Ignite 2026 
Wednesday 7th October | 08:45 - 17:00
60 Great Queen Street, London
Ignite 2026 brings together marketing leaders, Kantar experts and world-renowned brands to equip you with the inspiration, insight and intelligence you need to ignite game-changing brand growth.
Headlined by Les Binet, Ignite brings together 150 senior leaders from top brands. Through roundtable and intelligence springboard sessions, apply fresh thinking and new evidence designed to turn uncertainty to opportunity.
- Exclusive new evidence from Les Binet on breaking the promotion cycle
- The winning playbook for AI-era brands and the rise of the 'second audience'
- The creator and fandom revolution reshaping modern brand building
- Digital twins in action: innovate at the speed of culture
- The barbell economy: how to grow portfolio value when the middle hollows out
- First access to BrandZ UK 2026 findings and the drivers of brand-led growth
Registration is by invitation only.
Apply for your place at Ignite
Places at Ignite are limited and by invitation only.
Register your interest below and our team will be in touch.
Ignite 2026 speakers
Author, Consultant and Visiting Professor
Marketing Director
Oracle Red Bull Racing
YouTube Content Solutions Lead
YouTube
Global CMI Director
Unilever Foods
CEO, UK
Kantar
Senior Client Director
Kantar
Head of Strategy, Global Clients
Kantar
Head of Brand Intelligence
Kantar
CEO, EMEA
Kantar
Global Innovation Lead
Kantar
Senior Client Director
Kantar
Senior Partner, Advisory
Kantar
Marketing Director
Kantar
Agenda
Agenda and speakers are subject to change
08:45-09:30: Registration
Welcome
David Gompel, Kantar
Kantar BrandZ UK 2026: Drive to Thrive - What Formula 1 teaches us about building brands with unstoppable momentum
Caroline Buckland, Marketing Director, Oracle Red Bull Racing | Jodie Gillary, Kantar
In modern marketing, winning today is easy. Creating demand for tomorrow is the real race and it’s less about speed, and more about cultural momentum. Get ready to explore the drivers of brand-led growth through the story of Oracle Red Bull Racing, a brand superpower in the dynamic world of F1.
The barbell economy: How to grow your portfolio value
Antonela Puleo, Global CMI Director, Unilever Foods | Simon Bailey, Kantar
As the consumer economy becomes increasingly polarised, growth is accelerating at the premium and value ends of the market while the middle is under pressure. Explore what this means for portfolio strategy, innovation, pricing and demand creation, and how leading brands are adapting to drive sustainable growth.
Roundtable: Portfolio Value
Debate the evidence and explore what it means for your brand, your business, and your growth agenda.
11:00-11:30: Networking Break
Creative ReCode: How ideas win with machines and humans
Dan Fanshawe, Kantar
Creative campaigns and creator content now have a second audience: machines. Explore how people and LLMs interpret creativity differently, and what that means for discoverability, brand salience and long-term brand growth.
Cultural OS: The new fandom and creator frontier
Jonathan Tesfamariam, YouTube Content Solutions Lead, YouTube | Lynne Deason, Kantar
Creators, fandoms and earned attention are powering the media multiplier. Yet as investment grows, proving effectiveness, ROMI and growth impact becomes more important than ever. Discover new intelligence on creator and fandom success, revealing what truly drives results, alongside creative case studies that bring it to life.
Roundtable: Creators, Creativity, and Growth
Debate the evidence and explore what it means for your brand, your business, and your growth agenda.
12:45: Lunch
Innovation at the speed of culture
Gonzalo Fuentes, Kantar | Dr Nicki Morley, Kantar
What happens when you can learn, test and optimise at the pace of modern digital culture? Discover how our Sprint approach combines live synthetic cultural and audience intelligence with real audience feedback to accelerate innovation, reduce uncertainty and support more confident growth decisions.
Roundtable: Digital Twins
Debate the evidence and explore what it means for your brand, your business, and your growth agenda.
Keynote: Les Binet: Kicking the promotion habit
Les Binet | Dom Boyd, Kantar
How can brands drive short-term sales without compromising long-term growth? This session premieres new research exploring when promotions create value, when they destroy it, and how brands can balance pricing, promotions and brand-building to maximise commercial impact.
Closing
David Gompel, Kantar
15:30 - 17:00: Drinks reception and networking
NEW for Ignite 2026: Roundtables
Fresh intelligence. Expert facilitation. Practical takeaways you won't get on-demand. Chatham House rules, of course.
Roundtables are at the heart of the Ignite experience. Debate the evidence, challenge conventional thinking, and explore what it means for your brand, your business, and your growth agenda. This year's programme is designed to prioritise meaningful peer exchange with fellow senior brand leaders. Following each stage session, small-group discussions move you seamlessly from insight to action.
NEW for Ignite 2026: Meet The Experts
Book an exclusive one-to-one session with a Kantar expert at Ignite. Bring your biggest brand or business challenge and gain tailored advice, fresh perspectives, and practical recommendations you can put into action immediately. Whether you're looking to unlock growth, strengthen brand equity, improve marketing effectiveness, or navigate market change, our experts are here to help.
Contact your Kantar representative for more information.
"Ignite really leans into what I'm trying to land with the business around brand"
"The marketing event of the year"
"Kantar is 100% who we need to be with"
Ignite October 2025
Our latest Ignite event featured our headliner Jamie Laing on the secret to communicating with modern audiences. Further sessions uncovered the secrets behind the M&S turnaround, how to put AI in practice with Microsoft, our latest BrandZ evaluations and more.
Ignite October 2024
Featuring Mark Ritson spelling out how to not mess up your brand, our world-leading BrandZ valuations, Liquid Death and the importance of humour, AI-powered effectiveness and Kantar's Blueprint for Brand Growth strategic framework.
Ignite April 2023
How can brands build price power, sustain and even improve performance, all whilst being challenged by a cost-of-living and recessionary climate? Delve into insight-powered seminars from Les Binet and the smartest minds at Kantar, as well as talks packed with real-life examples from marketing leaders at Johnnie Walker, VCCP, Virgin Media O2 and TSB Bank.
Ignite 2022
The inaugural Ignite event where we revealed groundbreaking new research on brand value creation with the Oxford Saïd Business School. We also unveiled the results from the 2022 Kantar BrandZ UK ranking, and heard from illuminating marketing experts from brands such as Yorkshire Tea, Fever-Tree, Cadbury, The Marketing Society and Marketing Week.
Ignite March 2025
Rory Sutherland with his 'Alchemy in Action', how Nurofen unlocked their connected creativity, how Change Brands are futureproofing their brands for change, how to 'Shop the Scroll' with TikTok and L'Oréal, and much more.
Ignite March 2024
Hear from Guinness, Cadbury, Oatly and Kraft Heinz on how they have leveraged distinctive assets, uniqueness and fearlessness to become a true breakthrough brand. Plus, discover why brands should look to the margins for new innovative spaces to grow in.
Ignite October 2023
Building breakthrough brands requires more than just theory: hear exactly what it takes in practice to convert data and insights into breakthrough growth from those who've been there: with insights from Octopus Energy, VCCP and The Marketing Society. What's more, hear from Mark Ritson on why he swears by differentiation as a branding necessity.
IGNITE was born in September 2022 with the goal of giving marketing leaders exclusive access to Kantar’s latest research and insights, and inspirational talks and case studies from pioneering brands and industry experts. Over the years, marketing luminaries have taken to the stage alongside a plethora of breakthrough brands.
Past Ignite speakers
Entrepreneur, BBC presenter and Co-Founder of Candy Kittens
Vice Chairman
Ogilvy
Head of Marketing
Tony's Chocolonely
Columnist & PhD Marketing and Founder of Marketing Week Mini MBA
CEO
Microsoft UK
Chief Insights & Analytics Officer
Reckitt
Director Brands & Marketing
Nationwide
Co-Founder & CEO
SURI
Guinness Marketing Director
Diageo
Author of Obsolete & Founder of Serious Tissues
Global Futures Planning Director
Diageo
Vice President EMEA Marketing
Tinder
Global Communications Manager
Desperados
CPG Director
Head of Loyalty & Masterbrand
M&S
Head of Brand, Communications & Omnichannel Marketing
M&S Food
Global Creative Effectiveness and Diversity & Inclusion Director
Reckitt
CCO
Oatly
UK Head of Sales
Liquid Death
Marketing Week Columnist, Adjunct Associate Professor of Marketing at London Business School
Editor in Chief
Marketing Week
Executive Creative Director
McCann London
Global Media Director - Social Media Lead
L'Oréal
Senior Brand Communications Manager
Suzuki
Data and Insight Manager
Suzuki
Marketing Director
Virgin Media O2
Head of Marketing
YouTube
SVP Brand & Marketing
Virgin Atlantic
CEO
The Marketing Society
Twice City AM Analyst of the year
Liberty Sky Advisors
Marketing Director Cadbury
Mondelez
Director of Effectiveness
IPA
Global Insight & Analytics Director
Reckitt
International Strategy & Insights Director
Kraft Heinz
Head of Brand Consultants
Kantar
Head of Creative Excellence
Kantar
Head of Behavioural Science and Innovation
Kantar
UKI Managing Director, Solutions & Marketing Effectiveness Practice
Kantar
Head of Client Impact
Kantar
Head of Qualitative
Kantar
Head of Kantar BrandZ
Kantar
Head of Data Strategy and Customer Analytics
Kantar
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