Last week I attended my first MAD//FEST. For those who aren’t familiar, the event has gained notoriety as the Glastonbury of the marketing world. I believe it has a magic, a sense of fun, and speakers whose creative prowess make this a worthy comparison.

The atmosphere has an infectious and positive energy, there are solo speakers, three-piece and four-piece panels, titan headliners, quirky up and comers, experimental and old-school marketers, great food (shoutout to Deeney’s cheese toastie which was worthy of a review in itself), free booze, activations, themed stages and so on and so forth. Although, I’m happy they didn’t try to replicate the Glasto toilets.

It’s impossible to give a fair account of the festival without a Time Turner (watch Harry Potter Prisoner of Azkaban for reference) where you can attend multiple stages at the same time. There were dozens of brilliant speakers who are due a shout out, but unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to see them.

Tom Goodwin:

As an outsider looking in, I think Tom is a crucial voice in the sector and should be protected at all costs. He offers a unique and thought provoking analysis on the sector, countering conventional wisdom and flagging industry blind spots. His views aren’t born out of contrarianism or cynicism but are instead ‘a frustration at how good things could be’. Some may argue it’s a bit of both, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing either.

Tom offered a fascinating view on the impact of AI which will be the most democratising and disruptive force the industry has ever seen, the madmen vs mathmen complex, the former being too inward looking and the latter too data obsessed. He challenged misconceptions that people are hard to reach and too busy, explaining they’re just overwhelmed by the misdirected noise of advertising and social media.

Finally, he questioned whether businesses should be ‘purpose led’ on a roster of issues that don’t have anything to do with their product or service (I felt the temperature drop about 2 degrees during that one!). Tom left with a passionate message to embrace people who you disagree with and seek to understand those who view the world differently, which was well received.

Influencer:

A huge success story with the agency sector is the rapid growth and professionalisation of Influencer Marketing. The industry is valued at $24 billion this year and is forecasted to reach $200 billion by 2032. Having placed a CEO with an Influencer agency last year I can attest that vast numbers of talented candidates are clamouring to get into this space. I managed to catch two industry legends, Sedge Beswick and Hannah Monds, who each hosted fantastic panel discussions. Sedge hosted a panel on how to win hearts and eyeballs during the summer of sport, and Hannah looked at the contrasting view of the sector from the perspective of brands and creators.

Brands:

There was a brilliant representation from brands at MAD//FEST, each had a unique growth story using different marketing strategies. Nicola Matthews shared the amazing journey of Tony’s Chocolonely who use partnerships to scale. Emily Kraftman gave a compelling story of Who Gives A Crap, and shared their 10 principles for growth which included endorsements and referrals. Liz Baines at Specsavers talked about how they used humour to build their brand, Specsavers attributes an incredible £1 billion of value directly to the line ‘should’ve gone to Specsavers’.

Coming on stage to ABBA, Huib Van Bockel used hypnotic dancing to woo the crowd before delivering a fantastic talk on Tenzing, an organic, sustainable plant-based energy drink. Finally, Anna MacDonald talked about how Guinness uses bravery in marketing. They ensure they stay true to their roots whilst using a new framework for brand growth that helps them to remain relevant.

I like all these brands. I heard the word authenticity many times at MAD//FEST but speaking as a consumer I like them because they all have personality, and I think people like to see a little bit of themselves in a brand.

Sir Martin Sorrell:

I found myself hanging onto every word of Sir Martin Sorrell’s election day special on geopolitics and predictions for the sector. I thought his political insights were especially interesting; he spoke with a level of assuredness that suggested his sources go far deeper than mine, or indeed those of journalists commenting on these issues. His first words were ‘Biden’s gone’, with a cool, cold delivery that Logan Roy would be proud of. He proceeded to give his take on an incoming labour government which may change employer rights to reflect those of France, and will ‘balance the economic scales’ with some tax increases. He lamented the lack of charisma in politics and would ‘take Blair any day’.

In terms of growth opportunities, Sir Martin made reference to the importance of expanding markets into India, the Middle East, and North and South America. He stressed the need to utilise technologies such as AI, the metaverse, content computing and blockchain. He raised an interesting question around whether agencies should change from a time-based model to output as AI will significantly reduce the time taken to create campaigns.

Whilst he believes that political and economic challenges will make things difficult, he highlighted there are still vast opportunities to be taken in personalisation, efficiency and LLMs to educate everyone in the company.

Rory Sutherland:

I’ve been a long-time fan of Rory’s and have spent many hours deep in YouTube rabbit holes listening to his podcasts and keynotes. What you don’t get from watching Rory online is the extent of his performative showmanship. He has a brilliant combination of humour, charisma, eloquence, and right brain observations that leave the most creatively minded businesspeople scratching their heads in awe.

Rory is on a crusade to give creativity a fair hearing in decision making, and he imagines a world where psychology sits alongside economics and technology in this process. He highlighted this imbalance saying that creatives rightly present ideas to rational people, but economists rarely say, ‘I think the answer is 3.7, but first I’ll have to check with some really wacky people’. He posed the question ‘what if Disney designed HS2?’, pointing to the huge gulf between how engineers and creatives view a challenge, surely they would prioritise customer experience as well as capacity and speed.

He used the famous Waggle Dance metaphor to demonstrate that businesses must be willing to see creativity and experimentation as an opportunity. In this metaphor he explains that 20% of bees don’t follow the waggle dance to find pollen, they instead look for new territory and food sources in case of environmental shifts. In other words, you must ensure your business has an exploit and explore trade off to innovate and survive. Businesses that focus on 100% optimisation and view creativity as wastage will fall behind.

Other very notable mentions.

I would also like to give a shout out to other speakers who perfectly demonstrated what bold, disruptive and great storytelling means in practise, resulting in some impressive agency growth stories. These were Clem Garrity from experiential agency Swamp, Kate Mander and Dani Murphy from Just Add Joy, a creative agency who connect podcasters to brands, and Joe Goddard from creative agency Jam Worldwide.

Thank you & see you next year!

I’ll finish on what I believe to be one of Rory’s finest lines. ‘Rather than trying to change the world, help people to re-frame the problem, this will change behaviour and in turn the world’.

In my case, MAD//FEST overachieved all expectations. I had loads of fun and left with an almost evangelical belief in creatives ability to drive growth, well… that and a terrible hangover.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to all the organisers and to the MAD/Masters team who invited me. I hope to see you there next year!

If you'd like to get in touch to discuss recruitment for your agency, please contact me at [email protected].