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Event
Wanaka Coffee Catch Up Event March 2026
Join us on March 17 for coffee, lakeside walks and a good dose of local marketing chat.
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Event
Queenstown Lakes Marketers Coffee Catch Up | 17 March 2026
Join us on March 17 at 8am at Yonder.Grab a coffee, connect with fellow locals in marketing, and start the day right.
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Event
Exclusive Student Event Wellington
[Wellington] Exclusive Student Event – Careers in Marketing
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Event
Marketing Meetup | March
Feelings vs Funnels: Does Brand Love or Algorithms Win in 2026? Join us for networking + nibbles!
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Event
Waikato Marketers Event March
A Masterclass in Future-Ready Marketing: Influencing Behaviour Through Human Insight? Join us for networking event on 24th March 2026
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Event
Dunedin Marketers Event
Reconnect with Dunedin’s marketing community over drinks at Vault 21. Small group. Real conversations.
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Matt Bale
Senior Advisor AI
Together
Marketing When Machines Filter Reality
For 30 years, marketing has competed for attention. In the next decade, it will compete for inclusion.
As AI assistants, search agents and large language models increasingly mediate how people discover brands, the real competition is shifting to inclusion - whether machines decide your brand is worth mentioning at all.
In this session, Matt Bale explores the rise of the third gatekeeper: algorithms that filter reality before consumers ever see it.
Drawing on his experience across media, technology and AI, Matt will unpack how LLMs decide what’s trustworthy, why most brands are currently invisible to them, and why traditional performance marketing logic no longer applies in AI-mediated discovery.
What you'll learn:
- Why Algorithmic Availability matters
- How AI systems decide what information is trustworthy and worth including
- Why most brands are currently invisible to LLM-driven discovery
- The shift from ranking to inclusion in AI search environments
- Commercial implications – how to win when AI filters and mediates your market
About Matt
Matt Bale has spent his career at the intersection of media, marketing and technology.
After cutting his teeth at Saatchi & Saatchi, BLM, BBDO, Starcom and OMD, working in NZ, Australia and the UK market Matt co-founded MBM, which grew to be New Zealand’s largest locally owned media agency, before selling it to the Publicis Groupe and exiting his baby at the end of 2022.
Today, Matt works across several businesses, wearing a few hats.
He is Chair of Garage Project, the Wellington-based brewery.
He's a Senior Advisor to Youdooh.com, where he’s helping bring AI into digital outdoor advertising across Australia & NZ, and beyond.
He's the Senior Advisor on AI for Together, a leading independently owned media & technology agency with offices in Auckland & Wellington.
Matt studied artificial intelligence at Stanford University and is currently pursuing further postgraduate studies in Intelligence with Massey University.
Lindsey Horne
Behavioural Insights Director
TRA
Your Host & MC
About Lindsey
With a background in neuroscience and applied behavioural science, Lindsey works across complex behaviour change challenges with a passion for transport, energy and climate change.
Her approach to behaviour change is holistic, from broader cultural and social change through to behavioural economics and nudges.
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