Marketing Vanguard at Cannes: Why the Experience Is the Brand ft. Virgin Voyages’ Nathan Rosenberg

This episode of Advertising Vanguard comes straight from Cannes Lions 2026 as host Jenny Rooney sits down with Nathan Rosenberg, chief advertising and marketing and model experiences officer at Virgin Voyages. 

They talk about why the very best and most actual advertising and marketing occurs when a buyer is telling their pals the story of what they skilled, how Virgin Voyages turns crew tradition into buyer loyalty, and why repeat charge ought to sit a lot nearer to the middle of promoting technique.

What you’ll be taught:

• Why advertising and marketing is irrelevant if the expertise doesn’t maintain up
• How repeat prospects can decrease acquisition prices and alter the expansion equation
• Why crew expertise straight shapes buyer expertise and model reminiscence
• How Virgin Voyages turned an adults-only cruise mannequin into its clearest differentiator
• Why entrepreneurs have to cease drowning in stories they’ll by no means act on
• How AI can amplify artistic groups as an alternative of changing them
• Why smooth expertise like empathy, vulnerability and listening at the moment are the toughest management expertise

This episode is a part of a particular vidcast collection that was recorded stay throughout Cannes 2026 and offered in partnership with Edelman.

About our visitor: 

Nathan Rosenberg has spent 14 years at Virgin Voyages, constructing one of the distinctive experience-led manufacturers in journey. With 26 years throughout the Virgin group, Nathan brings a deeply human-centered strategy to advertising and marketing, tradition, and model technique. 

At Virgin Voyages, his work spans far past campaigns. He champions the complete expertise of the model, from how company really feel once they step onto a ship to how crew members are supported to ship memorable service. 

His philosophy is easy however demanding: if you happen to maintain your folks, they maintain your prospects, and prospects maintain the outcomes.

Episode Highlights: 

[01:22] Actual Advertising Occurs When Clients Inform the Story — Nathan challenges the concept the advert is the model. In his opinion, the actual advertising and marketing second occurs later, when a buyer is sitting at dinner with pals and telling them what occurred on board. That story, the reminiscence, the precise element they can not cease repeating, is what strikes folks from consciousness to motion. It’s a sharper method to consider model constructing: not what you say available in the market, however what folks repeat if you find yourself not within the room.