From event formats and health standards to logistics, ticketing and the integration of technology, events have been permanently changed in the pandemic and post-pandemic eras. Brands and agencies are launching hybrid events that fuse in-person activities with virtual elements; they are considering micro-events and series-based models; they are investing in new technology from QR codes to AR and metaverse meetups. In this session, we bring together the brands and experts who are fearlessly spearheading the new future of events.

In increasingly crowded markets, brand recognition and a great product aren’t enough. Customers demand design, experiences and services that are seamless, lightning-fast, easy to navigate and enjoyable every step of the way. Creating such experiences often requires brands to gather customer feedback, improve interoperability, streamline physical and digital interfaces and create moments that surprise and delight. But with a CX makeover, where do you start? How do you avoid common pitfalls and activate at speed? In this session, we bring together brands and technologists who have pulled off some of the best CX transformations in recent years to answer these and other questions.

Everyone talks about Millennials, Generation Z, and digital natives, but then there’s Generation Alpha – the first truly digitally immersed humans. While their elders have grown used to certain standards and ways of interacting with businesses, the 2030 customer won’t settle for the status quo. They will demand better customer journeys, services, experiences and ESG. Only the businesses that deliver this will thrive. This session will cover everything you need to know about Generation Alpha, including their purchase habits and CX expectations, and offer actionable advice so you can prepare your business now for the customer of 2030.

Customers are demanding more from retailers - and businesses are paying close attention. Around 89% expect to compete solely on the customer experience and the need to cater to the individual. A holistic digital transformation is taking place, as retailers implement new technology and digital services in order to engage customers, serving them richer and more memorable experiences at every stage of the customer journey. In this session, we will talk about how implementing tools like AI, AR, personalization, touch screens, immersive physical experiences and more can set a retailer apart from its rivals.

More than 50 million people worldwide consider themselves to be creators, in no small part fuelled by the explosive growth of TikTok. The burgeoning creator economy gives brands new and exciting ways to engage with the existing creator community – but how are the most successful brands on TikTok marrying authenticity and all-important performance metrics to build brand fame? In this session, we’ll explore what it takes to spark that successful connection between brands and creators, spotlighting some of the most successful matches to date, while digging deeper into the tangible, measurable impact of TikTok as an always on performance channel.

Today, LinkedIn has among the fastest-growing creator ecosystems. From established personalities with a loyal following like YouTuber Caspar Lee to emerging subject matter experts and academics, creators are flocking to LinkedIn to build their personal brands, their businesses and their followings — increasingly via B2B partnerships. To support them, the social networking site has rolled out a range of powerful new tools, including audio events and ‘Creator Mode’, available to all creators in Europe. In this session, Julien Wettstein, head of creator community in EMEA and LATAM at LinkedIn and previous Drum B2B Award winner Jack Trew, strategy director of The Croc, chat with The Drum’s Kendra Clark about what it means to be a creator on LinkedIn and how both creators and B2B brands can make the most of the platform.

For four decades Rishad Tobaccowala has been one of the industry’s leading voices. Now was we head into the unknown of the post-lockdown world, he tells us what businesses need to do to connect with a consumer that we might not recognize anymore. In a revealing fireside chat with The Drum US Editor Kenneth Hein, Tobaccowala explains why data, digital and humanity go hand-in-hand as well as what it takes for a business to restore its soul.

When we think of ‘experience’ in the context of business, we often focus on the customer – but without the right talent in place, the customer experience (CX) is missing a vital piece of the puzzle. So how are today’s employers investing that same level of commitment to their employee experience (EX) and closing the loop to deliver richer digital experiences for all? The Drum sits down with global CX leaders to hear how they are creating industry leading EX and look at the role of digital transformation in future proofing the workplace to meet the expectations of today’s marketing talent.

The cookieless future is looming, and marketers are scrambling for ways to combat the drop in performance that is already beginning to show. We look at how new loyalty marketing strategies across the metaverse, NFT’s and blockchain are driving engagement, and what this means for how you should be planning to combat the deprecation of third party cookies. Lastly, we’ll look at a couple of case studies from Budweiser and Red Bull Racing to see the steps they’re taking to drive engagement across the customer journey which lays a foundation for future targeting and acquisition.

As cookies crumble, new approaches to user tracker and ad targeting have gained esteem among publishers, developers, marketers and media players. Among the most popular have been so-called ‘universal’ ID solutions, single identifiers tied to specific users within the digital ecosystem. However, as consumer data regulations and enforcement grow more stringent and big tech companies like Apple and Google introduce new policies designed to inhibit advertisers’ and developers’ abilities to track individual users across apps and websites, ID-based approaches to the cookieless future are gaining increasing scrutiny. Can contextual targeting promise the same effectiveness? Are first- and zero-party data models the only feasible way forward? In this session we ask experts if identity is dead — and what the future of targeting might look like.

The demise of third-party cookies and other invasive tracking technologies has driven advertisers to reconsider their approaches and forced publishers to address the potential negative impact on their revenues. New attention-based technologies are proving their worth to advertisers but do they also represent a ray of hope for publishers? Can attention be good for everyone?

In a world in which privacy concerns are turning the tide on how the media industry uses data, it is time to take stock of what data we really need. What data is truly useful to track, optimize and measure marketer's KPIs? How do attention metrics, brand safety and viewability data factor into all of this? This session will look to uncomplicate the complicated and get down to the essentials on what media data is really important for marketers.

While the industry has gotten digital advertising down to a precise science, the increasingly fragmented world of connected television (CTV) and over-the-top (OTT) media still faces major hurdles to achieving precise and reliable ad targeting and measurement. In the last year or so, much of the debate has focused on the effectiveness of the traditional panel-based approach to measurement, with critics arguing that such a model fails to capture the whole picture of TV and video viewership and user trends. Industry mainstays have been the subject of increasing scrutiny, while challengers have proposed new, innovative frameworks that seek to improve cross-channel ad effectiveness and measurement — through artificial intelligence, census-based methods and more. In this session, top industry players duke out the best new theories for optimizing CTV/OTT targeting and measurement.

Still grappling with the evolution of TV and what it means for brands and consumers alike? Then this session is for you. We’ll be covering the evolving television landscape: bundling (and un-bundling), the future of on-demand, and how traditional broadcast TV is keeping up. You’ll leave with a clear view of how brands can take advantage of the best of both worlds – both streaming and linear.

Pepsi chief marketing officer Todd Kaplan chats to The Drum’s Hannah Bowler about its plays in the NFT space encouraging other brands to dip their toes in the water and explore web3 for themselves.

Today, creators — everyone from Instagram models to podcasters — monetize their content with ads. But as we hurtle toward the much-anticipated web3 and a fundamentally decentralized realization of the internet, creators will be able to monetize their content in new ways: via NFTs and tokens for exclusive content. With these new methods and the increased freedom enabled by new virtual spaces, creators and influencers will no longer need brands in the ways they once did. But brands will still have big budgets they hope to deploy to gain engagement from their target audiences — audiences who will increasingly be found in new virtual spaces. As such, they’ll need to develop new, innovative ways to add value to both creators and to their target audiences in order to retain influence.

B2B buyers are only human, but the digital journeys created for them rarely reflect that. B2B brands have struggled to provide the more human and engaging digital experiences, common amongst B2C brands. But as B2B marketing evolves we have an opportunity to change that. So how do B2B brands continue to close that gap and deliver a more engaging digital experience? Find out why improving experience is good for business.

Metaverse, 5G, VR, blockchain gaming, play-to-earn... there's no denying that the world of gaming has just got a bit more complicated for marketers.
Off the back of the most significant year ever for gaming, 2022 will arguably be the year where these new phenomena move from an exciting novelty, into a central part of effective marketing strategies.
Bringing together some of the industry's leading experts, this session will unravel the road ahead for marketers seeking to make sense of this ever-expanding universe while turning some of 2021's most-used buzzwords into game-changing ideas and actionable insights.

NFTs (non fungible tokens) has gathered up momentum over the past couple of years but it can still be quite a confusing concept. We will hear from some businesses who are leading the way with NFTs, offering valuable advice on how to get your strategy right.

Huge brands are proudly planting their flags in the metaverse, staking their claim to web3 through amazing VR experiences. However, third-party data regulations are still shaky in real-life, let alone in virtual reality. Revenue sharing between metaverse platform and brands is just as unclear. In this session, our speakers discuss the practicalities and implications of investing in the metaverse. Will brands and individuals both benefit, and will the face of modern working change for good - or has big tech found itself an overhyped cyberspace race?

In gaming years Roblox is getting on a bit, celebrating its 16th birthday this year. But with over 200 million monthly active users and brands from music to luxury goods getting in on the act, it’s showing no signs of approaching a game over. It's evolving, becoming a foundational pillar of the metaverse. So, does this creator driven platform herald a new era for brand activations, or will we quickly move on to the next big thing? And while we're now certain that gaming and creator-made experiences are a big part of marketing's future, can Roblox maintain its lead position?

The metaverse is moving into the mainstream, and in the process becoming more accessible for brands and media budgets. But “the metaverse” can mean many different things. This session will explore the who, what, where and why of the metaverse in its current state, and inspire you with some of the most creative activations and possibilities for brands looking to understand the parameters of what’s possible right now. Speakers will share advice on how to navigate those early steps into the metaverse, exploring which Web3 strategy is right for you and the future potential of metaverse activations in the wider marketing mix as it becomes the ultimate immersive brand experience.

DAOs (Decentralised Autonomous Organisations) are becoming central to community building for brands in Web3. These tokenized communities are creating transparent value for members on blockchain in ways that are not possible IRL. Paul McEntee (founder of PR agency Here Be Dragons) talks to Jennifer Stephens (Web 3 Strategist, NED, Co-Founder) and Jeff Kauffman (Founder, JUMP Community) to take a peek behind the curtain at the weird, wild and wonderful world of DAOs.