AI as copilot. Culture over polish. Nostalgia done right. Gen Alpha realities. TikTok Shop as retail. And a reminder that in 2025, authenticity still trumps everything.
Those were just some of the takeaways as more than 250 leaders from brands including Berghaus, Jet2, Specsavers, Pringles and SharkNinja joined agencies, marketers and creatives from across the UK and Europe for Prolific North Live 2025 — a one-day deep dive into The Next Big Thing in Marketing.
Hosted at UA92 in Manchester on 6 November with headline sponsors Dotdigital, Slater Heelis, Buymedia and CTI Digital, one-day the event explored how marketing in the North can hold its creative edge in an age of AI, culture-led storytelling and collapsing attention spans.
Across more than two dozen sessions, speakers unpacked everything from AI’s creative potential and reaching Gen Alpha to the power of cultural moments and nostalgia done right.
Over the coming days, we’ll be sharing in-depth coverage from the event — but first, here are ten key insights that stood out, and what they mean for brands and agencies across the North and beyond.
1. AI isn’t the enemy – but it will expose your weak spots.
It wasn’t long before AI cropped up in discussions, but not always in the ways we were expecting. In ‘Be the 5%: Turning AI into ROI’, CTI Digital’s CEO Chris Burgess reminded the audience that “95% of AI projects fail to achieve a positive ROI.” The message wasn’t anti-AI but it was a dose of realism.
Chris’ approach – “spot, pilot, scale” – urged marketers to start small and find tangible value. He argued that businesses must move beyond “proof of concept theatre” to embedding AI in workflows that actually save time or grow revenue.
“It’s not about replacing creativity,” he said. “It’s about freeing up the humans to do the creative thinking.”
2. Data is the fuel – AI is just the rocket.
The closing keynote from Fergal O’Connor, Founder and CEO of BuyMedia, picked up the same thread from a different angle.
“AI is a rocket,” he said, quoting Gina Rommetty (Former IBM CEO). “But the data is actually the fuel.” Without clean, structured information, the most advanced tools are useless, he warned.
O’Connor shared evidence from clients using BuyMedia’s platform, showing a 126% revenue uplift among data-driven businesses. He urged marketers to get their houses in order before chasing shiny AI products.
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He also quoted Open AI CEO Sam Altman’s prediction that “95% of marketing tasks will be handled by AI by 2030” – from planning and media buying to reporting and predictive analytics – but insisted that technology should “augment humans, not replace them.”
The future, he said, belongs to teams that treat AI as a collaborator, not a competitor.
3. Culture beats polish – Berghaus shows how to make a moment.
If one campaign captured the mood of the event, it was Berghaus x Liam Gallagher.
The brand’s “Madferit” collaboration proved that Northern culture, handled with confidence, can cut through far and wide. The collaboration of two British icons created the kind of organic reach most brands can only dream of.
The partnership drew on nostalgia, but with enough self-awareness to feel fresh. It turned heritage into heat, showing that when brands understand their roots, they can become part of the conversation, not just comment on it.
4. ‘Overnight’ success can take years.
When Jet2’s summer jingle became a TikTok phenomenon, many assumed it was luck. In truth, it was the result of nearly a decade of consistency.
The brand’s voiceover artist Zoe Lister and Don McGrath, Executive Creative Director & Co-Founder, Supersonic, told PN Live how the airline had built a unified sound and tone across every channel, long before TikTok even existed.
That discipline paid off when users started remixing the song into millions of videos because audiences already knew the brand.
It was a masterclass in long-term brand memory. Repetition, rhythm, and a clear emotional proposition that still feels joyful, even in meme form.
5. “Make TikToks, not ads.”
IF Agency’s Andy Pope distilled TikTok strategy into a single line: “It’s like a Tamagotchi — if you don’t feed it, it dies.”
The platform’s evolution into a commerce powerhouse — via TikTok Shop — means brands can no longer treat it as a testing ground. Pope showed how consistency in lives, affiliate partnerships and shoppable content is turning it into a full retail channel for clients like SharkNinja and P. Louise.
The big learning? You can’t just list products and hope. TikTok rewards rhythm, not reach – and audiences spot “ads” instantly. Brands that play natively, experiment daily and show real people using products are the ones that convert, he said.
6. Authenticity wins – even if it’s messy.
Rebecca Worthington, Head of Salty Snacks UK at Kellanova, shared how Pringles Hot broke category norms by ditching the script.
The team built its campaign around footballer Cole Palmer, known for his dry humour and “cold” persona. “He loved Pringles,” Worthington said. “And that’s great because if he likes the brand, we’re going to get more natural and authentic content.”
Rather than forcing a slick TV ad, they filmed unscripted challenges, including Palmer in a sauna, blind taste tests, even a lie detector with his sister. The result was 53 million impressions, £1.2 million earned media value, and a 25% year-on-year sales uplift for Pringles Hot.
Worthington’s lesson was simple. Authenticity can’t be faked, she said, but it can be enabled by trusting the talent and letting go of control.
7. Nostalgia still works – when you remix it.
Several speakers, from Berghaus to Jet2, returned to the same insight that nostalgia sells, but only when refreshed.
Modern nostalgia isn’t about retro aesthetics – it’s about emotional shorthand. Gallagher’s ‘90s swagger, Jet2’s family-holiday warmth, and Specsavers’ tongue-in-cheek humour all tap into familiarity while keeping the brand moving forward.
In uncertain times, audiences crave comfort but not clichés. The trick is to make old feelings feel new again.
8. In a zero-click world, distribution is creativity.
Embryo warned that as algorithms increasingly answer questions without clicks, “you can’t rely on traffic to tell your story anymore.”
Their call to action was clear – marketers must design campaigns that travel across platforms, not funnel users back to a single site. Whether that means social-first storytelling, snackable formats, or Reddit AMAs, discovery is the new destination.
The most successful content, they argued, “lives where audiences already are – not where brands wish they’d come.”
9. Challenger brands grow by doing the boring stuff right.
In The Rocky Road to Challenger Brand Success, David Wadsworth, Managing Director of Cornerstone, shared how smaller brands can compete without the millions.
He broke it down into five fundamentals: vision, point of difference, commercial objectives, research, and targeting. “You can’t shortcut strategy,” he said. “The brands that think they know the market but don’t validate it with data will fail.”
Citing Field and Binet’s 60/40 rule — 60% brand-building, 40% activation — Wadsworth argued that even modest budgets can drive sustainable growth when spent consistently and intelligently.
10. The North isn’t following trends – it’s setting them.
From Liam Gallagher to Cole Palmer, if one sentiment defined Prolific North Live 2025, it was that the North is as relevant a cultural force than ever and perennially greater than the sum of its parts. Come on!
Stick with us all week as we dive into the full programme of sessions with more detailed coverage from the whole day.
