Marketing wants to move at the speed of culture—but if every brief, buy, and contract grinds through slow processes, "fast-vertising" dies on the vine. Drawing on the Harvard Business Review piece "Marketing at the Speed of Culture" by Ayelet Israeli, Leonard Schlesinger, Matt Higgins, and Ryan Reynolds, this session challenges marketing procurement to rethink its role in enabling timely, culturally relevant work. Procurement risks becoming a bottleneck unless it adapts its approach to sourcing, contracts, and approvals. This presentation outlines how marketing procurement can anticipate fast-vertising needs, set up "ready-to-go" partners and terms, and embed lightweight controls that keep work moving without losing oversight.
From fluctuating currencies and media costs to regulatory changes and sanctions, external shocks are increasingly influencing marketing investment decisions. In this discussion, senior marketing procurement executives will share how they are adapting sourcing strategies, rebalancing global vs. local spend, and revisiting contract clauses to protect flexibility and continuity.
Traditional input-based compensation models — retainers, labor multipliers, cost-plus — are becoming obsolete as AI agents automate tactical tasks and reshape how work gets done. This session explores what next-generation compensation frameworks could look like to balance transparency, efficiency, and performance incentives.
The traditional annual media budget is dying. Audiences move faster than forecasts, and marketers must constantly reallocate spend to respond. "Atomic Budgeting" offers a data-first model for continuous rebalancing, connecting marketing, procurement, and finance in near real‑time to support more agile spend decisions. Explore the technology, governance, and leadership changes needed to make atomic budgeting work—and how to align it with procurement's accountability framework.
Take sourcing further: join this engaging workshop for frameworks you can use, cross-functional strategies that stick, and insights to boost marketing procurement's business value.
With AI and martech platforms evolving weekly, procurement must rethink long term sourcing models. Learn how to implement modular, outcome based contracting frameworks that encourage pilot adoption and innovation—without locking the organization into outdated tools or inflated commitments.
Most procurement teams are applying media and agency contract logic to brand activation deals — and it isn't working. Kill fees, force majeure clauses, and custom fabrication rights require a fundamentally different commercial approach. This workshop pulls back the curtain on what's actually in activation contracts, where the hidden risks live, and how marketing procurement can build the category-specific expertise needed to protect the business when a live experience doesn't go according to plan.
Step into a procurement masterclass—work through real world marketing sourcing challenges, benchmark best-inclass supplier management, and unlock negotiation wins you can implement right away.
Every brand asset your team produces runs on fonts — and the licensing agreements behind them have become one of marketing's most expensive blind spots. Aggressive audit practices across the industry have left companies facing retroactive claims and seven-figure invoices for usage their creative teams assumed was covered. This session breaks down how audits get triggered, where organizations typically fall out of compliance, and what procurement leaders need to know to negotiate smarter licenses and protect the business before someone else points out the gap.
Retail media is one of the fastest-growing and most complex categories in marketing spend — and one of the hardest for procurement to evaluate. Retailers offer a dizzying array of metrics, but not all KPIs are created equal, and many are designed to favor the seller rather than the buyer. For marketing procurement teams, the real challenge isn't just understanding what the numbers mean — it's knowing which KPIs actually signal performance, which ones are noise, and how to use that knowledge as leverage in commercial negotiations and supplier accountability conversations.
Ready to take strategic sourcing to the next level? Join this hands-on case study for actionable frameworks, cross functional collaboration tips, and proven methods for delivering business impact from marketing procurement.
Why do media spend and delivery data so often fail to match—and what can procurement do now that AI auditing tools are finally affordable and accessible? As media prices shift and assets underdeliver, traditional MMM assumptions break down and procurement is left manually reconciling what was planned, bought, and actually delivered. AI‑powered reconciliation systems are changing this equation, dramatically reducing audit effort and enabling a "clear box" view of media performance and value.
Transparency has been a fixture of marketing procurement conversations for years — and yet the challenge keeps evolving. What procurement meant by transparency five years ago barely scratches the surface today. AI-generated costs, algorithmic media buying, and complex sub-contractor chains have introduced new layers of opacity that traditional contract frameworks were never designed to handle. This session takes stock of where the transparency debate stands now, what procurement teams are actually demanding, and what agencies and solution providers must do differently to build the trust that wins and retains business.
For many clients, fee capture is top of mind—but a narrow focus on cost can unintentionally squeeze out innovation and long-term value. In this session, marketing procurement pulls back the curtain on how they are redefining agency partnerships in the AI era: moving away from pure rate negotiation toward frameworks that reward performance, creativity, and measurable business impact. You'll hear directly what partnership frameworks and incentives they're moving toward in the AI era, and what agencies and solution providers can do to position themselves as growth partners instead of line items to be reduced.
The next wave of marketing innovation is often driven by smaller, emerging players. In this fireside chat, hear how one organization has created pathways for smaller and diverse suppliers to win work, from tailored RFP processes to capacity-building support and fairer commercial terms. Listen to stories about what has worked, what hasn't, and how to measure impact beyond simple spend metrics.
Break out your aluminum poles because it's that time of year again! At ProcureCon, you don't just learn new ideas – you have an opportunity to have your issues and challenges validated and hear new ones that might surprise you! Festivus is not only a safe space to air your grievances, but also the opportunity to brainstorm solutions. And who knows, a Festivus miracle could be upon us!
Marketing procurement teams work tirelessly to manage partner relationships, maintain brand relevancy, and manage costs savings all while staying on the cutting edge of marketing. These efforts too often have gone without proper recognition. At ProcureCon, we are changing that narrative. Please join us for the first inaugural ProcureCon Markey Award Ceremony as we celebrate one team's example of marketing procurement excellence. Festivities and merriment to follow.