My Sponsored Visit to Advertising Week NYC: The Future of Marketing Through a Creator’s Eyes

Oct 10

Written By Catherine Panhilason

Meta Creator Lounge Sign in Advertising Week NY 2025 — Thank you Fohr Agency for sending me to this year’s Ad Week in NYC!

Ad Week was from October 6-9, but I was only able to attend the last day. I have so many takeaways from just 1 day so I can’t even imagine having gone to multiple if not all days.

The global president of Ad Week said they are leaning into the creator economy space and expanding their creator experience offerings which is exciting to witness as it unfolds.

Advertising Week NYC is one of the flagship annual events in the marketing, media, advertising, & technology industries. It’s a multi-day conference & festival in NYC’s Penn District that brings together thought leaders, brand executives, agencies, creators, technologists, & other industry stakeholders to exchange ideas, showcase innovations, & network. The event features over 1200+ speakers, 500+ sessions across 28 content tracks: Tech & Innovation, Media, Creative & Culture, Commerce, Measurement, etc. Many big brands set up interactive experiences, photo booths, pop-ups, immersive booths, surprise activations to engage guests. Guests include brand marketers, CMOs, marketing leaders, agency execs, adtech vendors, startup founders, creatives, content producers, storytellers, analysts, data scientists, researchers, anyone interested in the future of marketing, media & tech.

One of my favs was Mozilla Ads’ photo booth.

Another fav was Stirista’s record booth set up.

Of course, if you’re on IG, you may or may not have run into Secret NYC’s page telling us all the secret spots NY has to offer & where the best bagels are in the city!

“It was my job to be vulnerable & lean in.” -Loren Brillcastle, Founder & CEO of Sweet Loren’s

sweet loren's sessions advertising week nyc — Sessions 1 I attended: From Oops to OMG; How a TikTok Mishap Sparked Sweet Loren’s Success
Now I personally LOVE Sweet Loren’s cookies so this session was a must for me. I had no idea that Loren created this company after surviving cancer at 22. She has a sweet tooth & couldn’t find healthy alternatives while she was on her healing journey. The session primarily focused on Ryan, the Sweet Loren TikTok content creator, accidentally changing the company’s TikTok name to Ryan for 7 days. This mishap was what Loren said she leaned into instead of punishing Ryan’s mistake. By leaning in, they created a vulnerability that pulled existing customers in & invited new ones into their unhinged, imperfect world. They went as far as meeting up with an already existing “Ryan” group made up of 50 people named Ryan because of Sweet Loren’s own Ryan’s little mishap. I enjoyed this very human conversation showing how in an overly manufactured, curated, filtered world, sometimes it’s our mistakes which make us human & go viral. Now their focus isn’t going viral by any means, but they do want to welcome a brand vulnerability that invites people in. Loren is expanding Sweet Loren’s to be your go to healthy bakery & working on new products as we speak. (Music to my ears! Bring it in cookie dough.)

From intern to mishap to more customers. Leaning into our mistakes & staying human as a brand. Yes we can laugh still & show the raw process of running a business URL & IRL.

Session 2: Strava for Business Why Brands Are Turning to Strava to Engage with Active Consumers

“Run Clubs are the new Tinder.”

From left to right: Sarah Kirk, VP Mush, Stephanie Arpaia; VP Brand Marketing Excel Sports Management with clients like Clif Bar, Under Armour, Red Bull; Sarah Stringer, Global Chief of Innovation Dentsu Media; Ife Babatunde, Sales Lead Strava for Business

I loved this second session because I personally use Strava for running, & I love all the data it offers as an app. From the BTS lens, all 4 panelists really emphasized how they have each leveraged the app to reach their consumers. They emphasized how Gen Z is more health conscious, & alcohol consumption is down with their generation. To connect with this younger consumer, brands are turning to Strava to actively engage while they are literally on their endorphin high from being physically active! Run clubs are trendy & the preferred new way for people to meet up instead of bars, & they are finding most people crave real life connection. Even though we are in a fast-paced digital era, they have found that most people really want to combat loneliness & want to connect with similar passion points. Big brands are leveraging these URL to IRL connections by showing up where the consumers are already showing up. If you’re on Strava, you will see brands sponsoring challenges & meets ups. Many brands are offering rewards for very easy challenges as part of their activations. They all stressed the importance of humanity & paying attention to an analog movement happening within the digital landscape.