On May 5-6 2026, WPP Media and partners reopened the doors of NextM - the biggest marketing and tech event in the Nordics. We were joined by 1,550 attendees at Annexet in Stockholm across the two days.
There were 80 amazing speakers, performers and panellists to inspire our audience at NextM through this year's theme NextM - The Jungle Edition.
See the NextM recap video here.
It's a marketing jungle out there. Vivid and flourishing, yes. Untamed, chaotic and difficult too.
In the words of Axl Rose:
"Welcome to the jungle, we got fun and games. We got everything you want honey, we know the names."
NextM is your machete, cutting through the AI slop vines and brain rot bushes, locating your most valuable marketing gems. Welcome to the future, it’s lush, connected, creative and grows at sonic speed.
Damian Kulash Jr. is an artist, musician, filmmaker, and the front man for the polymath rock group OK Go. He’s directed the band’s long string of boundary-pushing music videos, racking up more than a billion views online. They’ve danced in zero gravity and on treadmills, they’ve built a warehouse-sized Rube Goldberg machine to run in sync with a song, and they’ve choreographed hundreds of explosions filmed in just a few seconds. Damian has received the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award for Visual Art, a Grammy, three MTV VMAs, twenty-three Cannes Lions, three Webby Awards, and has had his work presented at The Guggenheim, MoCA. He’s written for The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Rolling Stone, and testified before the US Congress in support of Net Neutrality. He serenaded Barack Obama at his 50th birthday party, appeared on the Simpsons, and Animal from The Muppets once played the drums in his LA garage.
Erin Meyer is a professor at INSEAD, one of the leading international business schools. Her work focuses on how the world's most successful managers navigate the complexities of cultural differences in a global environment. She helps companies to develop organizational cultures that breed both flexibility and innovation and offers cutting-edge strategies to improve the effectiveness of projects that span the globe.
Erin's research with Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO of Netflix, was published in the best-selling book, No Rules Rules. She frequently publishes in Harvard Business Review and was listed by the Thinkers50, as one of the fifty most impactful business writers in the world.
An AI expert and Neuroscience Researcher, Shivvy Jervis is described as ‘one of the most trusted voices in the industry’ by CNN, ‘extraordinary’ by Coca-Cola and ‘a thought leader beyond compare’ by the World Economic Forum.
Named a Trailblazer by Forbes, one of Britain’s Women of the Year and a Champion of Change (amidst a staggering 25 accolades), the four-time award-winning Shivvy Jervis has taken on the AI and neuroscience themes across 600+ keynotes, over 40 brand campaigns and 300 broadcasting hours!
The goal? To help businesses and everyday consumers grasp not just the latest tech advances but also the behavioural psychology that leads to super engaged employees and customers.
Orlando Wood is Chief Creative Officer of the System1 Group, Honorary Fellow of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, author of Lemon (IPA, 2019) and Look out (IPA, 2021), podcaster (Never Mind the Adverts with Jon Evans), presenter and creator of a.p.e. (advertising principles explained) – a creative effectiveness course for advertisers and practitioners, in association with System1 and the IPA.
Orlando draws the link between creative style and business outcomes. He led the IPA’s Creativity and Effectiveness research for many years, looking at the greater effectiveness associated with fluent devices (a term he coined) and the features of advertising that sustain attention, move audiences and drive profit and growth. Through a unique combination of neuroscience, cultural history and advertising research, Orlando describes a damaging shift in advertising style – a move from Showmanship to Salesmanship – that has undermined advertising's effectiveness. But Orlando also gives guidance on how we might reverse it, meaning that his work influences both thinking and practice.
Following popular creative effectiveness masterclasses for the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and The Marketing Academy, he partnered with Sir John Hegarty to produce a.p.e. (Advertising Principles Explained) – an advertising effectiveness course to help marketers towards more effective work.
His work has won recognition from the ARF, the AMA, Jay Chiat, ISBA, the MRS, ESOMAR and the IPA.
Lauren Wetzel is Global President, Data and Technology Solutions at WPP. She leads the company’s global data and technology strategy, accelerating innovation across WPP and embedding AI, data collaboration, and privacy-enhancing technologies into the company's marketing ecosystem. Her focus is on connecting intelligence across creative, media, production, and commerce capabilities to drive growth for clients. Lauren joined WPP as part of the InfoSum acquisition, where she served as CEO and a Board Director. Prior to InfoSum, she was SVP of Strategy and Corporate Development at AT&T’s advertising company Xandr.
Dr. Hannah Critchlow is an internationally acclaimed, award-winning neuroscientist, author, broadcaster, and Fellow at Magdalene College, University of Cambridge. She has authored five books, including the bestselling "The Science of Fate," critically acclaimed "Joined-Up Thinking," "How to Build a 21st Century Brain," and a recent children's book. Dr. Critchlow utilizes her expertise in decision-making, ethics, AI, and brain performance to deliver talks and workshops for diverse clients across legal, business, and policy sectors.
Jannicke Mikkelsen is a Norwegian commercial astronaut, cinematographer, CEO, and film director who has worked in the field of virtual reality, cinematography, 3D animation and augmented reality technology, focusing on fringe technology and combining traditional film production with new technologies for films shot in remote areas. She is now back with a goal: To share this experience. To use what she has learned to inspire and build bridges between tech and humanity.
Perry Nightingale is the SVP for Creative AI, working in the WPP Innovation team managing groundbreaking research and furthering WPP’s market-leading combination of creativity and advanced data science. He is a passionate software engineer, currently specialising in artificial intelligence, robotics and computational creativity, and a leading figure in the communication industry – sitting on innovation juries for Cannes and D&AD, identified by Creativity magazine in the US as one of the pioneers in the new industry genre of Creative Technologists and listed in AdAges’s annual 50 most influential people in media.
Sammy King is TikTok's Creative Consultancy Europe & Israel Lead, supporting clients and agencies with understanding how best to bring their brands to life on the platform. Sammy founded the TikTok for Good Launchpad across Europe, elevating charitable causes and giving away $1m of ad support in 2025. With a deep background in creative technology from over six years at Meta and senior strategic roles at agencies like Wieden + Kennedy and Lucky Generals, Sammy is a veteran industry speaker and creative leader.
Lindsay Rapacchi, Director of Research and Insight at Bauer Media Outdoor UK, boasts over 20 years in media, primarily in Out of Home. With expertise in brand-led marketing, he excels in designing impactful research projects and making even the most complex marketing theory accessible to all.
His expertise includes strategic direction, market insights, research methodologies and brand-led marketing.
Jesper Albansson is Chief Marketing Officer at Ocean Outdoor Nordics, where he champions emotionally engaging, well-crafted creativity to deliver impactful advertising that supports long-term commercial growth.
Jesper is known for developing strategies that bridge creativity and innovation with actionable, measurable marketing initiatives. By connecting creative excellence with business outcomes, this work has resulted not only in award-winning marketing and advertising, but more importantly, in sustained growth. This in essence is what he calls being a creativity enabler.
Kate Mellett is Head of Creative Strategy EMEA at Snap Inc. where she has been developing creative and AR strategy for clients including Nike, Uber, McDonald's, and Sky for almost ten years. Prior to her role at Snap, Kate accumulated over 20 years experience in marketing strategy working for some of the world’s best creative agencies including 4Creative, VCCP, and Mother, whilst racking up an impressive number of awards along the way including a Cannes Lions Cyber Gold for her Sneakerpedia campaign for Foot Locker.
Bianca Bruhn leads Google’s operations in Denmark and oversees the company’s retail business across the Nordics. Bringing more than two decades of international experience from the tech and data sectors - formerly as CEO of YouGov EU & UK and Managing Director at IDC - she has a proven track record of scaling digital innovation. As AI reshapes the global economy, Bianca is a vocal advocate for leveraging AI and agentic technologies to enhance European competitiveness. She helps companies navigate the implications of the 'Agentic Era,' focusing on its power to fundamentally transform business models and consumer behavior. Beyond technology, she is a prominent catalyst for diversity and inclusion, working actively to create a more equitable labor market.
Bianca holds degrees from Copenhagen Business School and Henley Business School.
Eunah Lee works at the intersection of AI, robotics, and creative production, conducting applied research and innovation to prototype emerging technologies in advertising.
Apart from our amazing gold partners above, find the full list of partners here.
Be sure to leave the daily grind of your desk job to meet them, take part in the brilliant discussions and try the latest tech at NextM – The Jungle Edition on May 5-6 at Annexet in Stockholm.
We are so looking forward to hosting you at Annexet! 🙌 Getting to NextM is easy with the metro (Globen station) 🚇 or a taxi 🚖with the easiest drop off at Arenaslingan 7.
The agenda will be out closer to the event but we already know Day 1 will be a full day from 8.30 am-7 pm including an after event mingle 🍷 and Day 2 will finish around 4 pm.
🏨 Hotel deal: As a NextM guest, you get a 14% discount using the code D000051775 at any Scandic Hotel in Stockholm. Feel free to book here.
#nextmnordics
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