Australia's leading brands back Inclusively Made Accreditation: Commercial benchmark set for accessible content. November 9 2026, 10:52 am BY Ricki Green No Comments Australia's leading brands and media networks; including Mastercard, Telstra, Woolworths, Nine, Australia Post, BIG W, Westpac, Thinkerbell, WPP and Atomic 212°, have thrown their collective weight behind the launch of Inclusively Made Accreditation, establishing the country's first whole-of-organisation operational standard for accessible content. The Accreditation independently recognises organisations that make disability-inclusive content standard practice across everything they produce. It sits separately from Inclusively Made's certification, which will still apply to standalone productions, and acts as a formal endorsement of an organisation's sustained best practice. Unveiled at an industry roundtable at the Sydney Opera House, the launch aims to end the practice of treating accessibility as an optional add-on or a niche CSR exercise reserved for specific campaigns. The framework sets an operational baseline across five core content streams (motion, static, audio, digital and copy), with media planning and strategy woven throughout. It gives marketing and business leaders a verified, repeatable process for embedding accessible production into everyday business without prohibitive budgets or production delays. Says Genevieve Clay-Smith, Co-Founder, Inclusively Made: "Eighteen years ago, we saw there was no standard for what inclusion actually meant across production, so we built one. Certification proved the mechanism works on individual projects, but inclusive content can no longer belong only to big campaigns. From a 15-second social video to an enterprise digital platform or a major television commercial, accessible production has run out of excuses. If an organisation is serious about inclusion, it has to be built into how they operate every single day. If you are serious about inclusive content, get accredited." Says Henry Smith, Co-Founder, Inclusively Made: "With the launch of the Inclusively Made Accreditation, there are no more excuses around making all content inclusive of people with disability. Inclusion can no longer be justified for a certain type of project. Every piece of content should be inclusive, whether motion, still, audio, digital or copy." While standalone certification remains available for individual creative productions, Accreditation reviews and validates how an entire organisation operates across Inclusively Made's 8 Pillars of Inclusion. Says Alex Sloane, Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Australasia, Mastercard: "Accessibility shouldn't be something we think about at the end of the creative process. It should be considered from the start. Inclusively Made gives us a practical framework to build that thinking into how we create content, helping us make our communications and the industry more accessible to more people." Says Margie Reid, CEO, Thinkerbell: "Removing operational friction is how you make inclusion stick across fast-moving agency campaigns. Accreditation gives creative and production teams a clear, repeatable standard so accessible work happens automatically rather than as an afterthought." Says Marine Turner, Sydney Head of Strategy, EssenceMediacom Australia: "This is what progress looks like: turning inclusion into a consistent standard for how we brief, make and deliver our campaigns. Really excited to see Inclusively Made Accreditation launch and help raise the baseline for our industry." Says the MFA DE&I Advisory Council: "The MFA DE&I Advisory Council has been proud to contribute a media agency industry perspective to the development of Inclusively Made's new accreditation. Our focus has been on helping ensure inclusion is embedded not only in how content is created, but also in the audience, channel and planning decisions that determine who ultimately experiences it. This accreditation is an important step towards making inclusive and accessible practice part of the everyday way our industry works." How Accreditation works: Accreditation is independently audited by teams of people with and without disability, and follows a five-stage pathway: 1. Assessment Call: Inclusively Made audits the company's content operations and existing output to establish its baseline benchmark score. 2. Roadmap to Accreditation: The organisation receives a tailored action plan with clear milestones to close operational gaps across all five content streams. 3. Inclusive Content Training: A structured masterclass built around the company's specific content outputs. 4. Accreditation Awarded: Once it meets its operational baseline score, the organisation is awarded Accreditation and a licence to display the Accredited Inclusively Made trust badge. 5. Annual Audit: The business completes an annual review against the 8 Pillars of Inclusion to verify continued progress, set new benchmarks and retain accredited status. Every organisation producing content can now be involved and initiate their assessment today at inclusivelymade.com. #More creative news #no paywalls #no annual membership fees. Subscribe to Portfolio & Reel for current listings of Australian and NZ ad agency and production company leadership and key personnel

Westpac net profit dip 1% to $4.77b in FY2026. CET1 ratio is 12.5%, above its target, but 7bp lower than in 2025. Westpac's statutory net profit dipped 1% year-on-year (YoY) to $4.77b (A$6.8b) in the FY2026 period that ended in September, its financial results showed. The Australian bank's net profit excluding notable items is $4.91b (A$7b), flat compared to FY2025. Join Asian Banking & Finance community Common equity tier 1 (CET1) capital ratio is 12.5%, above the bank's target of 11.25%. However, it is 7 basis points (bp) lower compared to end-September 2025, which Westpac said was due to the sale of its RAMS loan portfolio as well as taking into account its 2026 net profit. Deposit to loan ratio was 85.5%, with higher deposit than lending growth driving the ratio to increase, the bank said. Deposits grew 6% in FY2026, whilst loans grew by 5% over the same period. Westpac said it raised $28.04b (A$40b) of new long term wholesale funding. The final dividend per share is A$0.77, up 1% YoY. Westpac CEO Andrew Miller said that they are hiring more bankers to support businesses and opening three new regional service centres. They are also rolling out community banking services in 14 locations, and Westpac expects to reach over 65,000 people in these communities, Miller said. Miller said that 95% of its employees are now using artificial intelligence (AI) in their work. "We're investing in the foundations required to scale AI responsibly, while continuing to focus on education and training for our people," Miller said in a statement on 2 November 2026. (US$1 = A$1.43; as of 5 November 2026)