Pitchfest is back. And this year, we're throwing the doors open.
On 9th July, we're opening up our Soho office for Pitchfest Open House: an immersive afternoon of talks, panels and exhibits across three creative floors, finishing with a party out in the mews.
The theme this year is Art vs Advertising. We'll dig into the tension where pure expression meets commercial persuasion, and ask the questions that keep getting louder. What can commercial work learn from pure expression? If we move advertising closer to art, do we land harder? And can advertising ever be art in its own right?
The ground has shifted under all of us. Creators are brands. Brands are expected to entertain. Advertising gets judged like culture. And the platforms reward feeling, originality and distinctiveness above everything else. So we've built the afternoon as part creative escapism, part hard industry truth, all of it fuel for the rest of the year.
The exhibit: The Art of Attention
Doors open at 2pm with the exhibit. Wander the agency, meet the artists, find the hidden stories and have your assumptions about creativity, persuasion and what makes people care quietly taken apart.
The panel: Can marketing still be original in 2026?
Our Joint MD Amy McCulloch sits down with leaders from travel and gaming, Sabrina Cendral of Sandals Resorts and Sian Finnis of King, the studio behind Candy Crush, to get into what really happens when creativity carries a commercial objective.
The sessions
Play as you go. Sign up to as many as you like, and use our hot desks in The eight&four Arms to catch up between talks.
Creative friction: What art understands about collaboration that advertising forgot
With Sarah Heavens, Editorial Director
Advertising and art both value shared creativity, but they use collaboration very differently. This talk explores what advertising can learn from artistic creative processes: tension, outside influence, and staying in the question for longer.
Powerpoint. It's not Shit.
With Harriet Gray, Creative Lead
PowerPoint isn't the problem. The way we use it is. This talk takes aim at our obsession with overloading slides, and looks at how creative disciplines help us curate attention, build experiences and make ideas stick.
From Bosch to Baiting
With Annie Harte, Lead Audience Strategist
If attention is the world's most valuable currency, why are so many brands afraid to make people feel anything?
Creator Lab Live
With Henry Scriven, Video Director
Henry runs a live Creator Lab, pairing the eight&four team with clients to make content on the spot.
Stop the Slop
With Emily Mulhall, Director of Motion
Everyone has access to AI. Very few know how to use it creatively. A look at how the best creative teams are using AI to sharpen originality, not replace it.
Thinking on your feet: How improv builds better ideas
With Shaun Spark, Lead Video Editor
How the art of improv builds your team's creative muscle memory.
The Sound of Influence
With Geoff Chang, Associate Creative Director
Music, memory and emotion, and the pull they have on all of us.
The Creative Surgery
Bring a challenge, leave with new thinking. Twenty-minute, rapid-fire consultations with our senior creative consultants.
And then, the party
When the talks wrap, we spill out into the street for our own private after party. Street food, elaborate drinks, guest DJs. Stay as late as you like.
How to join
Pitchfest Open House is open to clients and friends of the agency. Bring colleagues - you'll get more out of the interactive sessions that way. Email steph.smith@eightandfour.com for ticket info.
