Digital and media agency Bonded hosted its first Future Advertising Trends Festival at Newcastle venue, The Catalyst, on Thursday, 14th of March. The sold-out event drew an impressive lineup of industry titans from Meta, X, Spotify, Pinterest and Thinkbox to delve into the emerging trends shaping the media landscape.
The highly anticipated event showcased a remarkable lineup rarely seen in the North East, featuring insightful presentations from each representative.
Steven Underwood, Managing Director of Bonded, shared: “As an agency built on the importance of connection, we’re thrilled to have connected North East businesses with such prominent platforms in the media world.”
“We’ve had an overwhelming response to the event, and we look forward to continuing to facilitate meaningful connections and knowledge sharing in the future”, he commented.
Marija Cepulyte, a senior partner at Pinterest, kicked off proceedings with an enlightening presentation on the platform’s focus areas: personalisation, shopability, and brand visibility.
Naomi Chapman, a senior client partner at Spotify, then delved into Spotify’s future-focused approach to audio advertising, highlighting the platform’s emphasis on discovery and innovation.
Attendees then heard from Chris Treacy, Head of Vertical Sales at X, who touched on X’s evolution from Twitter, and the importance the platform is placing on brand safety.
Zoe Harkness, Head of Training at Thinkbox, presented new research on the critical role of context in ad recall and discussed consumers’ changing viewing habits.
Finally, Rob Smallwood, Head of Industry, Media Agencies UK & Ireland at Meta, spoke about leveraging AI to supercharge businesses.
The speakers then reunited on stage for an insightful panel discussion and audience Q&A hosted by Alexandra Balazs, the Managing Director of Prolific North, Bonded’s media partner for the event.
Guests went home with a Bonded tote bag full of goodies from the guest speakers, including a swish Spotify thermal flask, Meta X Bonded notebooks, and pens – not to mention, of course, a wealth of valuable insights into the future trends in advertising.
The Bonded team also raised almost £500 for their charity partner, NABS, a mental wellbeing charity for those in the advertising and media industry.
Following the event, attendees took to LinkedIn to praise the Bonded team on the event.
Lauren Marshall, Head of Marketing at Watermans, shared, “I’m not quite sure how Bonded Agency managed to get Meta, Spotify, X, Pinterest and Thinkbox in the same room – but they did, and it was bloody brilliant!”
Another inspired attendee added, “It was great for someone to put on an event like this in Newcastle – dragging big platforms out of the London bubble”. A sentiment shared by guest speaker Treacy, who described the festival as a “fantastic morning”, promising that X would make more of an effort to get up to the North East more often.
Thomas Lennox Pearson, Social Media Executive at NE1, commented, “[I’m] definitely leaving feeling inspired to try some fresh ideas across our social channels!”
With the resounding success of the Newcastle event, many have called for Bonded to replicate the experience in Scotland, having opened their Edinburgh office last year.
Nikki Alcorn, Client Director at Bonded’s Edinburgh office, teased: “The Future Trends Festival was so well-received in Newcastle, we even saw many Scottish businesses make the journey down to Newcastle to hear from the stellar lineup. It seems only fair to bring this exceptional event to the vibrant media landscape of Scotland in the near future!”
