Throughout 2018, Identity have partnered with global media platform The Drum on four of their main awards evenings, as well as The Drum Future of Marketing conference. The conference was held on the 22nd November at The Crystal in London and featured a wide range of speakers discussing and exploring the connected online and offline world’s changing habits due to the rise of Cyberville: The Smart City. In this article, we take a look at some of our highlights from the event.

The morning started off with Theo Blackwell, The Chief Digital Officer to the Mayor of London sharing the future plans for London over the coming years as a result of digital transformation.

Next up was The China Opportunity: What are the opportunities that can be learned from that Eastern Promise? Moderated by Gordon Young, the founder of The Drum, he discussed with the panellists how the West is finally waking up to the potential that China can have on our companies. With panellists from Rakuten Marketing, Hot Pot Digital and MSQ Partners, the group explored the lessons European brands can learn from the Chinese market.

After a short break, Identity’s Experiential Account Director Toby Havord joined The Future of Out of Home and Experiential Marketing panel, with panellists from Talon Outdoor, Clear Channel and Enders Analysis.

The panel, hosted by The Drum’s Associate Editor Sonoo Singh, explored how it is important in the Cyberville world to not only be selling products, but providing brand experiences and how out of home advertising will have a more involved role. Toby shared with the panel that it’s vital to think of the audience journey and capturing valuable data to allow marketers to build a more personal relationship between brands and consumers.

After lunch, the afternoon followed with more interesting panel discussions, ending with a very innovative keynote from Marcus John Henry Brown titled The Sensorium Process.

The keynote performance set in a dystopian 2020, explored the birth of a society whose values are based on a personal brand reach, advertising and influence. The performance stems from Brown’s critically acclaimed Black Operatives series which looks at how technology, advertising and corporate culture shapes society.

The Future of Marketing was a fantastic conference, which explored many areas of the online and offline world’s changing habits within marketing, technology and our society. Identity were very proud to be significantly involved with the day, sponsoring the event and speaking on the Future of Out of Home and Experiential panel and we look forward to 2019’s conference.