In this opening presentation you will hear from Matt Watson – CCO at PepsiCo’s European In-House Agency Sips & Bites and PepsiCo Europe. Matt and S&B have won over 50 global awards in 2025 including In-house agency of the year. But more importantly, his campaigns is driving real growth of the brands with work that works and paying back to the business with over $5m in value creation which is over 200% in 2024 vs 2023.

Matt helped to build PepsiCo’s in-house agency from scratch and will share their great growth story, including a talk on:

• The people first approach – how do you cultivate human centricity and human led leadership. Exploring the four Cs necessary for success: culture, collaboration, challenger, and celebrate

•  Insights into work on Subcultures and how PepsiCo leverages the niches. How do you bring in cultural knowledge and understanding and make your brands more relevant to humans through subcultures

•  Lessons learned from award-winning and successful campaigns such as Doritos ‘Silent’, 'For the Bold in Everyone' and more

• Navigating the  impact of economic uncertainty and rising geopolitical tensions. With reduced marketing budgets and more pressure on efficiency -  how do you continue to add value across all the touch points  and demonstrate your  ROI on spend?

• Proving the commercial and creative value of in-house teams to the rest of the business – how do you position yourself within the business and educate the key stakeholders about your strategic role? 

• Why good creative is good for business? Building a culture of creative excellence and bringing creativity to the heart of the business

• Rediscovering and articulating the benefits of in-housing : from unlocking the power of in-house creative innovation to bringing agility and speed to media buying. How deeper connection and better understanding of a brand can ensure authenticity and lead to better engagement with audiences across all channels

• Proven ways to scale up in-house operations successfully – how do you maximise your team’s impact to increase conversions throughout the marketing funnel  and build customer trust. How do you scale in-housing across various business units, as well as  globally?

How Skyscanner's Head of Brand & Creative Andre Le Masurier built a world-class creative team filled with misfits, makers and travel geeks hell bent on putting a positive dent in the travel universe

From startup scrappiness to billion-dollar brand recognition across the globe. Andre will reveal how his team didn't create another dusty brand playbook that sits in a drive – they have unleashed it through systematic design and fighting for simplicity to scale distinctive consistency and craft across every aspect of the brand.

What you'll learn:

• Why In-Housing actually works (when done right)
  Forget the agency vs. in-house debate. Andre reveals how to align brand muscle with business strategy – and why this matters when you're building something special that lasts

• Building a platform with personality
  Step-by-step transformation: How to turn a cold-calculator into a beloved global community of helpful travel geeks – through storytelling that hits different in every market

• Test, Learn, Scale, Repeat
  The insider playbook for creative optimisation that works. Leading indicators, brand lift studies, and the art of knowing when to trust your gut, double down or pivot fast

• Earning your seat at the table
  How to speak CMO and CFO language with metrics that matter. Plus: the other factors that prove brand and creative worth beyond the spreadsheet

• No one-size-fits-all formula. Exploring different approaches to in-housing models. What works for some sectors and brands and what does not work for others? From fully serviced in-house agency to hybrid models

• The power of trust.  How do you build trust with colleagues in the marketing and brand teams in-house and how do you ensure trust and integrity  whilst working with agencies?

• Setting and understanding the boundaries - defining roles, responsibilities and deliverables. How to improve client-agency relationship through better communication and building a foundation of mutual respect

• Steps to take when things go wrong. Top tips to navigating tense moments, creative disagreements and other frictions between in house and agency

• Creating an environment for blended teams to thrive in the changing media landscape.  How is the relationship between in-house and agency evolving? 

• Focus on talent and relationship management in-house -  what can creatives learn from production and vice versa. How do you inspire and engage your teams to deliver exceptional outputs, as well as connect them and engage with the wider business

• Making impactful work to elevate the brand and drive brand and business growth - how do you build best-in-class capabilities in-house and boost team collaboration to execute world-class work

• Exploring the impact of the social first strategy on creating different ways of working.  How more brands are becoming more self-sufficient and bring production in-house to strengthen their in-house offering 

• Where do the suppliers really add value? Top tips to collaborating with production companies and partner agencies and getting all teams together to deliver outstanding results in an efficient way

• Operational excellence to maintain quality and deliver best results  through the entire in-house setup. Key considerations whilst managing an in-house operations: structure, technology, budgets and more

• Navigating misaligned expectations for in-housing: Lessons learned and what to do when things go wrong?

This case study comes from a Creative Director who worked both for independent and network agencies as well as in-house. He has led bespoke creative for individual platforms (TikTok content for Durex and Ed Sheeran x KraftHeinz), and produced integrated campaigns for every media touchpoint (McDonald’s, TalkTalk, Budweiser).  Most recently  he set up & ran draftLine, the in-house agency for Budweiser Brewing Group where clients became colleagues. In this session he will share his insights into:

• The importance of building strategic  relationships with brand teams when in-house. How do you build trust and earn a reputation?

• How do you create buzz about your in-house agency. Creative innovation in-house  - real life examples of finding new opportunities outside the normal marketing calendar

• Recognising what you are good at and choosing your battles wisely – in-house versus agency ? Instead of trying to fight a battle that in-house teams might lose,  where can they prove their worth to brand teams and earn some respect?

• What does it take to be successful as in in-house creative  – the skills that every in-house agency team needs. Rediscovering the power of collaboration and communication

• A closer look at your company’s relationship with in-housing – beyond the physical move of installing an in-house agency

• Understanding the bigger picture - emerging trends in audience behaviour and media consumption and their impact on what’s expected from in-housing to bring to the table

• The AI revolution and its impact on in-housing: from current applications to how it will reshape the future of media and marketing

• The human factor - building future capabilities and leaving a legacy. How do you nurture future talent and build a strong talent pipeline?

• Embracing technology to improve efficiency, free up resources and make smart data-driven marketing decisions in-house. Examples of tools which can increase your team’s efficiency by reducing the time-consuming and repetitive tasks involved in media buying

• Focus on innovation and brand growth via creativity – future-proofing and creating conditions for creativity to thrive.  How do you build the right mindset to grow and continuously adapt?