ADVANCE 2025: 7 Reasons This Smartly Event Is a Must-Attend
The future of advertising doesn’t arrive on its own, it’s made by the people with the vision to shape it.
On September 17, ADVANCE will take over The Refinery at Domino in NYC, bringing together CEOs, CMOs, platform leaders, cultural icons, and creative visionaries for one unmissable day. It’s not another conference. It’s where AI, creativity, and brand storytelling meet, and where tomorrow’s playbook gets written in real time.
At ADVANCE 2024, conversations spanned meaningful ad engagement, AI’s impact on creative, and cross-platform collaboration, with takeaways that attendees implemented immediately (see last year’s highlights). This year, we’re raising the bar.
1. The Agenda Is Built for Momentum
Forget generic sessions. The ADVANCE 2025 agenda is engineered for marketers who need ideas they can put into action the very next day. Expect high-velocity panels, deep-dive keynotes, and real-world case studies that cut through the noise.
At ADVANCE 2024, the stage delivered conversations that set the industry agenda, from simplifying workflows to fuel meaningful engagement, to mapping the five waves of creative change driven by AI, to hearing directly from Google, Meta, Pinterest, Snap, and TikTok on advertising for good.
This year, we’re raising the bar again. ADVANCE 2025 will spotlight the voices defining what comes next, not just reacting to change, but writing the future of advertising in real time.
2. Access to the Industry’s Most Influential Leaders
This is where you move beyond headlines and press releases. The ADVANCE 2025 lineup includes Evan Spiegel (Snap), Esi Eggleston Bracey (Unilever), Wyclef Jean (three-time Grammy Award-winning artist), and leaders from Amazon Ads, Pfizer, TikTok, Adobe, and more.
If ADVANCE 2024 proved anything, it’s that the most important conversations don’t happen on a livestream. They happen in the room. Last year, Kara Swisher unpacked media’s next frontier, and Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks shared what it takes to lead transformation in high-stakes industries, insights available only to those there in person.
3. The Bolt Bar: Smartly in the Wild
The Bolt Bar brings Smartly’s platform to life. No static demos, no scripted run-throughs. You’ll see how AI-powered creative tools and predictive media insights help you:
- Spot winning creative before launch
- Eliminate time drains from versioning and approvals
- Make faster, more confident budget and channel calls
4. Networking That Converts to Opportunities
From morning coffee and matcha bars to a hosted lunch and an evening happy hour with a live DJ, ADVANCE is built to spark the kinds of conversations that turn into collaboration.
And it works. At last year’s event, a retail brand CMO met a performance agency lead over the lunch break and within 30 days, they had launched a joint pilot. These are the connections you simply can’t replicate on Zoom or LinkedIn.
5. A Masterclass in Creative Reinvention
AI and new production models are rewriting how brands move, unlocking speed, scale, and personalization without compromising integrity.
At ADVANCE 2024, sessions like AI-Driven Creative Strategies: 5 Game-Changing Possibilities showed marketers how to expand assets, localize at scale, and test performance without diluting creative quality.
In 2025, we’re taking it further. Creators and brands will go beyond possibility to show what’s truly profitable.
Explore the 2025 Advance Event Agenda.
6. Proof That Drives Performance
At ADVANCE, inspiration meets implementation. You’ll walk out with strategies to boost creative speed, media efficiency, and campaign performance, ideas designed to turn into action.
The proof? Last year, attendees walked away with real results:
- +125% ROAS lift for a retail brand testing AI-powered personalization
- Major workflow reductions for agencies consolidating tools
- Campaign wins that went from concept to launch in under a week
Take a look back at ADVANCE 2024 highlights, and imagine what 2025 will unlock.
7. Your Seat at the Table for What’s Next
Marketing moves fast, but the conversations at ADVANCE move faster. If you want to understand where creative, AI, and media are headed (before the trends hit the trades), you need to be here.
Get your ticket now and join the only Smartly event where every moment is built to spark better ideas, faster launches, and measurable growth.
ADVANCE 2025: 7 Reasons This Smartly Event Is a Must-Attend
The future of advertising doesn’t arrive on its own, it’s made by the people with the vision to shape it.
On September 17, ADVANCE will take over The Refinery at Domino in NYC, bringing together CEOs, CMOs, platform leaders, cultural icons, and creative visionaries for one unmissable day. It’s not another conference. It’s where AI, creativity, and brand storytelling meet, and where tomorrow’s playbook gets written in real time.
At ADVANCE 2024, conversations spanned meaningful ad engagement, AI’s impact on creative, and cross-platform collaboration, with takeaways that attendees implemented immediately (see last year’s highlights). This year, we’re raising the bar.
1. The Agenda Is Built for Momentum
Forget generic sessions. The ADVANCE 2025 agenda is engineered for marketers who need ideas they can put into action the very next day. Expect high-velocity panels, deep-dive keynotes, and real-world case studies that cut through the noise.
At ADVANCE 2024, the stage delivered conversations that set the industry agenda, from simplifying workflows to fuel meaningful engagement, to mapping the five waves of creative change driven by AI, to hearing directly from Google, Meta, Pinterest, Snap, and TikTok on advertising for good.
This year, we’re raising the bar again. ADVANCE 2025 will spotlight the voices defining what comes next, not just reacting to change, but writing the future of advertising in real time.
2. Access to the Industry’s Most Influential Leaders
This is where you move beyond headlines and press releases. The ADVANCE 2025 lineup includes Evan Spiegel (Snap), Esi Eggleston Bracey (Unilever), Wyclef Jean (three-time Grammy Award-winning artist), and leaders from Amazon Ads, Pfizer, TikTok, Adobe, and more.
If ADVANCE 2024 proved anything, it’s that the most important conversations don’t happen on a livestream. They happen in the room. Last year, Kara Swisher unpacked media’s next frontier, and Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks shared what it takes to lead transformation in high-stakes industries, insights available only to those there in person.
3. The Bolt Bar: Smartly in the Wild
The Bolt Bar brings Smartly’s platform to life. No static demos, no scripted run-throughs. You’ll see how AI-powered creative tools and predictive media insights help you:
- Spot winning creative before launch
- Eliminate time drains from versioning and approvals
- Make faster, more confident budget and channel calls
4. Networking That Converts to Opportunities
From morning coffee and matcha bars to a hosted lunch and an evening happy hour with a live DJ, ADVANCE is built to spark the kinds of conversations that turn into collaboration.
And it works. At last year’s event, a retail brand CMO met a performance agency lead over the lunch break and within 30 days, they had launched a joint pilot. These are the connections you simply can’t replicate on Zoom or LinkedIn.
5. A Masterclass in Creative Reinvention
AI and new production models are rewriting how brands move, unlocking speed, scale, and personalization without compromising integrity.
At ADVANCE 2024, sessions like AI-Driven Creative Strategies: 5 Game-Changing Possibilities showed marketers how to expand assets, localize at scale, and test performance without diluting creative quality.
In 2025, we’re taking it further. Creators and brands will go beyond possibility to show what’s truly profitable.
Explore the 2025 Advance Event Agenda.
6. Proof That Drives Performance
At ADVANCE, inspiration meets implementation. You’ll walk out with strategies to boost creative speed, media efficiency, and campaign performance, ideas designed to turn into action.
The proof? Last year, attendees walked away with real results:
- +125% ROAS lift for a retail brand testing AI-powered personalization
- Major workflow reductions for agencies consolidating tools
- Campaign wins that went from concept to launch in under a week
Take a look back at ADVANCE 2024 highlights, and imagine what 2025 will unlock.
7. Your Seat at the Table for What’s Next
Marketing moves fast, but the conversations at ADVANCE move faster. If you want to understand where creative, AI, and media are headed (before the trends hit the trades), you need to be here.
Get your ticket now and join the only Smartly event where every moment is built to spark better ideas, faster launches, and measurable growth.
Honestly, we'd rather just show you.
Chat with our team to see how Smartly transforms the fragmented advertising ecosystem into something suspiciously manageable.
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