Speakers

Alex is a passionate and experienced entrepreneur who co-founded Campfire, the leading social first marketing agency that drives Millennials and Gen Z to action. He leads the creative vision and strategy of the agency.

With a background in online advertising and social media marketing, Alex has a knack for creating content that is tailored to individual personalities and generates results for brands. He has worked with some of the world's largest communities online, delivering campaigns that achieved success on behalf of Campfire's clients. Alex's goal is to help brands connect with their audiences in a meaningful and authentic way.

Alice leads the day-to-day trading and strategic partnerships at Popeyes UK and Ireland as the brand scales at pace - recently being named the fastest growing F+B brand in Europe in the FT1000.

She started her career in telecoms in data analytics and commercial planning, before moving into hospitality; leading trade and partnership teams within Pret and PizzaExpress. Alice brings a killer mix of analytical thinking, customer intuition and commercial impact.

Amerie Tagle is an aspiring marketer passionate about cultural marketing and creative storytelling. She focuses on how brands connect with diverse audiences through authentic, engaging strategies and impactful digital campaigns. With experience in content creation and social media management, she enjoys building narratives that foster community and engagement. Her background in customer-facing roles across fashion and food has shaped her understanding of consumer behavior and audience connection, bringing a people-first perspective to her work.

Amy is a data and insight specialist with a strong track record of making sense of complexity and turning it into meaningful direction. With seven years’ experience, she brings both analytical rigour and natural instinct to turning data into meaningful strategy.

Since joining SMRS, she has led projects across a diverse client base, with particular depth in higher education, working with institutions such as King’s College London, Imperial College London, Aston University and MMU, alongside global brands including The LEGO Group and Deloitte. Whether shaping long-term data strategy or diving into technical detail, Amy makes insight accessible, actionable and impactful.

She was instrumental in developing Collata, SMRS’s in-house reporting tool, and also owns the agency’s Brandwatch capability, where she has created a brand tracking dashboard that brings together survey data and consumer insight. Together, this work reflects her ability to build smart, joined-up solutions that give clients a richer, more complete view of performance.

Anna Brocklehurst is a Board Director at We Are Futures, where she leads major client partnerships and shapes youth focused strategy and activations for organisations including NatWest, McDonald’s and P&G.

With a career spanning education, corporate consultancy and communications, Anna began her journey in Shanghai at a Chinese state broadcaster before returning to the UK to work with the Government’s Basic Skills Agency and the Department for Education.

Her cross sector experience gives her a rare, 360° view of how brands can authentically engage young people and the influencers who shape their decisions. At We Are Futures, Anna champions work that delivers tangible impact for both young audiences and the organisations that want to empower them.

April is a seasoned comms pro with 14+ years’ experience in some of London's top PR agencies. Currently leading the team at creative comms agency Here Be Dragons, April has always been drawn to culturally relevant creative work, and at Here Be Dragons has worked across industry recognised campaigns for brands including Greggs, Beavertown, Oddbox, Kimpton Fitzroy London and Disney.

Ava Evans is Politics Editor at PoliticsJOE. Based in Westminster, she covers UK politics and trade unions.Ava joined PoliticsJOE in October 2021 from Global where she was the lead producer on the James O’Brien programme on LBC Radio for more than two years after previously working in other production roles at LBC. Prior to this she was a broadcast journalist with the BBC. Ava is a regular contributor on the BBC, Sky News and Good Morning Britain.

Rebecca Hutson is Editor-in-Chief of The News Movement where she oversees all editorial output and newsrooms in both New York and London. Rebecca joined The News Movement in January 2023, becoming editor-in-chief in April 2024. Becca is an experienced journalist, editor and newsroom leader, having worked in senior management roles at some of the world's largest media brands including MailOnline and Reach PLC.

Prior to joining The News Movement, she was part of the team to launch GBNews as Head of Digital, as well as appearing on-air as a breakfast anchor. She is a frequent guest on Sky News, LBC and Times Radio.

I am a Compliance Executive for the Committee of Advertising Practice who enjoys a challenge and drawing on my past experiences to apply them in new and exciting ways.

Carrie Rose, is founder and CEO of one of the fastest growing agencies in the UK & US – search-first creative agency Rise at Seven. After working 11 years at Branded3, one of the leading SEO agencies at the time, Carrie saw a gap in the industry for brand advertising and SEO to collide. She founded Rise at Seven to push the boundaries in both creative and technical SEO because that’s what is needed to own the most competitive search results.

Rise at Seven are now across the UK, Europe and US with clients including SIXT, Bumble, Capital One, Bacardi, PrettyLittleThing, Amazon, Revolution Beauty and more.

Rise at Seven launched the first reactive marketing service driven by live search trends, and believe in multi-channel search realistic to how consumers behave now. Their content marketing case studies is what they’re famous for, with 78 awards in a roll top bath to show for it. Carrie is featured on the 30 under 30 Forbes list because of her success.

Chrissie Hoolahan is Head of Creator & Influencer Content Partnerships at DAZN, the world’s leading sports entertainment platform. She leads DAZN’s global creator and social content strategy across the group’s extensive multi-sport portfolio, creating innovative ways to connect fans with the athletes and moments they love.

In her role, she has spearheaded a variety of standout creator and content initiatives - from producing DAZN’s first women’s football show to leading the digital content strategy for the NFL’s international games to running a creator programme at the FIFA Club World Cup. More recently she has spearheaded DAZN's latest creator campaign for the FIFA World Cup- the DAZN48, looking to partner with 48 creators, one from every participating nation, to tell the story of the World Cup through the eyes of the fans.

Courtney Zitola is a Marketing Manager at the NSPCC, the UK’s leading children’s charity. Specialising in youth marketing, she oversees communication strategies for Childline, the free 24‑hour service for children and young people up to the age of 19. Courtney has supported the transform Childline's marketing strategy, to help meet young people where they are.

As Head of Product Operations at Pion, Daniel spearheads the global delivery and strategic execution of the company’s core product suite.

In his time at Pion, he has successfully overseen major campaigns for world leading class brands such as Adidas, Apple, Amazon, and ASOS. In his current role, he leads Advertising, User, Content, Experiential, and Creator Operations, engineering the cross-functional workflows that ensure Pion’s infrastructure is both operationally efficient and primed for sustainable growth.

Dan has been in the charity sector for five years after working agency side on brands such as Reebok, eBay and Moonpig. He is a Senior Marketing Officer at the children's charity NSPCC, working to promote Childline to under-18s through social media campaigns, influencer marketing, and schools.

Dr. Russ Wilson is currently Head of UK at global strategic insight agency, The Sound. He has spent the last 15 years working across the insight and strategy industry, including a stint at Amazon, and has carried out research and consultancy projects for many of the worlds’ leading retailers, delivery companies and payment providers.

Eleonora is a Senior Agency Sales Manager at Expedia Group, specialising in multimarket media strategy and digital advertising for brands across categories. With extensive experience partnering with leading agencies and global brands, she helps clients unlock growth through data-driven campaigns across the full media ecosystem. At Expedia Group, Eleonora leads strategic relationships, aligning partners’ objectives with innovative media solutions and insights from Expedia’s global traveler demand. Passionate about collaboration and long-term partnerships, she is known for translating complex market trends into clear, actionable strategies that drive measurable results for advertisers.

Writer, editor and copy specialist with over 10 years’ experience driving creative and commercial content for big-name brands like Selfridges, M&S and MADE.com. I'm passionate about authentic, human-centric storytelling that builds meaningful connections, and lasting brand love.

As Brand Narrative Manager at Pion, I shape the voice of Pion and Student Beans, develop tone, craft exciting brand and campaign narratives, and lead the copywriting team. Most recently, I worked with our C-suite to refresh Pion’s messaging narrative, making it clearer and more compelling, to help brands and internal teams better understand what we do, and why to choose us.

Coming soon!

As Senior Performance Marketing Manager at Urban Outfitters Emily leads the paid media strategy across Paid Social, Paid Search, Affiliates, and Influencer Marketing. The focus is on driving measurable ROI, particularly through performance-led creator campaigns that leverage affiliate partnerships, tracked links, and gifting strategies. Creator and UGC content are key pillars of UOs marketing approach, serving not only as part of influencer campaigns, but also as high-performing assets across our paid social channels. Emily is passionate about bridging brand storytelling with performance marketing to deliver both engagement and commercial impact.

Freddie is a Research Manager, experienced in research across fields including Education marketing, Employer Branding, Employer Culture and Customer Behaviours.

With over 10 years in market research, she has led on a wide range of projects with local and international clients, including the University of Manchester, PepsiCo, Lego, Royal Holloway and Deloitte.

This range of knowledge and experience brings a strong understanding of the consumer mindset. Working across a range of methodologies, including segmentation and personas, qualitative and quantitative methods, creative and UX testing and longitudinal trackers, Freddie is well versed in mixed methods and robust insights.

Bio coming soon!

Since joining SMRS in 2023, Isobel has contributed to a wide range of research projects, including survey design, focus group facilitation, competitor analysis, and data analysis and reporting. She has worked across private and public sector organisations, as well as within the higher education (HE) sector, supporting clients to refine their strategies through evidence-based insights.

In addition to project delivery, Isobel is involved more broadly in the general oversight of SMRS’s research activities and plays a key role in designing and delivering the syndicated HE Trends research.

Her experience includes projects for the University of Warwick, King's College London, Imperial College Business School, and LSE. She has also supported multinational organisations including InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), the LEGO Group, and RR SMR.  

Jen Rouse was appointed Managing Director of Team GB Foundation in February 2024, having worked in sport for development for over 25 years in the UK within local government, national governing bodies of sport and national charities.  Jen is also Chair of the Advisory Board for Brave Mind, a charity focused on improving mental health within sport and Deputy Chair of ERIC, the national children’s bladder and bowel charity.

Jen’s focus and passion is unlocking the power that sport and play has to enable ALL children to be happy, healthy and more active – enabling them to reach their potential, whatever that may be.  Cultivating and maximising partners, brands, and funders to meet the needs the beneficiaries she is working to serve, whilst enabling partnerships to come together and flourish.  Jen works with passion, empathy, and pace to bring the right people together to make exciting things happen and is driven by purpose.

Jon joined Channel 4 last year to lead social media strategy and innovation across the organisation. He has spent the last 15 years leading digital and social transformation across some of the world’s largest media brands. Jon was previously Director of Editorial Strategy at LADbible, Audience and Content Director for Sport across Reach PLC’s national and regional network and worked in media planning for Manchester United.

Laura is an Assistant Marketing Manager at Boots, specialising in loyalty marketing. She began her Boots journey leading the personalised offers strategy for Advantage Card members and now leads the development of Boots’ Advantage Card clubs, including Student Discount and Over 60s Rewards. With a strong focus on data‑driven decision‑making, Laura develops loyalty strategies that deepen customer engagement and deliver truly personalised experiences.

Lucy is a Senior Account Manager and TikTok Shop Strategist at Campfire, where she leads strategy for Rimmel and the broader Coty Group. Prior to Campfire, Lucy led a specialised in-house team dedicated to TikTok Shop, notably spearheading the platform launch for The Ordinary, which has since become one of the leading skincare retailers on the app. Her foundation in commerce began at THG, where she managed the QVC teleshopping division across UK, Italy and Germany. This experience in live, high-pressure retail gave her a unique perspective on social commerce long before "shoppable video" became the industry standard.

Mabinty Taylor-Kamara is an Insights and Editorial Producer driven by a deep curiosity for youth culture, creativity, and social change. With a background across copywriting, cultural programming, and audience research, she specialises in translating emerging youth perspectives into compelling narratives and actionable insight for brands.

Mabinty manages communications and leads the youth voice at Word on the Curb. She writes thought pieces that blend qualitative and quantitative research, helping brands clearly understand how young people think, feel, and engage.

With a foundation in community engagement and facilitation, Mabinty is particularly passionate about ensuring young people's perspectives are represented authentically in brand strategy.

Mark is a Legal Counsel at Pion working with the Commercial function. He works closely with our colleagues across different departments to ensure that Pion is able to support its brands from onboarding all the way through to their ongoing campaigns.

In particular, Mark has helped drive collaboration between different functions to ensure that Pion is prepared to assist brands with navigating the new HFSS requirements.

Matt is an experienced leader at Google, with over 12 years in strategic global partnerships, brand marketing and people management.

Matt currently leads global efforts for the Google News Initiative, overseeing responsible AI innovation, emerging news voices, industry research and digital skills. Matt spearheaded the 'Journalism AI Innovation Challenge,' providing 35 grants to small/medium-sized news organizations, and has designed and launched multiple other international grant programs to support experimentation across the news and information ecosystem.

Prior to joining Google, Matt was a broadcast journalist for BBC News for 8 years - presenting and reporting on BBC News Channel, BBC London & BBC Three '60 seconds'.

Molly is a Digital Marketing and Partnerships specialist with experience across affiliate, influencer, and brand campaigns in the beauty, event and lifestyle space. She’s worked on delivering culturally relevant campaigns that connect with Gen Z audiences while driving measurable results. From negotiating partnerships to sourcing creators and optimising performance, she brings both creativity and commercial thinking to her work.

Outside of her 9–5, Molly enjoys lending her skills to culture and sport-led marketing projects, helping brands show up authentically in communities she genuinely cares about.

Nathan is a co-founder at Prospectus Plus and SMILE, with almost 2 decades of experience in the field of digital marketing and web design.

Throughout his career, Nathan has focused on delivering university flagship websites and providing advice to forward-thinking senior leaders on how to exceed their organisational targets by creating user-focused, digital-first strategies. His expertise in designing high-profile websites with complex system integrations has made him a respected figure in the industry.

Nathan has worked on multiple award-winning projects, highlighting his commitment to excellence and innovation. More recently Nathan has focused on helping universities and colleges to make the transition to digital-first prospectuses. Prospectus Plus aims to help educational brandsbecome more sustainable, and generate strategic recruitment insight.

As a frequent speaker at national and international conferences, Nathan enjoys sharing his insights on digital innovation, transformation, and strategy.

​Production Coordinator at Word on the Curb, Oreoluwa "Ore" Johnson is a Nigerian-British filmmaker and cultural storyteller based in East London. With a deep love of culture and a career built on authentic, community-first narratives, Ore brings a unique lens to the spaces where identity, brand, and youth culture collide.

Her work spans documentary, production, and content creation - not led by trends, but by curiosity and a genuine desire to understand the world around her.

Driven by curiosity, shaped by people.

Paul has over fifteen years’ of commercial experience in the higher education sector, working both media and agency side. His background includes being the Commercial Director of The Student Room, helping university partners understand and engage with the next generation of students. Paul now joins the Client Partner team at SMRS, bringing a deep knowledge of the Higher Education landscape, the challenges faced by universities, and the mindset of our target audience.

Paul is the Founder of PR Communications Agency Here Be Dragons, working with clients such as Greggs, Beavertown and Disney to create brave earned media work.

Richard leads B2B content at Pion, where he's responsible for events and insights. For over a decade, he has been the driving force behind scaling the Youth Marketing Strategy (YMS) event globally. His unique combination of passion for youth marketing, brand storytelling, and community-building is what has made Pion a uniquely positioned and consistently relevant brand.

Rob Scotland is one of the leading influences in the sports brand industry today.

As Head of Brand Communications at Veo Technologies, he is democratising AI pattern recognition technology in team sports and bringing opportunities to players of every level.

Having previously worked with Ferrari F1, Nike and Xbox as well as McCann and Leo Burnett, Rob is perfectly placed to supercharge the brand impact of sports-tech, most recently leading the brand initiative, Veo People’s Puskas, with over 300,000 global votes.

Beyond work, Rob lectures at Hyper Island and Berghs School of Communication in Stockholm and has just completed his second TEDx talk, now available on YouTube.

As a Product Designer at Pion, Rowena has spent the last year evolving the Student Beans app experience. Their role is centered on making the complex feel simple; they specialise in translating student insights into intuitive features and discovery tools. Rowena is passionate about building a platform that doesn't just offer discounts, but truly integrates into the modern student lifestyle.

Ruby is an influencer marketing specialist with over 18 years' experience across agencies, publishers and brands. She is dedicated to ethical marketing practises and mentoring others.

Sheeva is Content Strategist at Pion, responsible for delivering a full-funnel user experience to Student Beans through engaging campaigns and exciting brand partner activations. With over 10 years' experience working in editorial, campaign production and content marketing for global publishers and brands - including Vogue, Net-a-Porter and more recently, LOOKFANTASTIC - she is at the forefront of understanding what content makes savvy consumers tick.

Sherice Anibaba is a brand and growth leader with over 15 years’ experience building brands.She is currently Head of Brand & Content at HomeServe, where she leads brand strategy, content, and creative direction.

Alongside her role, Sherice operates at board level across purpose-driven and challenger organisations. She is a Board Advisor to Psalt Rise, where she helps shape national strategy to unlock opportunities for 16–24 year olds, and  Brand Strategist & Board Advisor to Blue Turaco Coffee, a farmer-owned Ugandan coffee brand challenging industry norms.

Her career spans global brands including McDonald's, Speedo, and Greene King, where she has led brand transformation and built high-performing teams.

Sherice is particularly passionate about how brand thinking can be applied beyond marketing from driving business growth to reshaping systems and unlocking opportunities for the next generation.

After starting his career in Sports and Influencer Marketing, Simon moved to adidas in 2020 to lead digital activations across 19 European markets. For the last two years, he's been heading up the EU Partnership Marketing team, defining and driving adidas' strategy for closed-group consumers across Student, Employee, Loyalty and CLO sectors.

Smita Chohan is a Client Partner at SMRS, working with a wide range of higher education institutions to shape effective, insight‑led marketing strategies. With over 22 years’ experience in university marketing and student recruitment, Smita brings deep sector knowledge and a strong understanding of the challenges institutions face. She is known for her ability to step back and see the bigger picture, using insight to inform strategy and identifying the key levers institutions can pull to enhance marketing performance and student recruitment outcomes.

Prior to joining SMRS, Smita was Deputy Director of Marketing and Communications and Head of Student Recruitment at the University of Derby, leading teams across admissions, communications, alumni relations, events, outreach and campaigns in both UK and international markets.

Sophie Derham is an Insights Manager with a passion for understanding youth culture that goes beyond just being chronically online and a zillennial herself. With experience spanning market research, content creation, and community engagement at Word on the Curb, she specialises in capturing perspectives in a meaningful way, and turning that insight into actionable strategy for brands. She manages the Curbsights Suite, a selection of insights tools aimed at getting people close to their audience. Having previously headed up the Curb Community of 20,000 members, she’s an expert at accessing, engaging and understanding niche audiences, with a specialism in Gen Z.

Sophie’s work sits at the intersection of data and storytelling - for brands such as Pinterest, Coppafeel, Mind and Etsy -bridging the gap between what young people think and what businesses need to know.

A senior media professional with over 20 years experience working with regional and national brands on advertising and marketing campaigns across a variety of channels. Thanh's experience spans across OOH, radio, television and digital.

Dedicated on a professional and personal level to drive diversity, equity and inclusion within the advertising community, Thanh launched Reach, a programme designed to support brand growth for under-represented Founders, helping them scale and grow by reaching their chosen target audiences through the Power of the Public Screen. Reach’s ultimate mission is to help brands and partners to harness Out-Of-Home's inherent inclusivity to mirror and elevate the communities in which it serves.

Following the success of the Reach programme, Thanh subsequently launched GENgage, an award winning programme specialising in helping brands and agencies understand, reach and strategically target Gen Z through the social spaces OOH occupies.

Tierney is a social and digital marketing specialist with 10 years of experience in the publishing, e-commerce and FinTech industries. In the last decade, she has led multi-channel marketing strategies for influential global publishers, including VICE, The Daily Telegraph, Refinery29 and The Independent.  Now at Monzo, she recently led the go to market campaign for the Book of Money, Monzo's jargon free guide to personal finance.

As a Marketing Consultant, specialising in Higher Education, Vicky delivers and implements effective and innovative strategic solutions to overcome marketing and recruitment challenges for universities. She has led on a variety of consultancy projects during her 8 years at SMRS, including a Sales Funnel Review incorporating journey mapping for University of Portsmouth, Persona Development projects for University of Glasgow and Loughborough University and a Portfolio review for Birmingham City University.

Vicky has over 10 years’ experience as a marketer in higher education, including working client side as a Marketing and Recruitment Manager at the University of Hertfordshire. She has an excellent understanding of the sector and brings patience and resilience to everything she works on. She focuses on elevating the work a client is currently doing and providing the tools and frameworks necessary to build on what is already in place and help them change for the better.

An entrepreneur at heart, I am full of ideas and excited by technology. I am happiest when finding simple solutions to complex challenges. I love building products, revenue growth teams and operationalising something new.

When I'm not working you will find me playing with my daughter or on the bank trying (and often failing) to catch fish.

I’m an award-winning global marketing leader with over 15 years of experience across technology, media, retail, and travel. As Chief Marketing Officer at Pion, I drive integrated strategies that fuel acquisition, engagement, and retention, shaping the company’s growth in consumer group marketing.

Before joining Pion, I held senior global marketing roles at STA Travel, Day 8 Experiences, and Contiki. At Contiki, I led the brand’s transformation through social media innovation, viral content marketing, and strategic repositioning—work that earned me recognition as ‘Tomorrow’s Marketing Leader’ by the Chartered Institute of Marketing.