Kate O’Loughlin: The Carnival World Cruise: brand titanic… or life raft?

Obsessed’ is a monthly deep dive into social and cultural trends that can help marketers inform the way they think. Led by Kate O’Loughlin, Initiative strategist and self-confessed obsessive, ‘Obsessed’ will be a magic school bus to expand marketing mindsets and help brands remain relevant amongst an ever-changing cultural landscape. This month I’ve been obsessed

Inside NGEN: How Initiative’s Ben Breden & Olivia Coxon Turned Their NGEN Award Entry Into A Live Campaign

In this monthly column with NGEN, the MFA’s training program for media professionals with less than five years of experience, Ben Breden and Olivia Coxon, communications designer and senior partnerships exec at Initiative, respectively, track their success in bringing to life their NGEN Award entry with the help of 19 media partners and $1.3 million

The Taylor Bowl: What brands and advertisers can learn about the power of Taylor and her Swifties at the Super Bowl

Kate O’Loughlin: “There is no subject too young, too silly, or too pop for brands to galvanise.” The Taylor Bowl Super Bowl kicks off on Monday, February 12th, in Australia, and viewers all over the world will have their eyes peeled for one star – Taylor Swift (who, if widely speculated calculations are to be believed, will make it from

Initiative is appointed to the Cricket Australia media account

Initiative has been appointed as Cricket Australia’s media agency of record, following a robust pitch process. The media agency’s remit, effective immediately, covers all media strategy, planning and buying – including contra activities for offline, online display, performance and addressable – with a clear brief to amplify fan engagement across Cricket Australia’s product portfolio, including

Ceding to cancel culture could see brands ‘paralyse themselves into purgatory’ – Initiative Australia

Media agency Initiative Australia is opening a dialogue on the impact of cancel culture on brands, urging marketers to walk back an often binary approach to contentious issues. Ahead of a session at Nine’s Big Ideas Store, hosted by Initiative’s national managing director Sam Geer, he and chief strategy and product officer, Chris Colter spoke

Initiative appoints Danielle Galipienzo as head of impact

Initiative has announced Danielle (Elle) Galipienzo has taken on the additional role of head of impact, leading the media agency’s purpose-led consulting division. The announcement comes as the agency enters its next evolutionary stage for the department, expanding from pro-bono partners only to include paid services and impact consulting open to all clients. Galipienzo will

Goodman Fielder extends its brand and retail media investment business with Initiative

Goodman Fielder has handed trade marketing investment to Initiative Australia following a structural overhaul 18 months in the making. The move marks the FMCG giant as an early outlier as industry re-engineers for retailer media. CMO Christine Fung thinks it may be the shape of things to come – and says combining above and below-the-line

Balenciaga x Simpsons. Balmain x Barbie. Is cringe the new cool?

Over the past six months, collab culture has taken a sharp turn. Balmain has teamed up with Barbie, Balenciaga launched its Spring collection with The Simpsons, while art collective Brain Dead dropped an entire line of streetwear devoted to fantasy tabletop role-play game Dungeons and Dragons. The cult of ‘cool’ has shifted further and further

Initiative Crowned Best Performing Agency

Initiative has nabbed the number one spot for new media wins for the month of October according to the latest data from martech firm R3. The IPG-owned agency has won back the crown from PHD who pinched it back in August. IPG stormed to the top of the October numbers with wins that have included