Prolific North’s Northern Marketing Festival wrapped up in Manchester yesterday, bringing three days of insight to a close as marketers from across the North and beyond gathered at Victoria Warehouse for the festival finale.
Backed by strategic partner Embryo and headline sponsor Williams Lea, the final day explored everything from the fragmented future of search and the growing role of AI in brand visibility, and even a look at bad briefs and the revival of a much loved brand icon.
“We aren’t guaranteed a click anymore”
Opening the event, Jess Atkinson, organic search director at Embryo, unpacked how increasingly cluttered search engine results pages and Google’s “shift in how people discover brands” has now reshaped attention, trust and click behaviour, and why brands need to rethink how they appear in front of audiences online.
Atkinson explained that click through rates (CTR) on Google have fallen by around 7% over the past year as users increasingly find answers directly within search results thanks to AI overviews, while platforms like ChatGPT and social media are also changing long-established search habits.
“This isn’t just an SEO problem anymore,” she said, arguing that brands are now battling for attention rather than simply clicks. “We aren’t guaranteed a click anymore.”
She warned that consumers are becoming overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information online and are increasingly looking for guidance and trusted, recognisable brands rather than endlessly scrolling through search results.
Highlighting the growing importance of understanding your audience and brand visibility across search, social and AI-driven discovery, Atkinson urged marketers to take a more simplistic approach to organic strategy, adding: “Brand is your cheat code.”
As a practical takeaway, she encouraged attendees to carry out a “five-minute SERP read”. This includes analysing search result formats, brand visibility, signals and consumer questions — before deciding whether they can realistically compete for rankings.
Closing the session, she urged brands to focus on becoming “notable, popular and recognised” in an increasingly fragmented search landscape.
The biggest misconception is that traditional media is “old fashioned”
That theme of changing audience behaviour continued in a panel hosted by Buymedia’s Fergal O’Connor, bringing together leaders from Print.com, Citipost Mail, Bauer Media and Sky to explore whether channels like print, direct mail and other traditional media are becoming even more valuable amid rising digital fatigue.
Saira Raza, client partnerships at Sky, challenged assumptions that the broadcaster is “just TV”, highlighting its growing on-demand, digital, programmatic and podcast offerings. Kristen Modral-Peak, audio group head at Bauer Media, said there has been a similar shift in audio, describing it is an “ecosystem” blending broadcast reach and shared cultural moments with the flexibility and precision of digital formats.
Lesley Yeomans, deputy managing director at Citipost Mail, argued the “biggest misconception” is that traditional media such as print is “old fashioned”. Direct mail now “really cuts through and reaches the doorstep” and can have a major impact on ROI as she says 95% of direct mail is engaged with while plenty of emails go ignored.
For Fiona Robinson, country captain UK of Print.com, print now extends far beyond traditional flyers and newspapers, spanning everything from packaging to branded merchandise, while also benefiting from a growing appetite for more ‘real-world’ experiences.
A recurring theme throughout the panel session was about trust. Modral-Peak from Bauer Media pointed to radio’s “superpower” to build companionship and credibility with listeners particularly with the “fake news battle”, while Raza over at Sky noted that because TV is heavily regulated it continues to give audiences confidence in the brands they see advertised.
The panel also stressed that success increasingly comes from integrated, omnichannel campaigns rather than siloed marketing strategies, with consistent messaging across platforms helping to drive stronger recall and customer action.
Raza from Sky added that TV ultimately has “scale, attention and can drive action”.
Inevitably, the conversation turned to AI, with those on the panel pretty much positioning it as a tool to enhance rather than replace human creativity and expertise.
Bauer Media’s Modral-Peak said AI is already “supercharging” creative processes, but warned against losing the personal connection audiences expect from channels like radio. And she was quick to say Bauer Media won’t be having AI hosts, unlike an experiment she had seen at a radio station in Australia.
For the leaders at Print.com and Citipost Mail, AI was framed as an opportunity to improve efficiencies, personalisation and customer guidance, while Raza at Sky revealed the broadcaster has developed a predictive planning tool using years of campaign data to forecast outcomes for clients.
Robinson from Print.com added she thinks there will be a “comeback” of traditional marketing too as people are craving “real-world” experiences, with print being a massive part of that.
Closing the discussion, O’Connor said the future of marketing would belong to brands capable of combining channels, data and messaging in the most effective way. Everyone on the panel agreed that traditional and digital media now work best hand in hand rather than in competition.
“It’s all about communicating”
Formore Agency and Goldbox Productions took to the stage to reflect on their experiences of two decades of ‘terrible’ client briefs, while also making the case for better collaboration between brands and agencies.
Lucas Coe from Formore Agency argued that bad briefs often stem from “familiarity and complacency” rather than bad intentions.
“Bad briefs still exist in marketing but why?” he asked. “Most of the time, it’s because people trust us. When you build rapport with a client, that’s when things can get lazy. Trying to keep that structure is really important.”
Josh Spaticchia, CEO at Goldbox Productions, agreed, revealing that one of the most common and frustrating briefs his team receives is simply a request to “go viral”, while another frequent issue is brands wanting to directly replicate existing campaigns.
On how to make sure you don’t get a bad brief, he said: “It’s all about communicating”.
The pair then explored the wider impact poor briefs can have on campaigns, relationships and retention, with Coe warning that pushing ahead with a weak brief ultimately damages the quality and effectiveness of the work. “Sticking with a bad brief damages retention long-term,” he explained. “Make sure it’s structured.”
Spaticchia added that agencies often end up operating as a “clean-up crew” when projects begin without clear objectives or alignment from the get-go. “Slow marketing is intentional marketing,” he said. “The more time you take, it becomes more intentional.”
The session also focused on what makes an effective brief. Coe said the strongest briefs are often the simplest, outlining the challenge clearly, defining measurable KPIs, including budgets and timescales, and ensuring all information is stored centrally.
For Spaticchia, the most important question any marketer should ask is: “what are we trying to solve?”
The duo both stressed the importance of closer collaboration between brands and agencies from the outset, with Coe encouraging businesses to invest time in onboarding sessions and co-writing briefs together to make sure expectations are clear and manageable on both sides, as it not only improves campaigns but also strengthens long-term client relationships.
Closing the session, Spaticchia’s advice to marketers was simple: “Don’t overcomplicate the brief.”
Preparing for the future of digital experience platforms
Dmitry Bastron, head of development at Byteminds, turned attention towards the future of digital experience platforms (DXPs), exploring how brands and agencies can prepare for the next wave of AI-driven infrastructure change while avoiding the risks that come with it.
Opening the session, Bastron challenged one of the industry’s biggest narratives around AI and content management systems. Using examples from emerging platforms and AI-powered development tools such as Lovable, Bastron examined how “vibe coding” and agentic AI are rapidly changing the way digital experiences are built, enabling teams to launch products and campaigns faster than ever before.
But while the technology promises speed and efficiency, he warned the audience against overlooking security and operational risks in the race to adopt new tools.
Referencing research into more than 150 large language models,nearly half (45%) of AI-generated code contain security flaws. While there has been a rapid rise in the use of no-code and AI-assisted development platforms, he said researchers had already raised concerns around vulnerabilities within public projects.
Looking ahead, Bastron argued that the future of CMS and DXP platforms will depend less on AI editing features and more on the strength of their “agent layer” — the systems enabling automation and collaboration across teams.
But he warned that many businesses are still underestimating the practical and financial challenges of implementing agentic AI at scale, pointing to forecasts suggesting a significant proportion of projects could fail due to rising costs, weak controls and unclear value.
“The platform isn’t why,” he concluded. “The team is.”
He also urged businesses to focus less on chasing trends and more on choosing platforms and partners that align with how their teams operate and collaborate.
It’s all about the CreativiTEA with PG Tips
Elle Barker, UK&I CMO at Lipton Teas, was up next to explore the return of the iconic PG Tips Monkey and how nostalgia, personality and cultural relevance are helping legacy brands reconnect with audiences.
Speaking about what led to the revival of one of UK’s most recognisable monkeys, Barker said the challenge previously facing PG Tips was never awareness, but relevance.
Reflecting on how years of changing messaging had weakened the brand’s connection with audiences, particularly in a category where consumers are fiercely loyal as every day Brits drink a staggering 100 million cups a day, she said “consistent messaging is everything”.
“Tea is quite partisan, it’s like supporting a football team. If you keep changing, people start losing interest in you. Unfortunately, it gave other teams time to get ahead.”
Referencing wider industry research into “the cost of dull”, she explained brands often abandon successful creative ideas too early because marketers themselves become tired of them, even though audiences do not.
“The brands you talk about are brands people buy. If you are not part of the conversation, you are losing consumers. We wanted to do a campaign with real conversations.”
Enter the return of PG Tips’ most “distinctive” brand asset — a nostalgic comeback for its much loved Monkey mascot.
Explaining what drives an “epic comeback”, Barker said it comes down to three things: maximise nostalgia, keep it light and own your past.
“It gave us relevance in the category, in culture, in media and with our audience,” she said. “We made Monkey’s story evolve — he got married, had kids and is now in a reality show. AI could never make this up.
“It helped the brand come alive across channels. Monkey lets us go where our audience is.”
She summed up that it has been a “wild journey” for the business to convince people to dig back into the archives, take something old and make it new again.
“People sometimes want newness but looking at competitors – consistency is king. You can take your own brand archive and make it into something new. And if you are not part of the conversation, you are losing consumers. And that’s a fact.”
The “now economy”
Regional team lead Bill Dennett from Uber Advertising opened his session — which featured across both the Liverpool and Leeds legs of the festival — with an interactive audience exercise on Uber ratings, using it to illustrate how consumer behaviour and expectations are rapidly evolving in the “now economy”.
He argued that platforms like Uber no longer simply represent transport or food delivery services, but a much wider “structural shift” in how consumers make decisions.
Audiences increasingly expect instant access, immediate gratification and seamless convenience across every aspect of daily life, whether that be ordering food to discovering brands and making purchases.
“It’s the rise of the now economy,” he explained, where consumers act on needs immediately and expect brands to respond in real time.
He set out how that shift is reshaping marketing strategies, making traditional funnel models increasingly outdated as discovery, evaluation and purchase now often happen simultaneously within the same platform or moment.
“The brands that win today aren’t just front of mind,” he said. “They are present at that point of decision.”
Using Uber’s real-time behavioural signals, from journeys and commuting patterns to food delivery orders, he detailed how brands can target consumers at highly specific moments of intent.
A ‘happy marriage’ between media and creative
Ben Cunningham, director of media at IMA, and Ben Ducker, executive creative director of IMA, were up next to examine what makes a happy media and creative marriage with TV sponsorship, providing an effective bridge between the two.
Reflecting on the changing structure of the advertising industry, Cunningham explained how as more money came into media buying, the relationship between media agencies and advertising and creative agencies began to drift apart. Some of the major media agencies felt they could go it alone, be more efficient and less directed by the creative idea.
But in an increasingly crowded attention economy, the duo argued that separation no longer works and media and creative teams now have to collaborate far more closely to create campaigns capable of genuinely cutting through.
Their solution? TV sponsorship. They described sponsorship as a “marriage” between media, creative, programme and audience.
Using Leeds-based Pharmacy2U’s lead sponsorship of Loose Women as a case study, in a year-long deal planned and executed by IMA, they explained how the partnership created a natural fit between audience, tone and brand positioning, helping to drive both awareness and understanding of the healthcare platform.
They then set out three key principles for building what is a “happy marriage” between media and creative: leaving egos at the door and embracing compromise; focusing on long-term effectiveness over short-term “sexiness”; and making time for both media and creative teams to communicate and make time to get to know each other.
“A little bit of PR goes a long way”
AI’s growing impact on search, discovery and brand visibility emerged as one of the dominant themes throughout the festival, and that was the focus of a session from Andrew Holland, SEO director at JBH PR, who explored how brands can continue to win business in an AI-driven search landscape.
He explained the future is “different” and AI is rapidly changing how people search and make decisions online.
“Brands that get mentioned, get mentioned more. Brands that get selected, get selected more. It’s the rich get richer effect,” he said.
Using network science, he explained visible things become more visible because they are already visible, so for brands to win and increase the likelihood that AI will choose their brand, he said they need to trigger a number of things including “preferential attachment”, they must aim for fame, they must increase their visibility online, and must aim to be encountered by AI.
To do this, he said brands need to “build fame digitally” and should stop “obsessing over vanity metrics” as in an AI era, brands need to make it ‘effortless’ not only for humans to encounter them, but for machines to recommend them too.
He also shared how JBH has developed its own “F.a.m.e” engine (Fitness, Amplification, Memories, Echoes), built on 20 years of media coverage to map co-occurences, context and sentiment and measures whether the network describes brands correctly.
Tools like this are becoming increasingly important as brands look to understand not just where they appear online, but how AI systems interpret and connect those mentions.
Despite plenty of change, his final message was that consistency still matters.
“A little bit of PR goes a long way,” he said, encouraging brands to keep “plugging away” even with limited budgets, as repeated visibility and recognition are crucial.
Remember to connect the digital dots
Sticking with the theme of search and visibility, Hannah Craig and Lauren Henley from Impression explored how brands need to better connect PR, social and influencer activity as discovery becomes increasingly fragmented across AI tools, social platforms and traditional search engines.
Reflecting on her move from a traditional PR agency into digital, Craig said the shift had changed her perspective and has since realised there actually “isn’t that much difference” between the two.
The duo argued that visibility can no longer be treated as the responsibility of one channel, particularly as large language models (LLMs) and AI-powered search tools pull information from multiple sources.
Instead, they all need to be connected as AI looks for “clear, consistent signals about who you are” and is not just looking at one channel.
To improve visibility, Craig and Henley encouraged marketers to think about campaigns through the lens of “unrestricted visibility” from the outset, by developing ideas capable of being used across numerous channels.
They also outlined the different types of signals brands need to strengthen if they want to build authority with both audiences and AI systems.
These included topical signals, which are the things brands consistently show up for; credibility signals, which assess the quality and authority of voices and sources; and narrative signals, which looks at what brands are known for or described.
Co-op Live: “Live entertainment is built on unique moments”
Wrapping up the festival, Co-op Live’s commercial director Rebecca Lott explored how the Manchester arena is evolving beyond a traditional music and events venue into what she described as a broader entertainment and brand “ecosystem”.
Now celebrating its second anniversary, Co-op Live has already hosted major moments from the BRIT Awards and MTV EMAs to performances from artists including Harry Styles and Bruce Springsteen.
But for Lott, the future of arenas are no longer just about what happens inside the venue itself.
“Live entertainment is built on unique moments that are real, not a rinse and repeat,” she said.
She explained how Co-op Live has focused heavily on changing fan expectations, balancing practical experiences, from queue times to food service and facilities, with growing audience demand for sustainability, community and deeper emotional connections.
While fans will always care about the “fundamentals”, she said consumers increasingly want brands and venues to reflect their wider values around “people and the planet”, while the rise of fandom culture has created new opportunities around merchandise, IP, experiences and community-building.
She pointed to Billie Eilish’s Manchester shows as an example of how live events are becoming more values-driven experiences. In line with Eilish’s strong focus on sustainability, Co-op Live went fully plant-based across all four shows, including pizzas on the menu featuring locally grown mushrooms from Manchester community project FungALL.
Audiences now want “action, not automation”, particularly in an AI era where “authentic experiences” stand out more than ever.
The arena has also focused on extending fan experiences beyond the venue. When Charli XCX brought her “Brat” tour to Manchester, “Bratchester” was created and featured themed experiences ranging from photo activations to branded drinks.
“Fandom is where they see community and belonging outside the bowl, not just within it,” she explained.
That city-wide approach was also visible during the BRIT Awards, including how Northern Rail temporarily renamed Deansgate station to “Olivia Deansgate” in tribute to Olivia Dean, while PinkPantheress became a guest announcer on Manchester trams.
“Collaboration is key,” she explained. “Fans invest more when they feel included. 1 in 3 fans have done that at Co-op Live.
“It keeps the experience going way after the show is over. By creating ecosystems with connected moments through phones and through the city, before fans arrive and across the city, we connect the dots because it’s beyond the bowl.”
Thanks to everyone involved in Northern Marketing Festival 2026, from speakers, sponsors, our strategic partner Embryo, to those who came to each leg of the event whether you came to Liverpool, Leeds, Manchester – or all three!
You can catch the reviews of Liverpool here and Leeds here in case you missed it!
