seven
Highlights: Seven reaffirmed the power of TV through major sport, broad reach, and brand safe content. Linear has been positioned as evolving rather than declining, supported by digital extensions and a strong Queensland presence as we move toward 2032.
AG View: Seven’s stance aligns with our long-held view that linear and BVOD work best as a converged ecosystem, delivering dependable scale and attention at a time when brands need both certainty and reach across premium screens.
AG Best Use: Ideal for campaigns needing mass visibility, high attention, and trusted environments, especially around sport. BVOD extensions ensure incremental younger reach and consistent impact across the full video mix.
