Agenda 2026

Pion presents wave two of the most influential brand ranking of 2026. Discover where your brand stands with young people today and what drives brand love vs. spend.

Understand the emotional drivers, spending patterns, and brand behaviours that marketers need to know to stay relevant with the next generation and find out who are the movers and shakers as we head into the second half of the year.

The rules around advertising to young people are evolving quickly. From new restrictions on less healthy food and drink to increasing scrutiny of online harms and influencer marketing, the expectations on brands have never been higher.

But compliance does not have to dampen creativity or brand impact. In fact, getting it right can strengthen storytelling, build trust, and protect long term reputation.

In this session, the Advertising Standards Authority will explore what the changing regulatory landscape means in practice. We will highlight the most common pitfalls across advertising, social media and influencer campaigns, with a particular focus on protecting children and young people online and share practical guidance to help you stay both responsible and effective.

Youth audiences don’t experience marketing as campaigns - they experience it as content in their feed.

This session explores how brands like Currys have shifted to social-first strategies, designing content that feels native, entertaining and culturally fluent. We’ll unpack how tone of voice, lo-fi formats, speed and creator-style storytelling help brands earn attention, build relevance and stay credible with younger audiences.

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For years, the discourse around young people and news has pointed to the same conclusion: they don't like it. They don't trust it. It's overwhelming. And it’s too depressing.

And while some of that may hold true, we'd like to offer a counterargument: Young people actually love the news. It's just packaged differently.

Today, news is creator-led, niche, and delivered in the form of newsletters, short-form video, and community-driven platforms. Young people are consuming news and information every single day, and not just passively. Whether on TikTok or Substack, they're actively engaging with stories and topics they don't just need to stay informed, but that they're genuinely curious and passionate about.

The question isn't whether young people care about the news. They do. The question is whether the industry is willing to meet them where they are, and build for how they actually consume it. This session brings together voices from across the new media ecosystem to explore what's working, what the future of news looks like, and how brands can not only get involved, but also learn a thing or two.

More info coming soon!

Discover how Monzo disrupted the financial industry once again with the mission-driven launch of The Book of Money - a campaign that turned financial literacy into a mainstream cultural moment.

In this fireside chat, Tierney Cowap, Senior Brand Manager at Monzo, breaks down the strategy behind the campaign and what marketers can learn from it, including:

• How Monzo took a topic that feels confusing, intimidating and out of reach and created a brand asset that resonates with younger audiences.
• The story of the campaign from pitching to publishing and why storytelling can be a powerful extension of your brand strategy.
• The activations that brought the campaign to life and helped Monzo meet their audience where they are.

By winter break, a student’s "inner circle" of brands is already set. Success requires speed and precision. Join our fireside chat as we track the Freshers’ timeline step-by-step, revealing the "make-or-break" moments where top brands win loyalty before the window slams shut.

How do you take a functional brand and make it culturally relevant for your audience? Perla Bloom is a strategist at the intersection of tech, creativity, and culture and is passionate about tapping into passion points to humanise brands.

Currently leading Expedia Group’s marketing strategy across entertainment, partnerships and sponsorships, we sit down with Perla for a conversation on why culture is more than just TikTok trends and how your brand can leverage technology to tell stories and boost brand experiences.

How does a global brand build a premium image, while still growing non-full price sales? This fireside chat explores how adidas’ blend of dynamism and discipline has contributed to building a premium brand image while hitting ambitious growth targets.

The most effective youth marketing doesn’t just promote brands - it creates real opportunity for young people. In this session we’ll explore how brands can unlock growth by aligning commercial goals with making genuine impact in young people’s lives. We’ll share how access to young audiences, life-stage insight and co-creation can transform marketing into something that drives both measurable business results and meaningful outcomes for young people.

Every weekend, millions of young people create, edit, and distribute sports content that never touches your platform, your hashtag, or your campaign.

They're not waiting to consume what brands produce. They're producing their own. And the stuff they're making, raw clips, group chat highlights, 1v1 humiliations - travels further in their world than anything with a media budget behind it.

Veo has captured over 4 million grassroots matches globally. Top Baller has built a global 1v1 format that's attracted Messi, IShowSpeed, and the Bundesliga. Neither of us started as media companies. We became media companies because that's what the audience demanded.

What we've learned challenges the assumptions most youth marketing still operates on:

• They don't want to watch sports. They want to be visible in it.
• A 12-second clip has more status than a 90-minute broadcast.
• "Getting better" is identity. Winning is secondary.
• They'll build a community around a Tuesday night 1v1 faster than a Champions League final.

Top Baller went from a London cage to events with Messi in two years. Players from their tournaments have signed for Preston, Wolves, and PSG. The pathway doesn't look like it used to.

This session is for anyone trying to reach young audiences through sport, and wondering why the old playbook isn't working.

More info coming soon!

This session explores how top-tier retailers are moving away from fragmented vendors to a single "flywheel" that owns the data, the SEO, and the customer relationship from discovery to conversion.

Brands, with all their know how and reach, are now also playing a more dominant role in co-authoring our lives.

This session from Russ Wilson at The Sound explores a cultural shift captured by a simple metaphor: moving from full stops to ellipses, those 3 little dots we see in many types of communications (...).

Brands have shifted from driving standalone transactions to building continuous, always-on relationships with consumers. From full stops to ellipses, brand-building is no longer episodic, but ongoing.

Discover what this means for brands, consumers and culture as the metaphorical addition of two simple dots looms ever larger.

Young people may recognise Childline as a service that supports their wellbeing. But recognition alone doesn’t drive trust or action.

Faced with rising scepticism toward formal support services, growing competition from social media and AI, and an audience increasingly fatigued by traditional advertising, Childline rebuilt its entire marketing strategy with young people at the centre.

This session unpacks the insights that shaped that shift, the unfiltered feedback that challenged our assumptions, and how influencer‑led storytelling helped us connect with an audience who demand authenticity.

Childline’s marketing team will share how this informed new platform choices, creator partnerships and storytelling approaches - plus the impact our strategy has had on consideration, engagement and campaign performance.

From immersive pop-ups and interactive OOH to student shopping nights and culture-led brand takeovers, the physical campus has become the most cost-effective place to acquire high-value customers.

We discuss how brands can design unforgettable, culturally relevant experiences that resonate with next-gen audiences and how digital-physical partnerships are creating the first trackable "offline" funnel.

Gen Zalpha knows every marketing trick. And they’re rewriting the rules faster than most brands can keep up. The real question: What actually builds trust, loyalty and brand love in 2026 - and what’s just noise?

In this live finale, we put that question to our panel of brands and young people on stage. And you decide the verdict.

This isn’t a polished keynote or case study. It’s a live, unscripted exchange between brands and young voices - where you, the audience, act as the jury.

What to Expect

• Real, honest, open conversation
• Interactive polls, voting & Q&A
• Actionable insights for your next campaign

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The winner isn’t who shouts loudest.  It’s who shifts the room.

How we built Channel 4.0, a youth-first, creator-led brand made for a social-first audience.

Our panel of influencer experts talk about the out-of-the-box strategies used to build creator programmes that maintain authentic relevance with Gen Z and turn influencer marketing into a sustainable growth engine.

This session will explore:

• What Gen Z values from brands & creators - and how expectations are shifting

• How to design smarter, more strategic programmes that prioritise impact over volume

• Ways to build authentic, long-term relationships with creators & communities

• How to get creative with creator campaigns and how to cut through the noise and drive engagement

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