Lexlab

18/12/2025

18/12/2025

Five media myths were quietly challenged this year...

Media doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It sits inside society, reflecting changes in behaviour, technology and culture as they happen. That’s what makes it powerful, but it also means long-held beliefs need to be revisited as conditions change.

As the year wraps up, we took a step back to look at the gap between what feels true in media conversation and what Australian research and real-world planning experience suggest is actually happening. In doing so, a few familiar assumptions didn’t hold up quite as neatly as they once did.

One example is attention. Despite constant claims that attention spans are collapsing, Australian research from ThinkTV shows people are still spending meaningful time with long-form video, BVOD and premium environments. What’s changed isn’t attention itself, but patience for low-quality creative and poor context.

https://thinktv.com.au/facts-and-stats/

The same applies to reach. Modelling from ThinkTV’s Payback Australia work shows that piling on reach without managing attention, frequency and context quickly leads to diminishing returns and wasted impressions, rather than better outcomes.

https://thinktv.com.au/facts-and-stats/payback-australia-full-report/

There’s also been a quiet rethink around optimisation. While platforms have become more powerful, cross-media work from IAB Australia reinforces that outcomes are largely shaped upstream, by how audiences are defined, prioritised and sequenced across channels, not by last-minute tweaks in dashboards.

https://iabaustralia.com.au/ai-ready-advertising-infrastructure/

Data is another area where more hasn’t necessarily meant better. Deloitte’s research on data overload highlights how growing volumes of metrics can actually make decisions harder, increasing noise rather than clarity. The value of data lies in how its integrated and interpreted.

https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/topics/digital-transformation/valuing-data-assets.html

And finally, cost. Benchmarking work from Ebiquity plc continues to show that CPMs alone are a poor proxy for media value, because they ignore reach accumulation, duplication and business impact. Value sits in outcomes, not impressions, particularly when comparing digital and TV.

https://ebiquity.com/news-insights/blog/in-defence-of-spend-on-the-right-hand-side/

Taken together, these examples reinforce a core truth of media practice: effectiveness has always relied on testing opinions against evidence. The tools and environment may be new, but the discipline required is not.

#2025

25/11/2025

Woolworths’ Cartology is taking retail media even further in-store…and the same questions keep coming back.

After launching deli weigh-scale screens earlier this year, Cartology has added another 1,600 aisle-entrance screens across Woolworths stores. The network now delivers over 14 million weekly impressions, using store-specific creative and navigation prompts to connect brand messages directly with the shopping journey.

It’s another logical step for retail media, tapping into incidental moments that sit naturally within behaviour rather than interrupting it. But it also reminds planners how different this channel still is to manage.

Retail media data is modelled from store traffic and dwell time, not verified impressions, and it sits outside the systems that handle digital video or OOH. That means reporting lives in isolation, often through proprietary dashboards, making it hard to build a connected view of performance across channels.

And with audiences already bombarded by thousands of brand messages every day, this new layer of exposure adds another dimension to the fatigue question. How can advertisers use these moments to enhance campaigns without simply adding more noise?

Still, the appeal is obvious. Retail media connects messaging directly to the point of decision, backed by first-party sales data and clear evidence of impact. It brings proximity, relevance and accountability, qualities harder to guarantee as media fragments.

What happens next will depend on the industry’s ability to bridge reporting gaps and quantify the true contribution of incidental exposure within total campaign performance.

27/10/2025

The problem with being data-driven is thinking data is enough.

Marketing has long worked on the idea that more data means better decisions. But as third-party cookies disappear, we’re losing the visibility that once connected people’s behaviour across sites and sessions.

Now we have more data inside each platform but less understanding of how people actually move between them. Data is observation. Insight comes from interpreting it in context.

Some channels are data-rich but insight-poor. Social and programmatic platforms capture endless behavioural metrics – impressions, clicks, scrolls – yet reveal little about what drives them. Retail media networks hold detailed purchase data, but those insights rarely extend beyond their own walls.

Other channels are data-light but impact-heavy. TV, streaming, outdoor and audio may offer fewer metrics, yet they continue to build trust and shape perception in ways digital data can’t fully capture. A 2023 study by Magnite found Australians trust ads in streaming and broadcast environments far more than in social feeds, attributing this to curated, brand-safe settings that feel credible and familiar. When messages appear in environments people trust, that credibility transfers to the brand.

This is why human data matters. The kind that comes from behavioural research, psychology and culture. It helps explain why messages land and connects digital performance with the broader influences that shape how people think and act.

Effective planning means using each channel for what it does best: digital for precision, traditional and hybrid media for influence and credibility, with human insight to bridge them. The real advantage lies in how well you connect it all, turning separate data points into a complete picture.

https://www.magnite.com/research/au-streaming2023/

16/10/2025

We’re thrilled to see our very own Minh Tran recognised in AdNews Australia's 2025 Young Guns list!

In this feature, Minh shares his journey and insights, from navigating the fast-paced digital landscape to shaping innovative strategies for our clients. His dedication to pushing boundaries and embracing new challenges has truly set him apart in the industry.

Find out why Minh is one to watch 👇

https://www.adnews.com.au/news/young-guns-minh-tran-from-lexlab

13/10/2025

We’re finalists!

We’re proud to share that Lexlab has been named a finalist for the Resilience Award at the 2025 Smart50 Awards by SmartCompany.

It’s been a year of change and challenge across the media landscape and we’re grateful to our team, partners and clients who’ve grown with us through it all.

This recognition means a lot. It reflects the care and commitment we’ve put into strengthening the business and the people who make it what it is.

Congratulations to all the other finalists. We’re in great company.

https://www.smartcompany.com.au/smart50-awards-2025/smart50-2025-category-finalists-award-shortlist/

08/10/2025

Streaming platforms are quietly changing the rules of TV advertising.

The world’s biggest competitors are now starting to collaborate. From Q4, advertisers will be able to buy Netflix ad space through Amazon’s platform in Australia, a move that links what people watch to what they buy.

It’s a big shift from the old broadcast model. Instead of each network running its own systems, streaming platforms are beginning to share data and technology to cut duplication, manage frequency and create a smoother experience for audiences.

They’ve also rethought the ad break itself. Where traditional TV can run up to 12 minutes of ads an hour, streaming limits that to just a few. Viewers are still exposed to advertising, but in a way that feels proportionate and relevant, fewer interruptions, better targeting and smarter placement.

And the science supports it. Integral Ad Science and Neuro-Insight’s Mind on the Stream study found that when ads align with the tone and rhythm of the surrounding content, long-term memory encoding increases by more than 40 per cent.

Fewer, better-placed ads don’t just make for a nicer viewing experience, they make advertising more effective.

It’s proof that the future of TV isn’t about more ads, it’s about making every one of them count.

https://integralads.com/uk/insider/mind-on-stream-ctv-advertising-research/

30/09/2025

Retail media is quietly reshaping how Australians see advertising. It is the sponsored product you scroll past on a Coles app, the digital screen at Bunnings checkout, and now even Commbank building a media business off the back of its customer data.

It is also one of the fastest-growing parts of the ad market. IAB Australia's July 2025 report shows seventy per cent of advertisers increased spend in the past year, and three quarters are now active across three or more retail networks, up from just over half the year before.
That growth reflects a big shift. Retail media started as a trade-marketing bolt-on, but it is becoming a core channel for advertisers who want first party data, measurable sales impact and a way to connect physical and digital. The buy-in is clear, but the return is not. Each network reports performance on its own terms, leaving agencies and brands struggling to compare results. ROI is promised, but proving it is still a challenge.
The industry is working on standards to bring consistency, but the bigger question remains: can networks as different as Coles, Bunnings and Commbank ever really be compared apples to apples? Until they can, retail media’s growth story is only half written.

https://iabaustralia.com.au/resource/retail-media-state-of-the-nation-2025/