Sir John Hegarty will headline Marketing Week’s Festival of Marketing 2026, opening the event with an inspiring keynote designed to deliver practical tips to help your business raise the bar.
The Festival of Marketing is set to return for its 12th year on 14 October, with an insights-filled agenda, featuring some of the best and brightest in the marketing industry.
The keynote from Sir John Hegarty will kick off the day with thoughts on where the industry is today and how marketers can deliver growth in a tough environment. Join him as he unpicks what’s required for you and your business to scale, offering fresh perspective and tips on practical execution.
The keynote will focus on your creative blueprint. When growth is difficult to come by you need to be creative. From reframing, to opening up new category opportunities, from brand stretch, to product and service innovation – thinking differently is your route to impact.
Having founded BBH London in 1982, Hegarty contributed significantly to the landscape of British advertising for decades. He was knighted for his services to the advertising industry in 2007. Since then, he has co-founded the Business of Creativity, with the aim of teaching business leaders the value of creative thinking.
Part creative school, part strategic consultancy, Business of Creativity provides educational courses, live events as well as sharing insights about creativity.
“There aren’t many in marketing who you can credibly describe as a legend but Sir John Hegarty is one of them. He’s been there, done that and the work he’s done with brands has been transformative. And he speaks with a refreshing candour offering razor sharp insight. All told, the perfect headliner for Festival.” said Russell Parsons, editor in chief of Marketing Week and Festival of Marketing.
The theme for this year’s Festival of Marketing, which will take place at The Brewery London, is ‘Raise the Bar’.
To close the festival and inspire you to be the best version of yourself will be entrepreneur and TV personality Spencer Matthews who will join best-selling author and ‘High Performance’ podcast host Professor Damian Hughes. The two will deliver a high-energy session focused on what it really takes to sustain performance, lead under pressure, build resilient teams and raise standards.
This session will close out a day chock-full with the biggest brands. Alongside this, this year’s Festival of Marketing will feature speakers from the likes of Canva, Lloyds, Bloom & Wild, and Santander, with more speakers and brands to be announced soon.
See thefull agenda here.
