Gavin Stirrat’s Post

What a great couple of days myself and some of the Adimo team got to spend at MAD//FEST LONDON 2024 this week. Firstly, all of the drama with queues in 2023 were completely gone this year. Registration was quick and easy, taking no more than about 5 mins when I got there just after 0900 on Tuesday morning. Secondly, the vast footprint of 2024 just made the experience feel a little less hectic than previous, meant there were more great spaces (such as the Female Leaders Club), more room for companies to exhibit (and as ever thanks to Philip Acton and Adform for the bagels), and created more capacity for even more great content. We were spoilt once again with a huge choice of content, and just like Cannes, commerce / retail media was the hot topic, with lots of fascinating insights from an impressive line up of brands, retailers and tech companies from across the commerce landscape. It was particularly interesting to hear Epsilon's take on retail media and their 'Back to the Future' theme - basically how the future of retail media will be driven by learning from the past as we are now seeing the next wave of networks appearing, the irrelevance of channels, digital becoming truly addressable and the value of contextual. I'm sorry I am missing day 3 (aka the party day), but lastly Madfest was as ever a great show for networking with potential clients and partners, as well as a lovely environment to catch up with friends old and new over a coffee / bite to eat / drink. Can't wait for 2025! Cheers Dan Brain / Ian Houghton - hopefully you guys got to enjoy a bit of downtime this afternoon!