Prolific North Live 2026
Wednesday, 18 November 2026 Sister, Manchester
The North’s must-attend event for media, marketing, digital and tech leaders returns for 2026, bringing together the region’s most ambitious marketers, strategists and business leaders. Attendees explored the latest trends, gained actionable insights and forged valuable connections across the industry.
THE NEXT BIG THING IN MARKETING
The marketing landscape is being reshaped by AI, changing consumer behaviours and an increasingly fragmented media ecosystem. As brands compete for attention across more channels than ever before, staying ahead requires fresh thinking, practical insights and a willingness to adapt.
Prolific North Live 2026 will bring together industry leaders, innovators and decision-makers from across the North to explore the trends, technologies and strategies shaping the future of media, marketing and digital.
The event will take place on Wednesday, 18 November 2026 at Sister in Manchester, offering attendees the opportunity to gain fresh perspectives, make valuable connections and prepare for the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead in 2027 and beyond.
Headline Sponsors
CTI Digital
Slater Heelis
09.00 Doors open
09:30 Welcome to Prolific North Live 2026
We’re kicking off Prolific North Live 2026 with a big warm welcome from Managing Director, Alexandra Balazs.
09:45 Session to be announced soon!
10:00 Keynote: Gen Alpha Is already changing your business: Understanding the trickle-up revolution
With the oldest Gen Alphas hitting 17 in 2027, they are entering the workforce and gaining massive consumer autonomy. They are entirely AI-native, and their hyper-fluid digital behaviors are actually trickling up – completely rewriting how Millennials and Gen X interact with brands, technology, and physical spaces.
This keynote moves past the usual corporate fluff and looks at how brands can practically reinvent their legacy structures to catch this wave. Expect real-world context on how Russell has used high-velocity innovation frameworks to capture shifting generational habits – shifting Gen Z market penetration and building insulated growth pipelines (‘System B’ architectures) to launch future-facing tech in weeks rather than months.
Speakers:
Russell Danks, Generational Disruptive Strategist (ex Pure Gym, KFC and Greene King)
10:30 Panel: How challenger brands out-think rather than out-spend giants
This panel will explore how challenger brands are finding smarter, more creative ways to compete with much bigger players. From sharper positioning and bold creative thinking to understanding audiences, moving quickly and making every pound work harder, we’ll look at what smaller and challenger brands can do differently to cut through.
Host: Carla Murray, Partner & Head of Commercial Law at Slater Heelis
Speakers:
Josh Boydell-Smith, Head of Brand and Marketing at We love cake
Mel Drummond, Strategy & Innovation at Heck!
11:00 Networking break
STRATEGY STAGE
11:30 - Cleaning Up: How strategic discipline (not a big idea) won Philips a category
Decks get applause. Strategies get abandoned. This talk is about closing that gap – using the award-winning Philips OneUp campaign (448% sales growth, #1 in category) to show how to turn strategy from a one-off reveal into a system that actually survives delivery.
What You’ll Take Away:
- How to spot strategic drift before it costs you: the five early warning signs that a strategy is quietly being reinterpreted, diluted or abandoned in execution.
- How to build a strategy your team can’t misread: a practical approach to setting explicit non-negotiables and trade-offs, so “what we won’t do” is as clear as “what we will”.
- How to catch drift while you can still fix it: which leading indicators to track so you know strategy is working before the results are in.
- Real-world proof: how our ‘Clarify, Guard, Guide’ system played out step-by-step in a real campaign – a proven approach to ensuring communications strategy delivers business impact, whatever your category.
Speakers:
Rick Guttridge, CEO, Smoking Gun
Hayley Peters, Strategy Director, Smoking Gun
11:55 - Session title coming soon
A thought-provoking discussion bringing together industry leaders to explore the challenges, opportunities and trends shaping marketing today.
12:20 - The untapped opportunity for AI: Beyond content creation
Most marketers use AI to generate content or as we’re seeing more and more now, AI Slop. But what if you could use AI to predict audience response to content before the brief and during the development process? Saving you time, money, reputation and stopping the slop.
Speaker:
Jo Taylor, Founder and Director at BrandXYZ
Steve Carron – Co Founder and Strategy Director / The Planning Department
TRENDSETTER STAGE
11:30 - Global trends for Northern brands and agencies to consider in 2027
Amardeep Devadason, Global Growth & Transformation Leader at Williams Lea
11:55 - 'Have I got your attention? Why you might be overlooking a superstar channel.
For marketing teams and agencies, reach is easy. Attention however is becoming scarcer.
AI is increasing the volume of brand communications dramatically. The problem is no longer whether a message can be served – the problem is whether anyone truly notices it or believes it.
- Why you shouldn’t plan media solely for the cheapest impression?
- Why you should plan for the most valuable moment of attention?
Attention is not the final KPI, but it does lead to the opportunity for memory and action.
The customer journey is not physical or digital; it is both.
Presented by Lesley Yeomans, Deputy Managing Director, Citipost Mail.
12:20 Session title coming soon
12:40 Lunch break and networking
STRATEGY STAGE
13:30 How to find a growth opportunity hiding in plain sight feat Original Source
What if your next growth opportunity is already happening? Learn how Original Source turned an overlooked routine into a new product opportunity, and what it takes to spot the gap and act on it.
Speakers:
Tom Denton, Co-founder & Creative Director, Rise & Amplify
Stuart Hornby, Client Services Director, Rise & Amplify
Alex Glen, Client Services Director, PZ Cussons
13.55 The vanillafication of brand writing
With thousands of brands relying on the same three LLMs for their copy, the result is a slide towards sameness. We’ll show the results of an experiment to prove this vanillafication is already well underway, and go through our top tips for fighting back.
Speakers:
Luke Budka, AI Director at Definition
Nick Padmore, Head of Language at Definition
14:20 Reputation is the new ROI: Why trust matters more in the age of AI
TRENDSETTER STAGE
13:30 Panel: Fractured discovery & the new E-Commerce journey
The panel will look at how the way people discover and buy products is changing from the rise of AI and social commerce to marketplaces, creators and the challenge of understanding a customer journey that is no longer as straightforward as it once was.
Host: Nathan Lomax, Co-founder at Quickfire
Speakers:
- Adam Garnsey, Head of Performance at Shoe?
- Sinead Flood, Founder at July Child Jewellery
- Lucy Mather, Ecommerce Manager at Arighi Bianchi
13.55 Session title coming soon
14.20 Session title coming soon
14:40 Networking break
15:05 Keynote from Cineworld's International Director, Digital Marketing, Carla Bradford
Presented by Carla Bradford, International Director, Digital Marketing at Cineworld International
15:30 Panel: The future of editorial media and public service broadcasting
How is the media landscape evolving as audiences consume content across more platforms, formats and devices than ever before?
Bringing together voices from ITV, Morning Live and commercial radio, this session will explore the future of editorial media and public service broadcasting – from changing audience habits and the rise of digital platforms to the role of trusted journalism, entertainment and live content in an increasingly fragmented media landscape. Expect a candid conversation about what the next generation of media looks like, and where the biggest opportunities lie.
Speakers:
Josh Wheeler, Founder of BeBroadcast with
- ITV
- This Morning
- Global Radio
16.10 Debate: Does AI make agencies more or less valuable?
As AI accelerates capability and lowers barriers to execution, should brands build more marketing capability in-house, or do agencies become even more valuable?
Presented by Phil Gripton, Partner at Waypoint
Speakers:
Jono Brain Co-Founder at Anything
Alex Brown, CCO at Campfire
16:30 Drinks & networking
SECURE Your Pass
All tickets provide full access to the event, including keynote sessions, panel discussions, networking and lunch.
Early Bird
Tickets
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Join us for a day of insight, inspiration and networking – book now and save with Early Bird pricing until 31 August.
General Sale
Tickets
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Secure your place for a day of insight, networking and inspiration – standard pricing from 1 September.
Prolific North Live Returns...
Headline Sponsors
CTI Digital
Slater Heelis
2026 Event Partners
Smoking Gun
GM Business Growth Hub
Williams Lea
Definition
Brand XYZ
ICG
ByteMinds
Citipost Mail
Quickfire Digital
CTI Digital
Slater Heelis
BuyMedia
Print.com
Colony
Be Broadcast
KINESSO
Impression Digital
Waypoint
Embryo
Prolific North Live 2025 Event Pictures
The Prolific North Live 2025 brought together marketers, media professionals and digital leaders from across the North for a day of insightful discussions, expert perspectives and practical takeaways. Through a series of keynote sessions, panels and networking opportunities, attendees explored the trends, challenges and opportunities shaping the future of the industry.
