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Last year, I asked a number of experts to help me with some crystal ball gazing that resulted in the Expert Predictions chapter of the rst edition of the Best of Branded Content Marketing ebook. This year I asked a far broader group of marketing practitioners from around the world what they expect to see change in the next ve years, and what they expect will remain the same. The question was prompted by comments made by the
analyst, author and founder of Altimeter Group, Charlene Li, whod pointed out that despite the many different sites, technologies and business models we have today, the fundamentals of marketing have remained the same as have the challenges. The question brought a seven-fold increase in response with a mixture of description, prescription and prediction. Because the term content straddles so
many marketing and other disciplines, the responses highlighted the need for a shared lexicon which we hope the industry can move towards. The!recently BCMA commissioned research undertaken by Oxford Brookes University, in partnership with Ipsos MORI, which has resulting in the following overarching denition of branded content:
Whom, Where and When. Theres also the important question of How any success might be measured. We hope what follows, and the case studies we have featured!in the Best of Branded Content Marketing: 10th Anniversary Edition, will start to address
some of these issues. No-one has all of the answers yet, but we also hope the responses and points raised will also provide a frame of reference for marketers to better navigate a path through the many challenges ahead.
"Branded content is any content associated with a brand in the eye of the beholder
This is helpful rst step by describing what branded content is generically, but it doesnt explain the Why (in what is the marketing problem it attempts to solve?), nor What the branded content specics might be for the different variations of
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Talking about branded content and content marketing, I think its all about one word that connects both, and thats the word content.
Content Marketing
On the marketing side, Jan proposes we think about this as being based around the product/service USP, with the content being more rational and informative. Content marketing campaigns are often conducted downstream in what McKinsey & Company call the customer decision journey, with ROI more focused on lead-generation and sales. Looking at content marketing in this way helps explain why some prefer the term brand publishing, why it is often used within a B2B context, its close connection to Search Engine Optimisation, and the formats most commonly used: Blogs E-newsletters Case studies Press releases ebooks White papers Infographics Webinars Podcasts
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Branded Content
On the brand side, Jan suggests we think of this as being more irrational and focused around our impressions, such as whether we like a brand or share their values. Branded content campaigns are more likely to be conducted upstream as part of an engagement approach rather than to just drive awareness in the traditional AIDA funnel. The term is often
associated with longer-form video-based output from more creative advertising disciplines where audiences are engaged with entertainment-type content that resonates emotionally. This helps shift brand preferences and consumer behaviours. In theory, the less USPfocused you become, the more your branded content will emotionally involve people.
show to extend their association with it by creating exclusive, engaging and entertaining content.
Branded Content And Content Marketing: Two Sides Of The Same Content Coin
The Yin Yang image is a simple way of illustrating that the two approaches are two sides of the same coin, but seemingly based on different intent that shapes the output, engagement and distribution approaches. As Mark Welland explains, it also shows how other disciplines can be accommodated as part of the mix.
In the future, Im sure, as within most disciplines, branded content marketing will begin to fracture and divide into more specialist areas. New platforms and ways of engaging will drive the process on the back of services that users wish to be a part of. This will need new language to describe the areas and will hopefully lead to better ways of describing the broader discipline.
Mark Welland! Founder! New Media Works
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I often hear the cry We need a social media strategy when what is really needed rst is a customer engagement strategy based on content.
Dave Cha"ey CEO Smart Insights
Strategic Considerations
Some of the response from experts focused less on the future, and more on the strategic considerations that brands need to be thinking about with regard to branded content marketing. Weve grouped these in themes to provide a context for the predictions in the following sections.
The 3 Circles of Branded Content Marketing diagram on the right is a helpful prompt to start thinking about practice more holistically. The diagram was inspired by the Three Pillars of Connected Marketing model developed by Idil Cakim, the analyst and author of Implementing Word of Mouth Marketing. As Dave Chaffey at Smart Insights explains, content and social media marketing have become the de facto way of explaining customer engagement approaches and so its unfortunate that these are too often considered separately. He says what is needed is a customer engagement strategy based on content. Idils model shows how these can be unied. Ive adapted Idils model to provide a prompt for thinking through the following questions as part of developing a branded content marketing strategy: How is engagement managed? How is content distributed? (i.e. Where in the converged landscape of earned, owned and paid media, What kind of branded content is created (or co-created) by Who and for Whom? and When in the customer decision journey?) How is the success of the different parts and their sum measured? These are also useful questions for analysing the predictions in the following sections, as are these strategic considerations raised by contributors:
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DISTRIBUTION MEASUREMENT
CONTENT (CO)CREATION
ENGAGEMENT MANAGEMENT
We are media
Chris Gorell Barnes at Adjust Your Set suggests that were also moving from a world where mass media ruled to one where the masses themselves are the media: People not only decide what, when and where they want to consume media, but also whether or not the message is passed on.
and ensure that your branded content marketing strategies are truly consumer-centric
Chris Gorell Barnes predicts that the brands that will thrive in this new world will be those that put the needs of the consumer at the heart of what they do. Max Garner at Aegis Media adds that authentic and constant consumercentric behaviour from a brand will always be the best way to aid success in our rapidly changing convergent media world. For Patricia Weiss of the BCMAs South American Chapter this means creating branded content in all formats and platforms that are personally relevant for consumers, so that brands move from a media-centric approach to one based on human context where the consumer is the protagonist and hero of every story.
and that your branding is aligned with your branded content marketing strategy
Veteran advertiser turned brand consultant Robert Bean explained that what were once walls that companies could control have now become windows as a result of the digital explosion, and anyone can see into an organisation from any number of vantage points. As such it behoves brands or companies generally to sharpen up their act and decide who they are and what theyre about and be true to themselves in a way that theyve never really had to before. This means branding needs to start from the inside out, so that the people within the business are aligned around what they are trying to do and create a culture that produces a commensurate product that when managed properly results in a commensurate reputation.
PERSONAL RELEVANCE
DRIVING PURPOSE
CULTURAL CONTEXT
Purposeful content and alignment are themes that are raised in the following section, as is the importance of storytelling. My colleagues at Tenthwave produced the diagram above that is helpful for thinking about how branding can be aligned with a branded content marketing strategy. Its based around the idea that the strongest social brands are described as narrative brands, i.e. brand storytelling that combines the following:
Cultural Context
A cultural context ensures that the brand is culturally relevant. Gretchen believes that in practice this means capturing macro and micro cultural trends. A branded content marketing strategy must be developed with these cultural factors in mind. Another way of looking at cultural context was highlighted in a comment made by the dotcom pioneer Joe Kraus of Excite fame in a BBC interview last year: If the 20th century was about dozens of markets of millions of consumers, then the 21st century is about millions of markets of dozens of consumers. Unrulys Barney WorfolkSmith talks about interacting with people through fractured passion centres. The Duck Tape Race of Gentlemen campaign is a good example of how a brand got itself invited to a very culturally relevant fractured passion centre.
Personal Relevance
As Patricia Weiss explains, if your branded content is interesting for your audience, they will be interested in it. Being personally relevant is behind the passion in the fractured passion centres that Barney talks about. Gretchen Ramsey believes personal relevance is at a nascent stage but a feed customised for the individual user could include helpful personal visualised data (think loyalty programming and smart CRM), geo-context as well as social graph integration. (see more on this theme in the More Platforms, Devices & Personalisation section.) We hope that you nd this introduction to the following predictions both interesting and useful. The ideas presented here provide a backdrop to our contributors thoughts on what they expect to see change in the next ve years and what they expect will remain the same.
Driving Purpose
As Tenthwaves Gretchen Ramsey explains, a purpose is simply a tangible reason for being a brand (why the brand exists): It's that ag in the ground, that rally cry that everything ladders to and that is visible and visceral throughout the entire consumer experience. For example, Red Bull's purpose in simple terms is adventure.
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We denitely feel the future of branded content is very exciting. And if 2013 was anything to go by were going to see a rapid increase in the number of brands using branded content as the core of their marketing.
will always be those stand-out du jour examples, but its more standardised procedures that will encourage the adoption of entertaining branded content marketing approaches. "
more traditional marketing has been set. However, he thinks brands will learn to plan branded content alongside other disciplines in order to get the maximum effect, so that it can lead to or become the central articulation of a brand or communication idea.
Moving across the spectrum, to become less isolated and more integrated
MECs Chantal Rickards sees the next ve years as an exciting time with content moving across the spectrum. Sky MEDIAs Jason Hughes thinks well see a greater joining of the dots over the next ve years between the linear and non-linear world to a point where branded content campaigns transcend TV, online, social, POS with the overall activation far greater than the sum of its parts.
paid media operations, brand strategy units and digital production services.
Publishers as agencies
Patricia Weiss who heads up the BCMAs South American Chapter thinks native advertising looks set to become the starlet in the blurred lines between ads and content. She sees publishers becoming more agency-like, working directly with brands through the creation of in-house branded content divisions,
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human connections will increasingly use the multiplying and diverse channels in more and more interesting ways - blurring the lines until there are no lines anymore.
interesting collaborations between brands when it comes to content marketing. He cites Googles acquisition of smart thermostat brand Nest as a way they can enter the home through a different door. The convergent home is not a new idea, but for Crispin its an indication of a more imaginative coming together of brands to deliver branded content. BCMAs Chairman Morgan Holt thinks that the combining of micropayments and user content channel technology platforms would be interesting.
so that lines will continue to be blurred until there are none left
The strategist Sarah Farrugia predicts that those who really understand social media and the importance of truth and
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having a wide breadth of skills and knowledge across various marketing disciplines, but crucially possessing both left-brain and right-brain abilities. As Ashley goes on to explain, its about being analytical and data-driven on one hand, but also understanding brands, storytelling and experiential marketing.
culture on a new level, as its intimately tied with our ability to plan relevance.
storytellers?
In a recent interview by Renegades CEO Drew Neisser with Econsultancy's CEO Ashley Friedlein on PSFK, the pi-shaped data storytelling marketer was discussed. For Ashley the pi-shaped skillset isnt about expecting people to know about everything (square) its more about
something more substantive and lasting. He cites the mesmerising Volvo Trucks Epic Split campaign with Jean-Claude Van Damme as well as the legitimately helpful Lowes Fix in Six Vines.
I hope that brands will move away from their real-time marketing obsession and create something more substantive and lasting. The Volvo Trucks/Jean Claude Van Damme video is mesmerising and the Lowes Fix in Six Vines are legitimately helpful. Seems a lot more additive than tweeting nonsense during the Super Bowl.
honcho Chris Clarke, what is more important than anything else is creative excellence, a uid relationship with talent and a willingness to experiment. He adds that brands can become part of culture rather than in the (ad) breaks between culture.
working in real-time, or the setting-up of newsrooms with staff and enabling technology, it can simply mean being iterative. For DigitasLBis creative head
still wide, and thats why advertisers are still less trusted than politicians. ISBAs Mario Yiannacou thinks that one way of building trust is to ensure that messages are completely clear whatever format theyre in. Stan Joseph of Ochre Moving Pictures suggests the creation of more authentic and entertaining story-based content will continue to be the hallmark of great branded content.
real-time, it's also about emotions. She predicted that the brands that succeed in the future will be the ones creating content that elicits a powerful emotional response from their audience.
world, and that this is becoming more visual and involving, and less intrusive and interruptive.
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Making good stories more important than ever to cut through the content clutter
Doug Scott thinks, Great stories are
Brands are going to have to change their processes and do something marketers dont like to do and dont do easily. They have to change the skill sets of the
even the ports in our heads for faster upload/download that Doug Kessler predicts. Uro" Gori#an thinks that these will enable brands to connect with customers via content in an even more exciting and creative way.
becoming critical. Right now I would say that from an economic standpoint there is an oversupply of content.
people they hire. They have to change the time frames they work on. They have to change the way they allocate and think about budgets. They have to change their denition of creativity.
Scott Donaton! Chief Content Ofcer! UM
Content ofcer Scott Donaton, he explains how he thinks that brand storytelling is a strategic, disciplined approach to marketing that actually changes everything about how brands go to market.
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Doug suggests that the tailored content will be contextually related to a brand's key product and/or core message. For Max Garner at Aegis, context is also key, and the linking of the right content for the right device juxtaposed with the right type of brand to consumer interaction at the right time. But as DigitasLBIs Chris Clarke points out, more than anything, just as it is now, brands will need to recognise that a set of marketing messages plays very poorly alongside the latest box set.
Patricia Weiss believes the endless willingness of audiences to participate live in networked culture will expand the non-linear conversation around the content, and drive SocialTV, second screen and real-time marketing initiatives. This will in turn increase the production of event TV programmes, especially reality shows where the audience fully participates and feels like the true winner. Samantha Glynne at Publicis Entertainment also thinks TV will have a resurgence and new forms of live and social events will become popular.
become the most powerful adult who is going to quickly ve years is going to come with the maturation of the millennial important changes in the next I think one of the most
Content shifts triggered by mobile, shared by the second screen, and expanded through smart displays
For Doug Scott these shifts will be triggered by mobile (which he believes is now the rst screen), and then shared on the living room screen, as well as being expanded through public out-of-home advertising (OOH) smart displays.
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more about your branded life. This may be more relevant to some generations than others, particularly with the maturation of the millennial adult, according to Tenthwaves Eric Schwamberger.
thinking will be at the heart of their strategy. He adds that brands need to learn to act like media owners to attain the desired ROI. Samantha Glynne at Publicis Entertainment adds that as condence grows in the qualitative role of branded entertainment, brands will be braver in trying all platforms and media.
what he calls fractured passion centres that is discussed in the Strategic Considerations section. Barneys idea provides the basis for more opportunities of co-creation between brands and their fans. It will also potentially blur the lines between earned and owned media if brands start to curate their fan content in the way that Unrulys Sarah Wood mentions. This very much tallies with the content ideas around cultural brands that Daniel B at QualiQuanti discusses, and informs the thinking behind Tenthwaves Race of Gentlemen campaign.
Blurring the lines between earned and owned media with the rise of fractured passion centres and content curation
Barney Worfolk-Smith of Unruly sees brands interacting with people through
amplifying these. He pointed out that storytelling implies that brands or their agencies are still the authors of the narrative. He thought this downplayed the increasingly important role that the customer narrative plays.
Welcome to the world of the Internet of things, and the possibility of hyper-geolocated targeting. For example, Sarah predicts sausage ads as you open your fridge, replaced by porridge oats ads if your cholesterol reading is high, or an ad for sunscreen displayed on your smartwatch if the UV rays are high when you open your front door. Relevance and utility will be key to success.
Adapted, evolved content tailored and personal to you just like we are recognised through cookies - will instead be you the user recognised through talent talking to you, directly to you as part of a pre-orchestrated pre-determined image.
James Kirkham Global Head: ! Social & Mobile Leo Burnett
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Brands have been slow to embrace the ebooks publishing revolution, and leverage distribution channels like Amazon, iBookstore, or aggregators like Smashwords, and social reading sites. Enhanced media ebooks, like this one, provide great opportunities to tailor relevant branded content for platforms like tablets in a format that can engage people for longer periods.
develop industry standards for social media measurement. We have also seen the emergence of innovative new ways to measure branded content, with the BCMA's proprietary measurement tool, contentmonitor!run by Ipsos!MORI, which demonstrates the effectiveness of branded content.!
your investment is to measure outcomes, Everything else is a proxy at best, but there are organisations, such as AMEC with its Social Media Valid Framework and Google with its Zero Moment of Truth, that are doing some good work in this area and helping us to grow up.
MEASUREMENT, ANALYTICS AND THE RISE OF EMPATHETIC/ EMOTIONAL MARKETING Theres no shortage of industry measurement standard initiatives
The changing media landscape doesnt just have an impact on the way that brands need to rethink the way they conduct their marketing, but also how they measure it, not least because of the growing number of datapoints that are now available and being used. !The challenges this poses are highlighted by the growing number of initiatives trying to
rather than look at how the whole is greater than the sum of the parts
As Ian Wright at Tapestry Research points out, the fragmented media landscape means that were faced with this dual challenge of really understanding at a micro-level how individual channels or touchpoints are working, but also at a holistic level, how they all t together. This is a tough challenge, but Ian believes were getting smarter at meeting it through a combination of small-scale qualitative insight, big data observation and surveybased interpretation.
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right set of tools to measure efcacy. And here are some examples:
right. Brands and agencies trying to predict what content people are going to respond to and how theyre going to respond. And even predict which ways that theyre going to want to respond in turn.
David Berkowitz CMO MRY
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and devices, and mapped not just to a particular demographic on a network, but also to the available psychographic and ultimately behavioural data.
The more that media can be delivered on an individual basis and therefore become disaggregated, then that whole way of thinking is going to be challenged. It will become much more about what people do than what audience group they are in. This changes everything in terms of how media works and who should be on the team to deliver and evaluate it.
Tim Foley MD pointlogic
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We cant be blinded by the light of bright shiny objects to ever, ever forget that relationships are paramount.
Oxford Brookes University, it also has to resonate with the targeted stakeholders needs, interests and/or passions. As Kemplewoods Mark Wood points out, for any form of branded content to work it has to be relevant, useful or entertaining. Preferably all of those things.
beyond desktop and dashboard. This remains a missed opportunity for those that dont, because analytics might tell you the What and Where, but they dont tell you the Why. As Gretchen Ramsey, VP, Strategy at Tenthwave, points out, marketers must also give people what they dont know they need and no amount of big data can deduce that. What is needed is more ethnographic-based, face-to-face research to help foster empathy and which leads to a deeper understand of the customer.
People will still be sharing content, and caring more about themselves than brands
MRYs David Berkowitz thinks the sharing of content will continue, with branded
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content being a relatively small but a relatively important part of the mix because people care more about themselves than they do brands.
This is a driver for the prediction from Patricia Weiss of the BCMAs South American Chapter that branded video content will continue as the main form of branded content to reach audiences on social media.
particularly whether well gure out the secret of branded content success
Sandra Freisinger-Heinl from Branded Entertainment Online (BEO) thinks were currently living in a world of branded entertainment cocktails with a dash of content, a splash of social media, a shot of digital, laced with a pinch of music. However, Sandra predicts that on the horizon is a basic formula available to the tastes of every single target group. This is similar to Joanna Scarratts prediction about how the art of branded content will be as rigorously understood in terms of effective consumer engagement as TV commercials are now. That seems unlikely if, as Doug Scott at OgilvyEntertainment predicts,!everything we know today about branded content will change; the only thing that will remain constant is the desire for good stories. Its a view supported by Michael Reeves at Red Bee Media, who says there will be an
essential need for branded content to tell a gripping story, irrespective of the gadgets and devices used to tell the tale. Tony Chow at Whats Your Story Inc in Singapore, adds that what will also remain constant is the customer will always be the hero of the story.
Within the next ve years the world of content marketing will be turned upside down, even if businesses are still practicing it (and to a greater degree than today). Only 10-15% will regularly practice content marketing really well. And people still wont be really satised with the word content or the expression content marketing.
Ryan Skinner! Senior Analyst ! Content Marketing, ! Forrester Research
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REPORT CONTRIBUTORS
Steve Ackerman, Managing Director, Somethin' Else (UK) Bjoern Asmussen, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, Oxford Brookes University (UK) Paul Bay, Founder, Citizenbay Robert Bean, Founder, Robert Bean Branding (UK) David, Berkowitz, Chief Marketing O#cer, MRY (USA) Daniel B, CEO and founder of QualiQuanti, and author of Brand Content, and Brand Culture (France) Idil Cakim, analyst and author of Implementing Word of Mouth (USA)
Max Garner, Managing Partner at Aegis Media (UK) Samantha Glynne, Managing Partner at Publicis Entertainment (UK) Jan Godsk, Founder Ideatakeaway and Chairman, BCMA Scandinavia (Denmark) Graham Goodkind, Founder, Frank PR (UK) Chris Gorell Barnes, CEO, Adjust Your Set (UK) Uro$ Gori%an, Creative director at Publicis Slovenija (Slovenia) Morgan Holt, Chairman at the BCMA (UK) Melissa Hopkins, Global Head of Brand MarComms at Vodafone (UK) Katy Howell, CEO, immediate future (UK) Jason Hughes, Head of Branded Content & Product Placement, Sky MEDIA (UK)
Andrew Canter, CEO, BCMA (UK) Stan Joseph, CEO, Ochre Moving Pictures (South Africa) Dave Cha"ey, CEO, Smart Insights Doug Kessler, Founder, Velocity Partners (UK) Tony Chow, Media Consultant and Chief Storyteller at Whats your Story Inc (Singapore) Chris Clarke, Chief Creative O#cer, at DigitasLBi (UK) Minter Dial, Professional Speaker, Consultant & Coach and Brand & Digital Marketing Strategist (France/UK) Scott Donaton, Chief Content O#cer, UM (USA) Sarah Farrugia, Thinker, Strategist, Progressive at Sarah Farrugia & Company (UK) Tim Foley, MD, pointlogic (UK) Sandra Freisinger-Heinl, Journalist at Branded Entertainment Online (BEO) and Managing Director at MA Media Agency (Germany) James Kirkham, Global Head: Social & Mobile at Leo Burnett (UK) Charlene Li, co-author of the bestseller Groundswell, author of the New York Times bestseller Open Leadership, and Founder of Altimeter Group (USA) Leo Liang, Senior Director of National Business Development, Youku Tudou Inc (China) John McDermott, Author, Digiday (USA) Sean McKeown, Commercial Director, Mumbrella Asia (Singapore) Nick Mercer, Commercial Director at Eurostar (UK) Doug Neisser, Founder & CEO at Renegade (USA)
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Karen Pearson, CEO and Founder of Folded Wing (UK) PJ Pereira, Chief Creative O#cer, Pereira & O'Dell (USA) Gretchen Ramsey, VP, Strategy at Tenthwave (USA) Drew Rayman, Managing Parter, Tenthwave (USA) Crispin Reed, Managing Director, Fusion Learning ((UK)) Michael Reeves, Business Development Director, Red Bee Media (UK) Chantel Rickards, Head of Programming/Branded Content EMEA at MEC (UK) Sander Saar, Product Manager, AOL Joanna Scarratt, Head of Brand Partnership at United Agents (UK) Eric Schwamberger, Strategy Partner, Tenthwave (USA) Doug Scott: President, Ogilvy Entertainment (USA) Chris Sice, Managing Director at Blended Republic (UK) Ryan Skinner, Senior Analyst - Content Marketing, Forrester Research (UK) Chris Smith, Business development director at Romelle Swire (UK) Stewart Thomson, ex-Research Director at Ipsos MORI, Media CT Division (UK) Jadis Tillery, Social Media Strategist and Speaker (UK) Stephen Waddington, CIPR President Elect, Director of Ketchum Europe and author of Brand Anarchy and #BrandVandals (UK) Kami Watson Huyse, CEO, Zoetica (USA) Patricia Weiss, Chairman & Founder, BCMA South America; CSO, Wanted Agency; SVP Strategic Consultant"for Branded Content, Branded Entertainment & Transmedia Storytelling, ASAS da Imaginaa (BRAZIL)
Mark Welland, Founder at New Media Works (UK) Mark Wood, Partner at Krempelwood (UK) Sarah Wood, COO, Unruly "(UK) Barney Worfolk-Smith, Head of Creative Solutions, Unruly (UK) Ian Wright, Managing Director at Tapestry Research (UK) Mario Yiannacou, Media & Advertising Manager at ISBA (UK)
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