SXSW LONDON RECAP
Why Bespoke Is Back — and the Future Belongs to Those with Taste & Trust
SXSW didn’t just give me new ideas. It gave me new frameworks.
Before SXSW, I was circling around the idea of launching a Substack. After SXSW — I committed.
Here’s why:
I met Hamish McKenzie, Substack’s Co-founder. Heard him speak. Met him briefly and felt the conviction behind every word. This is the power of a Founder’s personal brand — not to be followed, but to be felt.
And it crystallized something I’ve been saying to clients for months:
“The next era won’t belong to brands shouting through megaphones. It will belong to those putting on their headphones. The ones tuning into the real dialogues. Not the algorithmic simulation.” - Christina Minshull [The Brand Audit]
In my 2025 Social Media Predictions I flagged the slow death of “curated for you” and the rise of “chosen by me.” We're witnessing a rebellion — against manipulation, against sameness, against content that performs but doesn’t resonate. Originality is becoming a differentiator again. Not more content. Just better content.
That’s what Hamish meant when he said: “Substack isn’t just disrupting media — it’s correcting the market’s valuation of culture.”
That one line set the tone for everything I heard at SXSW.
1. AI IS SCALING EVERYTHING — EXCEPT TASTE, TRUST & CULTURE
The conference was flooded with AI demos and GPT-led optimism.
But the deeper current? A quiet panic about creative erosion. The feeling that everything is starting to sound... the same. Brands optimizing for output — not originality.
But as James Kirkham [Iconic] said on a panel “If you don’t have taste, you won’t build an enduring business. AI can simulate anything. But it can’t teach taste. Or intuition. Or guts.”
You can outsource productivity. You can’t outsource discernment.
I saw this thesis echoed across:
AI vs Human Agency where the panel explored how 85% of enterprises will adopt AI agents by 2025, but those who blindly outsource creativity will lose their edge. Erika Snyed [Adidas] emphasized that “the real disruptors won’t be the biggest teams — they’ll be the small, sharp ones solving real-world problems and pivoting fast.”
From Vanity to Value keynote by Stevie Johnson [Disrupt] reminded us that authenticity is no longer a differentiator. They participate, not just publish culture.“Human creators drive culture because they disrupt the algorithmic loop,”
The Big Organic Lie keynote by Neil Patel [NP Digital] dropped the hard truth: content isn’t failing because of algorithms. It’s failing because it’s lazy. As I always tell clients “Don’t blame the algorithm. Blame your content.” - Christina Minshull and now I have some graphs from NP to prove it to them.
In a stairway conversation with Julian Payne [Edelman], we spoke about my approach to human-centred, bespoke personal brand strategy. He nodded, smiled, and said: “Bespoke is back.” In his panel “Who Owns Your Brand?” with Caspar Lee [Influencer], Julian as the UK’s new CEO shared experienced strategies for maintaining narrative control, brand consistency, and social responsibility — all critical for future-proofing in a digital landscape that’s only becoming more fragmented and chaotic.
These panel offered multiple takes. But here’s mine: your audience always has — and always will — own your brand.Your job isn’t to control the narrative. It’s to guide it with clarity, consistency, and credibility. In 2025, taste and trust aren’t just differentiators. They’re the new luxury goods.
2. THE RISK OF INNOVATION WITHOUT EMOTION
Aaron Powers [Slyvain] gave one of the most emotionally provocative sessions of the week in “The Grief of Innovation.” He reframed resistance to change — not as friction, but as grief. Not everyone is scared of what’s next. Many are just mourning what they’re leaving behind. And as brands we need to help people [internal and external] through the grieving process.
“Businesses are so focused on newness, they forget the grief that comes with change.” - Aaron Powers
We’ve seen this with Twitter becoming X. Disney rebooting nostalgia. Facebook becoming Meta. New Coke. The list goes on…
Grief isn’t a hurdle. It’s a human response. And if your brand skips over it, you’ll burn through your most loyal customers without ever understanding why.
He offered a 3 part framework.
Parade your past
Give the fleeting form
Shut up and listen
Change doesn't require erasure. It requires empathy. I always say to clients “if your brand can’t hold space for emotion, it won’t hold attention either.” - Christina Minshull [The Brand Audit] and advocate for using social listening to build your brand and understand your audience.
3. COMMUNITIES AREN’T MAILING LISTS
If one phrase echoed through SXSW, it was this: community is the new growth engine. But not in the “build a mailing list” sense. In a deeply human, connection-first kind of way.
Laura Nestler [VP, Reddit] in her session on The Power of Community reminded us that “audiences are spoken to — but communities speak to each other.”
Emma Gannon [Author] and Hamish McKenzie [Co-Founder, Substack] challenged us to “create spaces where people show up as the best versions of themselves online”.
It’s not chasing virality. It’s chasing vibrant digital neighbourhoods built on trust, not trolls.
Laura challenged that most brands shouldn’t build a community as they simply aren’t ready. Because real community requires:
Letting go of control
Accepting happy attrition
Building for agency, not just engagement
The brands that win will be those that shift from audience growth to community stewardship. Real community is built through trust, not traffic.
4. BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE > BOARDROOM ASSUMPTIONS
Dan Bennett’s [Ogilvy] session cracked open one of the biggest lies in marketing: that people are rational. They’re not. They’re operating 95% of the time on System 1 — emotional, fast, automatic. Not System 2 - slow, rational, analytical.
If you’re a client of mine I always say
“People buy with emotion – and justify with ration.” - Christina Minshull
Bennett made it painfully clear: People don’t behave the way PowerPoint decks say they will. His advice:
Speak to instinct, not intellect
Use anchoring, scarcity, and salience
Analyse the context, not just the consumer
Don’t overlook small nudges — sometimes the carpet in the airport queue is the solution to ensuring people get their documents ready and long lines simply dissolve.
This wasn’t theory. It was a reminder: the smartest brands understand how humans actually behave — and design accordingly.
5. CREATIVITY AS CAPITAL FOR CHANGE
Idris Elba [Actor] wasn’t about celebrity it was about value — and how we’ve failed to recognize the true worth of imagination. Especially in young people.
“Your imagination is expensive. It’s capital. And it becomes capital for change.” — Idris Elba
Whether it’s through music, storytelling, or system design, creativity is infrastructure.
This wasn’t a call to create content. It was a call to build capital — through expression, community, and ideas that scale. And in a world racing toward automation, the most valuable currency might just be your ability to imagine what doesn’t exist yet.
6. PRESERVATION IS INNOVATION, TOO
While everyone else raced forward, Yves Ubelmann [Iconem] showed us what it means to slow down — to use tech not just for scale, but for memory. His 3D model of St. Peter’s Basilica wasn’t a novelty. It was a revolution in accessibility, preservation, and cultural stewardship.
His work posed a quiet question: what else are we losing in our rush to innovate?
7. ICONIC BRANDS DON’T JUST LAST – THEY LISTEN
In the Pophouse session, we saw how legends like Avicii, KISS, and Swedish House Mafia are being reimagined — not by chasing trends, but by activating legacy in modern contexts. They shared recent examples of how modern content like Stranger Things has reactivated the musical catalogue of Kate Bush's 'Running Up That Hill'.
Their formula:
Start with the fan, not the format
Fuse tech with emotion
Let the story lead the innovation
“Great songs don’t fade. They wait for the right moment and the right story.” - Kim System and Clair Houghton-Price [Pophouse]
That’s true for music. It’s true for brands. It’s true for people.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
Yes, AI will transform everything.
AI will write. Algorithms will distribute.
Yes, we’ll need new frameworks for content, data, and ethics.
But the most important takeaways?
In the next era of personal branding, your competitive advantage isn’t content volume – It’s creative discernment, emotional intelligence, and cultural intuition.
Design for resonance, not just reach.
And most importantly: To double down on what I’ve always believed at The Brand Audit — That the personal brands that thrive in this next chapter won’t have the loudest megaphones. They’ll be the ones who put never forget what makes them irreplaceably human and put on their headphones to listen.
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