Smartly's Laura Desmond: How ADVANCE is Bringing Together Leaders 🤝

There's something refreshing about leaders who can look back at decades of industry transformation and still get genuinely excited about what's coming next. Smartly CEO, Laura Desmond, brings a perspective that's both deeply experienced and surprisingly optimistic about advertising's role in society. Her approach to understanding consumer behavior and technological change has shaped not just her career, but how she thinks about the entire industry's responsibility to do better.

Laura's vision for the future of advertising is driving the conversation at Smartly's ADVANCE event, where she's bringing together the biggest names in business transformation, storytelling, and AI innovation. Her belief that the industry stands at a pivotal moment—where technology can either elevate creativity or complicate it unnecessarily—shapes every conversation she's curating. Plus, her origin story about discovering her calling in this industry involves a classroom debate that will have you smiling the next time you brush your teeth.

Laura Desmond: How Smartly Connects Brands, Consumers, and Platform Players⚡

Smartly's ADVANCE Visionary: Covering business transformation, storytelling, creativity, and AI while Smartly sits at the center of brands, consumers, and platforms 🎯
Four-Disruption Tech Veteran: Lived through the Internet era, digital transformation with Meta and Google, mobile revolution, and now AI—learning, you have to "take the leap" and follow consumers 🚀
Marketing Evolution Prophet: Witnessed shift from one-to-many linear TV to one-to-few digital platforms, now predicts AI will enable one-to-one conversations between consumers and brands 📺
College Advertising Defender: Only student out of 20 who argued advertising was good for society, using Crest toothpaste as proof —"without advertising, no investment, no R&D, no fluoride." 🦷
Advertising-for-Good Believer: Champions advertising as the foundation of free market society and Western democracy, believing it can power creativity while helping people find brands they love 💡