It’s a sunny morning in Melbourne, and the Mutinex crew is boarding a flight to Cairns that, plot twist, isn’t all palm trees and piña coladas. Instead, it’s grey, rainy, and so humid that you appear like you’re swimming in shoulder height water – anyway I digress. The energy smacked you in the face the moment you landed. By the time we made it to baggage claim, greeted by a proud Mutinex OOH billboard (among others), the place was already buzzing with bright-eyed, bushy-tailed marketers. Most were here to network. All were here to drink their body weight in Hemingway’s beer, courtesy of ESPN.
And then came Tuesday.
The conference opened with a bang, and Melinda Petrunoff was throwing more shade than a Hilton pool umbrella at midday. Aimed straight at the Duopoly, no less. “70% of digital investment will go to the Duopoly,” she warned. Geeeez. That wasn’t just a data point, it was a challenge, a war cry if you will. One that set the tone for a no-bs edition of Cairns Crocodiles. This year’s festival wasn’t about mangroves and picturesque sunsets (I mean, for more senior marketers it was) it was about finally calling time on marketing’s greatest hits of jargon and empty promises. From purpose-washed storytelling to AI snake oil, we’ve all heard it before. But in Cairns, the vibe was different. The talks had more bite than the coastal taipan. The speakers had a bit more sass (it could’ve been the hangovers) and instead of pitching shiny buzzwords, they spotlighted the actual cracks in marketing.
Purpose Over Posturing
David Ohana from the UN Foundation dropped the mic early, much to the dismay of sore heads on day 2.
“…Brands need to spend less time creating ads and more time doing valuable things to talk about.”
Alongside his kids that joined him on stage, David spoke about lofty goals of a billion social mentions as well as pivoting approaches that speak to Gen Z. The vibe? You don’t need a HUGE budget to create an idea that makes a difference.
From climate action to crisis comms, there was a welcome focus on making the much-maligned term ‘purpose’ actually purposeful. Sessions were dripping with reminders that creative teams should act less like brand guardians and more like moral GPS systems.
If your campaign’s north star is a CTR spike, congrats – you might as well brief your agency to bring back the Harlem Shake for the algorithm gods.
One quote that really stuck came from Cam Luby at Optus in the Navigating Crisis session:
“Down by the elevator, up by the stairs.”
Trust goes fast. Winning it back? That’s a whole staircase climb in damp socks.
Culture Isn’t a KPI
The session from Pinterest about Gen Z made the millennials feel like boomers and accentuate every grey hair and no-show pop socks (guilty). What did we learn? Gen Z can smell a strategy deck from a mile away. And they’re not impressed. They’re over the “how do we go viral?” energy. What they want is to see their values reflected in the brands they engage with.
Pinterest nailed the shift by becoming a platform that doesn’t interrupt culture but actually vibes with it. They really walked the walk too, their activations showed the best of Gen Z and what it means to be on trend – as a millennial it was refreshing that my sticker tattoos are in vogue now (either that or i’m just basic).
AI: Not Your Enemy, Just Your Smarter Friend
One of the most hyped sessions (we may be biassed) came from our fearless leader, Chief provocateur, Mother of Dragons – Henry Innis. Who went straight for the jugular: the state of Marketing & Media. Henry didn’t sugar-coat it. Marketers aren’t lacking data. They’re drowning in it. And they’re frozen. (Oh, and he may have mentioned Principal Media – but let’s not talk about that for now.)
I was lucky enough to have a fireside chat with Hen to discuss decision paralysis, as well as give my boss some well deserved sh*t. We discussed how MAITE has changed the game for our customers, replacing “let me get back to you” with “let me show you now”.
This all tied in neatly with the “Shock of the New” session, which reminded the crowd that AI isn’t here to tweak the edges of our workflow, it’s here to rewrite the whole damn playbook. From content generation to dynamic campaign design, the session broke down just how seismic these changes will be. The game’s not changing. It’s already changed. Now it’s about whether you and your brand are going to play catchup or actually lead.
The Final Word
Let’s call it what it was. This year’s Cairns Crocodiles was less ‘media conference’ and more marketing group therapy. We laughed. We drank. We pondered what those weird leggy birds were.
The biggest takeaway? We are a cynical bunch doing our best, in a profession that can at times seem like trust is broken. In data. In leadership. In the entire marketing machine.
But the vibe from the Crocs crowd? They’re rebuilding it. With sharper tools, clearer purpose, and maybe a little less B.S.
Some of us left with hangovers. The smart ones left with a strategy—and a questionable tattoo from the Pinterest activation.