MAD//Fest London 2026 brought together 16,000 marketers, brand leaders, and agency decision-makers across three days in the city. Here is a look back at how the Overwolf Ads team spent the week.
On Stage: giffgaff, Gaming & A Guide to Being Radically Disruptive from Product to Media Plan
Nathan Lindberg, VP Global Brand Partnerships at Overwolf, joined Lisa, Head of Media at giffgaff, on the Disruptor Stage for a conversation on disruption, the creator economy, and what it actually takes to stay ahead as a media planner.
Nathan made the case that there is no such thing as a gamer. Your audience is already playing games. As he put it on stage: "Gaming is a platform where you need to be spending your time and money, because your audience is there, their attention is higher, their recall is higher, the success of your campaign is higher." He also covered how Overwolf's creator economy works in practice, including the $300M+ paid out to creators in 2025, and why brands benefit from advertising in environments where people have actively chosen to be.
Lisa brought the brand-side perspective: giffgaff carves out a dedicated budget every year for testing and innovation, because "whatever is working right now is going to become outdated and obsolete within a couple of years." She also pointed out that giffgaff was among the first advertisers on both Netflix and Disney+ when those platforms launched ads, well before they became standard media buys.
Speakers:
- Nathan Lindberg, VP Global Brand Partnerships, Overwolf
- Lisa Boyles, Head Of Go To Market and Media, giffgaff
- Richard Sherwood, CMO, Stannah
Watch the full session :
MAD//Meets
We took part in MAD//Fest's structured brand-matching programme, sitting down with senior marketing leaders from some of the UK's biggest brands across three days. Good conversations, strong audience fit, and clear next steps coming out of the week.
On the Floor
Alongside the structured programme, the team ran their own outreach across the event, logging 80+ conversations with brand and agency contacts.
Thanks to everyone who made time to meet us in London. See you at the next one.
About Overwolf Ads
Overwolf is a world-leading gaming platform empowering brands and advertisers to reach over 113 million monthly users across hundreds of the world's biggest titles and premium gaming websites.
Ranked by Comscore as the #2 Biggest US Gaming Property, winner of ADWEEK's Top Ad Tech Company, Digiday's Best Gaming Ad Tech and The Drum's Best Platform/Tech Partner of the Year, Overwolf is trusted by global brands and agencies such as Universal Pictures, H&R Block, Netflix, Dodge, Nissan, KFC, WPP, Dentsu, Havas, The Trade Desk and more.
For more information on Overwolf, visit www.overwolf.com/ads.