Nothing New, Nothing the Same: Marketing Essentials for 2025

Twelve years have passed since the first Marketing Festival in 2013, and Mark Ritson, a marketing professor who has been with the festival from the start, asks what has really changed in marketing since then. He works through ten shifts, from the 95-5 rule, salience, positioning and briefing to pricing, pre-testing and AI, backing each with data and examples from McDonald's, KitKat and Glenmorangie.

You'll learn why only about 5 % of customers are in the market at any moment and what that means for splitting budget between brand and performance, what KitKat's one-page positioning looks like and why you don't need to be unique to be different. Ritson explains why price is the strongest lever on profit, why good ads don't wear out and are worth running for years, and where he expects AI to change marketing most: synthetic research and strategy.