Crafty Apes, the visual effects studio behind some of Hollywood’s biggest productions, is heading Down Under. The company has officially opened new offices in Australia, extending its global footprint across North America, Europe, and now Oceania. With supervisors and leadership already on the ground, the move positions Crafty Apes to capture surging production demand in two of the world’s fastest-growing VFX hubs: Sydney and Adelaide.

The expansion reflects both strategic timing and market opportunity. Australia’s VFX ecosystem has exploded in recent years thanks to strong government-backed incentives, consistent international production pipelines, and a formidable pool of artists. For Crafty Apes—now marking 14 years in business—the region offers the ideal mix of talent, flexibility, and cost-efficiency.

A Strategic Bet on Australia’s VFX Boom

CEO Alana Newell emphasized a personal and professional connection to the region. “Having spent a decade of my career in Australia, I am excited to open our doors here and continue our mission to deliver world-class visual effects for our clients worldwide,” she said. According to Newell, the combination of world-class artists, modern facilities, and competitive tax credits makes Australia a natural next step in the company’s growth plan.

Australia’s New South Wales and South Australia territories offer some of the world’s most generous VFX tax credit programs. These incentives are designed to attract premium international productions and support long-term investments in local post-production infrastructure. For studios like Crafty Apes, these programs aren’t just a bonus—they reshape cost models, expand hiring pipelines, and accelerate global scalability.

Leadership With Local Roots

The Sydney office will be led by Dave Morley, who also steps into the role of Executive Creative Director for Crafty Apes. Morley’s return to Australia marks a full-circle moment in a career that has included supervising Vancouver (the company’s largest facility) and working show-side with director Paul Feig on projects including A Simple Favor 2 and The Housemaid.

“It’s incredibly exciting to be part of establishing our presence in Australia,” Morley said. “Returning home to work alongside old friends and colleagues and injecting fresh energy into the vibrant Australian VFX scene fills me with immense pride.”

Morley’s new role includes creative look development for premium projects and mentoring Crafty Apes’ global network of VFX supervisors. His leadership is already paying dividends: the Sydney facility has secured several feature awards for titles currently shooting in Australia and abroad, with VFX work slated to begin in Q2 2025.

A Global Studio With Local Impact

Crafty Apes’ arrival is expected to create new opportunities within Australia’s rapidly maturing VFX industry. As global streamers and studios continue to shift productions to regions offering both quality and cost advantages, Australia is increasingly becoming a destination of choice. Crafty Apes’ presence adds another heavyweight to the competitive landscape, signaling strong long-term demand for talent and infrastructure across the region.

The company’s expansion underscores a broader industry trend: global VFX work is becoming more distributed, and regional ecosystems with strong incentives and deep skill pools are emerging as critical nodes in the production pipeline.

For Crafty Apes, the move is more than geographic. It’s a strategic investment in a fast-growing market—and a signal that the global race for VFX capacity is set to intensify.

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Sprinklr is strengthening its position in the customer experience stack with a major expansion of its strategic partnership with SAMY, the 1,000-person social-first agency known for blending intelligence, creativity, and technology. The enhanced alliance brings Sprinklr’s AI-native Unified-CXM platform together with SAMY’s hands-on marketing expertise, forming a unified model designed to close the gap between insights and execution for global brands.

The announcement builds on years of collaboration, but this iteration goes far beyond vendor support. It positions Sprinklr and SAMY as an integrated force capable of helping brands navigate cultural shifts, unify fragmented data, and deliver consistent customer experiences across every touchpoint.

From Tactical Assistance to Strategic Integration

“What began as project-based support has grown into a truly integrated partnership,” said Nathan Townsend, Chief Partnership Officer at SAMY. By combining Sprinklr’s AI-native platform with SAMY’s end-to-end marketing capabilities, the duo aims to deliver what Townsend calls “human-first experiences that drive real business impact.”

The shift reflects a broader trend in enterprise CX: brands want not just tools, but teams and platforms that work together. SAMY contributes a platform-certified workforce deeply embedded in Sprinklr’s ecosystem, ensuring that clients receive both technical expertise and strategic CX leadership.

Joint go-to-market motions, coordinated delivery, and a pipeline of co-developed innovations make this partnership more operationally connected than in previous phases. The goal is simple: accelerate growth and improve customer outcomes in a marketplace where unified data and rapid insight execution have become non-negotiable.

A Unified Model Tested at Global Scale

The partnership’s value has already been proven with Diageo, one of the world’s biggest beverage companies. Tasked with navigating fast-moving cultural and consumption trends, Diageo turned to Sprinklr and SAMY to build a real-time Foresight System that identifies emerging conversations and converts them into actionable intelligence.

By tapping into Sprinklr’s social listening and AI capabilities, Diageo gained visibility into cultural shifts, category whitespace, and early-market signals—insights that now inform product development, marketing strategy, and global innovation planning. The system ultimately enables the company to anticipate customer needs before competitors catch up.

Sprinklr’s Senior Vice President for EMEA, Nunzio Mirtillo, summed up the partnership’s mission: “Customers today demand that brands be everything, everywhere, all at once.” The unified Sprinklr-SAMY model is designed to meet that expectation with AI-driven insights, creative execution, and scalable managed services.

Building the Future of AI-Native CX

For Sprinklr, the partnership underscores its strategy to move deeper into AI-powered enterprise transformation. For SAMY, it cements its role as a major player in bridging cultural intelligence with modern CX technology. Together, they are building a blueprint for how advanced platforms and creative strategy can co-exist—and co-deliver—against aggressive market demands.

“Two powerhouses with a shared goal,” said George Collins, Global Partnership Director at Sprinklr. “With Sprinklr’s AI-native platform and SAMY’s creative and strategic expertise, we’re delivering measurable impact, faster.”

As brands continue to grapple with fragmented channels, shifting consumer behavior, and pressure to innovate at speed, the strengthened Sprinklr-SAMY partnership arrives at a critical time—and signals where the future of customer experience is headed: unified, AI-driven, and culturally fluent.

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Meyocks, a long-established branding and marketing agency, is expanding its footprint with the launch of Meyocks Research + Insights, a dedicated market research firm built to deliver fast, accessible, and highly actionable intelligence for businesses of every size. The move signals Meyocks’ deeper push into data-driven strategy at a moment when organizations across industries are racing to make smarter decisions with fewer resources.

For more than four decades, Meyocks has supported clients with creative strategy and marketplace execution. Now, with Research + Insights, the agency is amplifying that foundation. According to Kelly Ferguson, president and CEO, the new firm builds on years of strategic expertise to offer research that stays rooted in real-world application. She emphasized that the goal is simple: uncover reliable insights that brands can use to drive measurable growth.

While many research agencies lean into complexity, Meyocks Research + Insights focuses on clarity. The team aims to translate data into strategic direction without the usual layers of confusing terminology or dense reporting. This emphasis on accessibility comes at a time when marketers increasingly expect research partners to deliver quick, digestible insights rather than lengthy academic-style analysis.

Beth Ann Boyd, vice president of digital delivery, noted that the firm’s method for working with brands sets it apart. Rather than positioning research as a standalone exercise, the team integrates findings with brand strategy from the outset. The result is a more intuitive, faster path to the insights that matter most. She added that the team’s marketing background strengthens their ability to highlight insights that can truly shape decisions.

Meyocks Research + Insights is jointly led by Boyd and senior market research strategist Whitney Hayes, Ph.D. Backed by researchers, analysts, and data scientists, the group supports organizations through a range of services built to match varying needs—from quick-turn studies to fully customized research.

One highlight of the new firm is its Rapid Research suite. These pre-packaged surveys deliver insights in two to three weeks at a starting cost of $6,000, making them more attainable for brands with limited budgets. The catalog includes Brand Category + Health Studies, Customer Studies, Creative Testing, and Package Design evaluations. This off-the-shelf approach aligns with a broader industry trend toward modular research solutions that cut both time and cost without sacrificing quality.

For companies with more specialized questions, the Custom Research offering provides tailored studies in areas such as consumer behavior, brand health, marketing effectiveness, product and package development, and employer branding. Each engagement integrates strategic interpretation, ensuring that findings move beyond data into clear direction.

This launch also aligns with Meyocks’ purpose-driven ethos, summarized by the agency’s guiding belief that “giving a damn changes everything.” Research + Insights keeps that philosophy at the center, positioning insight as a catalyst for meaningful opportunity.

As data continues to shape every corner of marketing, Meyocks’ move reflects a broader shift in the industry. Brands want research that’s faster, cleaner, and more grounded in strategy. Meyocks Research + Insights enters the market ready to meet that demand with offerings that aim to simplify complexity without dulling the impact.

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Zappi, the consumer insights platform known for speeding up market research, has launched its Brand Health Tracker—a continuous, always-on measurement system designed to give marketers a clearer, faster read on how consumers respond to their brand. The tool promises monthly sentiment data, a unified view of advertising and innovation impact, and a price point aimed at teams tired of paying enterprise premiums for outdated tracking.

The timing makes sense. With consumers moving faster than legacy research cycles can handle, modern brand teams need systems that match that pace. Traditional trackers, often expensive and inflexible, tend to give marketers snapshots instead of the full story. Zappi’s solution aims to flip that dynamic by offering 12 measurement waves per year at a cost 40% lower than typical research models—an advantage supported by an independent study.

Brand Tracking That Doesn’t Fall Behind

In an era where 75% of U.S. consumers are trading down to cheaper products and 71% expect personalized experiences, staying connected to consumer behavior isn’t optional. Yet most tracking programs update quarterly or even annually, creating blind spots at a time when brand sentiment can shift week to week.

Zappi’s Brand Health Tracker is built to cover those gaps. It offers monthly data with at least 400 responses per cycle, providing a read on awareness, consideration, loyalty, and key category behaviors. The tracker collects data autonomously once a survey is built, giving teams the choice to check in every month or take broader quarterly or biannual views.

A Continuous View of Brand Evolution

CEO Aaron Kechley said marketers have been stuck with expensive trackers that freeze moments in time, while real consumer behavior keeps evolving. His pitch: combine brand health, advertising, and innovation testing in one ecosystem, giving brand teams the ability to run more tests, react faster, and double down on what works.

A key differentiator is Zappi’s alignment with principles from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science. Rather than tracking standalone KPIs, the system monitors category entry points—those contextual triggers that shape consumer choices. By tying brand data to these moments, companies get a clearer view of how everyday marketing activity influences long-term brand growth.

Features Built for Modern Insights Teams

Zappi’s Brand Health Tracker offers several functions designed to streamline research while keeping costs low:

• Continuous data collection: Real-time monitoring with monthly samples of at least 400 responses. Trend shifts become visible sooner, giving teams more space to act.

• Competitive benchmarking: Up to 15 competitors can be tracked in parallel for ongoing market comparison.

• Self-serve setup: Pre-built templates and automated data flows simplify onboarding and reduce internal bottlenecks.

• Professional services: Optional consulting support helps teams pull deeper insights from months or years of data.

For brands that don’t need ongoing tracking, Zappi also offers a Brand Health Snapshot, a single-time measurement solution designed for quick reads after a major campaign or sudden market change.

A Market Ready for Faster Tracking

The launch arrives as the research industry pushes toward automation and cost efficiency. Many platforms offer speed or affordability—but not both. Zappi is positioning its tracker as a rare middle ground: fast enough to keep up with shifting consumer trends while affordable enough for continuous use rather than one-off budget allocations.

For marketers under pressure to justify spend, the promise of lower research costs and more frequent data points could be compelling. As competition intensifies and consumer behavior becomes less predictable, continuous tracking may soon shift from a luxury to a necessity.

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Storyblocks is pushing into the AI era—carefully. The subscription-based stock media platform unveiled its new AI Toolkit, a set of integrated features designed to help creators work faster without replacing the human-made content that anchors its six-million-asset library. Instead of churning out synthetic media, Storyblocks is betting on AI tools that adapt, enhance, and personalize existing footage.

The move lands at a pivotal time for the creator economy. Video teams across industries are under pressure to deliver more content with fewer resources, and stock media has long helped fill that gap. But customization has traditionally been the Achilles' heel of stock footage. Storyblocks is taking aim at that problem by weaving AI-powered voice and video tools directly into its workflow—making it easier to shape assets into something that feels purpose-built instead of generic.

Bringing AI Into the Workflow—Not the Footage

At the heart of the new toolkit are two major integrations: ElevenLabs for voice and Runway for video editing. The blend allows creators to generate high-quality voiceovers, clone voices for personalized narration, and even transform tone or style on demand. On the visual side, Runway’s Aleph model enables adjustments to lighting, color, and background elements, giving creators near-immediate ways to adapt footage for different environments or brand styles.

TJ Leonard, CEO of Storyblocks, said speed is essential but shouldn’t compromise creativity. The AI Toolkit aims to solve the customization gap by letting users refine human-made footage—not replace it with machine-generated alternatives. It’s a nuanced stance in an industry racing toward AI automation, and Storyblocks frames it as a feature, not a limitation.

A New Take on Stock Media Flexibility

Video creators often spend hours adjusting stock clips to fit a narrative. Runway’s integration promises to cut that time to minutes, enabling footage transformation directly inside Storyblocks' platform. Users no longer need to export video into a separate editing tool just to tweak lighting or adjust colors to match a brand palette.

That’s a notable departure from how most stock platforms approach AI today. Many marketplaces are leaning into asset generation, which risks flooding systems with synthetic media of wildly inconsistent quality. Storyblocks is instead doubling down on curation—and enhancing those assets with adaptable AI workflows.

Runway co-founder and Chief Design Officer Alejandro Matamala Ortiz called the integration a “novel approach,” highlighting that creators can now modify and reimagine stock video with unprecedented control. His view aligns with a broader trend in the industry: AI as a collaborator rather than a content factory.

Expanding Creative Freedom Without the Bloat

With features like voice cloning, stylistic narration, and video transformation baked in, the AI Toolkit turns Storyblocks' existing library into a flexible foundation rather than a one-size-fits-all solution. For creators balancing tight deadlines, shrinking budgets, and increasing output demands, this shift could meaningfully reduce friction.

It also signals a wider movement in the creator-tech space. AI isn’t simply about generating content faster—it’s becoming a tool for making content fit faster. Storyblocks’ strategy taps into that momentum, aiming to meet creators where they are: in need of efficiency, but not willing to sacrifice authenticity.

The AI Toolkit is available now, and Storyblocks has published additional details at storyblocks.com/ai-toolkit.

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Tamr, known for its AI-native master data management platform, has launched Curator Hub, a new module designed to take on one of the most persistent blockers to trustworthy AI: bad data. The tool pairs LLM-driven agents with human expertise to fix inconsistencies, resolve edge cases, and strengthen data readiness for generative AI applications.

As companies rush to integrate AI across operations, data quality has emerged as the most expensive—and often overlooked—problem. Gartner predicts that 30% of GenAI projects will be abandoned by 2026 due to poor data quality, weak safeguards, or escalating costs. Curator Hub aims to blunt that trend by offering a scalable method to clean and connect critical enterprise records.

Solving the 5% That Causes 95% of Problems

Tamr already automates most of the data mastering workflow: matching, unifying, cleaning, and enriching records at scale. But the last 5%—messy edge cases—remains notoriously difficult to automate. Whether it’s deciding if “Java Town” and “JavaTown Café” refer to the same entity or sorting out inconsistent values across dozens of systems, these decisions often require human judgment. They also drain time, budget, and patience.

Curator Hub’s LLM-based agents tackle those scenarios by identifying potential issues, suggesting resolutions, and explaining their reasoning in plain language. Data stewards then review, refine, or approve the recommendations in a central workspace built for speed and clarity.

CHG Healthcare, which uses Tamr to unify provider data, sees massive potential. Faster curation could mean faster onboarding, cleaner records, and better placement workflows—all mission-critical in healthcare staffing.

A New, More Intuitive Workflow for Data Stewards

Traditional data curation forces stewards to bounce between spreadsheets, source systems, and custom tools to resolve issues. Curator Hub centralizes that work and replaces manual triage with a guided, human-in-the-loop experience.

Stewards can now:

• Compare problematic records side-by-side

• See why an issue was flagged, complete with labels and confidence scores

• Preview how an update will change the master record before approval

The goal is to make curation both efficient and trustworthy. As Paul Balas of 303Computing notes, the best workflows are the ones stewards actually want to use.

Features Designed for Scalable Data Quality

Curator Hub ships with a set of tools built for enterprise-grade curation:

• Prioritized issue queue: Agents surface duplicates, anomalies, and missing values ranked by urgency.

• Decision-ready views: Clear explanations and change previews streamline judgment calls.

• Golden record refinement: Reassign or realign source records for cleaner entity mastering.

• Customizable workflows: Route issues, set triggers, and determine when AI recommendations require human review.

• Transparent history: Full audit logs for governance and compliance.

• System health insights: Track issue volume, resolution speed, and quality trends.

• Expanding AI agent library: Prebuilt reusable agents, with industry-specific additions coming.

• Bring Your Own Agent (BYOA): Integrate proprietary agents with a supported low-code framework.

CEO Anthony Deighton calls Curator Hub a turning point in how organizations trust, review, and scale data improvements. By giving stewards a more intuitive control panel—and by letting AI agents handle the grunt work—Tamr hopes to accelerate data projects that often stall before delivering value.

Preparing Data for the AI-First Future

Curator Hub is more than a workflow upgrade; it’s a strategic move to help enterprises prepare for generative AI at scale. High-quality, well-curated data is the foundation for everything from predictive analytics to LLM-powered automation. Tamr’s bet is that combining machine intelligence with human oversight is the only viable path to ensure trust and accuracy.

The module is now available for all Tamr Cloud customers as part of the company’s AI-native MDM platform.

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Genesys®, a global leader in AI-powered experience orchestration, has enabled Aterian — the multibrand consumer products powerhouse behind Squatty Potty, Healing Solutions, and more — to transform its customer experience (CX) operations. Leveraging the Genesys Cloud™ platform, Aterian has redefined how it manages interactions across marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Temu, and Shopify, achieving a 65% decrease in cost of ownership, greater efficiency, and more emotionally intelligent customer engagement.

Aterian’s CX Challenges Before Genesys

• Rapid expansion across major ecommerce marketplaces increased operational complexity.

• Over 70% of customer interactions were handled through asynchronous channels such as emails and buyer messages.

• The company needed a unified CX foundation to personalize customer journeys without sacrificing emotional connection.

• Fragmented tools made it difficult to scale, maintain consistency, or optimize agent performance.

How Genesys Cloud Transformed Aterian’s Customer Experience

1. Unified CX Infrastructure for Faster, More Personal Support

• Aterian rebuilt its entire customer experience foundation using the Genesys Cloud platform.

• Consolidated systems streamlined communication and simplified agent workflows.

• The company created a cohesive, omnichannel experience, enabling agents to handle inquiries seamlessly across channels.

2. Intelligent Automation to Scale Empathy and Efficiency

• Aterian integrated its own AI models with Genesys Cloud AI, creating a hybrid “human + AI” support environment.

• Nearly 50% of all customer interactions are now automated, freeing agents for complex or emotionally sensitive cases.

• Automation delivered consistent support quality while reducing handle time by almost 25%.

3. Empowered Agents Through AI-Driven Coaching and Real-Time Insights

• AI-powered guidance is embedded natively in the Genesys interface — no additional dashboards or external tools.

• Agents receive contextual insights and next-best-action recommendations during live interactions.

• This resulted in a 33% increase in agent satisfaction, showcasing how AI can reduce friction, enhance performance, and support agent confidence.

4. Delivering Empathy at Scale: A Strategic Advantage

• Genesys Cloud enabled Aterian to maintain its core brand philosophy — emotionally intelligent customer care — even as it scaled rapidly.

• The platform ensured customers feel heard and valued whether interacting with a human or a virtual agent.

• The company now turns each interaction into an opportunity to strengthen loyalty and trust.

5. Supporting Aterian’s Diversifying Product Portfolio

• The new CX foundation supports expansion into categories like:

  • Squatty Potty Flushable Wipes

  • Healing Solutions Tallow Skincare

• Genesys Cloud ensures consistent brand experiences across all new product lines.

• The platform prepares Aterian for smooth seasonal surges, especially during high-volume periods like the holidays.

Aterian’s partnership with Genesys marks a pivotal shift in how consumer brands approach customer experience at scale. By merging AI-powered orchestration with human empathy, the company has built a modern CX ecosystem that supports growth, consistency, and deeper customer connection. With intelligent automation, real-time agent coaching, and a unified platform, Aterian is positioned to deliver meaningful, emotionally resonant experiences across every touchpoint — today and as it expands into the future.

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Cloud voice platforms have long been judged on reliability, call quality, and how quickly they can untangle the messy business of diagnosing failures. Now AVOXI wants to rewrite that playbook with Proactive Service, an AI-enabled diagnostic tool that claims to spot voice issues before customers ever notice—97% of the time, according to the company.

For global contact centers juggling thousands of conversations per hour, that kind of foresight isn’t just convenient—it’s a competitive advantage.

A New Spin on Voice Reliability

Traditional voice troubleshooting typically leans on ticket queues, manual testing, and a fair amount of guesswork when outages or quality hiccups occur. AVOXI’s pitch is simple: replace the legacy break-fix workflow with continuous monitoring powered by automation and AI.

Proactive Service scans for call flow disruptions, number-level availability problems, and traffic anomalies. When it detects suspicious behavior, it automatically runs diagnostics, gathers context, and opens support cases—no human intervention needed. AVOXI says this approach cuts issue resolution time in half.

It’s a timely upgrade. According to the 2025 State of International Voice for the Contact Center Report, the industry is wrestling with a three-headed monster:

• 80% cite voice security concerns

• 77% struggle with call quality

• 78% see gaps in global coverage

With contact centers expanding across regions and marketplaces, the pressure to maintain uptime and route calls intelligently has never been higher. Competitors like Genesys, Twilio, and Zoom have all been weaving AI into their communications fabrics, but diagnostics—particularly proactive diagnostics—remain an area where few have staked a definitive claim.

Replacing “Break/Fix” With “Predict/Prevent”

AVOXI frames Proactive Service as a shift from reactive to preventive support. Instead of waiting for angry customers to call about dropped connections, the platform preemptively identifies the underlying risk—whether it’s a misbehaving virtual number, a routing misconfiguration, or a traffic spike that hints at fraud.

For enterprises running contact centers in five or more countries, these early warnings can translate into avoided downtime, protected revenue, and fewer blown SLAs. And with call quality continuing to define customer experience, the stakes are only getting higher.

“Every second counts for enterprises that rely heavily on contact centers to engage with callers,” says CEO Barbara Dondiego. “Proactive Service sets a new standard for protecting global voice more actively and intelligently.”

Built Into AVOXI’s New Premium AI Cloud Package

Proactive Service is part of AVOXI’s new Premium AI Cloud SaaS package, designed for organizations that want deeper oversight and stronger threat resilience in their voice infrastructure. The suite combines analytics, call flow monitoring, issue triage, security insights, and automated case creation in one dashboard.

For companies operating across Amazon, Walmart, Walmart Connect, and emerging global marketplaces, a diagnostic tool that works quietly in the background—and works fast—could deliver a measurable edge.

In a market where AI is reshaping everything from workforce scheduling to fraud detection, AVOXI’s focus on automated diagnostics feels like a natural next step. Whether it becomes the new normal across cloud voice platforms will depend on how effectively Proactive Service scales—but the early numbers give it a strong opening argument.

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