Social is in its entertainment era. From fandoms to fragmentation, the rules of attention have been rewritten, and brands still playing by the old rules are being left behind.

Award-winning social media consultant, strategist and creative leader Yash Murthy (Etihad Airways, Gatorade, Salesforce, Disney, Doritos, Guzman y Gomez) has spent his career building entertainment-led brand systems across four continents. He takes the #OnSocial26 stage to unpack the shifts redefining brand building in social, revealing how the world's best brands and creators have stopped thinking in content calendars and started building engines that earn attention rather than buy it.

Discover how to tap into cultural intelligence to design for the interest graph, the power of unmistakable social brand codes, how to build entertainment formats that audiences save, share and salivate over, and how to wire it all together to turn your brand into an entertainment machine.

About Yash

Yash Murthy is a global brand strategist, social media consultant and creative leader who has spent his career at the intersection of social, culture and content.

Chronically online by nature and a systems thinker by trade, he has worked across four continents at some of the world's most recognised creative and media agencies, punctuated by a spell leading creative and strategy for fast food unicorn Guzman y Gomez.

From winning TikTok's Campaign of the Year for PepsiCo to redesigning Etihad's global social strategy, his work sits at the frontier of a new era of brand building, one where creativity, commerce, community and culture collide.

He is currently Executive Director of Strategy and Social at Create Group, one of MENA's leading digital agencies.

Jess Bovey has been instrumental in shaping one of the most distinctive public-sector social voices in Aotearoa, known for blending humour, humanity and clarity with serious public information.

In this session, Jess unpacks how NZ Police shifted from announcements to entertainment - using humour, humanity and formats like #FridayFloof to build genuine connection at scale.

From a globally viral recruitment video to buses and trains wrapped in police livery sparking nationwide copycat UGC, she’ll share how creative risk-taking, real people and cultural timing drive results.

• When humour works, when it doesn’t, and how to switch tone without breaking trust.

• Creating shareable, talked-about social moments.

• Behind-the-scenes content showing personality not just policy.

• Creating ongoing social engagement and long-term goodwill.

• What commercial brands can learn.

About Jess

Jess Bovey has spent more than 20 years in social media and currently manages the social media and brand function for the New Zealand Police.

She has led Police’s social media response to major national events including the March 15 terrorist attacks, the Whakaari / White Island eruption, COVID-19 and Cyclone Gabrielle, building a trusted, human voice under intense public scrutiny.

Under her leadership, Police’s channels have grown to more than 2.8 million followers. She’s known for sharp social instincts, smart risk-taking, and introducing #fridayfloof. Jess has  proven that even the most serious brands can earn attention (and affection) when they understand the platform and their audience.

Jess leads teams across social, marketing, recruitment, TV, design and video and firmly believes the best social strategy is brave, human and a little bit bold.

Serial entrepreneur, TV personality (BossBabes) and mentor to 3,000+ startups, Iyia Liu has built multiple million-dollar businesses by using the same social-first playbook across industries.

From launching Waist Trainer from her bedroom at 23 to scaling brands like Celebration Box and Brewe, Iyia shows how content, community and personal branding become repeatable growth engines.

In this session, she breaks down how to create scroll-stopping content that sells without selling, build a personal brand that converts, and use community - like her 50,000-strong Girls in Business network - as distribution. A practical blueprint for turning ideas into revenue, again and again.

About Iyia

Iyia Liu is a dynamic entrepreneur, founder, and sought-after speaker who has turned bold ideas into industry-leading brands. Before the age of 30, she built and scaled multiple 7-8 figure businesses, proving that everyday ideas can become million-dollar ventures with the right strategy and execution.

She specialises in leveraging social media and influencer marketing to create powerful, modern brands that cut through crowded markets.

Iyia’s work and insights have been featured in Forbes, Daily Mail, Viva, and NZ Herald, and she has collaborated with global influencers including Kylie Jenner.

• How to structure a branded podcast so it serves both audience and commercial goals
• The role of video, social clips and multi-platform ecosystems in amplifying impact
• Creating content pillars that keep episodes focused but fresh
• How to identify stories worth telling and shaping real conversations into compelling narrative arcs
• What makes a podcast consistently great – and what brands tend to get wrong when launching a podcast.

About Jay-Jay

If you grew up in New Zealand anytime between the ‘90s and 2024, odds are Jay-Jay Feeney’s voice was part of your daily routine. She kicked off her radio career at just 15 years old and went on to become one of the country’s most beloved broadcasters - best known as the longtime host of The Edge Breakfast Show, and later, The More FM Drive Show.

Throughout her 33-year broadcasting career, Jay-Jay garnered numerous accolades, including the prestigious Outstanding Contribution to Radio award. But her impact doesn’t stop at the mic, she’s also a bestselling author, former Dancing with the Stars contestant, advice columnist, and now, a podcasting powerhouse.

In 2024, she stepped away from traditional radio to co-found PodLab, a boutique podcast development agency, with her ex-husband and fellow broadcaster Dom Harvey. At PodLab, Jay-Jay helps creators and brands find their voice and build compelling audio content, drawing on a lifetime of media know-how.

From radio to podcasting, Jay-Jay continues to prove she’s not just a voice, but a force.

• How to structure a branded podcast so it serves both audience and commercial goals
• The role of video, social clips and multi-platform ecosystems in amplifying impact
• Creating content pillars that keep episodes focused but fresh
• How to identify stories worth telling and shaping real conversations into compelling narrative arcs
• What makes a podcast consistently great – and what brands tend to get wrong when launching a podcast.

About Dom

Dom Harvey is one of New Zealand’s most familiar voices and faces in the media landscape. After two decades as co-host of The Edge Breakfast Show, he traded in 4am wake-ups for long-form conversations, launching the hugely popular Dom Harvey Podcast, where he interviews high-profile guests from all walks of life. The podcast won Podcast of the Year at the recent NZ Podcast Awards.

A natural storyteller with a curious mind and quick wit, Dom’s podcast regularly features in the NZ Top 10, thanks to his honest, funny, and disarming interview style. Whether he's chatting with sports legends, celebrities, or everyday Kiwis with extraordinary stories, Dom has a knack for making people open up.

Outside of the podcast studio, he’s a best-selling author (Bucket List of an Idiot, Childhood of an Idiot and Running: A Love Story), a marathon runner, and a passionate mental health advocate. In 2024, Dom co-founded PodLab with his ex-wife Jay-Jay Feeney, a full-service podcast agency and recording studio helping brands and creators turn great ideas into standout audio content.

From morning radio to meaningful podcasts, Dom’s mission is simple: make people feel something, and maybe even laugh while they’re at it.

From doubling Z Energy’s TikTok presence in under a year to experimenting on Twitch as the first in category, Asad Naseem shares how community-led, entertaining content is driving relevance in a complex industry navigating digital transformation across convenience retail within the fuel sector.

With 15+ years of experience across public and private sectors, including Lotto New Zealand, and a parallel life as the pop culture creator behind PokeCollection, Asad blends creator instinct with digital performance strategy.

This session unpacks tone-of-voice evolution, performance learnings and the discipline of actively showing up in the online conversation, matching community energy and building credibility in real time.

Expect practical lessons on normalising the fun, the wholesome and the downright random, elevating diverse voices through staff as well as nano and micro creators, and aligning entertainment-first content to long-term brand growth.

What You’ll Learn:

• Shifting from safe to culturally fluent

• How to test fast and scale what resonates

• Turning engagement into advocacy

• Applying YouTuber and creator instincts to brand growth

• Why emerging platforms matter
  

About Asad

Asad Naseem is a social and digital leader with more than 15 years of experience building brands through community, culture and performance.

Currently Social Media Manager for Z Energy and Caltex, Asad has helped reshape tone of voice, accelerate platform growth and pilot new territory, from doubling TikTok momentum to launching Twitch as a first in category. His work sits at the intersection of convenience retail, culture and real-time community engagement, proving that even complex industries can show up with relevance and personality.

Previously at Lotto New Zealand, and alongside his long-running pop culture platform PokeCollection, Asad blends creator instinct with performance rigour. He brings firsthand experience of building audiences from the ground up, collaborating with diverse influencers, and evolving brand voices to match how people actually communicate online.

He believes the future of social belongs to brands that are brave enough to participate, disciplined enough to learn, and human enough to belong.

How are Kiwi brands with modest budgets generating millions of views, shares and headlines?

This panel unpacks how smart, culturally tuned brands are winning attention without big media spend — by creating content people genuinely want to watch and pass on. From NZ Cheap Cars’ dancing sales legends to Muzza’s cat-flavoured pies for dogs, Kiwi Water Park’s chaotic wipeouts and The Sugar Dealer’s Crocs collab - this is creativity over cash.

Expect practical insights into spotting moments (not over-scripting them), using humour and timing to your advantage, and building reach through authenticity, collabs and community.

You’ll Learn:

• How to lead with creativity when budget is tight
• Why unscripted moments outperform polished campaigns
• What actually travels fast on NZ social
• How humour + cultural timing create outsized reach
• Turning entertainment into emotional investment and brand growth.

NZ Cheap Cars – with Tony Collins, Byond Digital

In late 2025, NZ Cheap Cars went viral with a TikTok featuring dancing sales guys, generating over 28 million views, 75,000 comments and 436,000 shares.

By flipping traditional car dealership marketing on its head and leading with creativity and storytelling instead of hard sales, NZ Cheap Cars (and agency Byond Digital) proved that organic content wins when you focus on attention and connection first.

Muzza’s Pies – with Regan Grafton, Thinkerbell Aotearoa

Auckland is home to thousands of pie outlets, making it tough to stand out. So, how did Mt Albert based Muzza’s Pies manage to steal headlines around the world? With the help of creative agency, Thinkerbell, they launched ‘cat-flavoured’ pies for dogs – a tongue-in-cheek campaign that quickly sparked conversation online and on air, giving Muzza’s something money can’t buy: fame.

Kiwi Water Park

New Zealand’s largest inflatable water park - on Lake Dunstan in Central Otago – has become well known on social media - especially on TikTok and YouTube - for its fun, visual, shareable moments.

Their content leans into fun, chaos and genuine reactions - capturing high-energy, unscripted wipeouts and big splash moments that are made for short-form video. By showcasing real experiences rather than polished ads, they’ve turned seasonal adventure into highly shareable social gold.

About Tony

Tony Collins is the Managing Director of Byond, a digital marketing agency focused on building brand stories that resonate. He works with brands to combine strategy, storytelling and creative to drive meaningful attention on social.

Tony’s background spans content, copywriting and digital strategy, with previous roles including Content Contributor at Concrete Playground and Project Coordinator at Zomato. Across these roles, he has led creative campaigns, developed brand voices and executed social first ideas.

How are Kiwi brands with modest budgets generating millions of views, shares and headlines?

This panel unpacks how smart, culturally tuned brands are winning attention without big media spend — by creating content people genuinely want to watch and pass on. From NZ Cheap Cars’ dancing sales legends to Muzza’s cat-flavoured pies for dogs, Kiwi Water Park’s chaotic wipeouts and The Sugar Dealer’s Crocs collab - this is creativity over cash.

Expect practical insights into spotting moments (not over-scripting them), using humour and timing to your advantage, and building reach through authenticity, collabs and community.

You’ll Learn:

• How to lead with creativity when budget is tight
• Why unscripted moments outperform polished campaigns
• What actually travels fast on NZ social
• How humour + cultural timing create outsized reach
• Turning entertainment into emotional investment and brand growth.

NZ Cheap Cars – with Tony Collins, Byond Digital

In late 2025, NZ Cheap Cars went viral with a TikTok featuring dancing sales guys, generating over 28 million views, 75,000 comments and 436,000 shares.

By flipping traditional car dealership marketing on its head and leading with creativity and storytelling instead of hard sales, NZ Cheap Cars (and agency Byond Digital) proved that organic content wins when you focus on attention and connection first.

Muzza’s Pies – with Regan Grafton, Thinkerbell Aotearoa

Auckland is home to thousands of pie outlets, making it tough to stand out. So, how did Mt Albert based Muzza’s Pies manage to steal headlines around the world? With the help of creative agency, Thinkerbell, they launched ‘cat-flavoured’ pies for dogs – a tongue-in-cheek campaign that quickly sparked conversation online and on air, giving Muzza’s something money can’t buy: fame.

Kiwi Water Park

New Zealand’s largest inflatable water park - on Lake Dunstan in Central Otago – has become well known on social media - especially on TikTok and YouTube - for its fun, visual, shareable moments.

Their content leans into fun, chaos and genuine reactions - capturing high-energy, unscripted wipeouts and big splash moments that are made for short-form video. By showcasing real experiences rather than polished ads, they’ve turned seasonal adventure into highly shareable social gold.

About Emily

Emily has a Master’s degree in entrepreneurial studies from Otago University and describes herself as an entrepreneur, who is full of new and exciting ideas in promotion and marketing.

She previously worked as Marketing Manager at Glenorchy Air and set up and ran all of the social media for the company. This was at the time when they were flying the cast and crew for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies.

After that she headed to the UK where she founded and directed Mana Entertainment, a leading entertainment and staffing agency. Mana auditioned world class performers and did creative directing performances for high profile sports events, TV shows and conferences.

Back in New Zealand in 2020 she co-founded Kiwi Water Park – and she’s here today to share how they are using TikTok to build the business.

How are Kiwi brands with modest budgets generating millions of views, shares and headlines?

This panel unpacks how smart, culturally tuned brands are winning attention without big media spend — by creating content people genuinely want to watch and pass on. From NZ Cheap Cars’ dancing sales legends to Muzza’s cat-flavoured pies for dogs, Kiwi Water Park’s chaotic wipeouts and The Sugar Dealer’s Crocs collab - this is creativity over cash.

Expect practical insights into spotting moments (not over-scripting them), using humour and timing to your advantage, and building reach through authenticity, collabs and community.

You’ll Learn:

• How to lead with creativity when budget is tight
• Why unscripted moments outperform polished campaigns
• What actually travels fast on NZ social
• How humour + cultural timing create outsized reach
• Turning entertainment into emotional investment and brand growth.

NZ Cheap Cars – with Tony Collins, Byond Digital

In late 2025, NZ Cheap Cars went viral with a TikTok featuring dancing sales guys, generating over 28 million views, 75,000 comments and 436,000 shares.

By flipping traditional car dealership marketing on its head and leading with creativity and storytelling instead of hard sales, NZ Cheap Cars (and agency Byond Digital) proved that organic content wins when you focus on attention and connection first.

Muzza’s Pies – with Regan Grafton, Thinkerbell Aotearoa

Auckland is home to thousands of pie outlets, making it tough to stand out. So, how did Mt Albert based Muzza’s Pies manage to steal headlines around the world? With the help of creative agency, Thinkerbell, they launched ‘cat-flavoured’ pies for dogs – a tongue-in-cheek campaign that quickly sparked conversation online and on air, giving Muzza’s something money can’t buy: fame.

Kiwi Water Park

New Zealand’s largest inflatable water park - on Lake Dunstan in Central Otago – has become well known on social media - especially on TikTok and YouTube - for its fun, visual, shareable moments.

Their content leans into fun, chaos and genuine reactions - capturing high-energy, unscripted wipeouts and big splash moments that are made for short-form video. By showcasing real experiences rather than polished ads, they’ve turned seasonal adventure into highly shareable social gold.

About Regan

Regan Grafton has created campaigns that have travelled far beyond New Zealand. His work for NZ Police, “The Most Successful Recruitment Film”, became a global talking point and, more importantly, delivered a month’s worth of applications in just 24 hours.

His Mini and SPCA collaboration made headlines around the world, racking up millions of views, becoming the number one story on the BBC and even landing on The Late Show in the US. More recently, his work with a small Kiwi bakery, Muzza’s Pies, turned a humble pie shop into an international name. And over the past few years, he has worked closely with Jetstar, using the smart mix of social and earned media to shift public sentiment and build genuine brand likeability.

Regan has won multiple Grand Axis Awards in New Zealand, along with golds at Cannes Lions, D&AD, The One Show, AWARD in Australia and the Effies including APAC Effie Agency of the Year.

He is an experienced creative leader and strategic thinker, with deep experience across every platform that matters. Previously, Regan was Chief Creative Officer at Stanley St and Ogilvy Auckland and Wellington, Executive Creative Director at FCB New Zealand, and Creative Director at DDB New Zealand. Along the way, he helped DDB win Campaign Brief Creative Agency of the Year seven times, as ECD secured FCB’s first Agency of the year title, and led Stanley St and Ogilvy to their first Grand Axis and APAC Effectiveness Agency of the Year.

How are Kiwi brands with modest budgets generating millions of views, shares and headlines?

This panel unpacks how smart, culturally tuned brands are winning attention without big media spend — by creating content people genuinely want to watch and pass on. From NZ Cheap Cars’ dancing sales legends to Muzza’s cat-flavoured pies for dogs, Kiwi Water Park’s chaotic wipeouts and The Sugar Dealer’s Crocs collab - this is creativity over cash.

Expect practical insights into spotting moments (not over-scripting them), using humour and timing to your advantage, and building reach through authenticity, collabs and community.

You’ll Learn:

• How to lead with creativity when budget is tight
• Why unscripted moments outperform polished campaigns
• What actually travels fast on NZ social
• How humour + cultural timing create outsized reach
• Turning entertainment into emotional investment and brand growth.

NZ Cheap Cars – with Tony Collins, Byond Digital

In late 2025, NZ Cheap Cars went viral with a TikTok featuring dancing sales guys, generating over 28 million views, 75,000 comments and 436,000 shares.

By flipping traditional car dealership marketing on its head and leading with creativity and storytelling instead of hard sales, NZ Cheap Cars (and agency Byond Digital) proved that organic content wins when you focus on attention and connection first.

Muzza’s Pies – with Regan Grafton, Thinkerbell Aotearoa

Auckland is home to thousands of pie outlets, making it tough to stand out. So, how did Mt Albert based Muzza’s Pies manage to steal headlines around the world? With the help of creative agency, Thinkerbell, they launched ‘cat-flavoured’ pies for dogs – a tongue-in-cheek campaign that quickly sparked conversation online and on air, giving Muzza’s something money can’t buy: fame.

Kiwi Water Park

New Zealand’s largest inflatable water park - on Lake Dunstan in Central Otago – has become well known on social media - especially on TikTok and YouTube - for its fun, visual, shareable moments.

Their content leans into fun, chaos and genuine reactions - capturing high-energy, unscripted wipeouts and big splash moments that are made for short-form video. By showcasing real experiences rather than polished ads, they’ve turned seasonal adventure into highly shareable social gold.

About Zania

As a prominent figure in New Zealand's digital and social media marketing landscape, Zania is dedicated to transforming the online presence of businesses across industries to build thriving brands. She proudly serves on the Marketing Association Digital SIG committee, leads her digital and social media consultancy, Zaniaguy.com, and hosts the popular business podcast "Marketing Masters - The Art and Science of Modern Marketing." In her consultancy, she leverages AI-powered tools to help businesses succeed faster and more efficiently.

Zania has specialised in digital marketing her entire career, including 4.5 transformative years leading New World's digital and social marketing. She not only met KPIs but soared past them, cultivating a buzzing foodie community across Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, and propelling their social conversations from 400 to 40,000 a month. Beyond driving social engagement, she contributed to all campaigns by building seamless customer experiences across all digital touchpoints and was a key contributor to driving sales.

Her journey has allowed her to work with industry leaders and loved brands like Bluebells Cakery, Colliers, New World, Vodafone NZ (now One NZ), Les Mills International, and The Salvation Army among others. Zania’s career also spans a decade in the UK, where she honed her digital skills with prestigious companies such as Phaidon Press International and The Engine Group crafting and executing digital marketing and social media strategies that delivered results.

A passionate and creative problem-solver, she thrives on collaborating with clients and teams to drive business growth and foster enduring brand loyalty.

In this candid case study, Ryan Stokes shares his journey from being the on-camera personality behind Skinny Mobile’s disruptive social presence to shaping social strategy inside one of New Zealand’s most established banks.

He unpacks how he has helped evolve ASB’s social voice to feel more human, engaging, and culturally relevant in a traditionally conservative category.

Ryan explores balancing humour with brand responsibility, empowering teams to create confidently, and uncovering everyday stories that resonate.

This session offers practical insight into building authenticity at scale - and proving even banking can earn attention on social.

About Ryan

Ryan Stokes is the social content and community manager at ASB where he takes ideas from concept to final edit for the companies’ social channels.

With 4 years of experience in the social media space, Ryan specializes in creating ambitious pieces of content on a small budget and team.

Along with ASB, Ryan runs a content agency with his partner that specialises in high-quality photos and video for small businesses and personal brands. Post Party was birthed out of a passion for making social media more accessible and achievable for smaller brands, which is Ryan’s favourite part of the job.

This isn’t a trend panel. It’s a reality check.

Young creators sit at the intersection of culture, commerce and community. They’re not just content producers - they’re digital natives, micro-media companies, and the consumers brands are trying to reach.

If you want to find out how the next generation is actually using social (vs how brands assume they are) and which platforms they use for what (entertainment, shopping, learning, community), then you don’t want to miss this!

We ask our panellists:

• What makes you instantly scroll?

• What feels like it was made by someone over 35?

• When does a brand collab feel fake?

• Do you create for the algorithm or for your friends?

• Is the feed dead? Is DM culture stronger?

• If you were a marketer for a day, what would you stop doing immediately?

About Louie

WKia ora! Ko Louie tōku ingoa, he uri whakaheke tēnei nō Te Arawa whānui. Ko Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue ngā iwi.

I’m Louie Whata, a proud descendant of Te Arawa iwi, born and raised in Tāmaki Makaurau. I graduated from Auckland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Communication Studies in Advertising and Brand Creativity, and Public Relations.

I currently work as a Social Media Content Coordinator at AUT. Through my mahi, I focus on connecting with rangatahi through unique storytelling and groundbreaking content.  During my time at AUT, I’ve worked across a diverse range of campaigns and formats, from large scale paid campaigns to brand partnerships, including collaborations with Auckland FC. Prior to this, I worked at BNZ, where I contributed to brand and community initiatives, collaborating with the BNZ Breakers and creating content for live events such as Diwali.

I'm passionate about meaningful content that represents our communities and builds real connections.

This isn’t a trend panel. It’s a reality check.

Young creators sit at the intersection of culture, commerce and community. They’re not just content producers - they’re digital natives, micro-media companies, and the consumers brands are trying to reach.

If you want to find out how the next generation is actually using social (vs how brands assume they are) and which platforms they use for what (entertainment, shopping, learning, community), then you don’t want to miss this!

We ask our panellists:

• What makes you instantly scroll?

• What feels like it was made by someone over 35?

• When does a brand collab feel fake?

• Do you create for the algorithm or for your friends?

• Is the feed dead? Is DM culture stronger?

• If you were a marketer for a day, what would you stop doing immediately?

About Thomas

West Auckland born and raised, and a proud descendant of Samoa, Thomas is a creative at heart. A graduate of AUT’s Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies – Te Ara Auaha, he completed a Bachelor of Communications Studies in Advertising and Brand Creativity, and Digital Communications in 2023.

As Creative & Content Executive at AA New Zealand, Thomas brings the brand to life through bold ideas, sharp storytelling, and content built to move. From photo and video production to campaign creative, copywriting, and motoring content including car reviews, he blends creative craft with strategic thinking - taking ideas from concept to launch and turning them into work that connects with audiences and drives results.