The Marketing Labs is a place for senior brand marketers to meet, discuss the biggest challenges facing the sector and experiment to find new, dynamic ways to solve those challenges together.
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Marketing Labs is here to challenge. Our mission is a simple one – we take a concept that is vital in today’s marketing industry and put it to a panel of the best and brightest that marketing has to offer, to tear apart and explore. However, Marketing Labs isn’t a passive experience. Our audience are expected to get involved; to offer their own insight and stories; to share their own hard-honed experience. Are you looking to level-up your knowledge and learn from industry disruptors? Then Marketing Labs is for you.
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Applicants must be senior marketing professionals from brands.
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It’s completely free to join for senior marketing professionals.
Waste not, want not – rethinking ROI and efficiency in marketing
As marketing budgets face increasing scrutiny, the pressure to prove ROI is huge. Yet, inefficiencies and wastage remain widespread; 60% of digital marketing spend is wasted on poorly targeted campaigns (Forrester, 2024).
From unoptimised media buys to fragmented tech stacks, and even the misalignment of creative strategies, marketing waste continues to drain resources and stunt the potential for genuine impact.
Location: Little Violet Door, 9 Kingly St, Carnaby, London W1B 5PH
Date: March 27, 2025
Time: 8:30-11:00
Special guest panellists:
Warren Fiveash, head of marketing, Teenage Cancer Trust
Saj Arshad, chief customer officer, AIB
Kate Nightingale, chief behavioural officer, Humanising Brands
Lenah Ueltzen-Gabell, group managing director, Wasserman
To register your interest in attending for free, fill out the form on this page.
Agenda
8:30 – 9:00am | Arrival and welcome breakfast
Get your caffeine fix and breakfast in quick as the morning starts here. Over the next two and a half hours you’ll be meeting with other Marketing Labs members to discuss, analyse and share your thoughts on the burning issues of the day.
9:00am | Welcome from Head of Commercial Content, Kieran Howells
9:05am – 9:30am | The hypothesis: 2025 can be the year of eliminating waste in marketing
This Lab event will bring together a panel of industry-leading marketers to explore one of the most pressing questions of our time: How do we identify and eliminate waste while maintaining creativity, innovation, and effectiveness? By the end of the session, we’ll identify the biggest keys to making 2025 the year of slashing waste.
Panellists:
Saj Arshad, Chief Customer Officer at AIB
Warren Fiveash, Head of Marketing at Teenage Cancer Trust
Kate Nightingale, Chief Behavioural Officer at Humanising Brands
Lenah Ueltzen-Gabell, Group Managing Director at Wasserman
9:30 – 10:00 | Testing the theory
Between 9.30 and 10, we’re handing the floor to you. In this time, you’ll delve into the topic with your peers, highlight the areas you think are vital to improving ROI in 2025, and also
10:00am – 10:45am | Drawing conclusions
This is your chance to get involved. That’s right, it’s everyone’s favourite, audience participation. Did you come to the same conclusions as our panellists? Come armed with your own marketing challenges around creative consistency and brand building as this is your opportunity to ask any questions you like – but be prepared to have the spotlight turned on you as well…
11am | Event Closes
After the event | Publish the findings
What’s that you say – another marketing event you’ve taken lots of notes at but never looked at again? Don’t worry, we’ll be sending you all the core discussion points from each Marketing Lab event so we can keep the conversation going post-event.
Note: all conversations will take place under Chatham House rules. Panellists to be announced as confirmed.
About our panellists
Warren Fiveash, head of marketing, Teenage Cancer Trust
Warren Fiveash has more than 20 years experience in marketing and communications, starting his career as a journalist before moving to The Prince’s Trust to work several roles in the Marcomms team. He has been at the forefront of Teenage Cancer Trust’s marketing strategy since joining the charity in 2021. Under his marketing leadership, the charity has has achieved record awareness levels.
Warren has successfully implemented an audience framework to enhance marketing efforts and spearheaded impactful campaigns in collaboration with partners like Aldi, as well as helping to drive the charity’s own campaigns.
In 2023, the ‘Stop Cancer Taking Our Teens’ campaign brought critical attention to the effects of the healthcare crisis on young cancer patients. More recently, the launch of the ‘Cancer Care, Made for Young People’ campaign has further solidified the charity’s commitment to cancer care for young people and a consistent brand approach to underpin its communications.
This year’s Teenage Cancer Trust concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, which raised over £2 million, is the highest amount ever secured by the event series.
Saj Arshad, chief customer officer, AIB
With over 35 years of experience in customer & product management, marketing, digital transformation, innovation, and commercial leadership roles across healthcare, mobile telecommunications, consumer, retail, and financial services, Saj’s expertise spans both global and domestic markets.
An experienced NED, Saj is currently the President of the Market Research Society and has held board positions at The Marketing Society and the RAC Foundation.
In terms of executive roles, most recently, Saj held senior roles at AIB (Interim Chief Customer Officer), Helping Hands (interim CMO), and Interactive Investor (Chief Commercial Officer).
Kate Nightingale, chief behavioural officer, Humanising Brands.
Kate is a consumer, retail and design psychologist.
She is a Chief Behavioural Officer at Humanising Brands, a behavioural strategy, design and innovation agency for challenger brands and visionary leaders. We create better world by making brands more HUMAN.
Throughout the years Kate worked with brands like Nespresso, Swarovski, Ocado, EE, Dowsing & Reynolds, Klarna, Harvey Nichols, Samsung, Worldpay, Disney, Crowd DNA as well as various start-ups, scale ups and large established luxury marketplaces.
Kate founded Women of Retail community in 2023 to celebrate female and diverse voices of the retail industry.
To support the future generations of leaders Kate also lectures in consumer behaviour, marketing and UX design on Regent’s University and London College of Fashion.
A renowned keynote speaker, moderator and chair, Kate featured at eTail (London & Toronto), IRX, DCX, Campaign Brand Forum, Retail Week Masterclass and more with raving audience reviews as well as regularly being asked to return year after year. A frequent favourite of journalists, Kate’s comments appeared in The Business of Fashion, Vogue, Sky News, BBC News, Guardian and more.
Lenah Ueltzen-Gabell, group managing director, Wasserman
Lenah Ueltzen-Gabell is a global marketing executive leading Wasserman’s Marketing Centre of Excellence. Since joining in 2008, she has expanded the agency’s footprint across Europe, the Middle East, and China, driving strategic growth and service excellence.
She has been instrumental in building Wasserman’s pan-European network and delivering marketing solutions for brands and rightsholders, including Bacardi, NFL, UEFA, BMW, and American Express. A passionate advocate for gender equality in sports, music, and culture, she actively represents The Collective and speaks at industry events.
Recognized by SportsBusiness Journal and Leaders’ 40 Under 40, Ueltzen-Gabell holds degrees from Tulane and Georgetown. She lives in London with her husband, three sons, and their Welsh Corgi, Bertie.
Attention vs. harmony: Finding the sweet spot in marketing strategy
Building on the insights from our first Marketing Labs event of 2025, where we explored marketing inefficiencies, this second Labs event pivots to the critical balance between gaining attention and maintaining harmony. Marketers often sacrifice harmony – across platforms, strategies, and creative approaches – to win attention at all costs. But at what expense?
This session will examine how fragmented campaigns and misaligned priorities disrupt brand impact and waste resources, while unified, harmonious strategies create enduring resonance and customer loyalty. By connecting attention-driven approaches with operational and creative efficiency, this event will uncover how brands can win in the attention economy without compromising ROI – or the integrity of their messaging.
Location: New Street Grill, 16A New St, City of London, London EC2M 4TR
Date: June 5, 2025
Time: 8:30-11:00
To register your interest in attending for free, fill out the form on this page.
Agenda
8:30 – 9:00am | Arrival and welcome breakfast
Get your caffeine fix and breakfast in quick as the morning starts here. Over the next two and a half hours you’ll be meeting with other Marketing Labs members to discuss, analyse and share your thoughts on the burning issues of the day.
9:00am | Welcome from Head of Commercial Content, Kieran Howells
9:05am – 9:30am | The hypothesis: Harmonised strategies outperform attention-grabbing campaigns in the long run
Is it true? We’ll find out. You can also expect to gain insights into balancing the pressure for immediate results, with the need for long-term brand-building. We’ll push for practical strategies and industry examples on how harmonised marketing can reduce waste, improve efficiency, and create campaigns that truly resonate.
9:30 – 10:00 | Testing the theory
Break time! This isn’t a chance to slope off into a corner and check your emails. We need you to get involved, discuss the hypothesis and find out if our panellists have it right. If you have any questions for them, just pop them in our handy honesty box for an AMA-style session after the break. No holds barred.
10:00am – 10:45am | Drawing conclusions
The second panel is your chance to get involved. That’s right, it’s everyone’s favourite part of the day, audience participation. Creativity, strategy and learning is not a one-way street, so, ultimately, we want to know if you came to the same conclusions as our panellists. This is your opportunity to ask them any questions you like, but be prepared to have the spotlight turned on you as well…
11am | Event Closes
After the event | Publish the findings
What’s that you say – another marketing event you’ve taken lots of notes at but never looked at again? Don’t worry, we’ll publish all the findings from each Marketing Lab event. Every attendee will be sent the core discussion points so we can keep the conversation going post-event.
Note: all conversations will take place under Chatham House rules. Panellists to be announced as confirmed.