7 quotes to sum up Engage 2025

“Thought provoking,  entertaining, sometimes delightfully unhinged content is kind of part of our every day - and that's not a trend that's changing anytime soon”, said James Chandler, Chief Strategy of IAB UK, opening our 2025 Engage event at Soho Place. What followed was a fast-paced, insight-rich tour of how brilliant content - from social feeds to podcasts to news brands - is capturing our attention and setting the cultural agenda. Here are some of our top quotes from the morning… 

1. “The brands winning on social understand that the best social media needs to do at least one of three things: provide an escape; be built for engagement; and let the creators lead.”

Contagious’ Editor Chloe Markowicz delved into the brands who are winning at social - from Nutter Butter to Duolingo - and broke down how to successfully drive audience engagement online, drawing on examples like the phenomenon that was brat summer.
 

2. “A recent BBC study looked at commuters and asked them to talk to someone they didn't know on their way to work. Those people reported more happiness and joy throughout the day than those who are asked to sit in solitude.”

Tripadvisor’s Ollie Presswell drew on 25 years of user-generated content to explore our human need for connection - and disconnection - in an online world. A small but key driver of happiness is talking to people you don’t know, as well as intentionally making fewer decisions so you just concentrate on the big ones.   
 

3. “I don't like the term superpower in relation to ADHD… For someone who is in a dark place -  and many people with ADHD are in that moment or today only experiencing the struggle - they see someone say, “I’ve got ADHD and it's a superpower”, they are then thinking, “not only do I have ADHD, but I must have the really bad version”

Alex Partridge, Host of podcast ADHD Chatter, shared his personal experience of being diagnosed with ADHD as an adult and how his podcast grew an audience of 3 million in just 18 months.   
 

4. “Go where the joy is… we try to go into the things tapping into the things that people already love and let those voices shine through.”

Rose Johnstone, Head of Commercial Content at Time Out, shared the core findings from the publisher’s recent study The Joy Revolution, to help brands tap into the power of joyful content. 
 

5. “Al tools are becoming increasingly helpful in not only people doing their job, but helping with work life balance…  So not only is it doing all these mundane things - timesheets, expenses, spreadsheets - it's also allowing you to clock off when you should and go and have proper quality time at home.”

Bauer Media George Butler and IAB UK’s James Chandler - hosts of new podcast AI Haven’t a Clue - shared a number of new studies about the tech, including the upside of using AI to help improve efficiency at work. 
 

6. “I think we need to really think about how news in a quality-trusted environment, by default, is brand safe. A number of studies show that being in a hard news environments covering stories [in a] trusted quality way actually is providing a public service and, from an advertiser point of view, is just as effective - if not more effective - at driving  metrics like consideration, intent etc as appearing in an environment considered ‘safe’.”

Times Media’s Milton Elias underscored the importance of quality news - for readers and advertisers alike - as part of a discussion with Manveen Rana, host of The Story podcast, and Edward Roussel, Head of Digital at The Times. 
 

7. “Great content always has proper purposeful value at its heart, because it's  not a vanity project… the content that I do is there to serve people and I love that.”

Emily English - nutritionist, creator and the author of two Sunday Times bestselling cookbooks - discussed how effective creator / brand collaborations should set how to acknowledge and solve a pain point for followers, explaining that “people like comfort and solutions to real life problems”.