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So on the 16th of May, together with 53 degrees North Media, we're curating seven panel sessions dedicated to exploring brand funded entertainment with the leaders in the sector. And here to discuss this and the wider Manath Advertising Week Europe event is Global President of Advertising Week Ruth Mortimer. Hi Ruth, welcome to Telecast. Hey, Justin, thanks for having me.
I'm delighted to have you here and how are things shaping up in the last few days before Advertising Week Europe, which is a massive event. We'll get on to talk about that. But how are things going? Everything looking smooth for next week?
I think smooth is a relative term. Justin, I think the great thing about Advertising Week is so much happens that you're always adding bits, refining bits, discovering new parts. I discovered today, for example, that we have some Advertising Week angels who are doing beauty treatments for some of our delegates during the day. So every day there's a new discovery, so it's a big beast to wrestle.
Oh, well, sign me up for that. I think I'll need a bit of that next week. So for anybody that doesn't know about Advertising Week Europe, then give us a bit of a sense of the history and the scale of the event. OK, so Advertising Week itself started in 2004 in New York, and it grew to be a huge mega event, and it came to Europe here about 10 years ago.
And then since then it's rolled out to Sydney, to Tokyo, to Johannesburg, to Mexico City, I think I've captured them all six markets around the world. And it keeps on expanding, and we try new things in different places every single year. So the idea of Advertising Week is effectively it's where kind of, I guess, entertainment meets education. The idea is to bring together everybody across the creative industries, make sure you give them the information so they can do their job better, but hopefully do it in a way that really, really isn't boring.
That speaks to culture because we believe that culture and business are so intertwined, you can't really separate them. So you need to learn about the two things together. And this is really the biggest advertising and media culture will get together outside can really, isn't it? And certainly the biggest event in Europe.
Yes, so I think there's lots of different events here in Europe. We're so lucky actually. We have a really good for the creative industries. They're so important.
We have so many events, gatherings, things you can go to. I think what we try to do that SARS-P is be the place where everybody meets, whether you're a brand marketer, media agency, creative agency, technology company, or a media owner. We try to create a space where everyone can come together. We love everyone to be part of Advertising Week.
Well, we'll come on and talk about the TV industry and content industries role in Advertising Week, which we're delighted to be part of. But let's start, first of all, with the venue as we preview next week. So it starts 14th to 16th May at 180 Studios in London. So tell us about 180 Studios.
So 180 Studios approached me last year and they told me, hey, I don't know if you know us. I did know them as an art venue, really. I'd been to quite a few art exhibitions in their galleries. And they said, we want to be known as the Creative Quarter in London.
They have around 3,000 people based there working there every day who are from creative businesses. So Harris Reed, the fashion designer, whether it's Charlotte Tilbury, Barbara Sturm, lots and lots of creative businesses found as AI. And they really wanted a festival to be on site that really spoke to that community they were trying to grow. Because it's more than just a place people work.
It's where you can meet, where you can also gather and kind of, I guess, be more creative together. There's a Soho House space there, Soho Works. So we really wanted to come and I guess take part such an exciting creative space. It's an amazing space.
And we're going to be involved in the entertainment zone, which is actually on one of the lower levels, which the entertainment track is sponsored by Netflix. And we're delighted to be part of that on Thursday the 16th. Tell us about some of the other partners then that you have, because obviously Netflix is a huge name, but LinkedIn and there are other major partners there on board this year. Well, it's worth mentioning Netflix because I think they're doing something really interesting.
They've really embraced the theme, which was we said, come but don't just be the partner for this stage, be a partner for a zone. So you'll see lots of experiential stuff as well, which really brings some of the Netflix shows to life, which I think will be a really fun thing, including one of the very famous characters we know from Squid Game that may slightly terrify you if you encounter her too close. So I'm not going to say anymore, come down and check it out. But we have lots of great partners.
For example, we mentioned LinkedIn. I think one of the great things about LinkedIn, they are the partner of this scale up lounge and that hosts, it hosts meetups with different communities like Grand Marketers and it hosts also the enemy, which is our career training programme and AW Accelerate, which is our start-ups and mentorship programme. And they'll be doing headshot photography, I believe, throughout the week. So if your LinkedIn looks terrible, you can also pop up there and get a new headshot, I definitely.
And we also have some other great partners as well. Sint is a great example. I don't know if you know, Sint, a research company, apart from running a sweet shop, which is useful to all of us just for survival during the week. They are also doing some really interesting research with us ahead of the elections here, all about disinformation and where do people get their information.
And the thing I was really interested in, Justin, we'll have to look out for those results, which will be unveiling next week, but they asked normal people on the street, hey, where do you get all your information from your election? Can you spot election marketing? And then they also ask professional marketers. And I'm going to leave it up to you to guess whether the general public or marketers themselves have a stronger grip on when they're being marketed to.
That's going to be interesting. And we've got so many elections going on this year that it's obviously a crucial time. And also not to mention deepfaking or the other things that are going to be a different part of it. So looking at some of the other activities that are going to be happening, there's the Culture Unleashed Lounge, which is presented by a group Black.
What's that? So the Culture Unleashed Lounge was really to try and represent the part that particularly Black culture plays in mainstream culture. So one of the things that I'm sure you're very aware of is so much of mainstream culture is driven by Black creators, trends that originate with the Black community, and often the money that's attributed to these trends, this mainstream culture, does not funnel back to Black people or Black owned businesses. And the great thing about the guys from Group Black, they're a sort of association, effectively, of Black owned media and marketing businesses in the US, is that they really wanted to help drive attention and support to those businesses.
And Group Black, I'd say, they're much more visible in the US, and we're really pleased that they decided to come and say, let us support those people also in Europe and the UK. And what they've done is create a lounge where effectively people in the Black community, people of colour can stand up, tell their stories, have meetups for their community, hopefully really boost the visibility of what they're doing. Yeah, well, that sounds good. We've been funneled a bit more and give them not only credit, but a bit more monetary support than that.
That sounds like it makes a lot of sense. So we've got the technology zone and the innovation zone as well. So I suppose they're self-explanatory, but tell us a little bit about what goes on in both of those zones. So the tech zone, as you might imagine, is everything that's happening in the tech space.
And we know that in the kind of marketing, advertising, creative space, everyone loves technology, AI, you know, you can't move for an AI conversation, pretty much anywhere at the moment. And so we'll be looking at things like AI. And I guess what we'll be trying to do is make it practical for people, like how can this actually be applied now in your jobs, in your businesses, not just the future-gazing stuff, but actually what can you do right now that you could do tomorrow? So that's what the technology zone will be doing.
We're also going to be having some pictures from new technology startups who want to come and tell people about some of that cutting edge futures that otherwise you might not know about. And then the innovation zone is really about everything new, because if there's one industry that really loves novelty, it's this one, you know, we go, AI might be flavour of the moment, but the metaverse was also a very big thing only 12 months ago, not hearing so much talk about it now, but we love the new stuff. So the innovation zone is really where you can find everything new and interesting. And obviously we've got to talk about telecast brand funding entertainment summit, which is part of the entertainment track, as we said, on Thursday.
So, you know, it's fantastic to be part of this event, not only because there's not often the opportunity to talk in detail about brands and TV, and certainly at the moment in the TV industry, it's really struggling with the advertising downturn. And a lot of commentators in the industry is up. Some should say this is the time now for brand funding, brand fun and entertainment to sort of grow up and really take a major part of commissioning and influence commissioning within lots of, lots of broadcasters in the UK. And we've actually got our first session, kicks off with ICB and Channel 4 and Sky, talking about how to work with them and got a whole load of sessions during the day, that goes into a lot of detail about measurement and IP distribution and all of these really detailed subjects that we often don't get to talk about when it comes to brand funding and TV.
How do you see the future of brands as well in that relationship? Because it's been, they go hand in hand, obviously, you know, TV is something that gives brands reach. What is TV now? Now it's digital, now it's S4, now it's AVOD, and there's lots of different ways to talk about TV.
How do you see the development going forward of TV in brands? I think brand-funded entertainment is going to be such an important way that TV is made in future. And I think the interesting thing, the reason Justin, we originally cooked up this idea, is that we wanted to make sure those marketers were in the room with the TV people, because one of my big insights, particularly working on the US, was that often it's exactly that level of detail and a level of conversation that isn't quite happening and holds people back. So one of the things that I hear from the brands, particularly in the US, that holds them back from brand-funded programming, is that the TV networks can't give them the metrics that they need in a brand to be able to convince the ball that it's worth spending the money.
You know, TV companies aren't always set up to deliver the kind of metrics that consumer brands really need to deliver back to their boards. And on the other side, I think there can sometimes be a mistaken perception, or maybe not always mistaken, you know, content creators, TV companies, actually too much, too often brands think to themselves, this is like creating a big advert. And I think actually, you know, the best and most sophisticated brands and the smartest content creators, they know that's not what they want to do. They want to create incredible, incredible programming that happens to be funded by brand because it fits their audience too.
So I think that's what I think the real opportunity is to get down to that level where you're actually having the conversation. So for me, that's why we wanted to bring them together. And it's amazing, on the same stage during, on the last day, it finishes with Take That, which is obviously not part of our event, but part of the wide advertising that you're event. Tell us about what Take That are going to be doing as part of the event.
I think Mr. Link, they're just in. Take that I've been on TV just millions of times. They're never off TV.
That's true. I think why we're doing that, because one of the things we always think is interesting is when you ask high profile creative people sort of how do you do it? Get behind the scenes. So take that a good example.
They've been together for an incredibly long period of time. They're the highest, I think they are the highest earning touring artist in 2024. How do you do you do that? How do you keep the creative kind of spirit long enough?
How do you keep the creative partnerships? And you see in our industry, you see creative partnerships break down. People leave agencies, people leave brands. They don't have that longevity.
So what is it that keeps you creating together? And that's the really interesting insight I think I'm hoping we get from Take That. Yeah. Well, I'm in a boy band.
They're still touring to the level of success we've got now. You never think that was going to be the case. You know, yes. Completely.
And I think because Gary Barlow writes their music, he's involved. It's not only a boy band. They perform, but they also input into the music as well. So I think that's a really interesting sort of take.
And when you're doing big stadium tours, so much of those is a kind of creative production, I'm really interested to know how do you adapt when you're not 20 anymore, when you're 40 or 50? What does creativity look like then? And what keeps you hungry? Yeah.
Well, I can't wait to see that session. And obviously looking forward to the rest of the event as well. All right, Justin, you gave me microphone. I'm going to turn the tables.
Tell me a little bit on your brand funded entertainment track. Tell me a session that I should definitely go and watch. Well, I think the first one of the day is the one that I think that really sets the scene for brand fun and entertainment in the UK right now. So we have Sky channel for an ITV and they're all going to be talking about how producers and content creators work with them.
Because that's one of the things I think that producers have often been sort of confused about and agencies as well, is they all work in very different ways. ITV's just set up its own B Studios. We've also had other businesses within the wider TV industry manager. They've also just set up their own dedicated brand funded studio.
But that's going to be the session that's really going to set the scene. I think how they view brand from entertainment, what the best ways of working with them will be. And that's what we really want to do. We want to develop some real actionable insights that everybody that comes along to the event will leave knowing much more about how to get into brand funded entertainment if they're not already.
And maybe the ways that they can also work within compliance, because compliance is something that's often very, very, it can be interpreted in many different ways, the off-com rulings. So that's going to be a really interesting session. We've also got execs from Heineken, Marks and Spencers. We've got a manager of the Sidemen who is a social media phenomenon, of course.
And many producers and agencies throughout the day. The real experts, basically, the UK's key experts of this sector, all in one room, for the first time, just going into real depth. So I'm looking for the whole day. But I think that first session really sets it all up.
And what I really like is the fact that I think the brand funded entertainment track perfectly reflects that education and entertainment philosophy that definitely we always try to bring to everything. Whether it's you mentioned the Sidemen, then Jordan, incredibly kind of entertaining and enjoyable, real content creator at heart, right through to compliance, which can be a really tricky issue. But if you don't understand it, you're really not going to get very far. Yeah, that's right.
And I think one of the slight frustrations that people have had in the past is that, you know, how is brand funded entertainment viewed from certain commissioners? You know, certain commissions are really, really like to embrace it and use brand funded entertainment as a key part of their strategy, a commissioning strategy. Others are a little less keen. And as I think commissioning is going to be becoming ever tighter and much more under the focus, I think brand funded entertainment is going to play a bigger role.
And that's what I'm really looking forward to is having a lot of these channels really setting out how they're going to be working in the future. So lots of ways for producers to get involved and lots of insights for everybody in the room. And I think it's good to say, while we try to make advertising, we can real celebration of the industry. We also try to raise those challenging topics because you really can't move things forward.
If you don't, if you don't acknowledge the fact that actually black people aren't represented in this industry, Asian people aren't represented at the right levels. You know, that's something we should talk about. I think you mentioned compliance, the fact that not everyone is comfortable with brand funded entertainment. I think that's a really good subject.
And I think one of the other ones that certainly I'm working on at the moment is a segment about content creators and trolling and how much advertising and brands who don't know they're doing this are inadvertently supporting some trolling on some forums. So I think there's some really hard hitting issues as well. Alongside the celebration, there's also some good examination. Yeah.
Well, there's over 100 sessions, I think, over the three days, a lot to get you to think too. So just a reminder, there is a link to a very heavily discounted price of £350 plus fat for access to all three days, not just the sell cash brand from the entertainment summit. So just click the link on the episode description, both on YouTube and on any of the podcast platforms you'll be able to get through to that link. We'll be featuring interviews with key players in brand funded entertainment from the event, so look out for those in future episodes.
Tela Cass, thank you so much for joining us. It's been fantastic to preview the event, really excited to be part of it. And we'll see you next week. Well, that's about it for this week's show.
Tela Cass was produced by Spirit Studios and recorded in London. On next week's show, we're chatting with Eastender actress Kelly Shirley, who is launching a brand new hard hitting podcast drama series called Raw, which draws on her own real life experiences. Until then, stay safe.