IMTB chaired a stand-out panel on creator marketing at this year’s LEAD conference. The power of creator marketing became a recurring theme throughout the half-day event

The Advertising Association, together with its founders IPA and ISBA, hosted a landmark edition of the advertising industry’s annual summit, LEAD, on 5 February 2026 at the QEII Centre in Westminster, bringing together over 450 senior leaders from across the political, media and advertising landscape.  

IMTB director general, Scott Guthrie, chaired an industry panel which explored the levers for further growth within creator marketing.

The stand-out discussion covered topics including trust, measurement, policy support and integrated planning.

Alison Lomax, YouTube Managing Director, UK and Ireland, talked about how to overcome barriers to unlocking economic growth for creators. These included: a lack of government recognition, need for increased creative industries recognition, lack of access to finance, improved infrastructure, and also technical skills.

Imogen Coles, influence lead across EMEA at Ogilvy, and IMTB board member, called for creator marketing as an industry to move beyond standalone campaigns and to embrace “multifaceted strategies where influence is woven into everything that you're doing”.

Responding to a question about how creator marketing can maintain and improve upon viewer trust Imogen said: “let's approach all of our creator content with an earned-first mindset. Let's get people really excited and interested in the videos and the content that we're putting out there. Then, put paid spend behind that, and it will skyrocket, right? Let's not go with the mindset that [the viewer] won't be interested, so we need to get them in two seconds.”

The economic power of creator marketing was a recurring theme throughout the half-day LEAD conference. 

In his keynote address, Lord Vaizey twice mentioned his role as Chair of the newly-formed Digital Creators APPG - which IMTB runs. Ed Vaizey said of content creators: “They're direct, they're authentic, they're conscious of the relationship that they build with their audiences, and they instinctively understand value exchange.⁠⁠”

James Best, Chair of the Committee of Advertising Practice and co-author of newly-published book: ‘Trusted Advertising: How to harness the value of trust in your brand’ spoke of the increasingly powerful role influencers and creators play within the advertising landscape. 

In research undertaken by Credos, released at LEAD, Dan Wilks, Director of the advertising industry’s think tank, spoke of the influencer paradox: ‘people don’t trust influencers, but everyone has an influencer they trust’. 

Reflecting on the success of the conference, Stephen Woodford, CEO, Advertising Association, pledged: “This year, we will advocate for the formal recognition of the sector in Government statistics and support the IMTB in its work to raise the sector’s professionalism and its compliance with the ASA codes.”