Our team immersed itself in the latest insights on marketing, branding and consumer behaviour at Mad//Fest Up North last week. While the event reinforced many of the strategies we already champion at ICG, it was a great opportunity to share industry thinking about how to engage with audiences, build communities and stay ahead of the curve.
Here are our top takeaways:
Young People Value Trusted News Sources
It's easy to assume that Gen Z and younger audiences are disengaged from traditional news, but the reality is far from it. Research shared by Newsworks highlighted that while teenagers and young adults enjoy soft news (celebrity gossip, entertainment), they are equally interested in hard news, provided it comes from authentic, trusted sources.
The takeaway; Authenticity is non-negotiable, and younger audiences are increasingly adept at filtering out clickbait and misinformation.
Pain Points: Think Bigger Than Your Audience
Solving customer pain points is Marketing 101 but what about the pain points of the wider market? Angela Cameron of Mars Petcare gave the Whiskas Meowzer campaign as a example. Instead of simply targeting existing cat owners, Whiskas capitalised on the rising search demand for low-maintenance dogs and cleverly reframed cats as an alternative. The result? More cat adoptions, increased brand loyalty and a boost in cat food sales.
The takeaway: Expand your thinking. Instead of just addressing your customers' needs, consider adjacent audiences, cultural shifts, and unexpected opportunities.
Building a Community is a Long-Term Play
A successful brand community isn't built overnight. It requires constant nurturing, much like feeding a sourdough starter (a brilliant analogy shared by Melanie Goldsmith of Project 30 Ventures). Brands must continue engaging their core audience while strategically expanding to new ones.
A thriving brand community is more than just a fanbase; it's a valuable research tool. Your audience can provide real, unfiltered feedback, both on social media and offline. Organisations that foster this sense of belonging by listening, responding, and involving their community in decision-making create advocates, not just customers.
The takeaway: Nurture your core audience, but always be looking for ways to bring new people in.
Social Influence: The Pull' Factor
In a world of constant brand messaging, the most credible marketing doesn't come from brands, it comes from people. Eloquently put by Tom Ridges, CEO of Herdify, this isn't about paid influencers it's about creating real-world social influence that makes your brand naturally desirable, talked about and shared.
Think about how Prime Hydration went from an unknown product to a phenomenon. Yes, the Logan Paul and KSI connection helped, but beyond that, the real-world pull' factor limited availability, peer-to-peer hype, and word-of-mouth drove demand. When people see something being talked about and sought after in their circles, FOMO kicks in.
The takeaway For brands, the challenge is to create products, campaigns, and experiences that are so compelling and shareable that they don't need to be forced into conversations they naturally become part of them.
Psychographics Over Demographics
Kenyatte Nelson, Chief Membership & Customer Officer at Co-op, put it best: I'm more of an anthropologist than a marketer. While demographics (age, gender, location) still have their place, the real power lies in psychographics understanding people's values, motivations, and behaviours.
It's not about targeting a 25-34-year-old female it's about understanding why she buys certain products, what influences her decisions and how she interacts with brands.
The takeaway: Brands that understand their customers on a human level will always have a competitive advantage.
AI Can't Predict the Future
AI is powerful, but it's important to remember that it only knows what has happened before, not what will work in the future. While AI is brilliant for automation, data analysis, and predicting trends based on historical data, it lacks the intuition, creativity, and cultural awareness that human marketers bring to the table.
The takeaway AI should be embraced as a tool, but the real magic in marketing still comes from human insight, gut instinct, and creative risk-taking.
Stay True to Your Brand, But Adapt to New Markets
One of the most interesting insights from Mad//Fest was how brands are successfully evolving while staying true to their identity.
Lorraine Rothwell, Head of Brand at Weetabix shared how Weetabix pivoted from engaging with new audiences with inventive use of its iconic product, back to the hero' serving suggestion at the core of its latest marketing campaign, using inclusive humorous and culturally relevant situations.
Adam Zavalis, Vice President Marketing at Asda recently doubled down on Rollback pricing, northern family-based partnerships (Joe Wicks), and its nostalgic Leeds' brand voice (Jodie Whittaker) reconnecting with its core audience while remaining relevant today.
The takeaway: Brands need to evolve, but never at the cost of losing what makes them unique. Change what needs to change, but hold on to your brand's authentic voice and core DNA.
Hope you've enjoyed these insights. If you're looking to take your brand marketing, trade marketing, or digital strategy to the next level, get in touch -we'd love to help!
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
06/12/2025
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. A new survey from Pixitmedia by Datacore revealed a major shift in the Media & Entertainment industry in media archiving, with 85% of resp...
06/12/2025
HACKENSACK, N.J. LiveU has announced that the national public broadcaster Czech Television has completed one of the largest LiveU live production deployments fo...
06/12/2025
NEW YORK The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) presented the Excellence in Production Technology Emmy Award to NASA+ and Dr. Tom Leight...
05/12/2025
2025 Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame: Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nati...
05/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Veritone's Sean King on the Power of Mining Video, Audio DataThe company's Data Refinery offers users total control and governance over da...
05/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: Inside the Nashville Predators' Unified, Flexible, Sca...
05/12/2025
Netflix Reaches Agreement To Acquire Warner Bros. Following Planned WBD SplitThe deal does not include WBDs sports assets like TNT Sports (US, UK, LatAm), Euros...
05/12/2025
FOX Sports Returns to Indianapolis for Primetime Broadcast of Big Ten Championsh...
05/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Digital Engagement & Monetization Workshop Tackles the ...
05/12/2025
Atlanta United Lights Up New Emory Healthcare Studio With First Live Broadcast f...
05/12/2025
As Messi Takes the Pitch, MLS, Apple, NEP Roll Out Largest MLS Cup Production Ev...
05/12/2025
ESPN Enters College Football's Most Intense Month With Elevated Workflows fo...
05/12/2025
It's about that time! Awards season is in full swing, and the Film Independe...
05/12/2025
Every year, Spotify Wrapped offers a personalized look back at the audio that defined your year. It's a snapshot of your listening habits, designed to tell ...
05/12/2025
In 2025, Spotify's EQUAL, GLOW, and RADAR programs celebrated women, LGBTQIA , and emerging artists who turned moments into milestones. From breaking record...
05/12/2025
In our latest blog, we explain how Wi-Fi 7 rollouts can drive consumer loyalty with value-add services such as consumer cybersecurity. We also explore how this ...
05/12/2025
LOS ANGELES Netflix announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Nielsens Gracenote has launched Gracenote Content Connect, a new ad platform that provides agencies, brands, supply-side platforms (SSPs) and demand-si...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK In an most important update to the workings of deal-based programmatic advertising, IAB Tech Lab has released version 1.0 of its Deals API for public c...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Pass the turkey. Pass the stuffing. Pass the cranberry sauce. All are common requests of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving Day with family and f...
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. Netflix announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire the assets of Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion....
05/12/2025
NEW YORK Iris, the new cloud-connected camera control platform, has officially launched with features that turn virtually any PTZ camera into a software-connect...
05/12/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has approved AT&T's $1.02 billion acquisition of spectrum from UScellular in a decision that was issued sho...
05/12/2025
The Best Coldplay Songs: 21 Tracks That Shoot for the Stars From Yellow to Viva La Vida, Fix You to Paradise, this playlist goes back to the start.
December ...
05/12/2025
Zafris Lecture Series Brings Nabil Ayers to Berklee The 32nd annual James G. Zafris Distinguished Lecture series was held on Thursday, November 13, with guest...
05/12/2025
Friday 5 December 2025
A new Game of Thrones Tale: Official trailer for Sky Exc...
05/12/2025
Back to All News
Don Lee, Lee Jin-uk, and Lalisa Manobal to Star in Netflix Act...
05/12/2025
Tis the season of giving once again and this year we've taken our Give Back Fridays' concept and turned it on its head.
In the autumn we were approach...
05/12/2025
Brayden Gogis doesn't remember a time when he wasn't completely fixated on games in all forms. In preschool, when they asked us to dress up as what we ...
05/12/2025
The Grinch steals the spotlight as the theme for The Late Late Toy Show 2025
Tune in tonight at 9:35pm on RT One and worldwide on RT Player
#LateLateToyShow...
05/12/2025
RT Announces New Presenters of Flagship News Programmes
New RT Six One News co-presenter Tommy Meskill
Sarah McInerney & Justin McCarthy join Morning Ir...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir Blackmagic Design HyperDeck Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & ...
04/12/2025
ToolsOnAir AJA Ki Pro Event Presets for just:in mac pro 2025 & just:in linux
More Details:Starting with version 5.5, both just:in mac pro and just:in linux sol...
04/12/2025
Wangu Kanuri from Kenya and Godwin Asediba from Ghana are two of this years finalists for Thomsons Young Journalist of the Year Award. The pair are runners-up i...
04/12/2025
SVG Sit-Down: ProximaVision's Claudio Lisman on Why Tethered Drones Could Be...
04/12/2025
SVG Campus Shot Callers: Imry Halevi, Senior Associate Director of Athletics, Co...
04/12/2025
Platinum White Paper: LiveU Lightweight Sports Production: A Step Change in Spor...
04/12/2025
London to Riyadh: DAZN brings the boxing glamour to new production levels for Be...
04/12/2025
Analysis: Paramount bets on the battering ram' with Champions League play By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Tuesday, December 2, 2025 - 10:12
Print ...
04/12/2025
Space City Home Network Launches SCHN DTC App for Astros and RocketsThe Rockets and Astros were previously the lone NBA and MLB teams without a DTC appBy Jason...
04/12/2025
SVG Summit 2025 Preview: Content Workflows Workshop Spotlights Evolution of Spor...
04/12/2025
New Sponsor Spotlight: Geotech's Patrick Wambold On the Unreal Engine Revolu...
04/12/2025
Curt Gowdy Jr. - Master Storyteller, Nationally and RegionallyBy Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.
Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 1:52 pm
Print This Sto...
04/12/2025
(L-R) Rebecca Lichtenfeld, Mohammadreza Eyni, Sara Khaki, and Judith Helfand att...
04/12/2025
SBS launches Future Frames initiative to support emerging First Nations video ed...
04/12/2025
Coronal mass ejections caused by eruptions on the surface of the sun can have fa...
04/12/2025
Gracenote Content Connect enables media ecosystem to precisely align ad campaigns and programming based on rich content signals
NEW YORK - December 4, 2025 - N...
Our team immersed itself in the latest insights on marketing, branding and consumer behaviour at Mad//Fest Up North last week. While the event reinforced many of the strategies we already champion at ICG, it was a great opportunity to share industry thinking about how to engage with audiences, build communities and stay ahead of the curve. 
