MRKTNG Marathon 2026: Marketing and Communications Leaders Discuss Decision-Making in Times of Change
18 May 14:51
Imagine a sheet of paper covered with dozens of marker lines. This is the environment in which Ukrainian marketers work every day: a chaos of channels, tools, signals, contexts, and circumstances. And there’s no guarantee that what worked yesterday will hold up today. In this reality, the key skill is learning to identify precisely the elements that drive results.
That’s why this year’s MRKTNG marathon, organized by MMR —a top media outlet covering marketing, communications, and creativity—and the business/media agency Ekonomika, will take place under the slogan “Highlight the Essentials” and help unravel the logic behind this sheet. On June 3, the marathon will bring together 500 marketing practitioners, communications professionals, brand leaders, and creatives in Kyiv for a full day of non-stop lectures from industry leaders.
The program features a distillation of the most interesting, concise, and practically useful presentations on professionally valuable topics from those who make decisions in times of instability and know that marketing today is all about precision in choice. It also includes three panel discussions, an on-stage podcast, and a full day of networking.
What we’re discussing this year:
- Highlighting the essentials: how to make marketing decisions in an oversaturated environment and what will serve as a foundation for brands in 2026.
- The new consumer, new trust: how to work with an audience that rapidly changes behavior, trusts words less, reacts more sensitively to insincerity, and relies on experience.
- Creativity on Steroids: how to generate ideas that influence consumer choice.
- Between technology and common sense: how to use AI, automation, Threads, TikTok, and other engagement channels so that marketing doesn’t turn into a chaotic set of actions but delivers real results.
Speakers at the MRKTNG Marathon 2026 include Ksenia Sikorska (FUIB), Dmytro Sudak (Teva), Volodymyr Sobolev (“Kovalska”), Oleksandr Shevelov (“Naftogaz”), Nataliia Vovk (1 1 Ukraine), Yulia Zhmakina (1 1 Ukraine), Yegor Gordeev (1 1 Ukraine), Yaryna Skorokhod (DTEK), Anna Grishina (Eva), Irina Metnyova (Vandog agency), Olena Plakhova (KERNEL), Boris Tsomaya (RIEL), Viktoria Shapron (AB InBev Efes Ukraine), Volodymyr Haidash (“ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih”), Oleksandra Pogorila (U Agency), Anna Davydenko (Let Them See), Anna Zakharash (“Darnitsa”), Vladislav Dunaenko (Ministry of Defense), and other brand leaders driving the country’s brands.
As is tradition, the marathon will feature an awards ceremony for the winners of the X-RAY Marketing Projects Competition. Creativity, effectiveness, strategy—and a little professional envy from colleagues 🙂
Register for the MRKTNG Marathon at and gain access to unique marketing case studies.
The event is supported by: general partner—FUIB, general media partner—1 1 media, and main partner—Teva.
