Bullet Proof Strategy

Frank Durden is a multi-talented strategist, planner, client and consultant. He has an MBA and a particular interest in, and understanding of business strategy. He was marketing director of a major company and has also won many industry awards including IPA, Effies and of course the APG. As an agency planner at WCRS and Ogilvy, he worked on many creatively lauded brands such as Orange, 118 118 and Dove, enabling his clients to add over $1bn in brand value. He now runs his own consultancy, Frank & Friends, helping clients and agencies take a more strategic and business orientated view of how they approach marketing and communications.

Previously, Kate was the Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Now Advertising. Kate was a Strategy Partner at Engine, and one of the Government’s leading advisers on behaviour change strategy, responsible for anti-smoking and the Change for Life campaigns. She was the planner on the British Heart Foundation’s famous (infamous) ‘Fatty Cigarette’ campaign. She now works at ITV as Director of Client Strategy and Planning

I am a senior marketing analytics, effectiveness and technology lead, with experience in Chief Product/Strategy Officer roles in media and digital agencies. My focus is on improving marketing effectiveness through better use of data, technology, tools and processes, and through more consistent strategic planning. I have a strong track record of creating scalable, meaningful change for global brands, and in particular at transforming agency offers in analytics, marketing technology and data-driven marketing.

Sameer has worked in every kind of agency except PR (including particularly long stints at Mindshare and JWT), and on most categories except, for some bizarre reason, petfood. He has shifted over the course of his career from being a consumer of research and analysis to being a producer, and currently runs a team of analysts at Google. In his spare time he likes taking things apart and putting them back together again, and wants his epitaph to be 'If it ain't broke, break it.

Director of Analytics at Now Advertising. Simon was co-founder of the Data Consultancy Fuel in 2003. They were acquired by the Engine Group in 2008 and Simon continued to lead the business until 2012 when he decided he’d had enough of management and wanted to get his hands dirty again. He’s looked after Data and Analytics across a range of sectors for clients including Toyota, Wickes, The Mirror, Nuffield Health, Visit Wales, OVO Energy and COI. Simon studied Physics with Space Science and Systems at University so is in a minority who can use the phrase “It’s not rocket science” with authority.