MAD//Fest Minutes – key takeaways from day 1

London isn’t just basking in record temperatures this week, it’s also sizzling from all the hot topics in play at MAD//Fest London.

We have a crack team on the ground in the form of The Digital Voice, reporting back some of the takeaways at the sold out marketing and advertising event.

Here’s their take on Tuesday’s hot topics – needless to say AI and retail media very much in focus… 

Abracadabra Magic Touch

Human vs AI at the DigiAds Stage, hosted by Julia Linehan

Lauren Barnett, Head of UK Sales, Samsung Ads:

“Human intention is needed to fuel AI” Lauren Barnett

“People want to lean into the human experience, sometimes AI just can’t do that” Lauren Barnett

James MacDonald, Co Founder and CRO, Limelight Inc:

“Engage with AI, embrace it but ensure to manage and understand it” James MacDonald

“Harness the tech, drive the tech, retain a human touch” James MacDonald

Alice Anson, Director of Digital Media, Nectar360:

“One can not exist without the other, it’s about how we lean into AI as humans to make the most of it” Alice Anson

“Ai is coming, it’s not going anywhere. The greatest thing you can do is teach your teams so you can understand AI better together” Alice Anson

“When we think about AI and the use of it within the AI retail media space, it’s all about efficiency. Cutting out the bits that take up a lot of our time and giving us more time for the consumer led work.”

Julia Linehan, Founder and CEO, The Digital Voice: 

”AI cannot work without good quality human input and that was widely agreed across the panellists at MadFest.”

“All media will be retail media by 2030 but its next growth point should be more standardisation of measurement across the industry.”

About retail media at the ‘Marketing Funnels Last Rite: Fireside chat 

Alice Anson, Director of Digital Media, Nectar360:

“I still don’t think we have the seat at the table that we need across everything and that’s what makes it hard.

“We need that step change that really takes us through into how do we get the recognition that retail media is reinventing marketing and the brands that are open to leaning into that are the ones that are going to succeed”

“Retail media is the most complex business that I’ve ever worked in. A couple years ago we realised the market is getting more complex.

“We wanted to create a platform that made retail media easier and broke down those barriers across the whole marketing funnel and channels.

“The reception has been amazing and we’ve already seen people say how much this will change their business”

“One of the things that I love about retail media is that we all really back each other, fundamentally a lot of our competitors are also friends. I think we could come together better as an industry to standardise our measurement a bit better.

“We need to start assembling around the IAB standards and start working together as an industry”

Also published in: Mediashotz