A massive marketing festival is coming to the North for the first time – and its founders say they chose to bring it to Manchester after a throwaway comment from Gary Neville that showed just how creative the city is.
MAD//Fest has been held in London since 2018 and attracts 12,000 people to hear speakers from the world’s biggest brands talk about advertising and marketing.
Now the M.E.N. can reveal that MAD//UpNorth will be coming to Aviva Studios in February after organisers Ian Houghton and Dan Brain realised they needed to celebrate the thriving creative businesses in Manchester and the North of England.
But they say this won’t be a “regional show” – they want it to become a global event that just happens to be in the North. Dan said: “Nobody would think twice if there was a US marketing event based in Chicago or L.A.