At Advertising Week Europe 2025, most brand sessions centered on scale, spend, and safe bets. Burger King UK, on the other hand, showed up with postpartum hunger, hospital room selfies, and an unapologetically human campaign that sparked a national debate.
At Advertising Week Europe 2025, the question wasn’t whether influencer marketing works—it was whether it’s gotten too powerful. And if you were in the packed audience at this headline session, you know one thing for sure: no one held back.
While many sessions at Advertising Week Europe 2025 buzzed with the usual talk of performance metrics and AI-driven innovation, one quieter, more intimate discussion delivered something rarer: a blueprint for building brands that don’t just include disabled consumers—they center them.
When leveraged ethically and insightfully, social norms tap into the deep emotional wellsprings of behavioral change —creating room for people to feel more seen and aligned with their values.
The underbelly of programmatic has always had issues like these. Right now, this double game appears to be a remarkably common state of affairs among ad platforms and their clients, and I think it’s time we all looked at it a bit harder.
Products (and charismatic CEOs for that matter) alone won’t protect businesses from the inevitable moments when something goes wrong – when tech falls behind, when consumer preferences change, or when market conditions evolve.
Brands are more successful when they integrate naturally throughout the process, instead of just popping in and feeling like an ad drop.
Misinformation isn’t just a problem for users anymore — it’s a branding crisis. As media platforms scale back moderation, advertisers are being forced into the role of risk manager—whether they like it or not.
Before your brand ever said a word, it could have dropped a beat. Not just any beat — the beat.
We still call it social media, but the way people use these platforms today has nothing to do with being social.
From creative and strategy to experiential and digital, here’s how key voices from across the industry are interpreting the latest findings, and what they believe marketers must prioritise to navigate the road ahead.
Whether it’s a last-second game winner, a viral TikTok trend, or a breakout Twitch stream, the path to relevance is no longer about reach alone. It’s about resonance.
During Converge @ Cannes, a group of brand, media, and advocacy leaders broke down why abandoning the LGBTQ+ community is not just a moral failure—it’s a catastrophic business decision.
What role do brands play in shaping those emotions to begin with?
The content arms race isn’t going away. But if brands want to thrive—not just survive—it’s time to rethink the systems behind the stories.
Whether it’s through purpose-aligned storytelling, wellness-infused activations, or simply giving people permission to breathe, the most resonant brand experiences this year felt human.
Experiential marketing, at its best, is not a standalone tactic. It’s a strategic pillar that shapes perception, deepens engagement and fuels brand storytelling across every channel.
As social media drives more of our culture, risk-taking will become a necessity that brands can’t afford to ignore.
