Ruth Mortimer of Advertising Week Hopes to Facilitate $100 Million in Deals Between Creators and Brands 

This week's event in NYC will showcase sports, health and more

Ruth Mortimer, global president of Advertising Week New York, says this year’s conference, beginning today and running through Oct. 8, will focus on creators like never before.

“Last year, we had a creator lounge where we had some creator competitions,” she tells Muse. “And this year, we’ve tried to go much further by appointing Dhar Mann as our chief creator officer. We’re leaning heavily into this goal of stimulating $100 million in deals between creators and brands.”

Ruth was previously managing partner at Econsultancy, where she oversaw product development and thought leadership. Earlier, she served as director of the Festival of Marketing and content director for Centaur Marketing. 

In addition, she’s a former editor of Marketing Week, an award-winning business columnist and she has worked as an archaeologist, specializing in the Middle East and based in Turkey.

We spent a few minutes with Ruth to talk about her background, inspirations and why differentiation is so critical in today’s landscape.

What’s new at Advertising Week in 2026?

We have a really strong focus around areas like creators, sport, finance, healthcare and gaming in a way that perhaps you wouldn’t have seen before. You could also say this year is really about convergence. We’ve seen creators come together with things like commerce media, where retailers are using creators in a specific place in their commerce funnel, and pharmaceutical marketers and creators coming together. Creators are huge in sport, too, so there’s lots of these areas that are really converging this year. And that’s what we’re trying to show.

Why are you prioritizing sports and creators specifically?

Sports has seen a lot of new entrants in terms of the brands working with these entities. Last year at our Playmaker Awards, we awarded Unrivaled because they had really shaken up the women’s sports field. What we’re seeing is different sports—like women’s sports—bring in a whole group of companies that we’ve never seen operating in the sector before.

What trends are you seeing in the industry, and how are you addressing them at this week’s conference?

We want to be the place that creators can do business. Not just reflect it on stage with conversations about brand deals—but actually make business happen. A lot of the work we’re doing with Dhar in his job as the chief creator officer is matchmaking brands and creators. We want to be very business-focused. We also have a huge amount on Agentic AI and what’s happening in that space. And a track on small and medium-sized brands and agencies. We’ve noticed in the last few years that brands are working with smaller, independent agencies—enterprise brands that normally would have only worked with one of the huge networks. They’re looking for something different and innovative. That translates into opportunity for a huge segment of the community.

Why is New York so important for Advertising Week?

We try to do our events in the places where people live and work in creative jobs. There’s lots of events that are destination events. We try to make our events part of the cities where people already are creative. And there’s probably no more creative city on Earth than New York. It has the people, the jobs, the creative industry, Madison Avenue. For us, 22 years after Advertising Week began, it’s still the most creative city on Earth.

What would you tell your younger self if she could see you now?

If I could look back and change things now, I’d spend my time worrying about how to be even better at the things I was great at. Rather than trying to be good at things that honestly will never really be a core part of my job.

What’s one thing people misunderstand about your role?

How much personal effort goes into Advertising Week. We’re actually a relatively small team and it’s very hands-on. We do a huge amount of research on what’s happening. You are running the business from the back office and making sure that you’re hitting revenue goals, but you’re also out front trying to be the thought leader.

If someone wrote a book about your career so far, what would the title be?

She Was Unreasonable, But She Didn’t Care. Just about everyone who knows me would say that’s exactly how I am. I have really big dreams. Whether it’s getting the world’s second-biggest creator to be your chief creator officer to create an amazing adventure that isn’t standard for a marketing industry event—or creating a partnership with Kevin Bacon to make non-profit films for charities.

What’s the biggest thing driving culture right now?

The creator economy. This is moving. Previously they were categorized as lifestyle creators. But these days it’s even executive creators—like CEOs. It also presents the question about what’s at the opposite end, which is: Where do you not need to be a creator? And do you need an opinion on everything? Sometimes you have people or businesses who feel compelled to make a statement about something that they are probably not the best informed about. Almost everyone has the ability to broadcast and be media. But should we?

You’ve got two minutes with the industry. What’s your hot take?

The most important thing in marketing and advertising is differentiation. There’s a lot out there at the moment that feels very same-y, whether it’s people writing LinkedIn posts using AI that have the same format. The most valuable thing you have is your real voice. And so I would say too many people are not using their real voice. That is the key thing for marketing. Let’s use AI where it matters. Let’s use AI where it can help us to structure things, to do huge pieces of work that would otherwise be impossible for humans, but don’t give away your voice.