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CREATIVE


We’re trying to spread the messaging out into the midlands and further south, so measuring brand awareness there with traditional methods is a bit more difficult.


It’s obviously


a lot easier to see how our return is doing on digital and online paid advertising.


Date: 28 April 2026 Time: 08.30-11.00


Venue: Dunkenhalgh Hotel and Spa


Join decision-makers implementing AI and automation, and those considering their next steps.


Hear from business leaders and specialist practitioners on what is working, what is challenging, and how organisations are adopting new technologies while managing risk.


WANT TO ATTEND? REGISTER NOW!


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For sponsorship and exhibition options, contact Joanne Hindley on 07442 949697 or joanne@lancashirebusinessview.co.uk


Brought to you by:


Madison Brown, people and culture brand manager at the University of Lancashire


With the university’s name change last year from the University of Central Lancashire, we as a marketing team are in a fortunate place where brand awareness is being really valued.


That has to include traditional and digital marketing and we do a lot of ‘out of home’ advertising, billboard advertising and print. In terms of measuring ROI, we carry out things like brand tracking, using agencies to do that.


In terms of determining the spend, there’s a lot of different activity, from direct comms to advertising, other market activity and open days. We have a brilliant data team that tracks spikes in activity, website landings, and things like that. We do have to prove it, and there has to be a business case.


We have in-house capacity and we have a creative services framework with a tender and procurement process. When we use external agencies, we see them as an extension of our team and that has been really important.


Our stance is not to use AI for marketing. In terms of creative, we still use external copywriters to do our storytelling, our case studies, our narrative.


Our meetings about brand and brand direction are all about authenticity and guidelines.


Our photographs represent our student community. Our stories have to be authentic student stories. I’m currently involved in


AI can give you an answer but it can’t give


you advocacy. That human connection is still where the real value sits


Mary Speakman, managing director, Code Galaxy


We are a bespoke website and software talent company. When it comes to going into businesses to help them with digital strategy, it is about understanding the purpose.


Before we ever do any work for anyone, we ask if we can meet expectations. We’ve found some other digital companies will go in and ‘sell the dream’ and businesses have been let down.


We look at what they are trying to achieve, who they are trying to sell to and ask who their suppliers and clients are. It is getting


that full road map and blueprint. It can be a long process.


We work with hundreds of businesses on an annual basis, so we’re getting to know what’s trending, what challenges businesses are facing, what we should be looking at and how can we improve?


As a team, we’re constantly improving. We’re trying to learn from the global experts and applying all that as a creative into those businesses. When times are hard in business, usually the first thing to go is the marketing.


You can get into the habit of saying, ‘I’m going to spend this much and I’m going to do this and this is the model’. Trying new things and doing something a little bit differently may need testing, but could actually create more of an income stream or diversify the offer to different audiences.


In association with:


AI is an incredible tool. The worry is people think it is the be all and end all. We’re seeing a trend where businesses are taking all the ideas and creativity from a proposal and throwing it into AI. Agencies are giving them all our intelligence and AI is replacing the ‘doing’ bit.


The question is actually how do we protect our ideas and knowledge, to ensure that we’re not going to be giving it all away.


Laura Weldon, founder and creative director, Studio LWD


People are so focused on ROI and digital results. A lot of clients we speak to tell us they want to make ‘X amount of money’.


We’ll reply ‘Right, but what is at the core of your business? What makes it tick? What’s your vision, your mission, your purpose?’ A lot of businesses don’t have any of that, their reply is just, ‘We need to make money, we need to put bums on seats’.


That foundational piece is missing; they don’t have what we class as that brand strategy.


Without knowing what the vision is, that is where you end up with a scattergun approach. They may spend, create a new video or launch a new website, but without that underlying piece of ‘what are we trying to actually achieve, what is the core?’ then it’s just wasted money. And then they are always chasing the next big thing.


The opportunities we see for agencies lay in understanding the commercial aspect of businesses, to become their commercial partner. They then develop a strategy. with everything growing from that.


The challenge from both sides of the table is one of trust. Clients have to trust the agency to deliver results.


The creative industries I see succeeding are run as proper commercial businesses. They have Service Level Agreements and train their staff.


We’ve got our own AI creative agent. We use it to do a lot of data analysis, research. That frees our designers up to be more creative.


AI has had a negative impact because every client just goes, ‘Well, can you not just AI it?’ It doesn’t work like that, it’s just another tool and we need to use it in the correct way.


It is that consultative approach, that human relationship. That’s the bit that it can’t replace.


looking at our staff and their voices and their storytelling.


With the name change there’s a lot more responsibility. We feel we have to really represent Lancashire as a whole and you can only do that kind of placemaking through being authentic.


We can’t be something we’re not, because when you come to Lancashire, you’re going to know what that feels like, and it’s our job to convey that.


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