It’s easy to think new business is all about volume — more outreach, more content, more channels. But the most valuable sessions at MAD//Fest this year said otherwise.

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.