The full Most Contagious agenda is taking shape and we look forward to bringing a year’s worth of marketing trends and advertising insights into a single day of inspirational talks to help you create better, braver work. 

For this edition, we’re thrilled to collaborate with WARC to explore the latest strategic work, guiding bold marketers to connect creative brilliance with long-term commercial success. 

With all that fresh knowledge, you’ll be ready to reset your approach for 2025 and make it your most impactful year yet.

 

Nutter Butter / Are you OK? 

Featuring psychedelic graphics and surrealism that would give Dali a run for his money, this year, Nutter Butter’s seriously nutty social posts have racked up millions of views, driving new relevance for a cookie that has been a supermarket mainstay since the 60s. Learn the surprisingly smart strategy and creative processes underpinning the Mondelez brand’s strange social output and discover why too much logic could be holding you back.

ASICS / Good Sport

ASICS has turned around declining sales and market share by reconnecting with its founding philosophy - ‘a sound mind in a sound body’. In this session, Gary Raucher, Asics EMEA EVP, head of product, marketing, and merchandising will reveal how the brand revitalized its identity through marketing and innovation, found “fruits in its roots” and drove double-digit sales growth and a quintupling of its share price in just two years.

Savage X Fenty / Inclusivity in Action

Following a notable 19-year career at Nike and now heading up marketing for Rihanna’s iconic lingerie and lifestyle apparel brand, Savage X Fenty CMO Vanessa Wallace will share her unique take on engaging today’s audience. This fireside chat will explore how Savage X Fenty has grown into a billion-dollar empire by embracing inclusivity and empowering women with the confidence to be themselves.

Grubhub / Special Delivery

Learn how the brand created a long-term loyalty play by tapping into the powerful, personal moment when new mothers crave their first post-birth meal. Grubhub’s Special Delivery campaign broke through the noise in the highly competitive food delivery sector, increasing customer loyalty by 54%. Discover, too, how Grubhub redefined brand engagement through empathy, creativity, and meaningful customer relationships.

Clash of Clans / Hammerless

One of the world’s most popular mobile games, Clash of Clans has been downloaded more than 2 billion times since its 2012 release. Its latest campaign, a true crime podcast starring a TikTok forensic scientist, continues the game’s streak of stand-out marketing instrumental to its longevity. This session will break down how to generate excitement and loyalty among existing fans, while using social media, compelling content and influencer partnerships to attract new audiences.

Solo Stove / Blunt

Find out how Solo Stove developed their breakthrough work featuring Snoop Dogg. Hear how the team built from the first round of the campaign - which became an industry lightning rod last year - to round two, and get tips on how to craft a brand platform powerful enough to drive a Multiplier Effect between brand impact and commercial performance.

Don’t Believe the AI Hype / 

With 10+ years of experience in AI and working for major brands at the intersection of creativity and tech, The Coca-Cola Company's Global Head of AI Design, Dominik Heinrich, will demystify the hype around AI and reveal its impact for marketers. You’ll learn actionable insights on the steps brands need to be taking today, and discover why becoming more human is key to staying relevant in an AI-agentic world.

Cultural Moments of 2024 /  

The most successful brands engage in culture, leveraging its sway to influence consumption and catalyze propagation. In this talk, Marcus Collins, marketing professor and best-selling author of For the Culture, will explore the anatomy of successful cultural engagement by analyzing some of 2024's biggest cultural moments and extracting learnings that might be incorporated in our own work.

The Multiplier Effect / 

Brand and performance advertising are increasingly siloed, reducing their consumer impact and financial payback. In this session, WARC will present findings from “The Multiplier Effect” - a study published with Analytic Partners, BERA.ai, Prophet and System1 - showing how an integrated approach yields stronger returns, and offer actionable tips on how to do so in practice.

Unleashing Creativity for Video Using Google AI /  

Dive deep into the world of AI-powered video advertising and discover how Google AI is transforming creativity on YouTube. Join us as we explore the impact of Google AI on every step of the creative process, from learning, ideating, creating, and expanding. This session will balance inspiring creative examples with ready-to-use tools and resources that can be leveraged throughout the entire creative process.

Future tech for new generations /  

Gen Z and Alpha have distinct social behaviours and a more fluid approach to work compared to previous generations, but tech tools haven’t adapted to their needs. Nico Venkataramani, Founder of Sparkeey, will explain how the calendar app is harnessing trend insights in making scheduling practical and purposeful for Gen Z and A users and providing both creators and brands with an alternate way to enhance engagement.

AI Won’t Steal Your Job, But It Might Steal Our Creativity /  

Creativity is under siege. Algorithms and automation are lifting the floor of our work, but they’re also lowering the ceiling. At this very moment, we’re standing at a fork in the road: do we outsource too much to AI and march into a dystopian “Brave New World”? Or do we take control of the tools and build something weird, wild, and totally new? Springboards Co-Founder/CEO, Pip Bingemann will share how they’ve been breaking AI on purpose and turning it from a tool for answers, into a tool for inspiration.

How to Win in 2025 /  

So you’re staring down the barrel of another year in marketing, with headwinds that include the threat of global conflict, cultural polarization, the rise of AI, and – oh yes – the climate crisis! You also need to grow your brand and meet your targets. In this session Contagious will share their take on how to make it work and hit the ground running in 2025.

Laughing to the memory bank /  

There’s no question: humor is back on the brand agenda. As competition for attention increases, tickling someone’s funny bone is a shortcut to connection and memorability. But how can brands best employ this sometimes tricky tactic? In this talk, Contagious Principal Strategist Chris Barth will unpack how to strategically apply humor to not just get a laugh, but to build your brand in the process.

Learn

Learn about the trends and technologies that will shape the ad industry in the year ahead from Contagious’ expert editors and strategists, in a series of lively and case study-packed talks.

Understand

Understand the strategies behind some of the most innovative and effective campaigns of 2024, as the teams that created work give behind-the-scenes accounts of how they found their ideas and brought them to life.

Discover

Discover new ideas, brands and people that will leave you feeling inspired. At Most Contagious we celebrate and analyse best-in-class creativity to equip you with everything you need to make better, bolder work.

Convene

117 W 46th St

New York, NY 10036, USA