Advertising borrows from culture, amplifies it, and sends it back changed. Ghost Note, Sid Lee, and kyu will debate whether brands shape culture or simply react to it, and how marketers can enter the loop without forcing relevance or following too late.

Speakers:

– Steven Jumper, Founder & CEO, Ghost Note
– Johan Vakidis, Chief Creative Officer & North America President, Sid Lee

Moderator:

– Michael Kania, VP of Marketing, kyu

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Sport, gaming, and entertainment have become some of the most powerful drivers of modern culture. For brands, success is no longer about sponsorship or reach alone. It’s about earning relevance within the communities people care about most.

Join marketing and creative leaders from Adobe, Magic: The Gathering, and Thinkingbox as they explore how brands build lasting connections through authentic participation across culture and fandoms. From athletes to creators to communities, we’ll discuss what it takes to move beyond audiences and become part of the conversation.

Speakers:

– Shaun Severi, Executive Creative Director, Thinkingbox
– Eric Krause, VP of Marketing, Magic: The Gathering
– Alejandro Chavetta, Global Executive Creative Director, Adobe

As media becomes more automated and global, brands risk gaining efficiency while losing cultural relevance. easyJet and Kepler will explore how marketers can scale media across markets while staying locally resonant, creatively distinctive, and responsive to how people travel, think, and behave.

Speakers:

– Jess Haley, Managing Director, Kepler
– Gabriella Neudecker, Marketing Director, easyJet

Moderator:

– Michael Kania, VP of Marketing, kyu

Panelists:

– Mat Micheli, Co-founder & Co-CEO, Viral Nation
– Alison Monk, Founder & CEO, Eden Collective
– Nicole Rajesky, Partner, Rethink
– Julian Boulding, President, The Network One

Moderator:

– Aaron Reitkopf, CEO, Dawn

.    .    .   

The industry has spent years optimizing for scale. But in a fragmented, AI-driven, and increasingly opaque media landscape, scale alone doesn’t guarantee better outcomes. It often introduces more complexity, more layers, and less control.

Independent agencies are challenging that model. Not by being smaller, but by being structurally different. In this session, Kamran Asghar and consultants from Harmonium, mediasense, and MediaLink explore why more brands are rethinking traditional agency relationships, and why independence is becoming a competitive advantage in a system that’s grown too complex for its own good.

Takeaways:

• Scale alone is no longer a competitive advantage. It’s often a source of friction.
  As media ecosystems become more fragmented and opaque, consolidation and complexity are slowing decision-making rather than strengthening it.
• Independent agencies are built for accountability.
  Simpler structures and aligned incentives are enabling faster, more accountable decisions in an increasingly complex market.
• Agency structure is one of the biggest drivers of performance.
  How agencies are built – their incentives, governance, and operating models – shapes outcomes long before strategy or execution.
• “Integration” doesn’t always mean alignment.
  What appears seamless externally can hide competing priorities and diluted accountability, making it harder for brands to stay in control.
• Brands are prioritizing clarity over breadth. 
  The real differentiator is no longer the broadest offering, but the model that delivers the clearest, most controllable outcomes.

Speakers:

– Hasan Ramusevic, Founder & CEO, Harmonium
– Jack Shearring, VP, Strategy, mediasense
– Michael Knopf, SVP, Marketing Transformation, MediaLink

Moderator:

– Kamran Asghar, Global CEO & Co-founder, Crossmedia

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