Festival of Media Global announces first speakers and conference theme for 2012

Festival of Media organiser, C Squared, has announced the first six brand representatives who will speak at The Festival of Media Global 2012 taking place in Montreux, Switzerland 15-17 April. This announcement goes hand-in-hand with the confirmation of the conference theme for 2012; 'When data becomes insight: the beauty in numbers and the science of storytelling', which will be the headline for this year's Festival.

Speakers in this year's line-up include names from some of the most notable global brands, collectively representing more than $5bn in media expenditure worldwide. Nigel Burton, CMO, Colgate-Palmolive; Ian Hutchinson, worldwide media director, Reckitt Benckiser; and Benjamin Jankowski, group head, global media, MasterCard are confirmed to speak at the Festival, with Tom Gill, marketing capability manager agency relations, global commerce, Heineken International; David Stern, SVP and CMO, Kao brands; and Petra Zinkweg, global category director, Campina Friesland Foods also among the first names to be announced.

The global conference agenda will focus on the two key forces predicted to shape the global media and advertising climate in the year to come: data and content. As the global marketing business continues to undergo major structural change, the future-thinking line-up of leading CMOs and global business-leaders will be taking to the stage to discuss these two principle focuses at different ends of the media and marketing spectrum. Thought leaders will offer a variety of perspectives on communicating a brand story though content, as well as sharing ideas on how to get the best from media and consumer data through demand-side and sell-side platforms.

In announcing the newly-confirmed brand speakers and outlining the Festival theme, Charlie Crowe, Founder of The Festival of Media, made it clear that the conference agenda is carefully designed each year to reflect the mood and issues of the media and marketing landscape:

"We have always reflected the most topical issues of the industry in our Festival agendas and this year will be no exception. With the relationship between data and content as one of the most interesting and widely debated themes currently on the media landscape, we are hugely honoured to be able to confirm such a prolific group of global brand representatives for this year's Festival of Media Global.

"It has always been our challenge to balance our agenda across media channels and to reflect the issues surrounding how brands are spending media budgets now, as well as how they might be changing their media spend in the future and the insight offered from our speaker line-up will be truly invaluable to the delegates who will be joining us in Montreux."