Less Spray, More Sway: What BD Pros Can Learn from Brands at MAD//Fest

Whether it was from brand-side speakers or the BD100 panel, the message was consistent: focus matters. Clear positioning, well-timed outreach, and sharp creativity make the difference between being noticed and being ignored.

Here’s what stuck with us and how to apply it to your own outreach efforts.

Innocent Drinks: Timing is Everything

Speaker: Irem Alp Mainwaring, European head of brand + portfolio, Innocent Drinks.

Key Insight: If you don’t know a brand’s planning cycle or pain points, don’t bother.

Application for BD:

• Research your prospect’s annual planning rhythms. For FMCG, summer planning might happen in March.
• Don’t cold call unless there’s been a prior introduction. Be human, be considerate.
• Solve real problems. Don’t pitch features, pitch fixes.

Best fit for outreach: Strategy, insight, and innovation consultancies that can help shape early-stage planning.

Avoid: Blanket outreach with no context - especially generic 'thought leadership' that lacks relevance.

Bloom & Wild: Challenger Brands Win on Experience

Speaker: Charlotte Langley, CMO, Bloom & Wild.

Key Insight: Great brands obsess over experience - from unboxing to reminders that reduce mental load.

Application for BD:

• Lead with case studies around customer journey design, CX innovation, or loyalty experience.
• Highlight how you’ve helped brands move from one-off purchases to rituals or ecosystems.
• Showcase work that balances creativity with conversion and brand love with operational excellence.

Best fit for outreach: Agencies specialising in CX, DTC performance, loyalty, or brand strategy.

Avoid: Over-indexing on creative 'ta-da' moments without backing them up with consistent delivery.

M&S: Be Unique, Be Ownable

Speaker: Sharry Cramond, marketing director, M&S.

Key Insight: 87% of ads are ignored. Your message must be unique, compelling, and most importantly, ownable.

Application for BD:

• Position your agency as the only one that can tell a certain kind of story.
• Lead with brand platforms you’ve helped build that have stuck, scaled, and differentiated.
• If you’ve worked on retail campaigns, show how you used authentic storytelling - not just noise - to drive fame.

Best fit for outreach: Creative agencies, branded content specialists, and brand platform strategists.

Avoid: 'We do everything' decks. Instead, double down on one distinctive way you help brands win.

Shepherd Neame: Heritage Meets Agility

Speakers: Tessa HIll, senior strategist, Thirst Craft; and Rose Davies, head of brands, Shepherd Neame.

Key Insight: Even a 300-year-old brand can evolve - if it knows its story and listens to customers.

Application for BD:

• Show how you’ve helped traditional or heritage brands stay culturally relevant.
• Highlight projects that combine design thinking with authenticity.
• Lean into storytelling and place-based identity. Gen Z wants meaning, not just packaging.

Best fit for outreach: Brand design, packaging, and storytelling agencies with experience in food/drink or hospitality.

Avoid: Trend-chasing campaigns with no connection to the brand’s roots.

TUI: From Performance to Brand - and Back

Speakers: KMac MacGregor, chief commercial officer, Smartly; and Frans Leenaars, CMO, TUI. 

Key Insight: TUI are shifting from performance-only to full-funnel brand building, but authenticity is non-negotiable.

Application for BD:

• If you’ve helped performance-heavy brands unlock upper-funnel growth, now’s the time to reach out.
• Be cautious with AI and automation claims — TUI care about real experiences, not AI mockups.
• Share work where real imagery and customer emotion led to results.

Best fit for outreach: Integrated media, full-funnel creative or CX agencies.

Avoid: AI-first or templated solutions that feel too artificial or impersonal.

Jägermeister: Serve the Subculture

Speakers: Christian Stindt (UK marketing director, Jägermeister), Peter Kennedy (UK marketing manager, Jägermeister), Andy Crysell (cultural strategist)

Key Insight: The brand’s future lies in culture — music venues, nightclubs, independent scenes.

Application for BD:

• Lead with partnerships you’ve built in music, nightlife or grassroots culture.
• Showcase your work supporting creators, not just selling to audiences.
• Think about outreach not as selling, but joining a cultural movement.

Best fit for outreach: Cultural strategy, experiential, or talent-partnership agencies.

Avoid: One-size-fits-all campaigns or messages that talk at the audience, not with them.

Vinted: Root It in Truth

Speaker: Andrew Smith, Senior Director, Brand, Vinted

Key Insight: Brand strategy should start with what’s defensible — not what’s aspirational.

Application for BD:

• Position your agency as a partner that helps brands unearth real, everyday motivations — then build strategic narratives around them.
• Share how you’ve used insight to shift perceptions (e.g. 'second-hand = smart', 'used = new again').
• Have examples of reframing tough truths into sticky brand platforms.

Best fit for outreach: Strategic brand, repositioning, or insight-driven agencies.

Avoid: Leading with sustainability alone unless it’s tied to everyday usefulness or desire.

Beavertown: Create Talkability (and Stealable Pint Glasses)

Speaker: Tom Rainsford, Marketing Director, Beavertown Brewery

Key Insight: Brands win when they tap into cultural moments and make themselves physically or emotionally stealable.

Application for BD:

• Highlight work that’s had cultural impact — from shareable packaging to social-first brand behaviour.
• Talk about campaigns that made people feel something or changed how they acted.
• Bonus points for humour, honesty and emotional truth.

Best fit for outreach: Culturally plugged-in creative agencies, brand experience shops, or social-first teams.

Avoid: Pitches that over-intellectualise. Beavertown isn’t looking for theory, they’re looking for joy.

Final Thoughts

The biggest takeaway? Brands aren’t looking for more. They’re looking for meaning.

Your prospecting strategy should reflect that:

• Do your homework — on their planning cycles, pain points and platforms.
• Lead with something ownable — not a services list, but a belief or approach.
• Share case studies that speak to what they care about right now — whether that’s brand consistency, cultural relevance, or customer utility.
• Cut the fluff. Be clear, be human, and offer value from the first line.

In a world of AI-generated spam and generic outreach, the agencies that cut through are the ones that genuinely get the brands they’re speaking to.