BotD: Amazon boss to keynote at REmade; WPP names new CEO; Mark Britt and Mat Baxter reveal new venture
Welcome to Best of the Day, on the day WPP brought in an outsider to run the business and Australia’s biggest magazine company was put up for sale again. Plus we have news of a big name from retail media for our REmade program.
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Amazon boss Willie Pang to present REmade keynote
Cat McGinn, curator of retail media conference and community REmade, writes:
We’re delighted to announce three new headline sessions to our 2025 REmade program, offering fresh perspectives on global strategy, full-funnel media, and AI-driven disruption in retail media.
Willie Pang, general manager of Amazon Ads ANZ, will present a keynote on retail media 3.0.
As retail media evolves beyond performance into a brand-building channel, Pang will unpack how Amazon uses signals of customer intent, AI-powered optimisation and its connected TV platform Prime Video to deliver meaningful consumer connections.
The session will reveal how brands can drive discovery, engagement and purchase in a single customer journey.
Epsilon’s Adam Skinner returns to REmade with a practical look at what works in the world’s most advanced retail media markets. Based on case studies, results and real world learnings from major grocery retailers in the US and Australia, Skinner will outline the tactics that move the needle, the missteps to avoid, and how to measure true ROI through incrementality and attribution.
Attendees can expect an honest session with a clear roadmap they can apply immediately. Skinner spoke at the inaugural REmade event in 2023 and has since taken a global role with Epsilon after Australian retail media company Citrus Ad was bought by Publicis and subsequently merged with Epsilon.
And Zitcha’s head of data and AI, Alberto Vergara, will explore what happens when AI becomes the customer as agentic AI begins to play a bigger role in online purchasing.
The presentation examines how autonomous AI systems are beginning to make shopping decisions without human input. The session will explore how this emerging shift could change how inventory is valued, how planning is done, and what it means for brand strategy in a machine-mediated world.
These sessions join a growing REmade agenda that already includes a joint case study from Logitech and Flywheel Digital, along with new research on creative effectiveness in retail media.
REmade: Retail Media Unmade will take place on September 23 in Sydney, bringing together leaders from across the retail, advertising, technology and media ecosystem.
Early bird tickets are on sale now.
The day today: WPP opts for outsider CEO; Are Media for sale; Baxter is back
Cindy Rose named as next WPP boss
The next leader of communications holding company WPP was named today as Cindy Rose, who has never previously worked agencyside. Rose, currently chief operating officer of Microsoft’s enterprise sales division, previously ran Vodafone UK’s consumer division and also had a long career with Disney. She has been on the WPP board since 2019. She’ll be paid the equivalent of $2.6m per year plus bonuses. This week, Rose’s predecessor Mark Read released a profit warning that saw WPP shares crash by 15%, taking them to their lowest point since 2009.
Are Media for sale
The owners of Australia’s last mass reach magazine company Are Media raised a ‘for sale’ sign. Private equity firm, Mercury Capital, who picked up the company for a fire sale price from Bauer Media during the early months of Covid, said KPMG will run the process. Over the last five years the company did little to promote the medium to potential advertisers who turned away.
Baxter and Britt launch health play
Media agency provocateur Mat Baxter and former Ninemsn boss Mark Britt revealed a new venture outside of the media, health platform Tmrw.
Origin draws 3.9m audience
Last night’s deciding game of State of Origin pulled Nine an average audience of 3.9m, the biggest so far this year. According to ratings supplier ozTAM, the total audience reach was 5.7m.
Red on top, green underneath on the Unmade Index
The bottom end of town had a good day on the Unmade Index while the top stocks mostly saw red today.
Research house Pureprofile won the day with an 8.3% jump in. share price, just ahead of Vinyl Group’s 4.6% improvement and Motio’s 4% rise.
Meanwhile Ooh Media saw the biggest fall of the day, losing 2% while Southern Cross Austereo lost 1.8% and Nine dropped 0.3%.
The Unmade Index closed on 575.6 points, down 2.8 points on yesterday’s close.
Time to leave you to your evening.
We’ll be back with more soon.
Have a great night
Toodlepip…
Tim Burrowes
Publisher - Unmade + Mumbrella
tim@unmade.media
