The storytellers

Thurs 5 March 2026

Curzon Cinema, Oxford

Hey there camper

We’re happy you’re here 😎

All the info you need for today is below, so just pick your seat around the campfire and get stuck in.

Agenda

9.15 - 10.00

Register, then grab a brew and a bite and a chance to chat ☕

10.00 - 10.30

WELCOME HAPPY CAMPERS

10.30 - 11.20

  • SPEAKER: Andy Whitlock – brand positioning expert at The Human Half, sculptor of obscure cartoon characters, and brief stand-in kit model on Man City’s website.

    Storytelling is sense-making. It’s how your brand creates meaning in people’s minds. And yet most companies struggle with pinning their story down. Sure, they can list all the important things about what they do and sell, but there are always TOO MANY THINGS - and with nothing tying them together. And as long as the story’s unclear inside the business it will stay unclear out there.

    This session will show you how to find your story and drag it into the daylight. It will show you why a good story is bendy, not brittle. And it’ll get you more comfortable with simplicity.

    Andy will be sharing techniques and templates to help tease out and shape your core brand idea. He promises that there “almost certainly” won’t be any vacuous points devoid of practical examples. Instead he’ll share case studies and the thinking that went into them to help us unpack it all - from the central brand story to its application across advertising, UX, and social media.

    You’ll leave the session desperate to attack (in a nice way) your own brand narrative, armed with an assortment of actually useful tools. Your story will have no place to hide.

  • SPEAKERS: Ches Hume – SEO Specialist at Invanity, enthusiastic sailor, and recent extra on Clarkson’s farm AND Jack Kennedy – Founder of Invanity, mechanical-bull-riding champion, and terrible surfer who once crashed into a turtle.

    Your brand might have some brilliant stories, but they won’t get you anywhere if no one hears them. From blog posts and website pages to videos and social content, you need to make sure your storytelling is compatible with SEO — even as the very definition of the term is shifting under our feet.

    In this session you’ll learn how to make sure your content stays findable by the right people, at the right time.

    Ches and Jack will be sharing practical ways of creating and structuring content to build your authority online. Then we’ll look at how to make sure it’s as attractive as possible to search engines, from traditional Google rankings to AI overviews and LLM-powered search, so you can get in front of people at every stage in their buying journey.

    And all in a way that doesn't sacrifice the human side on the altar of the algorithm — so people don’t just find you, they buy from you.

  • SPEAKER: Freddie Jewson – Director at Oxford House video agency, social media hater, and classic car lover.

    When we think about what makes a great video, it isn’t about fancy kit or flashy edits – it’s about telling people a story they can connect with.

    So this session is all about how to create memorable, meaningful video content, whether you’re filming it in-house or getting outside support.

    Freddie will guide us through which kinds of stories work best on screen, and how to decide who should tell them. We’ll explore how to build emotion and character into your videos – from founder stories and fundraising pleas to product plugs and social clips – and make sure your narrative is compelling without losing authenticity.

    You’ll walk out with a ton of ideas for crafting brilliantly watchable videos, which also support your wider brand story and help you hit your marketing goals.

11.30 - 12.20

  • SPEAKER: Amnah Malik – Senior User Researcher at Ofgem, former car drifter, and professional artist who used to sell her paintings all over Europe til she got bored of marketing herself on Instagram.

    The best marketing connects because it’s built on empathy – on knowing what really matters to the people you’re trying to reach. But it’s not always easy to find that out, and too often our understanding of our audience is based on assumptions or outdated insights.

    This session will give you the tools you need to really understand who you’re talking to, what they care about, and how your brand fits into their story.

    We’ll explore how to build meaningful audience personas, going beyond simple demographics. And we’ll find out how to keep them fresh through ongoing listening, research, and observation.

    We’ll also look at different methods for collecting insights, interpreting behaviour, and capturing the emotional drivers behind what people say and do – giving you the intel you need to connect with your audience.

  • SPEAKER: Charlotte Jenkins – Digital Strategist at Webmart, former UN worker who once celebrated South Sudan's independence over beers with George Clooney, and firm believer that your brand story deserves more than a single stage.

    Most businesses put all their eggs in one basket, relying on a single channel (maybe two) to carry their entire brand story. But our customers aren't living single-channel lives. They're watching TikToks during telly ad breaks, skimming emails on their commute, popping into the shops on their way home from the gym, and ordering online during their kid’s swimming lesson. So our marketing needs to meet them in those places.

    This session will show us how integrated marketing can transform isolated tactics into a cohesive brand story that follows your customers wherever they are.

    Charlotte will be sharing real-world examples (from both household names and modest startups), showing how coordinated campaigns across online and offline touchpoints don't just increase brand presence, they multiply it. We'll dig into the data behind why integrated approaches consistently outperform singular tactics, with tangible examples of improved ROI, increased customer touchpoints, and stronger brand recall.

    You'll leave armed with a clear framework for building your own integrated campaigns, ready to make sure your marketing channels play nicely together. Your single-channel days are numbered!

  • SPEAKER: Frankie Barber – former agency Copy Lead, freelance word person, screenwriting apprentice, and cricket obsessive.

    Nobody wakes up wanting to read marketing copy. Which means writing it isn’t just about sharing information – it’s about grabbing, and keeping, your reader’s attention.

    In this super-practical session, Frankie will show how borrowing a few tricks from the grand tradition of storytelling can help your copy cut through and actually get read (and acted on).

    We’ll dig into what makes marketing copy different from other kinds of writing, why the reader should always be the hero, and how things like conflict, structure, and specificity keep people with you. Using a wide range of examples, we’ll gather practical tips for better headlines, more vivid language, and ordering ideas for impact. We’ll also look at how to get some help from generative AI without losing your voice – using it to challenge and sharpen your writing, not replace it.

    You’ll leave with a clear, usable framework for turning insight into copy that sticks.

12.30 - 1.20

  • SPEAKERS: Luke Powell – Head of Ops at Invanity, Marvel superfan, and scratchcard jackpot winner at the age of seven AND Sam Hodgson – Account Manager at Invanity, accredited journalist, and world-class paella-maker.

    Marketing drives growth — but inside our organisations that’s not always recognised. It can sometimes feel like most of our time is spent justifying budgets, explaining creative choices, and trying to prove the value of what we do to people who see marketing as ‘the colouring-in department.’

    This session is about changing that story.

    Luke and Sam will explain how you can make your marketing more measurable and how to use the right data to show its true worth to the business. We’ll also explore ways to frame your story in line with what different stakeholders care about and need to know, and we’ll get some advice on how to answer (or actually put an end to) difficult questions.

    By the end you’ll be ready to tell a robust, compelling story of marketing’s value, making sure your work is seen, trusted, and backed across your organisation.

  • SPEAKER: Annabel Daly – Marketing Director at OUP, accredited coach, founder of the Oxford Sausage Dog Appreciation Society, and obsessed with holding her breath underwater.

    As marketers we’re usually focused on asking “How do we tell stories?” It’s an important question, and one that most of the conference talks answer in one way or another. But this session asks “How do stories tell us what to do?”

    Every marketer is guided – often unconsciously – by stories that shape their decisions, filter their creativity, and define what feels possible.

    In this energising and interactive session, Annabel will reveal how these ‘governing narratives’ quietly influence strategy, confidence, and risk‑taking – and she’ll show us how to spot and rewrite the stories that may be holding our marketing back.

    Through short reflective exercises, and honest chats with the campers around us, we’ll uncover the hidden assumptions steering our work. And you’ll walk out having crafted a simple, personal, decision-making manifesto that will help sharpen clarity and creative courage in the year ahead.

  • SPEAKER: Colin Cather – Director at Bottle PR, singer in a band (once reviewed as “affable”), and hater of conference lanyards.

    Tools like ChatGPT and Claude are the new curators of reputation, deciding which brands get mentioned, recommended, or overlooked entirely. In other words, AI now tells your brand’s story for you. And it’s getting a lot of its source material from your media coverage.

    So this session explores what you need to prioritise as you use the press to share your stories with an increasingly AI-powered world.

    Colin will unpack why earned media is becoming a major driver of AI visibility, as well as looking at how LLMs evaluate authority. We’ll also find out how to keep your brand story across social and owned channels in tune with your PR, and why a joined-up approach to content marketing is even more important in this new landscape.

    Together we’ll delve into the key questions you need to be asking in your next marketing strategy meeting if you want to build a brand story trusted by answer engines and audiences alike.

A well-earned brain break and a spot of lunch 😋

1.20 - 2.20

2.20 - 2.40

WELCOME BACK HAPPY CAMPERS

2.40 - 3.40

  • Here's your chance to put those marketing muscles to work on behalf of the community 💪 We'll be splitting into groups to hear about different marketing challenges some of our campers are facing, then working together to offer up ideas 💡

4.00 - 5.00

  • SPEAKER: Natasha Hill – MD of Bottle PR, once kissed by Robbie Williams, and surely the only person in the world who loves beaches but hates sand.

    Great storytelling isn’t reserved for big brands or blockbuster campaigns. The most powerful stories often start small – a throwaway comment from a customer, a quick stat shared in a team meeting, a lunchtime chat about something in the news.

    The key is knowing where to look.

    Natasha will offer up a hefty dose of inspiration by walking us through some brilliant bits of storytelling, from brands big and small, unpacking how they’ve unearthed the stories that turn even the plainest subjects into something people connect with.

    Because being a stellar storyteller is often less about your skills and more about your outlook. It’s a lens. And once you learn to look through it you’ll see stories everywhere.

5.00 - 6.00

Drinks at the bar – first one’s on us 🍻

Stop by and chat with our partners in grime

Got a tricky question or marketing challenge? Get yourself along to Invanity’s lunchtime drop-in.

Jack and the team will be setting up shop in the bar area and you can stop by for answers and advice anytime during the break – whether you’re stuck on something specific or just want to get your head around a new channel.

From branding and strategy to PPC and social, they'll be up for a chat.

Some very good questions

  • We don’t want you getting hangry when you’re trying to learn. So we’re kicking things off with hot drinks and cinnamon buns, you’ll be getting a tasty lunch (from Oxford’s own Cranston Pickles) and some fresh fruit in the middle of the day, and your first drink at the after-party is on us. Plus there are a few snacks in your goody bag to keep you going.

  • The cinema has free, public wifi - it’s called ‘CURZON OXFORD FREE WIFI’ and you don’t need a password.

  • You’ll be happy to know that our commitment to the camping metaphor doesn’t extend to making you dig a hole in the ground. If you need the loo, just head down the long hallway that spans the entrances to the various screens.

    The Accessible toilets are closest to the bar, just before screen 1 where the walls are painted blue. The Men’s toilets are slightly further along, where the walls are painted green. And the Women’s toilets are a little further down again, just past screen 3 where the walls are painted yellow.

  • We know it’s a full-on day and you might need a bit of down time to re-charge. So during the lunch slot (1.20-2.30pm) we’ve designated Screen 1 as a quiet space. You can take your food in there and just sit quietly, away from the crowds and with no pressure to chat to anyone.

  • Yep, we’re staying put. All the sessions, including lunch and the after-party drinks, are happening in the Curzon. Easy.

  • We’ve decided not to. In our regular meet-ups we always steer clear of recording sessions, so we’re sticking to that same IRL ethos today too.

    But we’ll be emailing you tomorrow with the session slides, so you can at least look over all the content no matter which talks you choose to go to today.