Welcome to Unofficially MAD//Fest — the official media-partner newsletter bringing you speaker scoops, creative hacks, and festival buzz straight from MAD//Fest London.
🧠 Session Download
🧭 Why Are We Here? The Role of Senior Leaders in Marketing Transformation
With: Gill Huber (Ingenuity+), Dipesh Patel (Unilever), Mays Elansari (ex-Subway), Tanya Weller (Samsung Electronics UK)
In a panel that cut through buzzwords and bravado, senior marketing leaders came together to talk about what real transformation looks like — and why most companies get it wrong.
Here’s what we learned:
🔑 It’s not about new org charts or shiny campaigns.
Real transformation starts with internal fluency — especially with finance and ops. As Tanya Weller reminded the room, marketers need to translate the ‘why’ of their work into terms the CFO actually cares about.
📈 We know that’s hard — especially when it comes to top-of-funnel activity that takes time to show results.
That’s where Fospha comes in. Fospha’s full-funnel measurement platform helps marketers turn early brand signals into clear commercial proof. Whether you're investing in Meta, TikTok or YouTube, Fospha reveals how demand-generation campaigns translate into real revenue.
💬 Don’t just lead with answers — lead with questions.
Mays Elansari shared how her time at Subway taught her the value of listening over proving.
“We stopped defending our value and started asking better questions.”
It wasn’t about having the loudest pitch deck — it was about building trust from the inside out.
🧠 Transformation is a team sport.
Dipesh Patel made it clear: marketing leaders must build relationship equity across the business.
“Ask how you can help someone now — because you’ll need their help later.”
Transformation doesn’t stick unless everyone is brought along for the ride.
❓ Ask 'why' until it hurts.
Too often, leaders start with solutions before fully understanding the problem. This panel reminded us that the courage to pause and ask ‘why’ — over and over again — is what unlocks the clarity transformation needs.
Culture eats marketing plans too.
You can’t change what you don’t understand. From ops to finance, each team has its own culture. If marketers don’t learn the language and values of those teams, no strategy will stick.
💬 Rory Sutherland on Marketing, Magic, and the Madness of Measurement
📍 On Day 1, Rory Sutherland joined Klaviyo’s Robin Merchant to unpack why human nuance matters more than neat attribution models.
"If you are disproportionately generous to a customer... that changes the nature of the relationship that the consumer has with the brand."
🎤 Then yesterday, Rory took to the stage for a very different kind of conversation — this time with comedian Jimmy Carr.
🧠 MORE INSIGHTS
In a recent interview with Darren Lee, Rory goes deeper on why most marketing value is “fat-tailed.”
That is, 10% of efforts generate 80% of the impact. Marketing shouldn’t be forced into the same accountability structure as sales — it’s about creating serendipity, not just spreadsheets.
Here’s what else came up:
Why immediate “time to value” matters more than we think (buyers need a quick win)
How psychological design — not product features — drives perceived value
The danger of over-quantifying creativity in pursuit of clean ROAS
And why status signalling explains more customer behaviour than logic ever could
👀 What Others Are Saying
📊 Quick Poll: What’s been the most valuable part of our coverage so far?
💡 Don’t Forget…
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That’s a wrap on MAD//Fest London 2025 — but we’re not done yet.
Over the weekend, we’ll be dropping more insights. Keep an eye on your inbox.
— The Unofficially MAD//Fest Team
Unofficially MAD//Fest is a ClickZ Media publication in the Events division