TMT WEBINAR SERIES
AI in advertising and marketing agencies: creativity, media planning and M&A
Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming advertising and marketing agencies — driving innovation in creativity, content generation, media planning, buying and production, while also reshaping client relationships. These shifts are redefining both how agencies operate and the M&A landscape within this sector. Join us as agency leaders share how AI is changing the way they work — the challenges they face and the opportunities they see ahead.
🗓 Thursday 23 October 2025
🕒 10:00 EST, 16:00 CEST
👉🏻 Register here to gain insights into one of the most exciting areas in digital media today
In this session of our TMT webinar series we’ll explore:
– How advertising and marketing agencies are deploying AI across their services
– The impact on growth, competition and client engagement
– The role of M&A in scaling AI-driven capabilities and consolidating the market
With the wave of AI continuing to grow, the impact on agencies is accelerating — touching every aspect of their work. This discussion brings together leaders who are harnessing this technology to transform the future of advertising, marketing and M&A in the sector, and I’m thrilled to moderate this unmissable conversation.JOHN MATTHEWS, AI SPECIALIST, OAKLINS
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Hosts
This session will be introduced by Joanna Stone and John Kaiser, partners at Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips in New York. Joanna is guiding the whole TMT webinar series as Oaklins’ expert on emerging technology trends.
Partner
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Partner
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Joanna Stone is a partner at Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips in New York, and co-leads Oaklins’ TMT and legaltech teams. She has worked in the broader media and technology industry for over 20 years, and been involved in dozens of transactions on both the sell-side and buy-side. Notable recent transactions include representing Hay House in its sale to Penguin Random House, and supporting the acquisition of Netmaster Holdings Limited (CaseLines) by Thomson Reuters Corporation.
John Kaiser is a partner at Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips in New York. He leads Oaklins’ advertising & marketing services team as well as its creative services team. John has extensive experience in advertising and marketing, having served in senior-level roles in the industry and through M&A transactions at Oaklins. Applying his industry knowledge and relationships to M&A since joining the firm in 2010, he has facilitated transactions across an array of companies, including the sales of Burrell, a multicultural communications agency, to FVLCRUM; Advertising Week, an event and media company, to Emerald; and Harbor Picture Company, a global entertainment and commercial production studio, to Publicis.
Moderator
Senior Advisor
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John Matthews is a senior advisor at Oaklins DeSilva+Phillips in New York. Coming to investment banking after a career in the technology and management consulting sectors, John has more than 10 years of investment banking experience advising sell-side and buy-side middle-market clients on M&A transactions. Notable AI-related transactions include the sales of Admeta to WideOrbit and Helixa to Telmar.
Speakers
Partner and co-Chief Client Officer, The Brandtech Group
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Emma Cookson is a partner at the Brandtech Group and the Group’s co-chief client officer. She is an experienced leader in brand strategy, business transformation and commercial management. With a global career spanning some of the world’s most renowned creative and marketing organizations, she has a deep understanding of global markets and a passion for the power of simplicity in driving business success. Starting at BBH London, Emma rose to be global head of strategy and later the CEO and chairman of BBH US. Emma has advised global brands like Unilever, Google, Levi’s and McDonald’s, and now helps lead business transformation in an AI-first world at The Brandtech Group. With 20 years in the US and extensive international experience, she blends strategic insight with creative and commercial impact.
Partner, McKinsey & Company
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Quentin George heads up the MediaX service line, and at McKinsey has been involved in over 50+ commerce and retail media network builds over the last seven years. He has deep expertise in critical areas of the modern marketing ecosystem, including digital transformation, marketing modernization, media investment and measurement, martech and adtech, programmatic trading, agency selection and optimization, data and technology partnerships, data visualization, data strategy and activation, and machine learning. Prior to this latest role, Quentin founded UNBOUND, a strategic advisory firm, where for six years he advised marketing executives across a wide array of sectors and geographies on how to succeed in a digital and data-driven economy.
EVP, Chief of Strategy & Operations, Horizon Media
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Katie Comerford is a strategic leader at Horizon Media who transforms data into breakthrough opportunities for clients across industries. With nearly two decades of expertise in data-driven innovation, she seamlessly bridges cutting-edge technology with business-critical insights to unlock each client’s unique growth potential. Katie’s career has been anchored in digital transformation from the ground up, evolving into leadership roles where she now spearheads client architecture, data strategy and transformation, and commerce initiatives. Her deep performance acumen is matched by an intuitive understanding of market dynamics, enabling her to craft sophisticated go-to-market strategies that deliver measurable impact. Her expansive experience spans diverse sectors including finance, government, travel, insurance and retail.
Managing Director, Global Head of AI Strategy, Huge
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Emily Wengert leads design and strategy around the future of AI-powered experiences and innovation. She was named one of Insider’s ‘Top 15 Advertising Executives Leading the Industry’s Charge Into Generative AI’, and her work with facial recognition, eye tracking, robotics, AR, VR and computer vision contributed to her being selected for Adweek’s ‘Creative 100’ list in 2019. As a 17-year veteran at design and technology agency Huge, Emily has worked with leading brands including Target, NBCU, P&G, Google, American Express and Gucci, integrating human-centered applications of emerging tech to drive growth. In addition, she regularly speaks on the future of AI, retail and digital business at notable events such as CES, SXSW, AI Summit, ShopTalk, FastCompany Innovation Festival and New York’s Advertising Week
About our TMT webinar series
This session on AI is part of Oaklins’ TMT webinar series, hosted by Joanna Stone and Brad A. Adams, co-leaders of Oaklins TMT team . Each webinar focuses on technology-driven trends that are reshaping industries and creating new opportunities for growth.
Previous webinars:
- Unlocking value in the creator economy: Trends, opportunities and future growth
- AI agents: the next big thing in artificial intelligence and M&A
Upcoming webinar:
- Legaltech
Stay tuned as we continue to explore the future of TMT in coming sessions.
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