Northern leaders and winners from the Prolific North Marketing Awards recently came together to share their insights on the outlook for 2025 from opportunities with AI and automation, to challenges around budget constraints or brand trust.
Gathering at Glaisyer’s office in the heart of Spinningfields in Manchester on 26 November, the leaders also celebrated their wins from the Prolific North Marketing Awards which was recently hosted at Manchester United Football Club, on 31 October.
During the morning roundtable discussion, they shared their reflections on AI and Automation, DEI initiatives and talent, the emergence of expanding social channels, plus budget pressures and cost-effective strategies.
Attendees:
- Chaired by David Prior, Editor at Prolific North
- Patrick Rose, Director, Hot House
- Andy Robins, Account Director, Edison Media
- Caitlin Dunbar, Senior Creative Designer, One Agency Media
- Josh Wheeler, Founder, Be Broadcast
- Lydia Crossley, Founder, Good Morning Digital
- Laura Donnelly, Associate, Good Morning Digital
- Jamie Learmont, Associate Director, Waypoint
- Peter Pegasiou, Solicitor – Creative, Digital and Marketing, Glaisyers
- Sam Biggins, Managing Director, Evoluted
Kicking off with a welcome to attendees, Prolific North’s editor David Prior congratulated leaders in the room on their wins at the recent marketing awards.
With more than 20 years’ experience in finance and operations in creative, marketing and technology businesses, Jamie Learmont from Waypoint shared his impressive career journey. As headline partner of the awards, he explained Waypoint’s “big focus and care” about the North, especially it’s work to support and help agencies that want to continue growing.
Opportunities in 2025: AI and Automation
Following introductions, Prior (Prolific North) quizzed the room of leaders about their thoughts on AI and automation, and asked how their companies are taking advantage of the greater efficiencies available from campaign automation to deeper consumer insights.
The majority of attendees agreed they use AI in some form. For Josh Wheeler (Be Broadcast), he explained how there is still “lots of fear around AI” and it is set to have the “biggest impact” on newcomers to the marketing industry.
He argued there is still a lack of training around AI and would love to see more training programmes set up, so it isn’t all guesswork about what works and doesn’t work.
Over at Hot House, Patrick Rose said the agency is using it to automate tasks such as with SEO metatags as AI is “great for SEO” to create better targeted content with more insights.
On tools such as SearchGPT, Rose added AI can help automate and build links far quicker than a person could, freeing up resources to be used elsewhere.
As a creative, Caitlin Dunbar (One Agency Media) said the agency has experimented with AI tools like Midjourney which has become a “great opportunity” to test things out or help to reduce the back and forth with client amends. However, it’s all about learning the right prompts and, similarly to Wheeler at Be Broadcast, said users “need a lot of training”. She warned against AI being used solely in creative work, pointing to fashion brand Mango recently using AI-generated models for campaigns.
Although Lydia Crossley (Good Morning Digital) said it’s “important we champion that there is a talent in using AI”, from a quality point of view, she argued the use of AI is “brand dependent” and urged marketers to use it responsibly, and with balance.
AI “can’t smell the donuts on Blackpool’s Pleasure Beach”, she teased, pointing to the agency’s award-winning campaign with Showtown Blackpool, a £13million new museum in the North West.
On how agencies embrace AI internally, Josh Wheeler provided an overview of how Be Broadcast has developed its own proprietary technology with a ‘Mission Control’ tool, which offers competitor analysis. But what makes the broadcast consultancy “different” to others is not using AI for content or operations as the team are all sector specialists. “Some sides of marketing still need to stay human,” he added.
AI is still in a “transitional phase” agreed Peter Pegasiou (Glaisyers), and if there is no training it can be a “slippery slope” especially when it comes to GDPR concerns as users don’t know where their personal data is going. Another issue is intellectual property, which can be breached if users are not careful. AI is great, if used in the right way, especially for automating tasks.
Over at Evoluted, Sam Biggins said AI is used to write scripts for Google Ads with ChatGPT initially, then that information is refined to “quickly automate” things for clients and internally, it is used to speed up processes with timesheets. But to get the best out of AI, you need to “interrogate it” and experiment with prompts.
Laura Donnelly (Good Morning Digital) and Patrick Rose (Hot House) also agree AI is a useful tool for automation and allows staff to focus on more important tasks but it is not so good at “emotional storytelling”.
Expanded Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Initiatives
On how leaders will potentially expand their DEI focus in 2025, Biggins (Evoluted) said his Sheffield agency has always been “people-first” and is now B Corp-certified. To improve diversity and inclusion, every few months the agency appoints new diversity inclusion officers out of its team of 35 to keep perspectives “fresh”.
Over the past four to five years, having those officers in place and going on a B Corp journey has been “really impactful” for the agency, with plenty of positive changes implemented or tested from ‘duvet’ days, neurodiversity initiatives to a focus on purpose-driven clients.
At One Agency Media, Dunbar explained the agency strives to help the team with anything from learning lunches, mental health wellness initiatives to supporting neurodiversity or those with endometriosis, and has discussed hiring a dedicated person focused on culture.
According to Jamie Learmont (Waypoint), agencies are always keen to adopt progressive initiatives and those from the Gen Z or Millennial generations tend to talk about things more openly. “Sometimes agencies have the right intent to put things in place, but sometimes it’s open to abuse in some cases and can be taken advantage of,” he explained.
DEI has evolved yet there has been a “backlash to some extent” as different generations have ways of dealing with things differently, added Wheeler (Be Broadcast).
Internally, he pointed to the importance of screening out names during the hiring process to tackle unconscious bias and to be aware of social mobility for underserved communities, not just for staff but for clients too. Marketers need to “look in the mirror and ask are we doing these things or just saying we are”.
As part of being a B Corp-certified company, Evoluted has to publish an annual impact report to measure, manage and continue improving its positive impact which has become “important to reflect” and look at that data, added Biggins.
Expanding Channels
Following Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, now known as X, the social platform has now become more risky but more opportunities have emerged with newer platforms such as Threads and Bluesky. With so many changes on the horizon, Prior (Prolific North) asked leaders if they plan to refocus their social strategies as we head into 2025.
Inevitably, X was a hot topic. Crossley (Good Morning Digital) said there “does need to be a change” as X has been on the decline for some time. Social strategies are always client dependent, so marketers shouldn’t jump on every new social platform as they emerge.
For Wheeler (Be Broadcast), he outlined the importance of separating personal views from business, admitting he deleted his personal X account a few months ago. He has pondered where to grow social channels but believed X was not the right place.
There is a “big shift happening” around social platforms and ethics, especially for brands and agencies. Pointing to a recent “hit piece” on the man behind Jaguar’s hotly debated rebrand that featured on the Daily Mail, he said some brands are still happy to feature on the website but will “run away” from the likes of GB News.
Robins (Edison Media) said his agency is “media neutral” for clients and when it comes to social platforms, and he personally is a fan of free speech and X, but not so much of a fan of new social platform Bluesky. He reflected on his career previously working at The Sun, which he said is often stereotyped but has “always been diverse” even 30 years ago.
Wheeler (Be Broadcast) said marketers have a “really important job to guide clients”, and this means not isolating audiences by steering clear of certain publications or social platforms. It is “concerning” that media platforms such as GB News or X might be taken out of the mix, and more work should be done to “push” those areas and spark conversations, which Robins (Edison Media) agreed with.
Pegasiou (Glaisyers) moved the conversation onto brand trust, asking if any of the leaders have turned down clients for the sake of DEI. Biggins (Evoluted) said the agency has just turned down a client that didn’t fit Evoluted’s brand but had previously considered a fast fashion client as felt they could have “influence on what they do”.
For Wheeler (Be Broadcast), he personally would steer clear of companies producing gas or oil but returned back to his question about ethics: “If you can educate, it can help”.
Challenges in 2025: Budget constraints
The roundtable discussion wrapped up with a discussion on some of the challenges ahead for 2025, with Prior (Prolific North) asking leaders about how their companies are addressing budget constraints.
Rose (Hot House) said across the agency, both budgets and revenue have grown but it’s from existing clients, not new ones, which he described as a “fairly common picture” across agencies right now, with account growth rather than acquisition.
Crossley and Donnelly (Good Morning Digital) said they have not seen reduced budgets yet. As a smaller agency, Crossley said clients “value close contact” as there are no account managers at the agency and all of the team gets involved with its associate model. “That’s how we develop our USP and secure those clients”.
On her outlook for 2025, she said it is “looking good”.
For Robins (Edison Media), as far as he is aware budgets are fine as he shared how one client at the agency is doubling its budget next year. The agency started out with just a handful of people and has since grown to more than 15 staff. Now with a dedicated team in place, revenue growth is big on the agenda for 2025.
There has been “a lot of uncertainty” in the UK in the midst of elections and economic upheaval and the trend has been one of struggle, explained Learmont (Waypoint).
From a marketing point of view, he said it is a “bit of a mixed bag” as lots of agencies emerging from Covid did very well but that picture is now starting to steady. It’s set to be an “interesting year ahead” and ecommerce is a sector to watch.
Over at Be Broadcast, Wheeler wrapped up the conversation with his views on how “every penny counts” now in the marketing and PR world as clients appear to be moving towards retainer and project-based work.
Congratulations once again to all of the winners from the Prolific North Marketing Awards 2024 – in case you missed it, check out the full list of winners here.
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