Smartly, the leading AI-powered adtech company, today announced that Timbaland is set to headline ADVANCE, Smartly’s flagship industry event, on Sept. 29 at Spring Studios in New York City, bringing together senior leaders across brands, agencies, media and technology.
Timbaland will join Smartly CEO Laura Desmond on the mainstage for a conversation exploring creativity in the age of AI and the role of taste and originality as technology reshapes the advertising industry.
Timbaland helped define the sound of modern music, producing influential work for artists including Coldplay, Justin Timberlake, Beyoncé, Madonna, and Rihanna, continually embracing new approaches to music production. At ADVANCE, he will explore what happens to creativity when new technology becomes more available to everyone: what makes an idea distinctive, how creators preserve a recognizable viewpoint, and where human judgment, taste and collaboration matter most.
Timbaland joins a lineup spanning the marketing, media, technology and agency ecosystem, including Ndidi Oteh, global CEO of Accenture Song; Tim Castree, chief marketing officer of DoorDash; Sean Downey, president, Americas and Global Partners at Google; Bob Lord, president of Horizon Media; Judy Toland, vice president of marketing at Meta; Lee Brown, chief business officer of Pinterest; Bill Ready, CEO of Pinterest; Jen Wong, chief operating officer of Reddit; Mary Ann Belliveau, president of Americas at Snapchat; Grace Kao, chief marketing officer of Snapchat; David Kaufman, global head of monetization product partnerships at TikTok; Amy Weisenbach, chief marketing officer of The New York Times; Lauren Wetzel, CEO of WPP Data & Tech Solutions; Andrea Bendzick, CEO of Wpromote; and Mary Ellen Coe, chief business officer of YouTube, among others.
Across the mainstage and dedicated Creative AI and Commerce AI tracks, ADVANCE will explore how AI is changing the way brands are built, discovered, and grown, with conversations spanning creative intelligence, consumer discovery, agentic commerce, the future of agencies, the convergence of video, and the intersection of creators, brands, and performance.
