Theodora Chan Burgess

Figma is announcing data hosting and a suite of data control tools to allow enterprise clients in Australia to decide how to manage their information. This is increasingly critical for businesses and a trend that is happening worldwide. Justin Hendry, from InnovationAus.com, explains why and how the design platform will introduce the options. Hotwire Australia Deborah Ng #Figma #DataSovereignty #EnterpriseTech #AUStech #Innovation https://lnkd.in/gXR7tRaa

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Confident, yet down to earth. Means business, yet doesn't take herself too seriously. Wise, yet always learning. Genevieve Brammall is a rare communicator. (And I am glad Georgina Bitcon connected us.) It's going to be a treat to see this keynote on stage, with Gen sharing her story about the journey she's been on with leveraging data to kick butt campaign after campaign. Looking forward to this!

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Maximising social ad outcomes in New Zealand requires a nuanced approach. Our latest guide offers a comprehensive look into frameworks, platform-specific tactics, and practical examples designed to help marketers, media teams, and brand leaders apply best practices effectively. Whether you're reviewing your current approach or building a strategy from scratch, this deck provides actionable insights to help you succeed in a dynamic, competitive media environment. Access the full guide: https://lnkd.in/gYz5DYcS #SocialMediaMarketing #DigitalStrategy #KBRDigital #NZMarketing

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Today I want to talk about Reddit and I’ve been meaning to share this post to my network for months.. Reddit is one of the fastest-growing digital communities in Australia, with an estimated 25 million monthly active users projected by 2025. Australia is now the 5th largest Reddit market globally. I’ve included a chart below (created with help from my AI assistant, Mr Bob Chatty) showing two things: 🔹 Reddit’s Australian user demographics (spoiler: 18–34 year-olds dominate) 🔹 Reddit’s rising user growth from 2021 to 2025 Why should we care? Because Reddit is no longer just a niche platform and it’s becoming a source of truth for AI tools, particularly AI-powered search and answer engines like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Microsoft Copilot. These tools pull in responses from highly engaged forums like Reddit because: • They’re content-rich • They’re constantly updated • They’re publicly available That means when someone searches for your company, sector, or issue using AI, Reddit might be the source that shapes the answer. The good news? ✅ Communities are specific and passionate ✅ Posts are indexed and retrievable by AI tools ✅ You can observe sentiment without needing to prompt a focus group The risks? ⚠️ Posts can gain momentum fast and stay searchable ⚠️ Misinformation spreads if you’re not monitoring ⚠️ Engagement in Reddit-style forums is harder to control What should we be doing about it? 1. Monitor Reddit comprehensively for your company, competitors, and sector issues 2. Build listening into your AI planning - Reddit insights will increasingly show up in AI results 3. Be proactive and identify communities and issues you may need to engage with before something blows up Dont ignore Reddit (journalists aren’t). It is an important window into the thoughts, frustrations and advocacy of real users. And now, it’s also part of how AI will define your brand online. If you want to talk to about this further, you know how to reach me.

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🚨 The Cloudflare announcement about automatically blocking AI crawlers is being widely reported across Australian media. In his piece for The Australian, for example, Jared Lynch explores how the AI boom is transforming the way people discover information and how features like Google's AI summaries and ChatGPT-powered search responses are contributing to a "collapse in traffic for online publishers." Cloudflare's announcement also introduces a movement called Pay per Crawl, which aims to establish standards that allow publishers to charge AI companies for the use of their content. As a leader in web performance and cybersecurity, Cloudflare's stance is poised to influence the market, empowering content owners of all kinds to decide whether their material is accessible to AI systems. AI models are incredibly data-hungry, not only for training but also to respond to real-time queries. If a critical mass of websites chooses to block crawling, it could impact the development of both models and AI search. This story is far from over. It'll be fascinating to see how businesses (many of which rely heavily on content marketing as a key sales tool) and AI companies respond to this shift. 📖 Worth reading Jared's article. 👇 Hotwire Hotwire Australia Melissa Cullen GAICD Anol Bhattacharya #Cloudflare #AIethics #ContentProtection #DigitalPublishing #AUsecurity https://lnkd.in/gcGdZKmR

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Efficient operations in social media marketing stem from well-defined strategies. Our new guide provides a comprehensive look at advanced social strategies, focusing on the NZ landscape. It's an essential read for those looking to streamline processes and drive results. Read the guide: https://lnkd.in/gYz5DYcS #SocialMediaMarketing #DigitalStrategy #KBRDigital #NZMarketing

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Read our team's take on The Global Social-First Trends 2026 report by SAMY (a fellow thenetworkone member) and what it means for Australian brands. There are SEVEN predictions. My favourite: The Post-Trend Era – Fleeting viral moments decline as sustained cultural relevance takes priority. Sophie Babic Kotori Tayama-Gannon Sofia Pizzinato Trish McGee Lucia McCabe

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I've been working in recent weeks with authors Alexandra Bratanova and Stefan Hajkowicz to shape and release this report for the National AI Centre—and I’m really thrilled it’s now out in the public domain today! There are some high-level insights in the article link below, but the report itself contains many more nuanced findings. Not only has hiring for AI skills tripled, even more interesting is how often these roles also call for communication and leadership skills. It’s a reminder that AI implementation isn’t just about technical know-how, it also depends on the ability to collaborate, translate complex ideas, and lead teams through change   It’s also fascinating to see how AI companies are clustered in alignment with industry strengths: - in Perth, AI companies are linked to the energy and resources sector; - in Canberra, Ai companies are aligned to government and defence; - in our major cities, we’re seeing strong clusters in finance, insurance and healthcare. There’s a lot of other interesting datapoints in the report, check it out! Link to report: https://lnkd.in/gWqeiX7x Link to article: https://lnkd.in/gx9TcuH9 CSIRO CSIRO's Data61 Department of Industry, Science and Resources #AIAustralia

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Sharing the next episode in our webinar series for the tourism industry on AI & Digital Change. This Friday hear from our own Melinda Walters, GM Digital & Marketing Operations, on how businesses can thrive in the new search landscape 🙏

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HOT OFF THE PRESS! Media legend Ryan Heath will return to his native Australia to launch POLITICO in #Canberra later this year. Ryan, the original author of Brussels Playbook, will be Australia Launch Editor. "Canberra itself feels unmistakably like a POLITICO town - with an outsized share of the roughly 470,000 inhabitants' lives revolving around government, institutions, and the public affairs ecosystem that surrounds them. The city was built around power and policy. That is where POLITICO thrives," wrote POLITICO CEO Goli Sheikholeselami in an internal announcement.

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Penned a piece for IABC New South Wales on the power of belonging comms in a world in constant flux.

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Canva is making a serious play for the enterprise marketing stack with its acquisition of Australian AI creative startup MagicBrief. The move brings real-time ad performance insights directly into the content creation process, helping marketers move faster, brief better and optimise on the fly. Big news out of Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and a sign of where content and creative tech is headed. Full story: https://lnkd.in/g2pmKEG9 #Canva #MagicBrief #CannesLions #Martech #AI

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What are a comms consultant's early thoughts on the QANTAS attack? TechDay Australia wanted my take, and here it is. ...Of course, this was written before the personal QANTAS email hit my inbox three hours after the story broke in press and featuring slightly inconsistent messaging. “QANTAS' reputation remains a raw nerve for most Australians, making new(ish) CEO Vanessa Hudson's crisis management crucial. Early signs suggest she's handling this cyber incident better than her predecessor. There's no shifting responsibility back to the customer, swift acknowledgment, and clear communication about what data remains secure: frequent flyer numbers, PINs, and credit cards. "The market is responding in kind, with shares down just 3.39% at time of writing. "Cyberattacks are increasingly expected by savvy consumers who judge companies on their ability to navigate the crisis rather than avoid it entirely. QANTAS has successfully acknowledged the issue and clarified what information remains safe. Hudson has a real opportunity to rebuild trust through action: customers don't need all the answers upfront, but they do want evidence of work being done to find them. The key will be whether QANTAS maintains frequent updates showing genuine progress or goes silent after this initial response.”

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When your data analysis gets a reality check... I spent days diving deep into the June 2025 Core Update's impact on Australian search visibility. The results were exciting - massive impression gains across client websites targeting Australian audiences. Then September hit and those gains dropped significantly. My initial reaction: WTF just happened? So I did what any data-obsessed marketer does - read everything the SEO experts were saying. ( 👏 Brodie Clark) But here's the thing: their findings didn't perfectly align with what I was seeing in the Australian data. The industry focused heavily on the September parameter changes and bot inflation, but my analysis suggested the real story started back in July. Here's my two cents: Yes, the latest changes look dramatic in the dashboards. But when I compare current Australian organic performance to pre-June Core Update levels, we're still seeing substantial improvements in our target region. [Based on the tiny data range available] The geographic redistribution patterns I observed suggest this isn't just about tracking tool adjustments - there's genuine algorithmic rebalancing happening that favours local relevance and geographic targeting. My findings in the article below. 👇 Now I'm waiting (like everyone else) to see if Google provides an official statement about what's actually been going on behind the scenes. And fingers crossed that's all the major algorithm drama for 2025... HAHAHAHAHA. (Who am I kidding? This is Google we're talking about.) Has anyone else noticed regional variations that don't quite match the broader industry narrative? Would love to hear your experiences.

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Technology has been reshaping our workplace for centuries. From the steam engine to the search engine, we are continuously adapting to new ways of working. However, one constant remains: reshaping the workplace requires the voice and insights of the workforce. This is why the agreement Microsoft has entered into with the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) is so important; it places workers’ voices and workforce skilling at the heart of Australia’s AI transformation. Together with the ACTU, we’re committing to:  🔹 Share practical AI learning with union leaders and workers through formal training and resources. 🔹 Create new channels for worker input into how AI tools are designed and deployed. 🔹 Collaborate on responsible AI policy and skills, ensuring workers are ready for the jobs of the future This Australian-first agreement recognises the critical partnership between employers and employees, and how this collective voice can help realise an innovative workplace and inclusive workforce. Learn more about the agreement here: https://lnkd.in/gYGJWYAb #AISkills #AIforGood #NewAIeconomy #AIJobs Steven Miller Liz Fitch Kate Seward Kate Behncken Naria Santa Lucia Somanna Palacanda Caroline McGrath Tim Allen Danny Cowan Dan Chamberlain Stephanie Beers Gregory Bianchi Mike Yeh

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Reddit is now the third most used social network in Australia. Consumers can now access to real conversations and insights from some of the internet’s most engaged communities and businesses are starting to lean into it as an important source for consumer sentiment!

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Do Aussies really give a stuff about AI in ads? Yesterday, I got a call from Melania Watson asking if we can find out how Aussies feel about AI being used to create advertising for B&T. Today (yep, overnight!) we got the findings back from Ideally: Most Australians cannot actually tell when an ad has been made by AI. Only 12% say they are very confident they could spot the difference. The remaining 88% sit somewhere between unsure and completely in the dark. The research, based on a nationally representative survey of 400 Australians, points to the gap marketers should probably pay closer attention to: it's not whether consumers can detect AI. It is what happens when they find out. - 67% say it would matter to them if they discovered an ad was AI generated. - 52% say their trust in that brand would take a hit. - 21% say it would make them trust the brand much less. Full article in comments.

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Interesting piece in today's AFR. For interest, I just asked a well-known Gen AI platform to "write me a LinkedIn post about the growing trend of leaders using AI slop to write LinkedIn posts". And here I am posting it on LinkedIn. I particularly enjoyed this bit: "There’s nothing wrong with using AI. I use it. Most high performers do." We have now entered peak Twilight Zone.. 😵‍💫 Spoiler alert: there's no particular lesson or insight in this post. Maybe just, yanno, write your own stuff? AI response in full: There’s an uncomfortable trend growing on LinkedIn. Leaders talking about “authenticity”… in posts clearly written by AI. Not AI as a thinking partner. Not AI as an editor. But AI generating polished, generic, inspiration-by-template content — what many are starting to call “AI slop.” You’ve seen it: • The dramatic one-line hook • The perfectly spaced short sentences • The recycled resilience story • The vague “3 lessons about leadership” • The soft humblebrag • The engagement-bait question at the end And ironically, the more leaders use AI to sound thoughtful, the more indistinguishable they become. Here’s the real issue: Leadership is signal. When executives outsource their voice entirely to AI, they don’t just automate writing — they dilute credibility. People follow leaders for judgment, perspective, lived experience, and conviction. AI can polish those things. It can’t replace them. There’s nothing wrong with using AI. I use it. Most high performers do. But there’s a difference between: • Using AI to refine your thinking and • Using AI instead of thinking The strongest leaders I know use AI as: – A sparring partner – A clarity tool – A structure generator – A speed multiplier They don’t use it as a personality substitute. Because in a world where everyone can generate content, differentiation will come from depth, specificity, and lived insight. The paradox? The more accessible AI becomes, the more valuable genuine human perspective becomes. If you're a leader using AI to write: Keep the scars. Keep the nuance. Keep the unpopular opinions. Keep the messy middle. That’s the part no model can replicate. And that’s the part people actually follow. https://lnkd.in/gsw7qcTD

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