Motion’s virtual event “Make Ads That Convert” returns May 27-June 4, 2025, featuring expert workshops on creative AI applications in advertising. Now in its third year, this DTC marketing event attracted over 11,000 registrants in 2024 and aims to reach 20,000 this year with its “Ad AI Renaissance” theme, celebrating the blend of traditional advertising principles with new technology.
Motion has structured the event as a series of tactical workshops where experts demonstrate practical applications rather than theoretical concepts. Each session provides step-by-step frameworks for creative strategy, with speakers selected specifically for their teaching ability.
“Our hope is that we take people beyond the hype, deeper into what will actually be useful,” explains James Mulvey, Head of Content at Motion. “We’re hoping that it’s actually practical for advertisers and rooted in real outcomes that you can accomplish.”
A creative analytics platform with $30 million in Series B funding, Motion has positioned itself as the “command center for creative strategy” for D2C and e-commerce brands. The platform helps brands understand why their creative works and guides their paid social strategy with visual-first reporting that makes complex data accessible to everyone in the organization.
“The number one lever that you have to actually make results go better in your ad account is doing a really good job at the creative level,” explains James. “Motion brings together that art and science world of advertising into one platform.”
What distinguishes the event is Motion’s commitment to improvement rather than repeating successful formulas. “Every year we take a different slant on it,” says James. “You could be like, ‘Well, it worked last year. Why don’t we just templatize it?’ But we always try to find a new angle.”
The event has changed notably through each iteration—year one centered on Dara Denney (now Motion’s Chief Evangelist) delivering several focused sessions. Year two assembled what James calls a “supergroup” of industry experts—bringing together thought leaders including Jess Bachman, Savannah Sanchez, and Mirella Crespi.
For 2025, Motion wanted to do something different. “It’s more about the topic this year,” James explains. “We found the best speakers to represent that topic versus wondering who the most famous person we can get at the event is.”
Creativity and Teaching
Motion’s approach to speaker selection focuses on finding individuals who both excel in their fields and can effectively communicate their knowledge. “You know a topic doesn’t mean you can teach it well,” notes Motion Content Marketing Manager Melissa Rosen, highlighting a key distinction about their event.
The 2025 lineup features carefully selected experts whom Melissa describes as “renaissance thinkers blending timeless principles with modern tools.” The event opens with AI specialists Alex Cooper and Jimmy Slagle on May 27. Cooper, whose agency AdCrate works with 8-9 figure DTC brands, brings tactical AI approaches, while Slagle, co-founder of Human², brings expertise in AI agents and workflows.
The following day features the aforementioned Dara Denney paired with Jacob Posel, a software engineer turned DTC AI expert, focusing on prompting and production techniques. Later that same day, Barry Hott, known for managing over $600 million in ad spend, will address persuasion principles and product showcasing with AI.
On June 3, Kelly Rocklein, co-founder of UGC Pro, who has generated over $500 million in ad revenue for major clients, will explore AI applications in user-generated content. The event concludes on June 4 with Mirella Crespi, founder of Creative Milkshake, one of Europe’s largest performance creative studios, discussing the structure of AI-augmented teams.
“We’ve been very lucky. We already have in our ecosystem some of the most remarkable D2C advertisers,” Melissa explains about the selection process. “When we were putting together the sessions, it was very easy for me to put a shortlist together.”
Five Sessions, One Creative Canon
“Make Ads That Convert” is structured as five interconnected sessions that build upon each other, creating what Motion calls “one creative canon.” This approach allows attendees to apply learnings immediately and develop new ads during the event itself.
Each 60-minute session focuses on a distinct phase of the creative process. The process begins with ideation and market research, progresses to prompting and production, moves to persuasion principles, explores UGC and message testing, and concludes with a look at future team structures.
“Make Ads That Convert has always been our more tangible one,” says James. “It should feel more like a workshop and a live training than a panel or someone talking to you.”
This practical approach extends to how speakers structure their content. Melissa encourages each presenter to develop a thesis-driven approach: “Instead of just being like, ‘I’m going to teach you how to do market research,’ there’s more of a thesis of, ‘I’m going to show you why this exact method for market research works better than all the other ones.'”
Behind the scenes, Motion’s team works extensively with speakers to ensure quality. “Most of what you see happens behind the scenes,” James notes. “We have a lot of processes to help speakers deliver their best presentations.”
From Registration Numbers to Career Transformations
While Motion aims for 20,000 registrations this year, their true measure of success goes deeper. “We want to change lives,” says James, citing a current Motion employee who first encountered the company through their events.
“She actually attended our events when she was starting out and changed her career because of our events, and now works at Motion after she worked on the brand side,” he explains. “I admire people who can take content and advice and then apply it with discipline. Later they’ll tell us, ‘We attended your summit, and we’ve actually been doing the stuff we learned about, and now this has changed for us.'”
The business impact is also measurable. “Last year from our event we hadover 500 demos that were generated over the long term from the event series,” James notes. “Events drive a lot of pipeline for us. But it is more like a 6 to 12 month payback, so you need to take a longer measurement view and see it more as a brand moment rather than measuring immediate pipeline”
The Change in Advertising Approaches
The event’s thematic focus on blending creativity with AI reflects a shift that Motion has observed and championed. “For so long, Facebook ads and paid ads were very much about the paid part of it,” Melissa notes. “It was just figuring out different levers of how much we can spend to get the most value. It’s shifted recently into more of the creative.”
According to her, this change has transformed how marketers approach their craft. “It’s opened up this really cool world in paid advertising where you can be more creative, you can go for big ideas, you can let your creativity fly,” she adds. “It’s made the industry a lot more fun.”
James emphasizes that Motion encourages originality over templated approaches: “What we’re always pushing our audience to do is to strive for uniqueness in advertising and uniqueness in your strategy and not sort of templatize it too much. Advertising by its nature thrives in originality and novelty and uniqueness, and that’s what makes people respond.”
AI Implementation: Practical Applications Over Hype
Motion’s event deliberately takes a measured approach to AI. “Maybe people’s eyes glaze over AI topics because you get so much of it everywhere. But our hope is that we take people beyond that,” explains James.
He critiques surface-level AI content: “The AI post I hate is people being like, ‘You should be using it and you’re falling behind,’ and then no specifics about what specifically I should do, or it’s a use case that sounds good in theory. Then you actually try it yourself and you’re like, ‘Oh, this is maybe the author just did this for engagement.'”
This practical focus aligns with the event’s tagline of “When mediums change, masters adapt.” Each session will show how to apply advertising principles to modern tools, from using AI to accelerate market research to creating AI-generated visual assets without losing creative quality.
Building Community Through Education
“Make Ads That Convert” adopts Motion’s community-first approach. Unlike many corporate events designed primarily to generate leads, Motion keeps its platform in the background.
“Motion has always had this good trait of getting out of the way and letting these experts speak,” James explains. “We’re really comfortable sharing our stage. A lot of other companies often want to own the event top to bottom. They want to control the message and put a lot of their stuff in there.”
Melissa confirms this philosophy: “We’re not selling Motion at all. It’s more about the education, the speakers, the industry—what is actually happening on the ground. Motion is secondary.”
She adds that prioritizing community has yielded results, with highly engaged participants. “I watch other events and am like, ‘This is so boring.’ And then you watch ours, and you’re like, scribbling notes,” she says. Our chat is one of my favorite things in our events because people go wild in the chat.”
As “Make Ads That Convert” welcomes heads of growth, creative strategists, media buyers, and performance marketing teams, Motion aims to keep improving its education and community-building.
“You’ll be able to leave this whole series with the feeling that you could build a whole company afterward,” Melissa concludes, underscoring the value Motion aims to deliver through this educational experience.
Dragomir is a Serbian freelance blog writer and translator. He is passionate about covering insightful stories and exploring topics such as influencer marketing, the creator economy, technology, business, and cyber fraud.
Motion’s virtual event “Make Ads That Convert” returns May 27-June 4, 2025, featuring expert workshops on creative AI applications in advertising. Now in its third year, this DTC marketing event attracted over 11,000 registrants in 2024 and aims to reach 20,000 this year with its “Ad AI Renaissance” theme, celebrating the blend of traditional advertising principles with new technology.
Motion has structured the event as a series of tactical workshops where experts demonstrate practical applications rather than theoretical concepts. Each session provides step-by-step frameworks for creative strategy, with speakers selected specifically for their teaching ability.
“Our hope is that we take people beyond the hype, deeper into what will actually be useful,” explains James Mulvey, Head of Content at Motion. “We’re hoping that it’s actually practical for advertisers and rooted in real outcomes that you can accomplish.”
A creative analytics platform with $30 million in Series B funding, Motion has positioned itself as the “command center for creative strategy” for D2C and e-commerce brands. The platform helps brands understand why their creative works and guides their paid social strategy with visual-first reporting that makes complex data accessible to everyone in the organization.
“The number one lever that you have to actually make results go better in your ad account is doing a really good job at the creative level,” explains James. “Motion brings together that art and science world of advertising into one platform.”
What distinguishes the event is Motion’s commitment to improvement rather than repeating successful formulas. “Every year we take a different slant on it,” says James. “You could be like, ‘Well, it worked last year. Why don’t we just templatize it?’ But we always try to find a new angle.”
The event has changed notably through each iteration—year one centered on Dara Denney (now Motion’s Chief Evangelist) delivering several focused sessions. Year two assembled what James calls a “supergroup” of industry experts—bringing together thought leaders including Jess Bachman, Savannah Sanchez, and Mirella Crespi.
For 2025, Motion wanted to do something different. “It’s more about the topic this year,” James explains. “We found the best speakers to represent that topic versus wondering who the most famous person we can get at the event is.”
Creativity and Teaching
Motion’s approach to speaker selection focuses on finding individuals who both excel in their fields and can effectively communicate their knowledge. “You know a topic doesn’t mean you can teach it well,” notes Motion Content Marketing Manager Melissa Rosen, highlighting a key distinction about their event.
The 2025 lineup features carefully selected experts whom Melissa describes as “renaissance thinkers blending timeless principles with modern tools.” The event opens with AI specialists Alex Cooper and Jimmy Slagle on May 27. Cooper, whose agency AdCrate works with 8-9 figure DTC brands, brings tactical AI approaches, while Slagle, co-founder of Human², brings expertise in AI agents and workflows.
The following day features the aforementioned Dara Denney paired with Jacob Posel, a software engineer turned DTC AI expert, focusing on prompting and production techniques. Later that same day, Barry Hott, known for managing over $600 million in ad spend, will address persuasion principles and product showcasing with AI.
On June 3, Kelly Rocklein, co-founder of UGC Pro, who has generated over $500 million in ad revenue for major clients, will explore AI applications in user-generated content. The event concludes on June 4 with Mirella Crespi, founder of Creative Milkshake, one of Europe’s largest performance creative studios, discussing the structure of AI-augmented teams.
“We’ve been very lucky. We already have in our ecosystem some of the most remarkable D2C advertisers,” Melissa explains about the selection process. “When we were putting together the sessions, it was very easy for me to put a shortlist together.”
Five Sessions, One Creative Canon
“Make Ads That Convert” is structured as five interconnected sessions that build upon each other, creating what Motion calls “one creative canon.” This approach allows attendees to apply learnings immediately and develop new ads during the event itself.
Each 60-minute session focuses on a distinct phase of the creative process. The process begins with ideation and market research, progresses to prompting and production, moves to persuasion principles, explores UGC and message testing, and concludes with a look at future team structures.
“Make Ads That Convert has always been our more tangible one,” says James. “It should feel more like a workshop and a live training than a panel or someone talking to you.”
This practical approach extends to how speakers structure their content. Melissa encourages each presenter to develop a thesis-driven approach: “Instead of just being like, ‘I’m going to teach you how to do market research,’ there’s more of a thesis of, ‘I’m going to show you why this exact method for market research works better than all the other ones.'”
Behind the scenes, Motion’s team works extensively with speakers to ensure quality. “Most of what you see happens behind the scenes,” James notes. “We have a lot of processes to help speakers deliver their best presentations.”
From Registration Numbers to Career Transformations
While Motion aims for 20,000 registrations this year, their true measure of success goes deeper. “We want to change lives,” says James, citing a current Motion employee who first encountered the company through their events.
“She actually attended our events when she was starting out and changed her career because of our events, and now works at Motion after she worked on the brand side,” he explains. “I admire people who can take content and advice and then apply it with discipline. Later they’ll tell us, ‘We attended your summit, and we’ve actually been doing the stuff we learned about, and now this has changed for us.'”
The business impact is also measurable. “Last year from our event we hadover 500 demos that were generated over the long term from the event series,” James notes. “Events drive a lot of pipeline for us. But it is more like a 6 to 12 month payback, so you need to take a longer measurement view and see it more as a brand moment rather than measuring immediate pipeline”
The Change in Advertising Approaches
The event’s thematic focus on blending creativity with AI reflects a shift that Motion has observed and championed. “For so long, Facebook ads and paid ads were very much about the paid part of it,” Melissa notes. “It was just figuring out different levers of how much we can spend to get the most value. It’s shifted recently into more of the creative.”
According to her, this change has transformed how marketers approach their craft. “It’s opened up this really cool world in paid advertising where you can be more creative, you can go for big ideas, you can let your creativity fly,” she adds. “It’s made the industry a lot more fun.”
James emphasizes that Motion encourages originality over templated approaches: “What we’re always pushing our audience to do is to strive for uniqueness in advertising and uniqueness in your strategy and not sort of templatize it too much. Advertising by its nature thrives in originality and novelty and uniqueness, and that’s what makes people respond.”
AI Implementation: Practical Applications Over Hype
Motion’s event deliberately takes a measured approach to AI. “Maybe people’s eyes glaze over AI topics because you get so much of it everywhere. But our hope is that we take people beyond that,” explains James.
He critiques surface-level AI content: “The AI post I hate is people being like, ‘You should be using it and you’re falling behind,’ and then no specifics about what specifically I should do, or it’s a use case that sounds good in theory. Then you actually try it yourself and you’re like, ‘Oh, this is maybe the author just did this for engagement.'”
This practical focus aligns with the event’s tagline of “When mediums change, masters adapt.” Each session will show how to apply advertising principles to modern tools, from using AI to accelerate market research to creating AI-generated visual assets without losing creative quality.
Building Community Through Education
“Make Ads That Convert” adopts Motion’s community-first approach. Unlike many corporate events designed primarily to generate leads, Motion keeps its platform in the background.
“Motion has always had this good trait of getting out of the way and letting these experts speak,” James explains. “We’re really comfortable sharing our stage. A lot of other companies often want to own the event top to bottom. They want to control the message and put a lot of their stuff in there.”
Melissa confirms this philosophy: “We’re not selling Motion at all. It’s more about the education, the speakers, the industry—what is actually happening on the ground. Motion is secondary.”
She adds that prioritizing community has yielded results, with highly engaged participants. “I watch other events and am like, ‘This is so boring.’ And then you watch ours, and you’re like, scribbling notes,” she says. Our chat is one of my favorite things in our events because people go wild in the chat.”
As “Make Ads That Convert” welcomes heads of growth, creative strategists, media buyers, and performance marketing teams, Motion aims to keep improving its education and community-building.
“You’ll be able to leave this whole series with the feeling that you could build a whole company afterward,” Melissa concludes, underscoring the value Motion aims to deliver through this educational experience.
More information is available here.