Changemakers Conference 2024 | Scotland

New for 2024, join us at the Marketing Society Scotland Changemakers Conference on Tuesday 22 October.

This year our theme is IMPACT: the very essence of what being a marketer is all about.

Whether it’s impact on organisations, on society, resolving negative impacts or leading with personal impact; the influence and impact of a marketer is felt in every function of our businesses in the way we create value for not just our brands and our people but for society around us.

In our conference we will explore the themes of impact through the stories and experiences of our speakers who will offer up new perspectives, creative ideas and revolutionary thinking that will help you do well and do good.

We have gathered our industry's best and brightest for the marketing day out. Experience the stories of entrepreneurs and experts, mischief-makers and groundbreakers, all making change happen today.

Topics and speakers include:

Navigating the Political Landscape: Fergus Mutch from True North will explore how political trends, policies, and public sentiment shape consumer behaviour and market dynamics, emphasising the need for marketers to adapt to changes such as regulations, social movements, and geopolitical events.
How to fall in love with your energy provider - Octopus Energy, rewriting the rules. Discover how Octopus Energy Group’s sustainable mission, innovative products and relentless focus on customers continues disrupting a traditionally stale industry. In this session, Rebecca Dibb-Simkin will explore how her team made energy engaging and personal again, through an obsessive focus on humanity and speed - from spinning “Wheels of Fortune” for meter readings to slashing electricity prices near wind turbines, they’ve proven that an energy company can be both fun, green and deeply customer-centric.
The B Corp Movement: A panel featuring Rationale, Muckle Media, Material and Always Be Content discuss how B Corp certification helps brands stand out by demonstrating commitment to social and environmental responsibility, building trust with ethically conscious consumers.
Doing Business the Wrong Way: Kevin Lynch of The Wrong Agency will present his unconventional approach to running a business that defies traditional success metrics, emphasising creativity and fun over conventional business practices.
Delivering Impact: The Deliveroo Story: Michelle Lavipour will share how Deliveroo transformed the food delivery industry by connecting consumers, merchants, and riders, shaping consumer habits and brand evolution. This session will be chaired by Emma Falvey, Head of Consumer (Scotland) at Smarts.
Why you need a brand aesthetic and how to get one: Jacob Wright, independent marketing consultant and former Chief Strategy Officer of BBH Singapore Strategy is more important than ever, but our tools have become stale. Marketing science tells us that brands need 'distinctive assets' but the traditional way of doing strategy doesn't help do this and may even hinder it. This talk proposes that in a visually driven age brands need to learn to think strategically about images and enable their teams to create truly distinctive aesthetics. Tools such as semiotic analysis, mood boards and generative AI enable a new visually-driven approach to strategy. And placing imagery, rather than messages, at the heart of branding makes better use of modern media formats and simplifies the complexity of managing brands today.
The Impact of a Brave Leader: Many leaders are terrified of doing the wrong thing, so they do nothing. That is not an option. David McQueen will show you how to think strategically about problem-solving and decision-making so that you embed inclusivity in your organisation, no matter the pace of change you face, and future-proof your talent management, product development, customer experience and more
The Youthquake Impact: how younger consumers will build or destroy your brand: Discover the real Changemakers – shaking up the marketplace at a greater and faster pace than ever before. These emerging adults aren’t just influencing their peers but shaping entire industries. We’ll unlock the practical steps and tools every marketeer needs to create impactful brand relationships.
Introducing Compound Creativity: Hot off the press, System1's Andrew Tindall will be sharing Compound Creativity - a new holistic POV on creative consistency that champions and provides evidence for what marketers already know: consistency grows brands. By using ad creative quality data from System1, brand strength data from YouGov and campaigns effects data from the IPA - Compound Creativity shows that the most consistent brands create advertising that works twice as hard, producing 27% more very large brand effects and double the profit gain. Alongside practical insights, the research even estimates that inconsistency will costs just the brands in this study £3.5bil over the next 5 years.
GenerAI(tion) and Privacy: Leading session on the biggest topic of the year, led by leading privacy expert and lawyer Jo McLean as she takes the audience on an interactive journey for both agencies and brand side. She will be joined by a number of guests.
Unlocking talent for Scotland’s creative industries: Mercy Abel, Impact & Marketing Lead and Unlocked Internship Programme Director at John Doe. The UNLOCKED Internship Programme was launched in 2023 with the aim to help kickstart opportunities for underrepresented emerging talent, looking to get their break in the UK’s creative industries. Non-white ethnicities and those from low-income backgrounds are massively underrepresented in the creative industries. To help change this, the programme is created to ‘unlock’ new internships, with the clear future goal of fairer and greater representation.

THE DETAILS
Date: Tuesday 22 October
Time: 9am to 6pm
Venue: National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh

HEADLINE SPONSOR

JACK RYAN

JACK RYAN is a leading independent full-service advertising agency. With over a century of collective media innovation experience spanning numerous sectors, their journey with clients ranges from strategy development to comprehensive media reinvention. JACK RYAN take pride in facilitating transformational shifts that are durable, quantifiable, and in harmony with strategic goals.

Session sponsor