Conference Agenda

ANA AMPLIFY LIVE: BETTER CREATIVE BRIEFS FOR BETTER BRAND BUILDING

Marketers know that creativity matters now more than ever - not just for creativity's sake, but because more creative work is more effective work that generates real brand value. Join us in this in-person Amplify session that will deep dive into key takeaways from the ANA's Better Creative Briefs report, giving attendees actionable insights on better briefs for more effective creative.

Please note this session is only open to ANA members.

Tara Caiazza

VP, Brand ANA

BRAND LEADERSHIP COUNCIL MEETING

The ANA’s Brand Leadership Council (BLC) is comprised of senior brand leaders across the ANA membership. Its mandate is to help shape a future in which brand marketing is recognized and practiced as a measurable, financial contributor to enterprise growth. Our ultimate impact: a strong, confident marketing function, and an industry better prepared to build brands that shape culture and creativity and drive sustainable business success.

If your brand is an ANA member, we welcome your participation. To learn more, please contact [email protected].

OPENING REMARKS AND HOUSEKEEPING

Stephanie Fierman

EVP Brand ANA

CREATIVITY: THE LAST BRAND BUILDING ADVANTAGE.

Andrew Tindall has good and bad news. The good news: not only is brand not “dead,” as some might claim – it’s actually become more important. The bad news: marketers aren’t moving quickly enough to capitalize on what works. Drawing upon more than 1,260 US and European campaigns representing $140 billion in market share, Andrew will share why building brand memories is vital and how modern marketers can plan advertising to create an Excess Share of Creativity and exponential profit growth.

Andrew Tindall

Chief Growth Officer System1

THE RESTORATIVE BRAND FORMULA FOR SCALING MISSION AND CULTURAL CONNECTION IN REAL TIME

While many brands treat going viral as a strategy; mission-driven ones prioritize a more durable approach: moving at the speed of social without losing their soul. For Dove, relevance comes from activating core values within cultural conversations, ensuring their presence is felt far beyond a standard social post or fleeting moment.

In this session, Mariana and Melissa will delve into client-agency partnership built for the real-time world, exploring how Dove identifies and meaningfully taps into culture while staying anchored to their core mission. They will share their restorative formula to building trusted internal and external team ecosystems, offering a scalable approach that brands of any size can apply to their own social-first strategies.

Melissa Grevstad

Head of Brand Purpose, Dove North America Unilever

HOW SAATVA STOPPED CHOOSING BETWEEN BRAND AND PERFORMANCE… AND WON

Some brands are still picking sides when it comes to brand and performance, but Saatva ditched the tradeoff by using TV as both a storytelling and measurable growth channel. Joe McCambley, CMO at Saatva, shares how the company scaled acquisition while building lasting equity by aligning brand and data. Learn the playbook both CMOs and performance marketers can get behind.

Joe McCambley

Chief Marketing Officer Saatva

ICONIC IN THE AGE OF AI: HOW THE WORLD’S MOST RECOGNIZED BRANDS ARE WINNING THE INVISIBLE SHELF

AI is reshaping how consumers discover, compare, and choose brands – not through ads or search results, but through answers generated by ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. For brands, this is both the greatest threat and the greatest opportunity in a generation. When the interface disappears and an algorithm becomes the gatekeeper, decades of brand equity can be rendered invisible overnight - or amplified beyond what any media spend could achieve. Join Brandlight.ai CEO Imri Marcus and Jeff Long, Sr. Director of Digital & CX at Kimberly-Clark for a candid conversation about what the data reveals, what real organizational change looks like, and what every CMO in the room can do immediately to make their brand the one AI recommends.

Jeff Long

Digital Consumer Experience Leader Kimberly-Clark North America

THE POWER OF BRAND: HOW TO CONVINCE THE C-SUITE

CMOs know the greatest financial impact comes from balancing brand-building approaches with performance techniques, but they find it hard to sell this to CEOs and CFOs. This challenge reflects misaligned assumptions about the role of advertising and the meaning of “brand” between CMOs and senior leadership. Drawing on The Multiplier Playbook, a new study from WARC, and exclusive new research among senior ANA members, this session shares approaches and frameworks for convincing the C-Suite of the power of brand.

Ann Marie Kerwin

Americas Editor WARC

ENGAGING CONSUMERS WHERE POLICY MEETS BRAND

Policy decisions shape markets. The most forward-thinking brands understand that engaging in these conversations requires strategy, discipline, and proactive intent.

Join DoorDash and Tunnl for a conversation on the rise of policy marketing and how brands can engage consumers with confidence and credibility. We’ll explore how sophisticated research, AI-powered audience creation, precision targeting, and closed-loop measurement transform advocacy from risk into strategic advantage and positive, measurable impact.

Ryan Fitzpatrick

Head of Policy Marketing DoorDash

BREAKFAST ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSIONS

On the first full day of the Brand Masters | ICONS Conference, we’ll be offering 4 roundtable breakfast discussions on the following topics:

1. “Speaking CEO” – Convincing the C Suite of the Power of Brand
2. AI and Brand Building
3. Creativity – Building Brand Memories that Make Creativity More Effective
4. How to Link Brand Equity to Business Growth

Conference attendees will have the option to sit at any of these tables over breakfast from 7:30am-8:00am. The process is very informal and enables experts and attendees to network over common interests. To join a table, head toward the front of the breakfast room and look for the tabletop sign representing the conversation you’d like to join. There is no need to register in advance.

BREAKFAST SESSION: BRAND MEASUREMENT IN THE AI ERA

AI is reshaping every layer of advertising, but the industry's measurement infrastructure has not kept pace. In this session, DISQO’s CEO and Co-Founder, Armen Adjemian, will make the case that the next real competitive advantage is not more dashboards or faster synthesis, but trusted and unified intelligence rooted in real consumer behavior. It will be about helping marketers not just understand what happened and why, but what to do next.

Armen Adjemian

CEO and Co-Founder DISQO

PRESENTING SPONSOR REMARKS

Lauren Anderson

US Head of Amazon Ads Brand Innovation Lab Amazon Ads

OPENING REMARKS

Bob Liodice

CEO ANA

HOUSEKEEPING

Stephanie Fierman

EVP Brand ANA

THE ROCKET RESTAGE: FROM BRAND LAGGARD TO ICONIC LEADER

Mortgage companies don't win Cannes Lions. They don't dominate the Super Bowl conversation with never-been-done-before activations. And they certainly don't achieve cultural relevance. Except Rocket did. In this exclusive first-ever telling, Rocket Companies CMO Jonathan Mildenhall reveals the playbook behind one of marketing's most improbable brand transformations: how Rocket went from category laggard to brand leader in just 12 months. Jonathan will unpack the strategic bets, creative risks, and operational choices that fueled the transformation, including the development of "Own The Dream," now powering both Rocket and Redfin. He'll also share how a tight agency roster and strong in-house collaboration enabled speed without sacrificing craft. If you've ever been told your category is too boring for breakthrough creativity, this session is proof that storytelling is king.

Jonathan Mildenhall

Chief Marketing Officer Rocket Companies

FROM YOUR GRANDMA’S FAVORITE TO THE UNEXPECTED CULTURAL FLEX

In a world where attention is the ultimate currency, learn how a classic cleaning staple stopped acting nostalgic and started acting necessary. Pine-Sol will break down how a legacy favorite can spark fresh cultural heat, turning reminiscence into new-found relevance with attitude and purpose. Join us as we unpack the moves, mindset, and magic required to build icon status, protect it when you’ve got it, and claw it back when the world stops paying attention.

Renu Mevasse

Commercial Director - Pine-Sol & Cleaning Innovation The Clorox Company

FIRESTARTER SESSION WITH MEDIAOCEAN: AI ISN'T THE STRATEGY. ACTION IS.

Our industry is over-indexing on AI as intelligence. The real shift is AI as execution. We’ve spent years building dashboards/models and making predictions, but performance doesn’t come just from knowing more. It comes from acting faster. The winners won’t be the ones with the most data. They’ll be the ones who can act on it first. 

Cody Wymore

VP, Client Solutions Innovid by Mediaocean

TAKING BACK THE NEIGHBORHOOD: AN ICONIC BRAND REIGNITES RELEVANCE

Applebee’s has been the neighborhood grill and bar for 45 years – a place where generations gather for comfort and connection. But in today’s era of convenience and digital-first dining, even an icon must fight to reclaim its role at the heart of the community. Join Michelle Chin, Chief Marketing Officer of Applebee’s, as she shares how the brand is “taking back the neighborhood” by amplifying its heritage while embracing modern expectations. Learn how Applebee’s is leveraging generational equity, bold menu innovation, cultural partnerships, and social storytelling to reignite relevance and engagement. This session offers actionable insights on balancing nostalgia with innovation and creating authentic experiences that matter.

Michelle Chin

Chief Marketing Officer Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar

BEYOND THE OUTDOORS: EXPANDING YETI WITHOUT LOSING ITS ROOTS

Over 20 years ago, YETI launched as an outdoor brand that offered a single cooler product designed and developed for hard core anglers, hunters, and outdoorsmen who required gear that would over perform in the harshest conditions. It has since evolved into a global brand spanning 15 communities and over 200 products - from cocktail shakers and cookware to gear cases and hiking packs. Bill Neff will share how YETI’s marketing philosophy fuels this growth by prioritizing community energy, product relevance, third-party relationships, the importance of earned media, and balancing core audience loyalty with broader awareness.

Bill Neff

Head of Marketing Yeti

THE UNEXPECTED CANVAS: HOW ICONIC BRANDS FIND THEIR STORIES WHERE YOU LEAST EXPECT

The most iconic brands are the ones brave enough to show up somewhere surprising and make it feel natural. Explore what happens when a brand stops asking "Where should we advertise?" and starts asking "Where can we create something unforgettable? Lauren and Sara will go deep on a Lexus campaign that embodies this philosophy. The takeaway: Iconic isn't a destination. It's a creative decision.

Sara Lara

Senior Manager, Advertising Lexus

HOW CMOs ARE REDEFINING GROWTH THROUGH THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

This virtual presentation will explore how CMOs are using customer experience to build stronger brands and drive more durable growth. Based on EMARKETER’s CMO report series, the session will offer practical takeaways for marketers looking to connect brand-building more directly to customer value and business impact.

Kelsey Voss

Principal Analyst EMARKETER

LUNCH SESSION: UNLOCKING THE AUDIENCE MULTIPLIER EFFECT: WHERE BRANDS WORK HARDER

Kraig Schulz

Chief Customer Officer BERA.ai

HOW DR. PEPPER TURNED A TIKTOK INTO PRIME TIME

A fan creates a Dr Pepper jingle on TikTok. It goes viral. Most brands repost it and move on. Dr Pepper licensed it and turned a grassroots moment into a national cultural phenomenon. In this session, Drew Panayiotou, Chief Marketing Officer of Keurig Dr Pepper, unpacks the Dr Pepper x @romeoshow collaboration from discovery to debut. You'll learn how to build a brand strategy rooted in cultural participation rather than interruption, and why the brands Gen Z loves most are the ones that turn fan moments into shared victories.

Drew Panayiotou

Chief Marketing Officer Keurig Dr. Pepper Inc.

LET ICONS BE ICONS

Marcus Fischer

Chief Brand Officer Harley-Davidson Motor Company

FIRESTARTER SESSION BY KANTAR: THE VALUE OF BRANDS IN THE AGENTIC AGE

The question isn’t whether machines will influence your growth in the agentic age; t’s whether your brand is built to win when they do. Come see why brands are more important than ever and how the successful ones will thrive in the coming years among humans and machines. 

James May

EVP, Consumer Packaged Goods & Hospitality Kantar

STAYING TRUE AT SCALE: HOW CANVA IS BUILDING A GLOBAL BRAND WITHOUT LOSING ITS SOUL

Can a brand built on simplicity scale globally, win the enterprise, and adapt to AI — without losing what made it loved in the first place?

As Canva has evolved from a consumer design disruptor into a global creative operating system, the marketing mandate has fundamentally changed. It’s no longer just about awareness; it’s now about building trust at enterprise scale, orchestrating a cohesive brand across markets, and embedding AI in ways that amplify human creativity, not replace it. In this candid session, Canva CMO Zach Kitschke shares what he's learned navigating that tension firsthand: expanding internationally, reaching professional designers, and aligning product innovation, AI, and brand storytelling into measurable growth, Because in the AI era, the brands that endure don’t just adopt new technology — they evolve their identity while staying unmistakably themselves. Walk away with a practical playbook for scaling a brand without sacrificing the authenticity that built it.

Zach Kitschke

Chief Marketing & Communications Officer Canva

FROM GROIN TO GREATNESS: HOW CULTURE-LED CREATIVITY BUILDS MODERN BRANDS

What happens when a brand known for one very specific use case decides to grow into something much bigger? For Manscaped™, the journey from category creator to full-fledged grooming brand required more than performance media and product expansion — it demanded a deliberate strategy for building mental availability through culture, creativity, and design. In this session, Marcelo shares the inside story of how Manscaped evolved from a DTC-first disruptor into an omnichannel brand competing against legacy giants across multiple categories. You’ll walk away with practical frameworks for building mental availability, defending premium positioning, and scaling creativity as a growth engine — whether you’re launching a new category or fighting for relevance in a crowded one.

Marcelo Kertesz

Chief Marketing Officer MANSCAPED

CLOSING REMARKS

Stephanie Fierman

EVP Brand ANA

Kick off the celebrations with your colleagues and peers before the awards are given out! This reception will include food and beverage and will precede the REGGIE Brand Catalyst Awards Gala.

Join us as we shine a spotlight on the top brands and agencies behind the marketing campaigns that drive measurable brand growth, with Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards across 29 categories. The evening will also feature key moments, including the presentation of the Gold Mailbox Award, and the ultimate honor – the Super REGGIE – awarded to the single most outstanding campaign of the year as chosen by the exclusive Super REGGIE Brand Catalyst Jury.

OPENING REMARKS AND HOUSEKEEPING

Stephanie Fierman

EVP Brand ANA

FROM FANDOM TO FLAVOR: HOW MCDONALD’S KEEPS CUSTOMERS AT THE CORE

What does it take to remain one of the world’s most iconic brands in a culture that moves at lightning speed? For McDonald’s, the answer is simple: always start with the customer. From global pop culture moments to bold new menu flavors, the brand is rewriting the rules of relevance. Join Alyssa Buetikofer, Chief Marketing Officer at McDonald’s USA, for an inside look at how a customer-first strategy fuels long-term growth and inspires campaigns that connect deeply with culture.

Alyssa Buetikofer

Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing & Customer Experience Officer McDonald’s USA

ICONS REBUILT

Explore how Newell Brands is putting brands back at the center of their corporate turnaround and specifically how they are using a Human-Led/AI-Enhanced operating model to reinvigorate their brand roster and enable faster, better learning, stronger innovation & content development and rapid deployment and maintenance -  without sacrificing human judgment and craft. 

Nick Hammitt

Chief Marketing Officer Newell Brands

KNOWING WHEN TO LET GO: HOW ICONIC BRANDS STAY CULTURALLY RELEVANT

In this session, Alyson Griffin, Head of Marketing at State Farm, shares how the brand is evolving from traditional one-way marketing to shared storytelling across gaming, livestreaming, creators, and entertainment. Through partnerships with creators like Kai Cenat and platforms like Gamerhood, Alyson will explore how iconic brands can balance stewardship with creative freedom, protect trust while taking calculated risks, and create the kind of cultural communities that audiences actually want to join.

Alyson Griffin

Head of Marketing State Farm

FIRESTARTER SESSION WITH USPS: FROM LEGACY TO LEADING EDGE: HOW THE USPS IS EMPOWERING THE NEXT GENERATION OF MARKETERS

USPS is often viewed as a legacy service—but what happens when future marketers are challenged to rethink it entirely?  Through a national case competition, students are tasked with solving real business problems using integrated campaigns that include direct mail. The result: a shift in how emerging marketers view not only the channel, but the USPS brand itself. This session dives into how hands-on brand engagement is changing perception, influencing future decision-makers, and positioning USPS as a relevant player in the modern marketing ecosystem.

Lauren Banks

Customer Marketing Manager United States Postal Service

WHAT GIVES ICONIC BRANDS STAYING POWER?

Over time, even the most successful brands can lose relevance. What sets those with staying power apart isn’t scale or spend, but the ability to deliver on a clear promise again and again. Through Gallo’s portfolio of enduring brands, this session introduces a practical framework for identifying and building iconic brands that know when to evolve, when to remain disciplined, and how to consistently stand apart in a dynamic market.

Jaclyn Korman

Senior Director of Digital Marketing & Media Gallo

FROM PIONEER TO POWERHOUSE: THE GRUBHUB REINVENTION

Twenty years ago, Grubhub invented food delivery as we know it. But as the industry grew crowded, the pioneer found itself cast as a challenger brand. Now, with new ownership and a complete brand reinvention, Grubhub is writing its next chapter, punctuated by its first-ever national Super Bowl ad. In this session, you’ll learn:

• How to reposition a legacy brand that's been outspent but not outmatched.
• How to leverage the power of an in-house studio and agency partners to spark reinvention.
• How to balance brand-building with performance marketing when every dollar is scrutinized.
• What it takes to earn cultural relevance — not just buy it.

Marnie Kain

Vice President, Head of Brand Marketing Grubhub

ICONS BEGET ICONS: BUILDING THE NEXT ICONIC BRAND THROUGH FOUNDER-LED GROWTH AND MODERN CUSTOMER ACQUISITION

Frances Valentine offers a rare, real-time case study of how one iconic brand legacy can become the foundation for building the next. As the former co-founder of Kate Spade, Elyce Arons represents a once-in-a-generation trust engine — not just a founder, but a fashion icon who has built two successful brands through determination, grit, and authenticity. You’ll leave with a practical framework for:

• Using founders, creators, or internal voices as scalable acquisition assets
• Building trust-led creative that outperforms traditional conversion ads
• Designing a customer acquisition strategy that compounds instead of resets every quarter
• Turning brand into a measurable growth lever, not a “top-of-funnel nice-to-have”

Katherine Brodie

Chief Marketing Officer Frances Valentine

CLOSING REMARKS

Stephanie Fierman

EVP Brand ANA