Brand-Side Conference

BRAND-SIDE: A CONFERENCE FOR CREATIVES WITHIN

Join us September 30 - October 1, 2026, in Nashville, TN!

Brand-Side is our two-day conference aimed squarely at the inner dynamics of the very best in-house creative departments. With sessions from some of the most acclaimed brand and marketing leaders in the industry, Brand-Side is a one-of-a-kind experience that gives creatives in this space a behind-the-scenes look at the tactics and cultures behind the teams who build, maintain, and grow a brand’s presence in the market.

Whether being Brand-Side is a new experience for you or you are a seasoned in-house leader looking to invigorate your team, you will come away from the conference with inspiration, connections, and practical applications to up your creative game. Sessions will tackle topics like ‘How do you establish a strong creative culture if your brand isn’t considered ‘creative’? What is the best way to steward your brand internally and also work seamlessly with external agency partners?’ and much more.

See photos from last years Brand-Side!

SPEAKERS

Tim Harkins

Executive Creative Director

Hook

Taylor Erin

Executive Creative Director

Instacart

Sophie Gold

Founder

ELEANOR

Roger Sho Gehrmann Sho Gehrmann

Vice President, Integrated Partnerships

Massive Music

Rikke Heinecke

Director of Production

STURDY.

Ravid Kuperberg

Partner & Trainer

Mindscapes

Otis Stroud, II

ECD, Brand Creative US Card

Capital One

Nico Poalillo

Global Creative Development

Matt Watson

Chief Creative Officer

Sips & Bites & PepsiCo EU

Mack Garrison

Co-Founder & Director of Content

Dash Studio

John Long

Executive Creative Director

Digitas

Joanna Berliner

Head of Creative, Wayfair Studio

Wayfair

Jean Morrow

Group Creative Director

Coinbase

Jay Russell

Chief Creative Officer, EVP

GSD&M

Alyssa Georg

ECD and Head of Creative Integration

Expedia Group

Hyatt Centric Downtown Nashville

210 Molloy St.

Nashville, TN 37201

September 30 - October 1, 2026

Schedule is subject to change

Day 1, September 30 Day 2, October 1

Day 1, September 30

9:00 am - 10:00 am

Registration & Breakfast

10:00 am - 10:10 am

Welcome

10:10 am - 11:00 am

Taylor Erin

Taylor Erin

Executive Creative Director
Instacart

Taylor Erin is Executive Creative Director at Instacart, leading the brand’s internal creative agency, Local Produce. She manages marketing creative across the Instacart Marketplace and oversees a talented team of award-winning writers, art directors, producers, editors, and designers to shape the company’s creative strategy and bring its brand vision to life. In 2026, Local Produce was named In-House Agency of the Year by the Ad Age A-List. Before joining Instacart in 2022, Taylor was the Lead Creative Director for Global Consumer Product Marketing and Social Campaigns at X (formerly Twitter), where she directed creative strategies for global product launches. Her experience includes working as a copywriter for beloved consumer brands like Panda Express and Justin’s Peanut Butter.

From Waiting on the Table to Sitting at it

The best in-house creative teams don't wait to be invited into the room. They build the case, earn the trust, and take the seat. Taylor Erin, ECD and Head of Creative at Instacart, shares how she took Local Produce from a design fulfillment department to Ad Age's In-House Agency of the Year and the team behind two back-to-back Super Bowl campaigns — by building a creative function with impact far beyond traditional marketing needs.

11:05 am - 11:55 am

Ravid Kuperberg

Ravid Kuperberg

Partner & Trainer
Mindscapes

Ravid is a prominent structured creative thinking trainer in the field of brand communications, working with numerous ad agencies and brands around the world.

He is a former advertising professional with extensive experience across a wide range of strategic, creative, and leadership roles.

A diverse background which has given him a unique perspective on creativity and its operations manual.

He is a frequent speaker at marketing conferences and advertising festivals.

Multiple One Show and ADC winners were awarded to work created by teams using the Mindscapes structured creative thinking tools.

StoryTeching with AI: Not Just Another Talk About Storytelling

Technology continues to revolutionize the ways brands bring stories to life, creating a world where machines, digital platforms, data, and brand narratives converge to deliver value, solutions, and experiences in innovative new ways that communicate stories across both digital and physical realms.

Welcome to the world of Phygital StoryTeching.

The star of this world these days is undoubtedly AI. Much of the conversation focuses on how AI accelerates the craft and execution of ideas, or on the rapid evolution of generative AI itself.

This talk shines a spotlight on a different side of the equation: the role AI can play in the story itself. Rather than exploring how AI can help create executions, we will explore how AI can become an integral part of the idea - not as a production tool, but as a storytelling ingredient. By deconstructing and decoding recurring thinking patterns embedded in award-winning creative work featuring AI, we will reveal practical frameworks for generating ideas where technology and AI amplify stories about people, not just stories about technology.

In other words, this session is not about using AI to create stories. It’s about creating stories with AI.

12:00 pm - 12:50 pm

Kay Hsu, Global Head of Creative Lab @ Spotify

Session description to follow.

12:50 pm - 1:45 pm

Lunch

1:45 pm - 2:35 pm

Matt Watson

Matt Watson

Chief Creative Officer
Sips & Bites & PepsiCo EU

Matt Watson, the Chief Creative Officer at Sips & Bites & PepsiCo EU, has an infectious leadership style that bleeds into everything he does, running the creative department through empowerment and an own-your-sh*t approach to creativity. Matt’s belief is to treat humans like humans, to give them the tools to own their work, their ideas and watch them grow. Matt’s human-first approach places people at the heart of everything S&B does. From talent development to ideas and executions, human-centric thinking is Matt’s guiding lens for agency and brand growth. His key achievements over the past two years include three Cannes Lions and a D&AD yellow pencil from over 50 global creativity awards won. Sips & Bites was recently awarded “Campaign’s in-house agency of the year, 2024 and has been ranked 10th most creative agency in London by Cannes and 4th most creative in-house agency globally by D&AD, at only 5 years old.

Unleashing Creativity Within

How do you make a $200bn corporation more creative from the inside? From nothing to in-house agency of the year and over 70 global awards in 5 years, I'll provide you with some insight on how to achieve creative excellence from within a corporate tanker and build an in-house agency from scratch.

I’ll unpackit and give you an insight into the "how" by providing:

-The four C’s cheat-sheet

-Real examples of the challenges and how we overcame them

-How to infiltrate the corporate acronym language with creativity

2:40 pm - 3:25 pm

Round Table Discussions

Tim Harkins

The Art of Splitting the Creative Workload

Frameworks for deciding when to "build vs. buy." Should the external agency handle the big, flashy brand campaigns while the in-house team handles high-volume performance assets? Or vice versa? Discuss the most effective models for dividing the work without stepping on each other's toes.

Roger Sho Gehrmann

The Sound of Social: Why Your Brand's Most Important Audio Doesn't Live in Ads

For years, brands have invested in sonic branding for advertising. But today, brands are heard far more often through social content than traditional campaigns. Every day, marketing teams publish hundreds of videos powered by music, yet few have any strategy for how those musical choices shape brand perception.

While visual identity is tightly governed, audio is often left to chance.

This session explores why brands need to move beyond sonic logos and start building sonic systems: practical frameworks for creating a consistent, culturally relevant and legally compliant sound across social, creator content and every touchpoint where their brand is heard.

Mack Garrison

The Future of In-house + Agency Collaborations

As creative teams evolve, so must the relationships that power them. Join an interactive conversation around brand stewardship, navigating ambiguity, and the power of relationships when it comes to success stories and failures as we look to the future of these partnerships.

3:30 pm - 4:20 pm

Nico Poalillo

Nico Poalillo

Global Creative Development

Nico Poalillo is a creative executive and business director whose work spans film, brand strategy, live experience, and the tools and technology reshaping how creative work gets made. Over the past decade he has built studios from scratch, scaled global partnerships, and delivered measurable commercial impact for clients including Apple, General Motors, Adobe, Nike, and Formula 1. He understands the creative side and the infrastructure side, how AI-assisted pipelines, real-time workflows, and global studio models actually function at scale, and how to lead the people who build them.

He has spent equal time in production and in the boardroom, working directly alongside CMOs, CCOs, and global brand leadership to shape not just the work but the strategy behind it. The ability to move fluidly between those worlds, and to be taken seriously in both, is what makes the work land the way it does. Educated at the University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin, and Harvard Business School, his foundation is equal parts creative instinct and commercial rigor.
Rikke Heinecke

Rikke Heinecke

Director of Production
STURDY.

RIKKE HEINECKE is a dynamic leader in both creative and production spaces, bringing over 15+ years of experience across advertising, music, media, and entertainment. A graduate of the University of Southern California’s renowned Film & Television Production Program, Rikke has built a career defined by versatility, precision, and creative vision.

She has led production teams at major industry powerhouses such as Warner Music Group and ViacomCBS, and played pivotal roles in launching and scaling multiple production company startups. As a seasoned line producer, Rikke has collaborated with top-tier global advertising agencies, record labels, and Fortune 500 brands, overseeing high-profile campaigns for clients such as Toyota, Porsche, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz, Don Julio, T-Mobile, Bose, Coca-Cola, Sprite, and Doritos. Her work has been recognized with prestigious accolades, including 2022 Partner of the Year finalist nomination at the ThinkLA IDEA Awards for her contributions to WMX—among others.

Currently, Rikke serves as Director of Production for the Brand and Experiential team at STURDY, where she continues to drive innovative content and immersive experiences through a rare blend of strategic leadership and deep production expertise. Beyond overseeing execution, Rikke plays a critical role in shaping the studio’s go-to-market strategy—translating cultural insights, brand objectives, and creative ambition into scalable production models. Her work bridges the gap between concept and delivery, aligning operational efficiency with long-term business growth. From spearheading multi-million dollar RFPs to building strategic partnerships with agencies and global brands, Rikke helps position STURDY as a nimble yet powerful force in modern storytelling and branded entertainment.

Meaning Over Spectacle: The Future of Live Creative

The moments people remember are the ones they had to be there for. STURDY. Brand Studio co-chairs Rikke Heinecke and Nico Poalillo break down how artist-built world-building, from Bad Bunny's Puerto Rico residency to Bad Omens' world tour, is becoming the future of brand storytelling, and how blending their brand backgrounds with the studio's roots in music allows them build cultural moments brands can actually own.

6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Welcome Cocktail Party hosted by Raven

Mingle with your fellow attendees over cocktails and light bites. Enjoy music from Jesse Labelle, Nashville's local singer-songwriter while checking out the custom jewelry-making station sponsored by Superside to bring home a beautiful souvenir.

Day 2, October 1

10:00 am - 10:50 am

Jean Morrow

Jean Morrow

Group Creative Director
Coinbase

Jean Morrow is a Group Creative Director at the Coinbase Creative Studio. Before that she led creative for Adobe at Pereira O’Dell, and spent time at 72andSunny, BBH and Virtue, where she collaborated with brands such as Samsung, Smirnoff, Target and MGM Hotels. In her sixteen-year career, she has received awards from Cannes, The One Show, Ciclope, The Art Directors Club, D&AD, The Clios, The Webby Awards and Effies. She’s judged the One Show, Ciclope, AICP and the Hatch Awards. She lives in San Francisco with her husband, her son who loves elevators and one very old cat.

How Creativity Made People Care About Crypto

A few years ago, a brutal bear market left the crypto market and its reputation in a precarious position. At the same time, many folks didn't even understand the product itself. So how do you get people to root for something while also educating? The answer is creativity.

10:55 am - 11:45 pm

John Long

John Long

Executive Creative Director
Digitas

John Long is an executive creative director at Digitas in New York and the author of Zombie Brands. He has held creative leadership roles at global agencies including Ogilvy, Huge, and Code & Theory, as well as the in-house agencies of The Economist and LG North America. His work has received more than fifty awards from Cannes Lions, The One Show, The Clios, and the London International Awards. An associate member of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, he has served on juries for the Effies, Cannes Young Lions, and the AICP Next Awards.

Is Your Brand a Zombie?

A deadly disease is spreading. One that robs brands of their appeal and devours their soul. Under an endless onslaught of swiping, scrolling, and spam, too many brands have been hollowed out by technology. John Long explains how this happened and why it matters. You’ll not only learn the three unmistakable behaviors of Zombie Brands, you’ll leave the session armed with the prescription that keeps your brand healthy, human—and impossible to ignore.

11:50 am - 12:40 pm

Otis Stroud, II

Otis Stroud, II

ECD, Brand Creative US Card
Capital One

Otis is a results-focused leader with classical CPG training and deep experience in brand strategy, positioning, activation/engagement, the hospitality industry, and now financial services. He has worked in challenging marketing and strategy roles across companies such as Frito Lay (PepsiCo) and Choice Hotels. He has led marketing efforts across iconic brands such as Cheetos, Tostitos, Walmart, NFL partnership, KFC partnership, Comfort Inn & Suites, and now Capital One. Otis currently leads the Brand Creative org supporting the full US Card Portfolio.

Prior to his marketing career, Otis worked in nonprofit for a small United Way agency, Right Moves for Youth, as a Program Director serving underserved and underrepresented communities in the Charlotte, NC public school system. Otis earned his BSBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School and later earned his MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School focusing on strategic marketing.

Otis, a Charlotte, NC native, now resides in Maryland with his wife, Nakeva, and his sons Lennox (3) and August (2). He’s a music lover, a foodie, a Marvel enthusiast, and a firm believer that movie quotes or Outkast lyrics can solve almost any problem.

We’re Going To Need a Bigger Boat Plan.

As we continue to grow in our careers in the creative space, so does the scope, the responsibilities, your team and more than likely so will your plan needed to be successful. Instead of creating dope work you’ll be leading the dope work. In this session we’ll speak to how do we stay close enough to the work to stay informed but not too far in the weeds to own the big picture. How do we make sure our team feels seen and heard while our leadership feels confident and informed on your decisions. It’s a delicate dance at times but what’s a good party without a good dance?

12:40 pm - 1:30 pm

Lunch

1:30 pm - 2:20 pm

Jay Russell

Jay Russell

Chief Creative Officer, EVP
GSD&M

With over two decades of experience in the advertising industry, Jay Russell is Chief Creative Officer, EVP at Omnicom agency, GSD&M. For over a decade, his creative leadership has been a driving force behind GSD&M’s great work for Corona, Capital One, the U.S. Air Force, White Castle, Southwest Airlines, Stellantis (Dodge, Chrysler, Fiat, and Alfa Romeo), among others. Jay’s dedication to the agency’s unorthodox approach to talent sourcing, to honing in on the reality that great ideas come from passionate employees, and his drive to deliver First & Only ideas has led to bold ideas that make brands unforgettable—like Capital One’s “Chuck Blimp” during the Final Four, Pizza Hut’s “Hold for Wings” song, or Stanley’s president responding on TikTok to a viral car fire video. Jay kicked off his career working at DDB on brands like Bud Light, PBS and American Airlines. He then worked as creative director for Miller Brewing at Square One and Nationwide Insurance at TM Advertising. In his first stint at GSD&M, he ran the global BMW business. Before his boomerang move back to GSD&M, Jay helped launch the Windows phone as creative director at Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Jay’s work has been awarded by the Cannes Lions, One Show, Clio Awards, Effie Awards, National ADDYs, Andy’s, D&AD, ADC, AICP and Webbys, among others.
Alyssa Georg

Alyssa Georg

ECD and Head of Creative Integration
Expedia Group

Alyssa Georg is the Executive Creative Director and Head of Creative Integration at Expedia Group, where she oversees the creative development and stewardship of global brand campaigns across Expedia, Hotels.com, and Vrbo. Following Expedia Group’s shift away from an internal agency model, she built the Creative Integration function from the ground up. She created the operating model that supports brand teams, agency and production partners, as well as integrates emerging AI workflows to deliver distinctive, consistent creative at scale.

Before joining Expedia Group, Alyssa spent her career at agencies including 72andSunny and Droga5, leading award-winning work for brands such as Huggies, Audible, Etsy, REI, and Google. Her work has been recognized by Cannes Lions, D&AD, The One Show, Effies, Clios, Webbys, and Ad Age.

At Expedia Group, she brings that same creative ambition to the long game of building enduring global brands, with a belief that top-tier agency craft and in-house scale are more powerful together than either is alone.

Great Work Needs a Great Home: A Partnership That Handles the Hard Stuff

Vrbo believes the right home creates the conditions for people to connect, relax, and have better experiences. The same is true of creativity: Great work needs an environment where ideas can grow, be challenged, and ultimately become stronger. Expedia Group’s Alyssa Georg and GSD&M’s Jay Russell offer an honest look at building that kind of creative home between a brand and agency, from navigating 48 rounds of creative and team changes to improving feedback and making difficult decisions together. They’ll explore why great partnerships aren’t built by avoiding friction, but by establishing enough trust, candor, and shared ambition to work through it, and keep pushing until both the work and the partnership are better.

2:25 pm - 3:10 pm

Sophie Gold

Sophie Gold

Founder
ELEANOR

Sophie Gold is the founder and president of ELEANOR, a global commercial production company with offices in Santa Monica and London’s Soho. Under her leadership, ELEANOR has rapidly become one of the industry’s most talked-about creative companies, earning recognition including Ad Age’s 2024 Production Company to Watch, a return to the Ad Age A-List in 2025, and Gerety’s 2025 Production Company of the Year. It is also the first and only certified female and Black-owned commercial production company in the United States.

Known for her instinct for talent, taste, and world-building, Sophie has built ELEANOR into a company where directors are developed with long-term vision and where craft, emotion, and cultural relevance coexist. Her work spans commercials, branded content, music videos, documentaries, entertainment, and emerging creative platforms, collaborating with brands including Walmart, Coca-Cola, Disney, Activision, Samsung, Pure Leaf, DoorDash, Garmin, and the US Army.

In 2025, Sophie launched della, an always-on creative studio designed for high-speed, high-craft brand storytelling. Built to help brands create agile content ecosystems without sacrificing cinematic quality, della reflects Sophie’s belief that modern brands require both strategic velocity and enduring taste.

Born in France, raised in England, and based in Los Angeles since 2011, Sophie founded ELEANOR in 2019 with the ambition to create a modern creative company that could challenge the conventions of the production industry while championing exceptional talent.

Sophie is also known for her editorial voice as “Lady Eleanor,” where she writes about taste, storytelling, creativity, business, and the future of advertising through newsletters, essays, and speaking engagements. She has spoken at global industry festivals including Ciclope and served on juries for organizations including Cannes Lions, Gerety, and The One Show.

At the center of Sophie’s work is a belief that great creative companies are not built through trend-chasing, but through conviction, consistency, and a relentless devotion to craft.

Left on Read

The business case for brand has never been better evidenced, or harder to make. Left on Read is about why brand keeps getting ghosted inside the very organizations that depend on it, and how in-house creative leaders can build brands with a regulated nervous system: present, consistent, and clear enough to hold a point of view even when the budget is tight and the market is loud.

Why this talk, and why me: Honestly, it comes down to being a good listener. For years I have hosted dinners at Cannes with senior marketing leaders, and the same thing happens every time. Once one person admits how hard it has gotten to defend brand, the floodgates open. It is cathartic, but it is also useful. Being in a room of peers lets them say things they cannot say in their own boardrooms, and they leave better equipped to advocate for themselves. Left on Read grew directly out of those dinners. It is now my interview series where I have those same conversations with marketing leaders on the record. So I am not coming to Brand-Side because I have solved this. I am coming because I have spent years listening to the people living it, and now I am putting it on the record.

The talk is inspired by an essay I wrote that took off on Substack and was picked up by Ad Age. Sharing it here.

3:10 pm - 3:30 pm

Snacks & Beverage Break

3:30 pm - 4:20 pm

Joanna Berliner

Joanna Berliner

Head of Creative, Wayfair Studio
Wayfair

Joanna Berliner leads Wayfair North America’s integrated creative studio, overseeing everything from campaigns and content to visual development, curation, and performance creative for one of the world’s largest home retailers. She has built her career creating systems that help teams move faster without sacrificing creative quality.

Over more than a decade across Wayfair’s family of brands, she’s applied that approach to luxury (Perigold), specialty (AllModern, Joss & Main, Birch Lane), and mass marketplace (Wayfair), spanning B2B and B2C, physical retail and digital. Today, she is focused on how AI and automation are changing the way creative gets produced, tested, and personalized – and is building new capabilities, including creative engineering, to help lead that shift.

She lives in Boston with her husband, two young boys, and their labradoodle, Einstein – who, despite the name, has neither genius nor a systems mindset.

Genius Doesn't Scale. Systems Do.

From Renaissance workshops to the animation studios that made Fred Flintstone a household name, every leap in creative scale came from the same place: a system that defined what ""good"" looks like. AI is the newest version of that test. In this session, we'll look backward to charge forward, and leave you with the foundation that turns AI from a chaotic experiment into a brand-right engine.

4:30 pm - 6:30 pm

Closing Cocktails

PRICING

MEMBER: $1,750.00

NON-MEMBER: $1,950.00

GET A TEAM BUILDING TICKET AND BRING FIVE ATTENDEES FOR THE PRICE OF FOUR!

Registration to the event includes all speakers and round table sessions, daily breakfast, lunch, and a group cocktail party.

To access member pricing, please login to your One Club account. The discount will automatically apply at checkout if you have an active membership.

PURCHASE MEMBERSHIP

LODGING

Brand-Side returns to the Hyatt Centric Downtown Nashville. The Hyatt blends modern edge with Music City soul - just steps from the neon glow of broadway and the raw creativity that fuels the city.

We have limited space available so secure your room now with our exclusive rate of $319 /night.

ADDRESS:

210 Molloy Street,

Nashville, TN 37201

BOOK YOUR ROOM

BRAND-SIDE: A CONFERENCE FOR CREATIVES WITHIN

SPEAKERS

Tim Harkins

Taylor Erin

Sophie Gold

Roger Sho ​Gehrmann Sho ​Gehrmann

Rikke Heinecke

Ravid Kuperberg

Otis Stroud, II

Nico Poalillo

Matt Watson

Mack Garrison

John Long

Joanna Berliner

Jean Morrow

Jay Russell

Alyssa Georg

Hyatt Centric Downtown Nashville

210 Molloy St.

Nashville, TN 37201

September 30 - October 1, 2026

9:00 am - 10:00 am

Registration & Breakfast

10:00 am - 10:10 am

Welcome

10:10 am - 11:00 am

Taylor Erin

From Waiting on the Table to Sitting at it

11:05 am - 11:55 am

Ravid Kuperberg

StoryTeching with AI: Not Just Another Talk About Storytelling

12:00 pm - 12:50 pm

Kay Hsu, Global Head of Creative Lab @ Spotify

12:50 pm - 1:45 pm

Lunch

1:45 pm - 2:35 pm

Matt Watson

Unleashing Creativity Within

2:40 pm - 3:25 pm

Round Table Discussions

Tim Harkins

The Art of Splitting the Creative Workload

Roger Sho ​Gehrmann

The Sound of ​Social: ​Why Your ​Brand's Most ​Important Audio Doesn't Live in ​Ads

Mack Garrison

The Future of In-house + Agency Collaborations

3:30 pm - 4:20 pm

Nico Poalillo

Rikke Heinecke

Meaning Over Spectacle: The Future of Live Creative

6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Welcome Cocktail Party hosted by Raven

10:00 am - 10:50 am

Jean Morrow

How Creativity Made People Care About Crypto

10:55 am - 11:45 pm

John Long

Is Your Brand a Zombie?

11:50 am - 12:40 pm

Otis Stroud, II

We’re Going To Need a Bigger Boat Plan.

12:40 pm - 1:30 pm

Lunch

1:30 pm - 2:20 pm

Jay Russell

Alyssa Georg

Great Work Needs a Great Home: A Partnership That Handles the Hard Stuff

2:25 pm - 3:10 pm

Sophie Gold

Left on Read

3:10 pm - 3:30 pm

Snacks & Beverage Break

3:30 pm - 4:20 pm

Joanna Berliner

Genius Doesn't Scale. Systems Do.

4:30 pm - 6:30 pm

Closing Cocktails

PRICING

LODGING

The One Club for Creativity

Roger Sho Gehrmann Sho Gehrmann

Roger Sho Gehrmann

The Sound of Social: Why Your Brand's Most Important Audio Doesn't Live in Ads