Welcome to SWOT by Sound Story, your inside track on the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats looming for the creative industries.
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⚡ Trending: Netflix is distancing itself from “Emilia Pérez” star Karla Sofía Gascón in an effort to salvage the film’s Oscar prospects. And as the Spanish actress tries to defuse the blowback for her past social media posts, in which she shared offensive views that were seen as Islamophobic and racist, she’s doing it on her own, without the guidance of the streaming giant or her PR team. Words by Clayton Davis. Source: Variety.
🎵 Music: Read Sir Lucian Grainge’s 2025 memo to Universal Music Group staff: ‘Streaming 2.0 will represent a new age of innovation, consumer segmentation, geographic expansion, greater consumer value and ARPU growth.’ Words by Murray Stassen. Source: Music Business Worldwide.
📰 Media: Kate Ritchie’s Nova co-hosts Fitzy and Wippa have offered their full support to the popular present after she opened up about her mental health struggles. Words by Zara Powell. Source: The Daily Telegraph.
💰 Advertising: Creative agency Wieden+Kennedy has responded to an online backlash after the agency’s first announcement of its local creative hires featured an all-male lineup. Words by Lauren McNamara. Source: Mumbrella.
📲 Tech: A review has advised the maximum penalty for tech companies over ‘online hate material’ should be lifted — potentially costing billions. Words by Clare Armstrong. Source: The Daily Telegraph.
📜 Government: Artificial intelligence platform DeepSeek has been banned on all federal government systems and devices following warnings that the data it collects could be available to the Chinese government. Words by Mike Foley. Source: The Sydney Morning Herald.
🌶️ Spicy: The Associated Press has officially apologised after its red carpet reporters pulled a major faux pas with RnB legend Babyface at the 2025 Grammy Awards – and the internet is NOT having it. Words by Simran Pasricha. Source: Pedestrian.
Strength: Grammys Get People Talking
There may be articles a-plenty that traditional television viewing numbers were down for this year’s Grammys, but there were plenty of positives to take away from the event.
👉 Close to home, the good news from the Grammys was Tame Impala winning an award for Best Dance/Electronic Recording for "Neverender", a collaboration with Gaspard Augé and Xavier De Rosnay, the French electronic music duo better known as Justice.
👉 Other big winners from the mega awards ceremony included Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter for Album of the Year and Country Album of the Year, Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" for Song of the Year and Record of the Year, and Chappell Roan for Best New Artist.
👉 One of the other big talking points though was the performances.
👉 People are raving about Doechhi’s show-stopping performance of “Catfish” and “Denial Is A River”, after she took home the Best Rap Album award.
👉 Social media was also ablaze after Benson Boone did a flip off a piano and continued belting out his hit “Beautiful Things”, although he seems to have now issued some sort of ‘apology’ for a wardrobe issue.
Weakness: A Costly Holiday
Do you ever look at an elected official and think – from a comms, branding or performance perspective – how did they get away with that?
👉 Well it was certainly one of those weeks for (former) NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen.
👉 The NSW Labor Minister’s position was ‘not tenable’ after it was revealed she used taxpayer-funded ministerial drivers for personal use, including for a long lunch with friends in the Hunter Valley.
👉 She ended up resigning this week, and now the dissecting of why she had to go, and where it all went wrong, is in full swing.
👉 Given public sentiment about how ‘out of touch’ the Minister’s actions were, many are saying the resignation was “inevitable”.
👉 Gosh, remember when Liberal Federal Parliamentary Speaker Bronwyn Bishop used a taxpayer-funded helicopter to go 80 kilometres? It seems they never learn.
Opportunity: Drug Checking Expansion
Victorian music festival organisers and attendees now have the opportunity to further explore the benefits of drug testing.
👉 The Beyond the Valley Festival has now been and gone, giving people the chance to reflect on the success of the state’s recent pill testing trial.
👉 After being labelled ‘highly successful’, similar testing initiatives will be rolled out at four more Victorian music festivals.
👉 These include Hardmission, Pitch Music & Arts Festival, Ultra and The Warehouse Project.
👉 A statement from the Victorian Government said: “During the 4 day BTV festival, the mobile drug checking service tested more than 600 samples. Harm reduction workers at the service spoke to 700 festivalgoers.”
👉 It continued: “For more than 70%, it was the first time they had ever had an open, judgement-free conversation with a health professional about drug and alcohol safety. Nearly 40% of those using the service said they intended to use a smaller amount of their drugs following a conversation with a healthcare worker.”
Threat: Customer Feedback Has Consequences
Sometimes, you just try to give some money to the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife, and your whole week turns into a communications sh*tstorm.
👉 Not sounding familiar? Well this is what happened when Carlton & United Breweries’ beer brand Great Northern announced its Outdoors for a Cause campaign would raise money for the Foundation for National Parks and Wildlife, to help buy and protect land to add to national parks.
👉 So far, so fine. Except, it turns out Great Northern drinkers love activities such as camping, fishing, 4WDing and hunting, amongst other activities which are restricted on lands designated as National Parks.
👉 Before long, people are boycotting the drink, as well as running over their cans with their 4WDs and tipping the beverage down the sink (although it’s worth noting the brewery already has your money by the time you’re engaging in the latter two activities).
👉 It led the the inevitable debate about brands going ‘woke’ (and the inevitable Betoota Advocate headlines pilloring the whole notion of ‘woke’ backlashes).
👉 Amongst the noise though, the wider CUB CEO Danny Celoni actually stepped down, and the beer brand canned the original campaign and shifted its commitment with the rather vague promise of: “Our donation will instead be used for the preservation of endangered species.”
The Fun Stuff
Quote of the Week: “I know that there is some Black girl out there, so many Black women out there, that are watching me right now, and I want to tell you, you can do it. Anything is possible. Anything is possible. Don’t allow anybody to project any stereotypes on you, to tell you that you can’t be here, that you’re too dark, or that you’re not smart enough, or that you’re too dramatic, or you’re too loud. You are exactly who you need to be to be right where you are, and I am a testimony right now. Good night,” Doechii when collecting her historic Best Rap Album Award at the Grammys (via ELLE).
🗞️ Read of the Week: ‘From The Late Show to The Cheap Seats: the inside story of Working Dog’ via The SMH.
🏆 Client Win of the Week: Sound Story client Untitled Group, an independent music and events promoter, has marked its 10th anniversary. Kicking off the new year, the team is already celebrating major wins from their New Year’s festival run, featuring Beyond the Valley and Wildlands as well as experiencing sell out results across the board with AO Live. You can read more on themusic.com.au
