Advertisers and start-ups gather to unravel the twists and turns on innovation
Defining innovation’s role in marketing is currently one of the hotly debated topics among marketers, and rightly so because there is real lack of clarity on how it can propel their organisations. Brands, start-ups and publishers will come together in London this month to make headway in the topic and unravel the twists and turns of innovation.
The “Innovation Stories” event takes place next Monday (6 July) and will feature marketers and advertising luminaries from companies such as Contagious, Unilever and AOL sharing insights on how to jumpstart the innovation process. Hosted by Innovation Social, a sister organisation to Creative Social, the event at DigitasLBi's East London headquarter’s gives delegates the whole morning to get to grips with a myriad of issues from a range of case studies.
Nadya Powell, managing director of Lost Boys and chair of the event, said: “Innovation Social aims to provide the infrastructure and inspiration to drive disruption across the industry. Our annual Innovation Stories event is the pinnacle of this where we share the best innovation efforts across the industry. Only by collaborating can we create an industry that (in the words of John Willshire) stops making people want things and instead makes things people want.”
The panel discussion of the conference will see AMV BBDO’s chief innovation officer Jonny Spindler, The Friday Club’s director Richard Fearn and Contagious’ editor Alex Jenkins debate the twists and turns of innovation. Other speakers on the day will include innovation visionaries from companies including PHD and media lifestyle and content brand Libertine.
"Startups are seen as the source of innovation, which is strange when you think of how little budget they have compared to the Cokes of the world,” said Libertine’s founder Debbi Evans.
“But this is probably why they're so good at it - constraints make you way more creative. The ability to innovate is also the only area in which startups have the advantage - they have less to lose, fewer hierarchies to navigate, can chop and change almost at will and are usually more able to be really honest about the marketplace and its problems (and whether they can really solve those problems). They're untarnished by years of cultural and brand bias. The challenge, of course, is making time for clear, long-term thinking amidst the firefighting and pivots. There's a fine line between agile and inconsistent."
If the event sounds interesting then there’s still time to nab a ticket here.