It’s growth up north: Highlights from LEAD North 2025
Opinion
Advertising Association’s Manchester outing shone a spotlight on northern talent and creativity. The challenge is to take these hot topics and turn them into meaningful action.
As leader of Manchester City Council, Bev Craig is used to facing a tough audience, but she opened her keynote at LEAD North 2025 with the suggestion that the advertising industry is surely one of the toughest, as they essentially present for a living.
Undeterred, she spoke with clarity about the opportunities and challenges facing Manchester today, perfectly setting the scene and context for the afternoon.
Hosted by broadcaster and journalist Gamal Fahnbulleh, and sponsored by Ozone and Digital Cinema Media, LEAD North took place last week at Home Theatre in Manchester, bringing the industry together to shine a spotlight on northern talent and creativity.
Tackling misinformation
The summit’s first panel featured northern-based industry journalists: The Times’ Constance Kampfner, the Daily Mail’s Liz Hull, Liverpool Echo’s Liam Thorp and Manchester Evening News’ Sarah Lester.
Misinformation was a focus area of discussion, with Hull arguing that there is a need to educate young people about fake news, particularly on social media.
It was also suggested during the panel that this rise of fake news was a by-product of people feeling disenfranchised, especially those in deprived areas looking for something or someone to trust that isn’t the establishment.
Advertising (still) pays
One of many highlights was the launch of the Advertising Pays 2025 report, presented by director of Credos Dan Wilks.
This new report clearly shows advertising’s contribution to the UK’s economic growth and overall employment. Key findings from the report include the facts that:
• Advertising is driving business growth, with 3.5m out of 5.5m UK businesses investing an estimated £66.6bn in advertising in 2024.
• Advertising now supports 5% of all UK employment, representing 1.7m jobs across the UK.
• The advertising and marketing industries contributed £109bn of gross value added (GVA) to the UK economy in 2024, meaning advertising accounts for 4% of total UK GVA.
Dan then hosted a panel discussion with two of the report contributors, Channel 4’s Rak Patel and Republic of Media’s Simon Crunden, alongside Fentimans’ Jayne Andrews, who talked about advertising’s ability to help drive growth and reach new markets.
The north: A creative powerhouse
Creativity was at the heart of conversations in a panel about media owners driving SME growth with JCDeaux’s Joe Hills, ITV AdVentures’ Sheena Amin, Ozone’s Damon Reeve and DMG Ventures’ Rachel Muzyczka.
It highlighted the huge amount of resources and support that exist for founders and startups, as well as schemes to provide solutions to the north-south funding gap.
These included ITV’s Backing Business Scheme — an initiative to support businesses of all sizes and their media investment.
Another discussion echoed similar sentiments with talk of the immense amount of talent “up north”, as seen earlier in the year at the Mad//UpNorth event.
Drummond Central’s Dan Appleby, Ingenuity+’s Richard Robinson, Dentsu Creative’s Julie Chadwick and PHD Manchester’s Jon Kershaw debated whether there is even a need to refer to agencies as “regional” or if this should be a thing of the past — so that we can focus on the quality of work, not where it comes from.
Talent — now and future
The second half of LEAD North put social media star Em Wallbank under the spotlight in a lively discussion with the Advertising Association’s communications director, Matt Bourn. They spoke about what it takes to build a trusted relationship between creators and brands.
As Matt pointed out, in a relatively new business model where guidelines are still being defined, collaboration starts with “people trusting people”. Em spoke about her dream brief from one client — “Do whatever you want” — and her belief that content creators in the north would really benefit from a physical hub similar to that provided by influencer agency Billion Dollar Boy in London.
Next up, Giffgaff CEO Ash Schofield (pictured, below right) spoke passionately about his career journey and lessons in leadership. He also spoke with Advertising Association commercial director and inclusion lead Sharon Lloyd Barnes (pictured below, left) about the latest All In Census results, as well as impressive initiatives such as We Are Here that focus on inclusivity and bringing brands and young people together.
Finishing the day on a high, ad industry legend Robin Wight shared the incredible story of the iconic Salford Lads & Girls Club and the work of the Ideas Foundation, his charity that nurtures talent from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Final thoughts… and a challenge
The event was wrapped up by Advertising Association events director Suzanne Costello, who neatly summed up the day’s discussions, ranging from the role of advertising in driving growth to the power of creativity and the evolving dynamics of trust, leadership and value.
Suzanne then challenged the audience, on behalf of the Advertising Association, to “take today’s conversations and turn them into action — whether that’s backing new talent, collaborating across borders or helping our industry deliver even more value, wherever we are in the UK”.
We hope and believe many of them will take up the challenge.
Polly Devaney is head of content at the Advertising Association