Sticky’s MAD//Fest 2025 roundup

With temperatures resembling those seen at Cannes weeks prior, one could have forgotten they were on the streets of London’s East End. However, the heat didn’t stop the madness, the three-day event was rammed with trending topics, the latest insights and thought-provoking conversations.

Hear from the team about which sessions piqued their curiosity, and our Sticky takes as we headed down to the Truman Brewery for MAD//Fest.

Katie: Is boring the new brave?

Talk review: Bravery Is So Last Year. Roll On Being Boring.

Vicki Maguire, Chief Creative Officer at Havas, spoke about how we need to stop creating work solely for awards or the industry and get back to making work that does the best job. Not everything needs to be highly innovative, shocking or disruptive. Sometimes the best work simply considers the audience and connects them with the brand.

Vicki stressed the need for getting out of our advertising bubbles and thinking about what audiences want to see and hear. To get some ideas, she suggested even following people you hate on social media to discover what you may be missing stuck in the London echo chamber!

Another key takeaway was the use of the word ‘brave’ in what we do. Vicki shared a quote that explicitly hinted that we’re not fighting fires and that the reality of the work we produce is that people actively pay not to see it. Awkward!

Sticky’s take: Create content for your audience not for status.

Sean: How rituals can be used as a marketing hook

Talk review: Creating Moments That Matter

Thirst Craft and Shepherd Neame took a moment to discuss how consumer behaviour has shifted. People have become more deliberate with how they spend their spare time and this new normal has meant pubs having to adapt. They also defined ‘ritual’ as being emotion before function i.e., cheers-ing a glass before drinking and explained how this was a space to play. Working in this space means we can be creative without losing authenticity.

Sticky’s take: Playing in the space of emotion creates connections.

Claire: You fail when you don’t at least try

Talk review: Great Brands Encourage Their Employees to Fail

Octopus Energy’s culture of trying new things is proving effective. CEO Greg Jackson said that no one is punished if a new initiative doesn’t work as well as hoped. Fostering an environment that enables employees to try new initiatives without the fear of being punished builds trust and innovation. Giving employees the agency to fail or, of course, succeed, sets teams and businesses up for success.

An example shared was that Octopus trialled a new off-peak tariff with 1,000 self-confessed ‘geeks’ to find out how far people would go to save money on their energy bills, e.g. saving 50p by using the tumble drier at 11pm (maybe not if you live in a flatshare!).

Once Octopus had made improvements suggested by these ‘geeks’ and ironed out any glitches, they rolled out the new tariff to a wider number of energy-conscious customers. A perfect example of freedom to fail.

Sticky’s take: Don’t create blockers or barriers for innovation, enable your employees to test out their ideas.

Charna: We don’t need any more brain rot

Talk review: Brain Rot is Rotting Brands

Weber Shandwick’s Collective Executive Director, Paul Hewitt gave a call to arms to stop brands from being so lazy when it comes to creating content. He decried brands for becoming sluggish and just copying and pasting what everyone else is doing and not actually trying to engage with their audiences.

Paul said that sameness is driving forgettability and not brand loyalty. Brands need to rethink the formats and content that will make them stand out rather than just fit in. Let’s create content that won’t be forgotten after a few scrolls. Potentially look at curating longer-form content that holds attention and generates better recall.

Sticky’s take: Stop generating content for the sake of it. Create content that piques your audience’s curiosity.

Jamie: So, are we writing for bots now?

Talk review: The Big AI Debate: Content Isn’t for Humans Anymore?

Of course, it wouldn’t be a marketing event if AI wasn’t mentioned repeatedly. In a world of AI search when soon it will be normal to have your own agent (an AI assistant like a supercharged Alexa), is there any point making content designed for humans?

If you ask an AI to search it’s going to find stuff that answers your questions. It won’t care about aesthetics or inspiration, so shouldn’t we be designing content that appeals to AI not people? An argument not to be solved over the course of the three days at MAD//Fest but, it’s AIs we should be serving with most of our content. It doesn’t mean you don’t need the inspirational stuff – that’s there to make sure that when your AI offers you solutions you pick the one that did something emotional you remember.

Sticky’s take: Curiosity can’t be automated but feeding AI content inspired by the intended audience will provide solutions that users will remember.

Nick: Keep up or get left behind

Talk review: New rules of discovery

Monsoon, The Fork and Meta all deliberated on how they’re having to adapt in a world where how consumers search is rapidly shifting. Obviously, AI has been the main driver – with it embedded in Google and social media it can no longer be ignored.

Brands need to work on how and where they’re being discovered as AI is evolving and they can no longer leave it up to chance. Organic users or influencer- generated content needs to be created at high volume to feed the beast of AI. Humans may not be engaging with your content as much, but AI is… and it’s delivering it to humans along pathways that are becoming more and more trusted. Leveraging best practice and continually tracking and testing across multiple areas will mean you can flex to changes in the algorithms.

Sticky’s take: Adapt to the AI shift by creating parameters and processes that enable content to appease your audiences as well as algorithms.

Kashana: It’s about purpose not prestige

Talk review: Clarins Brand Challenge

Clarins set five companies the task to pitch live on stage a campaign to promote Clarins to younger consumers. The key to the brief was to not only aim at those between the ages of 30 – 50 but also remain true the brand and not alienate their core audience of the over 50s.

The five companies that pitched were Veylinx (brand research company), Pogo (charitable promotions company), Maxima (AI search company), Dotter (shopper database) and Wysper (content creation company).

The winners were Wysper as they were able to tap into the younger age group through research and brand activation on socials. An interesting take on companies’ perception of younger audiences and how to engage with them.

Sticky’s take: We’ll say it until we’re blue in the face: understanding your audience’s behavioural and attitudinal indicators enables you to create content that resonates and most importantly, sticks.

Our Sticky top 5 takeaways for MAD//Fest:

• Create content that your audiences want, not what you want to create
• AI isn’t the enemy; complacency is
• Emotional marketing creates connections
• Give your team the space to break (they’ll find a way to fix it)
• And be more curious about your audiences

So, if you’re fighting the war against algorithms, need a new way to reach your audience, or want us to assess just how boring your content really is, drop the team a message and we’ll be happy to help.