Whilst the digital landscape has never offered more opportunities for marketing teams to reach new audiences, knowing where to focus your time, budget, and creative energy has never been more challenging.
Every platform has its own algorithms, audience behaviours and unwritten rules.
What worked on LinkedIn may flounder on Instagram. Add AI-powered tools, creator partnerships, and increasingly sophisticated CRM strategies into the mix, and modern marketing quickly becomes far more complex than simply producing great content.
The Digital Marketing & CRM Academy at SBC Summit 2026 has been created to help marketers and affiliates cut through that complexity.
Taking place on Wednesday, 30th September in the Sala Tejo, MEO Arena, the academy is built around practical learning, giving attendees the chance to explore how today’s leading marketers approach strategy, campaign planning, customer retention and platform selection
In this guide, we’ll explore what the Digital Marketing & CRM Academy has to offer, the sessions you’ll experience and the industry experts leading the discussion.
Table of Contents
The Digital Marketing & CRM Academy: Moving Beyond Concept
Marketing success rarely comes down to one brilliant idea. It’s the result of hundreds of strategic decisions, from choosing the right platform and allocating budget to selecting creators and defining what measures success.
That’s what makes the Digital Marketing & CRM Academy different. Rather than focusing on marketing theory, it’s designed to help attendees develop the practical skills and decision-making frameworks needed to make those choices with confidence.
Across six distinct sessions, attendees will work through real marketing scenarios, exploring how experienced marketers think, challenge different approaches, and create campaigns and strategies built to succeed.
What You’ll Leave With
- A structured approach to campaign planning, understanding how successful campaigns evolve from an initial brief into measurable results.
- Greater confidence choosing where to invest, learning how experienced marketers evaluate platforms, channels and emerging opportunities.
- A better understanding of modern audience behaviour, from creator-led marketing and social commerce to CRM strategies that build long-term customer value.
- Decision-making frameworks that can be applied immediately, helping you plan campaigns, justify budgets and make more informed marketing choices long after SBC Summit.
The Sessions Rewriting The Marketing Playbook
What works in marketing one day can quickly become outdated the next. That’s why the Digital Marketing & CRM Academy agenda is built around the fundamental principles that underpin all successful customer acquisition and retention.
Whether it’s developing a campaign from the ground up, understanding how to make the most of social media or mastering budget allocation, the lessons from each session are designed to stand the test of time and can be immediately applied to your next campaign.
Now, let’s explore the sessions on offer across the afternoon.
Built, Sent, Reported: An Agentic Campaign From Start to Finish
Every campaign starts with a brief, but true success is in the journey from idea to execution. This live demonstration follows that process in real time, unpacking the strategy, creative thinking and collaboration behind effective marketing campaigns.
What You’ll Take Away
- Follow the creative process from brief to execution.
- Understand how strategy shapes creative decision-making.
- See how successful campaigns are developed from the ground up.
Speakers:
- Lucy Neylin (Head of Client Solutions, Xtremepush): With expertise in CRM, customer journeys and data-driven engagement, Neylin brings practical experience of turning campaign strategy into personalised, measurable customer experiences.
Case Study: Practical Principles for Modernising a Brand Across Markets
How do you modernise an established brand without losing what made it successful in the first place?
This case study explores how brands can evolve across multiple markets while balancing global consistency with local relevance. Attendees will learn how to build a strong central brand platform, empower local teams and use major partnerships to strengthen brand identity.
What You’ll Take Away
- Learn how to balance global brand consistency with local market relevance.
- Understand how to give local teams creative freedom without diluting your brand.
- Explore how sports partnerships can support wider brand-building objectives.
Speakers:
- Tatiana Vivienne Jouanneau (Group Chief Brand Officer, Allwyn): Having built and transformed major brands across more than 80 markets, Jouanneau brings extensive experience balancing global brand consistency with local relevance, partnerships and changing consumer expectations.
Platform Discovery: TikTok, Meta, Snapchat, YouTube, Netflix and Spotify
Bringing together experts from today’s biggest platforms, this session explores how brands can stay relevant in an increasingly fragmented and complex social digital landscape.
What You’ll Take Away
- Explore how TikTok, Meta, YouTube, Snapchat, Netflix and Spotify are evolving.
- Understand the growing role of creator partnerships, AI-powered tools and social commerce.
- Learn how brands can stay culturally relevant while delivering commercial results.
Speakers:
- Mert Babayigit (Client Services Partner, EMEA Gaming, Meta): Working at the intersection of gaming, advertising and technology, Babayigit holds firsthand knowledge of how brands can navigate evolving platforms, audience behaviours and new opportunities across digital marketing.
- James Fox (Senior Industry Manager, Google): With more than eight years at Google and a background spanning search, social, performance and media planning, Fox brings a broad perspective on how platforms and the ways consumers discover brands are evolving.
Beyond the Post
This fireside chat takes attendees behind the scenes of a real creator partnership, exploring the thinking, planning and decision-making that turns influencer collaborations into long-term business success.
What You’ll Take Away
- Understand what makes creator partnerships commercially successful.
- Learn how creative decisions are made between brands and creators.
- Discover which outcomes matter beyond engagement alone.
Speakers:
- Ben Jeffries (CEO, Influencer): Leading one of the world’s major influencer marketing agencies, Jeffries brings firsthand experience of developing creator partnerships that go beyond engagement to deliver measurable commercial value.
A Guide to Applied AI in Digital Advertising
This session will explore the major trends reshaping digital advertising and the practical AI tools and applications marketers can start using within their own strategies.
What You’ll Take Away
- Understand the major AI-driven trends transforming digital advertising.
- Explore practical tools and use cases that can be applied to your marketing strategy.
- Build an action plan for navigating an increasingly complex and fragmented digital landscape.
Speakers:
- Rikard Bildsten (Partner and Head of New Product Solutions, Havion Media): With more than 20 years in digital advertising, including leadership experience at Microsoft Advertising, Bildsten brings deep expertise in AI, programmatic media and applying emerging technologies to real marketing challenges.
Where Would You Spend $1M Today?
If someone handed you a $1 million marketing budget tomorrow, where would you invest it?
This interactive workshop hands attendees the challenge of allocating spend across today’s marketing channels. Attendees will be questioned about each choice, have the chance to compare different strategies and see firsthand how priorities shift depending on campaign objectives.
What You’ll Take Away
- Compare different channel investment strategies in real time.
- Understand how budget allocation changes depending on business goals.
- Learn the thinking behind today’s highest-performing marketing investments.
Speakers:
- Joseph Sancio (Director of Affiliate Partnerships, Hard Rock Digital): With extensive experience scaling affiliate programmes across regulated industries, Sancio brings a performance-led perspective on how acquisition budgets can be turned into measurable growth.
- Hebert Gaban (CMO, KBET and DEBET): With experience leading acquisition, brand, growth and commercial strategy across iGaming, Gaban brings a full-funnel view of how marketing spend should be balanced from awareness through to retention.
- Dawid Pożoga (CMO, STS): Having managed major marketing budgets across gaming, e-commerce and consumer brands, Pożoga brings deep experience in balancing brand investment, performance marketing and ROI across multiple channels.
- Dean Akinjobi (CEO, Football Media): With expertise in sponsorship, digital advertising and data-led commercial strategy, Akinjobi brings a strong perspective on where partnerships and audience-led investment can deliver the greatest return.
Secure your place at the Digital Marketing & CRM Academy
Access to the AI Academy is available exclusively with an Education+ Pass.
Priced at just €249, the Education+ Pass will also grant access to all masterclasses, including sportsbook trading, responsible gaming and electronic gaming.
The Education+ Pass is available as a premium add-on for all SBC Summit and Affiliate Leaders Summit ticket types.
You can purchase an Education+ Pass through SBC Connect.
Final Thoughts
The best marketers aren’t the ones chasing every new platform or trend. They’re the ones who understand the fundamentals well enough to adapt as the industry evolves.
The Digital Marketing & CRM Academy has been designed with exactly that in mind.
Through practical sessions, real-world examples and direct access to experienced marketing leaders, attendees will leave better equipped to plan smarter campaigns, make more confident decisions and stay ahead in an increasingly competitive digital landscape.
