Looking up and out: Five Lessons from the Festival of Marketing
Attending the Festival of Marketing for the first time this year was a reset for our Strategy Director, Jasman Ahmad. Here’s what he has to say.
Yes, it was a day of talk, but the kind of talks that make you pause, scribble notes furiously, and rethink how you show up as a marketer. Across sessions featuring brilliant minds like Les Binet, Tom Roach, Mary Portas, Antonia Wade, Lauren Spearman, and Matthew Syed, a few themes consistently emerged. Not in a forced, ‘here’s the framework’ kind of way, but in an honest, lived experienced kind of way that makes you sit up and listen.
Here are five key takeaways.
1. Small thinking is shrinking the industry
Les Binet and Tom Roach didn’t hold back. Their message was clear: we’ve become obsessed with efficiency, cutting budgets, narrowing targeting, and chasing performance metrics, which is squeezing out creativity and scale. The irony? The data shows that effectiveness is mostly driven by scale, not efficiency. But we’ve convinced ourselves it’s the other way around.
Their advice? Think bigger. Make fewer, bolder campaigns. Stop trying to optimise your way to greatness.
2. Creativity isn’t a luxury; it’s how you win
Mary Portas shared her story of transforming Harvey Nichols, starting not with strategy decks, but with window displays. She won over the public first; then leveraged that momentum to influence internal stakeholders. It was a reminder that creativity isn’t just decoration - it’s how you connect with people. And yet, most boardrooms are filled with finance and commercial leads. Creative voices rarely get a seat at the table.
3. Curiosity is your edge
This came up again and again. From Antonia Wade’s advice to be a business leader first, to Lauren Spearman’s call to ‘run towards’ what scares you, to Matthew Syed’s story of Microsoft’s shift from ‘know-it-alls’ to ‘learn-it-alls.’ Curiosity isn’t just an admirable trait; it’s how you lead better, ask smarter questions, and spot what others miss.
4. Look up and out
One of the most powerful reminders came from the ‘big picture’ panel: don’t just work in the business, work across it. It’s easy to get stuck in the day-to-day. To chase deadlines, tick boxes, and stay on track. But the best marketers carve out time to look up and out, to balance the urgent with the important, and to connect dots across teams, disciplines, and ideas.
5. Simplicity still wins
Richard Shotton’s session on Monzo was a great example of behavioural science in action. Their hot coral card wasn’t just branding; it was social proof. A simple, visible behaviour that turned into a movement. Their ‘Book of Money’ campaign helped people feel better about their finances, not through complexity, but clarity.
The Festival of Marketing wasn’t just inspiring; it was a powerful reminder that marketing goes far beyond tactics and tools. It’s about stepping back from the dashboards and asking the bigger question: Are we making something that matters?
It’s about people, ideas, courage and curiosity.
It’s about thinking bigger, backing creativity, staying curious, making space to look up and keeping it simple.
And maybe most importantly, don’t work like you’ve got something to prove. Work like you’ve got something to build. Bring on 2026.
Jasman Ahmad
Jasman is our Strategy Director and responsible for combining creative thinking with factual and statistical data to plan and solve clients’ biggest challenges.
