Another eventful year is coming to a close. A huge thank you to everyone who has supported Comms Council in 2025. Before we pack up and head to the beach, here’s a brief overview of the year just gone.
Ongoing shifts in the media landscape continued with Trade Me joining forces with Stuff Digital, SKY acquiring WBD’s free-to-air assets, and boardroom shake-ups at NZME and TVNZ. Meanwhile, government efforts to level the playing field had mixed results. We can now advertise on TV on Sunday mornings and public holidays, and the screen sector funding boost will hopefully have a positive impact on our local production industry. Government Procurement Rules changed in December, providing guidance to government agencies to choose more local providers where possible, offering a boost to our independent member agencies. Elsewhere, the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill was put on hold, plans to merge NZ On Air and the Film Commission were on, then off, and further media reforms were pushed down the road. Australia, meanwhile, has implemented the Online Safety Amendment Bill, which will be observed around the world.
The agency landscape has perhaps eclipsed media in terms of seismic change in 2025. The Omnicom/IPG merger delivered rumours aplenty, with final confirmation that three brands that have been mainstays in the New Zealand market for decades – DDB, FCB and Clemenger – are to be retired, making way for McCann in their stead. The lasting impact of these brands on the creative talent in New Zealand cannot be understated. So many of us built our careers with them, and our archives would be much poorer without the amazing work they’ve produced. While the brands may be changing, the people – the talent that builds business growth and drives economic impact – remain, and we wish them all well as they make the transition to the new brand in 2026.
And so, with all that as the backdrop, here at Comms Council it’s been another busy year.
Here, in bite sized chunks, is a summary:
January: We held our annual recruitment day, bringing some of the best future talent together to present in front of our member agencies. It resulted in many new careers, and no doubt some future stars in our industry.
February: The Young Lions Competition saw more than 50 teams fight it out across Film and Media Categories. Ultimate congratulations, and a trip to the global competition, went to Kara Gouws & Conal Wilson, and Gabby Smith & Lucy Anderson.
March: AXIS Speaks returned with another spectacular line up. We had the privilege of hearing from Brent Smart, Samira Ansari, Kevin Chesters and Chelsea Winstanley. The AXIS Awards saw Colenso BBDO named Agency of the Year, The SweetShop Production Company of the Year, and Mars named Client of the Year. Paul Prince received the Outstanding Contribution to the Industry award.
April: Our The Eff Word webinar series, building the case for advertising investment, continued, with Martin Deboo helping us embrace the language of finance.
May: Our 2025 DEI Census concluded, providing us with the data on which to build future efforts towards a more inclusive, and more effective industry.
June: Another great Kiwi showing at the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. Peter Jackson, James Hurman & Rob Campbell all took to the speakers’ stage and Motion Sickness brought home 2 Grand Prix for their Herpes campaign, alongside a large bag of Gold, Silver and Bronze Lions won by DDB, Special, Assembly, The Tuesday Club, FCB, TBWA, and AKQA.
July: The Beacon Awards returned to Viaduct Event Centre, with Lassoo Media & PR winning Agency of the Year, Stuff named Media Business of the Year, SKY taking home Sales Team of the Year, and James Davidson a very popular winner of the Inspiring Individual award. Our ever popular Foundations of Advertising & Media Awards, supported by AUT, was delivered across 3 packed days to begin the month.
August: We were delighted to support Kia Whakatinana, Kia Whakamanawa holding a noho marae, focused on delivering a strategy for Māori for our industry. We also launched He Tāngata, The People, our kaupapa focused on building an industry that truly reflects Aotearoa and offers equal belonging to everyone in it. Media Spotlight also returned, packing Q Theatre to hear from Zoe Scaman, Eugene Healey, Phil Smith and Astrud Burgess.
September: In the same month we held our AGM, two new board members – Storm Day and Josh Moore - were elected, and we held a webinar with Tim Williams focused on remuneration models in the age of AI.
October: Effie month included a packed out Effectiveness Breakfast Webinar with Sarah Carter and Andrew Tindall. The Effie Awards Aotearoa saw Special named Effectiveness Agency of the Year, also winning Gold alongside Motion Sickness and Jnr.
November: We welcomed marketers, agencies and production experts together for an Ad Net Zero event, providing updates on how we can all make progress measuring and reducing our carbon impact across the advertising supply chain. We also hosted the Pressie Awards at Okāhu Bay, with Mango taking home the Grand Prix for Samsung.
Thank you to all our members for their support and contribution in 2025. And, of course, thank you to all our wonderful partners – TVNZ, oOh!media, Meta, NZME, Stuff, Cartology, Google, Nielsen, Tik Tok, TRB, Are Media, Lumo, The Spinoff – without whom the list above would be so much smaller.
Here’s to 2026.
