Festival's background
Discover the history of Festival, the brands that power the event & more!
Festival has been empowering marketers since its first event in 2013. Powered by the foremost authorities in their field, Marketing Week, Mini MBA, Creative Review, Econsultancy and Oystercatchers, Festival’s focus, expertise and authority is unrivalled.
Keep reading to find out more, then don't miss the upcoming Festival, The Year Ahead.
Stats from throughout the years:
The story of the Festival of Marketing:
2013
This Festival was hosted across multiple London venues including; Old Billingsgate, Old Truman Brewery, and Grange Hotel. Each venue hosted one of our strands of content, including; Jump, Crunch, Punch & more.
The event also featured fringe networking events, including the Marketing Frenzy final evening party. Now known as Festival After Dark in recent editions of FoM.
Despite being our first FoM, our event purpose hasn't changed all that much. Here's a quote from the vaults, from Econsultancy's COO back in 2013...
"The Festival of Marketing is aimed at providing a content-rich, inclusive and fun environment for marketers to learn, debate and exchange ideas on what it takes to be a modern marketer of the future.”
We like to think this is still true of Festival today.
2014
Festival is already taking shape as the event it is today. What could our 2014 delegates expect from Festival...
120 sessions across ten streams, plus one-to-one advice clinics and networking with 4,000 senior marketers from across every sector.
2015
More than 617 people took part in the "largest marketing lesson", making Festival of Marketing a Guinness World Record title holder.
Plus, Festival launches its very own marketing awards, the Masters of Marketing Awards.
Shortlisted entries were displayed in unique interactive awards gallery at this year's FoM. The awards are still going today, in the form of the Marketing Week Masters.
2016
2017
Festiv'Ale was served as part of the Festival After Dark networking party.
Plus, the most important debate of marketing history (we're not at all biased)...
Mark Ritson & Byron Sharp offered their bold visions for the future of our industry. It's a Headline session that is still spoken about today.
2018
The birthday bash was a party like no other, taking place on day one of this year's Festival.
Festival City is always an integral part of a visit to the Festival, but in 2018 it was unmissable...
What do 2018's delegates, David Bowie and the Queen all have in common? That they've had their portrait taken by renowned photographer, RANKIN.
Other highlights included, Tim Peake's Space Descent Tour Bus, a cinema in Sitecore's Experience Room, and the Festival bookshop.
2019
This year, Festival introduced a dedicated networking lounge to compliment the array of other networking opportunities.
After all, there were plenty of fellow senior marketers to connect with at this event.
2019 saw 5,000 attendees from over 1,500 top global brands gather together to shape the future of marketing.
2020
No one needs reminding of the reasons we couldn't meet in-person last year. But our virtual edition made the event accessible across the world.
We welcomed delegates from 81 countries and from 6 of the 7 continents (we were just missing some Festival goers from Antarctica!).
2020's delegates benefited from more content than ever before. Sessions took place over five days, with on demand access for an entire month.
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2021
Festival is developing & improving each year
We rely on leading industry voices to help us shape the event. Discover 2021's advisory board:
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