There’s just one week to go until marketing and advertising festival MAD//Fest heads to Manchester for the first time, with the launch of MAD//UpNorth.
Taking place at Aviva Studios from 26 to 27 February, the event will bring together over 4,000 brands, agencies, publishers, and content creators to celebrate the North.
Featuring a lineup of high-profile speakers, including Gary Neville, comedian Lucy Beaumont, and industry leaders from brands like Weetabix and Boots, the festival aims to showcase creativity and innovation in the North.
“When talking about ‘why the North’ with the team behind MAD//Fest, the key answer is why not the North?” says Emma Slater, regional managing director at Wavemaker.
“Over the past few years there have been more and more London-based events doing things in Manchester as there is a large media and advertising community up here and a significant client base,” she explains.
“WPP is really establishing itself here in Manchester through the campus, Aviva Studios is just around the corner, and now we get an opportunity to not only host an event like this but in an impactful way for people. Why wouldn’t you do it here?”
As headline partners of MAD//UpNorth, GroupM saw an opportunity to create an event that isn’t just a replica of its London counterpart, instead shifting focus to what makes the North unique.
“Let’s celebrate the reasons behind why the North West has the second biggest creative services industry in Europe, from innovation to creativity, because it means that we’re doing something different,” says Paul Cooper, COO of EssenceMediacom North.
With a thriving marketing, advertising, and creative scene, the festival will focus on what makes the North unique. Expect dedicated talks from leading brands, DJ sets from Northern icons, and panel sessions.
For Cooper, changing the narrative around the North’s creative, marketing and advertising industries is a crucial part of the event: “I don’t agree with the way people have talked down the industry in the North over the past couple of years. I don’t think it’s true,” he says.
“It’s a little bit of a red herring. There are certain myths to bust but there’s also some fantastic things going on in the North.”
That sense of pride and celebration is what has driven the event’s organisers, with collaboration and input from GroupM agencies, to bring MAD//UpNorth to life.
“We want to make sure that people see that what we have in Manchester is unrivalled, special, different, and positive. We want people to come to the event and see that and walk away saying ‘I didn’t know that’ or ‘that’s changed my perception’,” says Slater.
The festival is also about championing the Northern industry.
“People were obsessing about one area, and whether an account moves from the North to South, but we’re not talking about all the other good things that are going on,” explains Cooper.
“Accounts are going to move, that’s the nature of our business. When you win a client, at some point it will leave. If it’s two years or 50 years, it’s not a marriage that is everlasting, it’s part and parcel of the industry we work in.
“We can kind of whinge and moan about what we don’t like happening, or we can do something to change it.”
For Slater, MAD//UpNorth is about putting the focus back on Manchester, the North West and making events like this accessible to regional agencies.
“It’s not always possible for people to travel to events in London. But here it’s on their doorstep. It’s next door to where their agencies are,” she explains.
“Whilst we will be speaking to an audience that is based locally, we know there are plenty of people who are jumping on the Avanti West Coast train and braving that journey out of the city.
“We can spend a lot of time feeling p*ssed off about stuff that’s happened up here recently, or we can spend more time actually looking at celebrating what we have. For our people, it’s really important to show that we’re very proud of what we achieve here in the North.
“To be able to showcase that in this forum is going to be fantastic. It’s really exciting.”
MAD//UpNorth is set to be a game-changing moment for Manchester’s creative industry, according to Cooper.
“It’s a celebration. It’s an education and celebration for everybody involved. I’m really excited, because I don’t think we’ve ever done something as a city region on this level before.”
