Ben Willee, Executive Director of Media and Data at Spinach Advertising, talks to Tom Storey on Nine Radio’s Money News about the year in media and marketing.
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Money News: Ben Willee, Executive Director of Media & Data for Spinach Advertising
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Tom Storey (Host)Now a bit of news out of Hollywood. Overnight, the Oscars agreed to a change of direction for their broadcasts from 2029. All the glitz and glamour will actually head off terrestrial TV screens instead heading for YouTube. It shows just how the media landscape is changing, and as we wrap up 2025, we can’t forget how much the world of media and advertising has turned. This year alone, we’ve featured mergers and acquisitions. We saw Seven’s recent purchase of SCA. Social media has overtaken websites as the biggest place for news consumption. We’ve seen the rise of silver spenders because advertisers are looking away from the youth market and more towards the people with money. That’s the Gen-Xers and the boomers. And of course, we got a huge sugar hit to the industry coming out of the federal election. Undoubtedly, there’s more to come through 2026. And let’s have a chat for one last time to Ben Willee, the Executive Director of Media and Data for Spinach Advertising. Ben, it’s been a very big year.
Ben WilleeG’day, Tom. Great to be here. And yeah, it has been an incredible year, that’s for sure.
Tom Storey (Host)So what have you put as your biggest story of the year? I mentioned a few there. Is there something else that takes the cake for you?
Ben WilleeWell, you got to start with the hard questions don’t you. Look, I think for me, it’s got to be the social media ban for under sixteens. And I think what’s great about it, is Australia standing up to tech giants and saying, no, you cannot have the kids. And the age ban has sort of turned Silicon Valley from swaggering innovators into whingeing litigants overnight, which tells you exactly how they think, you know, and everything else in media this year, the deals, the dramas, is not as big as the government finally putting boundaries around these, the biggest ever advertising machines ever built, and most importantly, the hearts and minds of our kids.
Tom Storey (Host)Yeah, and these social media companies, they’re not going to lie down about this. They’re still going on with a battle. We’ve seen Reddit and a few others really finding it hard in the courts. Where are we at there? Are we going to see some sort of resolution this year, or maybe even early next year?
Ben WilleeWell, I’m not really sure. I mean, I know Reddit’s case, according to their 12 page writ, is that it’s unconstitutional and should be declared invalid. And they’ve named the Commonwealth of Australia and the Communications Minister, Anika Wells, as defendants. Now, I wonder if Anika Wells will have to travel to appear in court. Anyway, that’s a whole other thing. But I think what bothers me about this is they argue that they’re just a pipe for information, and the High Court now has to decide whether Australia can regulate that pipe or whether Silicon Valley can keep pretending it’s just a neutral pipe. And when the reality is, it’s full of things that, you know, those under 16 shouldn’t be anywhere near in a lot of cases.
Tom Storey (Host)Do you think this is just the next battle between traditional media and new media though, we saw a few years ago when really the traditional media companies in Australia went after social media companies for publishing their articles and all the information on their websites without paying for it. Is this just the next battleground? And we’re going to see another one emerge next year?
Ben WilleeOh, without a doubt. And I think there’s a lot of battles that we have to take up with these tech giants. I mean, really, they have been taking the p**s out of Australians for a long time now, and they’re just too unregulated. I mean, some of the things that you wouldn’t dream of doing on this radio station, they can do without penalties at all. So really we need to get them into our ecosystem and say to them, they need to live under the same set of rules that the rest of the media does.
Tom Storey (Host)Now, speaking of some of those things that you get on social media, we witness the tragedy that unfolded in Bondi across the weekend. All of us ran to social media at first to see what was going on there, but there was actually a lot of fake news to watch out for as well. What happened and is this concern, particularly when we’ve got this rise of AI and more of this flow of information coming through from perhaps dodgy sources?
Ben WilleeWell firstly, I want to extend my deepest condolences to the Jewish community in Australia. I mean, it must be inexplicable to not only endure constant anti-Semitism and then to have a massacre, but also to have, you know, collective governments gaslight the community saying, you know, not having done enough to tackle the problem, but then having the gall to say it’s a gun control issue. I mean, I just can’t fathom that. So then on top of that, you’ve got these unregulated social media sites, spreading a range of fake news that I won’t repeat in good conscience. And you know, we’ve talked about this tonight and a million times this year, people are making an enormous fuss about Karl and Jackie O. And we can have a debate about whether they should or they shouldn’t be regulated. But the reality is, is this is a hose pipe dumpster fire of just anti-Semitism, hate speech and just all of the really wrong stuff. So if ever we wanted to say as a society, what’s one of the things we need to do? Well, my opinion is, is we need to start holding these people to account for some of the things that happen in their spaces.
Tom Storey (Host)Yeah. And it’s amazing in these times of crisis that you get the best of the community coming up, but you also get sometimes the really worst elements, coming to the fore as well. It’s quite tragic at that time when we’re all looking for a bit of information, I suppose, then AI is this new tech that’s really grabbed our attention. I think, on Money News we’ve done so many stories this year about what the applications of AI are. However, there was another plan from the Facebook founder, Mark Zuckerberg. He was talking about a Metaverse just a couple of years ago, but that’s really fallen flat. This was going to be a cartoon world that we all lived and breathes within alongside our normal lives. Well, we have actually going to do that, Ben? I’m not sure I was going to jump on board with the Metaverse.
Ben WilleeWell it’s an incredible story. And perhaps this should be one of the biggest ones of 2025. So what’s been reported is that, Meta, the company that owns Instagram and Facebook, is making a 30% cut to a virtual reality unit, the unit that has given us the Metaverse. And to date, they’ve spent a measly $105 billion AUD chasing a virtual world that nobody asked for. Nobody understands, and nobody wants to live in. So, I mean, for me, it’s just incredibly lucky that the rest of the business is still printing money. So the CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, gets a very free kick. But could you imagine if this was any other CEO of any other business in the history of time, torched $105 billion and he’s still not getting anywhere with this Metaverse, you know, it would become a business punchline and an MBA case study for the next 50 years, wouldn’t it?
Tom Storey (Host)Yeah, I think this is the Betamax of the, tech world at the moment, the Metaverse.
Ben WilleeThat’s a great analogy. I’m going to steal that.
Tom Storey (Host)Go for it. Go for it. I mentioned the deal between SCA and Seven in my opener, it looks like we’re just weeks away from closing that deal. Are we going to get any shocks from the new happy family? Any big changes coming down for both of those networks?
Ben WilleeWell, look, I’m really keen on this merger and it’s unfortunate that part of it will be synergies, which is a polite way of saying they’re going to fire a bunch of people. But I think strategically it’s a good fit. And there’s two key things for me. One is that TV companies know that advertising on radio is a great way to promote their shows, and radio knows that advertising on TV is a great way to promote radio stations. So some of the parts, you know, could and should become greater than the whole. And the second part of this is that advertisers like me love what we call the ‘directability’. And what that means is the bigger the organisation, the more data and email addresses they can have to make advertising more personalised. And the example I like is that I might be into monster trucks and you might be into the opera, and so therefore we want to see different ads and addressability and data gives you the capability to do that. And that’s good for advertisers. It’s good for consumers. And it’s a win. So I don’t think this will fix every problem in Australian media. But, you know, at least the adults rearranging the furniture instead of arguing about who broke the chair.
Tom Storey (Host)That’s a great analogy there, Ben. Just finally give us a prediction for 2026. Are we going to get more of that type of company action, or are we going to have a bit of shock or excitement spread through the market about new deals? What’s going to happen?
Ben WilleeWell, you know, my mom always says that predictions are like weather forecasts when people selling umbrellas. But I can tell you what I’d like to see. I’d like to see the social media ban not just be effective, but be the start of a federal government holding these companies to account. You know, they’ve been free from consequence for far too long. And I think we as a society have a long way to go in regulation here. And, you know, that’s what I want to see in 2026.
Tom Storey (Host)Well Ben, it’s been a big year of media. We’ve covered off a lot, not only today but all through 2025. Thank you so much for your time with us and have a very happy Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Ben WilleeWell, thanks very much, Tom, and I hope you have a fantastic break. And I’m sure the pace of this won’t slow down in 2026 and I’m looking forward to more conversations there.
Tom Storey (Host)Yeah, I’m absolutely going to have a great break. It’s one final time. Ben Willee, Executive Director of Media and Data for Spinach Advertising.
