Amplify Marketing Festival 2024 | Scotland

On Thursday 22 August we're returning to the University of Edinburgh Business School for the 2024 Amplify Marketing Festival, sponsored by Carat, for a full day of inspiring showcase talks, debate and opinion.  

This year we'll discuss if modern marketing is evolving to become a global community of brands, agencies and consumers looking to work together for the greater good of the planet and society. 

As well as old favourites like the Ogilvy Lecture and the Clients vs Agencies Creative Challenge, this year we've got some fun new additions and experiences that will leave you feeling inspired and excited about our industry. 

We're delighted to have Zara Janjua join us as event host this year. Zara is an award-winning broadcaster who has worked on ITV’s This Morning, written for the Guardian, reported for The New York Times and is BBC Radio Presenter. She was recently highly commended at the Woman of The Future Awards for her humanitarian work.

The Ogilvy Lecture, sponsored by Ogilvy

The Ogilvy Lecture is our way of expressing our enthusiasm to preserve and promote David Ogilvy’s legacy. As a proud and passionate self-claimed Scot and one of the most famous names in advertising, David Ogilvy is an inspiration to many in our industry.

This year we've got a fantastic speaker lined up in Pete Markey, Chief Marketing Officer at Boots UK. 

Pete is responsible for brand and marketing for the UK and ROI. Pete is also the Exec Sponsor for Marketing for Change and the Boots Pride BRG network as well as co-Exec sponsor for the Boots/Macmillan partnership.

Pete has previously held senior leadership roles at TSB, Aviva, RSA and MORE TH>N with his early career at One.Tel, the AA and British Gas. He has experience of working across a range of disciplines including marketing, sales, digital, data & analytics, customer experience, operations and strategy.

Pete has been awarded five prestigious Marketer of the Year awards and is a Fellow of the Marketing Society and the Chartered Institute of Marketing. Pete is very active in the marketing industry and is Vice President at ISBA and was appointed Chair of the Advertising Association’s Front Foot in 2022. He has regularly featured in the “Hall of Fame” in the Campaign Power 100 and the Marketing Week Top 100 most effective marketing leaders.

Pete has been recognised for his extensive work on diversity and inclusion winning both the Diversity Ally award at the European Diversity Awards in 2019 and the Corporate Ally award at the Rainbow Honours Awards in 2022. Pete is also a mentor for The Marketing Academy and Solent University.

Laura Vipond, Chief Growth Officer at Ogilvy will join us to introduce Pete as well as give her own thoughts on marketing for good in the context of David Ogilvy's legacy.  Laura oversees Ogilvy’s new business teams across advertising, experience, PR, consulting and health. She is a previous co-chair of the IPA new business and marketing group, a WACL Future Leaders Award-winner and a founder of Futures, a network for the award’s alumni in partnership with WACL and Nabs.

Cannes Lions Review

Last year we introduced a new event to the Amplify line up - The Cannes Lions Review with Julian Boulding, founder of thenetworkone. Every year Julian produces a review for anyone who can't attend the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. He'll focus his talk on the purpose driven campaigns that have come out of Cannes 2024. This year he will be joined by Barrington Reeves, Creative Director & Founder of Too Gallus. 

The Amplify Debate

After a short hiatus, the debate is back! 

With the motion AI is the best marketing tool ever we have the following debaters lined up to argue their case:

For the motion
Pete Martin, Director, Always Be Content
Natalya Ratner, Marketing Director, Robotical

Against motion
Chris Marsh, Managing Director, dentsu Edinburgh 
Cara Chambers, Chief Marketing Officer, C&C Group

Celebrating Craft

We're so excited to have Honorary Fellow of The Marketing Society, David Eustace, join us for a fireside chat on celebrating craft. 

David is a world-renowned photographer, creative advisor and curator whose unconventional route to a career in the creative industries started as a prison officer at HM Prison Barlinnie in Glasgow. During his career he's worked with clients including Anthropologie, Coca Cola, Disney, Vogue, Paramount Pictures and Proctor & Gamble.

He has directed TV commercials for a list of varied clients: The English and Scottish National Tourist board, The Northern Bank, Cadbury's Galaxy Chocolate, Dove USA, The Royal Bank of Scotland, The Clydesdale Bank and several Government slots for The Scottish Executive.

David is a fascinating storyteller who will also showcase some of his recent work with brands.

Creative Challenge: Clients vs Agencies

Now in its 10th year, this hotly contested competition is always one of our most popular events of the year, with the teams pitching award winning campaigns from across the world and encouraging our audience to vote for their ideas.

Say hello to the teams battling it out:

Clients
Donna Harvey, STV 
Pete Matthews, Scottish Cycling
Hamish Ellis, Glenmorangie 
Heather Mallis, Lloyds Banking
Davide Tedesco, ICAS 

Agencies
Morag MacDonald, Weber Shandwick 
Izabela Krajka, Carat
Mihalis Michailidis, Dentsu Creative
Catriona Rist, The Union 
Hannah Sturdy, StudioLR 

The After Party, sponsored by Dentsu Creative

​​To finish off the day we'll be back at the Assembly Treehouse in George Square Gardens for our legendary after party, hosted by Neil Walker, Creative Director at Dentsu Creative. 

We'll have tasty street food, drinks (courtesy of Edrington UK, Inverarity Morton and Caorunn Gin) and our own mini Fringe pop up show - the perfect way to round off a great day in the sunshine (hopefully!) and catch up with other attendees, colleagues and friends. 

Tickets

Your ticket includes the 5 daytime events and access to the after party, light lunch, a couple of coffee breaks, as well as drinks and food at the after party. Prices are as follows:
 
Member ticket - £160 + VAT
Non Member ticket - £190 + VAT

As in previous years, due to the popularity of the event and venue capacity, members get priority booking until the end of June. Tickets are limited to 2 per organisation!

Business Team Members who have tickets as part of their package don't need to do anything. We'll be in touch in the coming days with your allocation details and how to book.
 

With thanks

Finally, a huge thank you to all our sponsors and supporters; headline sponsor Carat, Ogilvy, University of Edinburgh Business School, Assembly Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society and creative partner Dentsu Creative who also sponsor the after party. The event simply couldn’t take place without their continued support.