This month was MADfest London 2026, and alongside leading our workshop about thinking queerer (and less basic), we heard from many marketers and business leaders about their perspectives on the industry; where it is now, and where it’s headed. Here’s what we took away.

‍

What is MADfest London 2026?

For anyone who wasn't there. MADfest London 2026 is the UK's biggest and boldest marketing festival. A sold out, three-day festival of marketing and advertising that brings together 15,000+ CMOs, brand marketers, agency leaders, and adtech founders at the Truman Brewery in London.

The festival includes keynote speakers, masterclasses, brand innovation pitches, experiential activations, and networking across a dozen stages. The MADfest London 2026 lineup included Louis Theroux, Dr Julia Shaw, and Munya Chawawa, with sessions across customer experience, data and analytics, and digital transformation. As the largest UK festival of marketing in 2026, it’s not one to miss – anyone who’s in the industry (and their clients) are there.

This year's theme was The Human Touch, a cry for help in a world so overrun with AI slop that Macquarie Dictionary named it 2025’s word of the year. Everyone at MADfest was there to prove that there is still human talent and creativity, and that it won’t be overtaken by low-quality generative AI content that no one asked for.

‍

AI cannot recreate the human touch

Today, we fear that everything will become a buzzword. Authenticity is echoed by every brand without really having any substance behind it, but the human touch should not be treated as another 2026 marketing trend. In an industry where you’re playing spot the difference between mediocre content, the human touch is what makes you stand out. AI is a tool, but it cannot replace real human experience and creativity. The brands that use it to regurgitate content like it's had one too many beers are the ones that are instantly forgettable.

We felt the power of the human touch in our MADfest session. We set the room a brief, split everyone into groups and asked them to question their assumptions. The energy and ideas from this were overwhelming; strangers working together, debating opinions, challenging and listening to each other. We heard strong ideas and new perspectives that AI wouldn’t know what to do with. It was the most hopeful we've felt about the year ahead, because it proved that human creativity is alive and well.

Five people messaged us in the days after the event saying they found our talk really interesting and influential. They took the time to reach out after reflecting on the day; our talk stuck with them because it taught them something different.

‍

Find your point of view before trying to be found by AI

A big chunk of the MADfest London 2026 lineup was about visibility in an AI-first world. Sessions on AI answer engines, how to make your brand visible to LLMs, and how to get your head around agentic commerce.

And while this is important knowledge, which we wrote about in our article on how to get AI to recommend your brand, you also need personality. You can have all the technical skills and systems in place to be recommended by AI, but you’ll still sink under if your opinions flop like a dying fish. Getting AI to recommend your brand starts with being a brand worth recommending, which starts with positioning. What do you stand for? What does your brand believe in? Find your specific point of view, and stick with it, even (especially) if it gets hard.

A lot of content has gotten lazy; sometimes it’s easier to pick the quicker, more palatable option. But the best work (at MADfest and in general) has come from creative, human, often unhinged thinking. Sit with the uncomfortable thought, say the risky idea. In our talk on “Basic B*tch Thinking is Killing Brands. Time to Think Queerer” we encouraged people to question their assumptions, use our F*ck-the-Default method, and dismantle the norm.

If you missed us at MADfest, we wrote an article on how to think queerer here.

‍

‍

Brand is back, and so is creative thinking

Another takeaway from this year’s MADfest is that brand is making a comeback. Talks dissected the marketing funnel, the relationship between brand vs performance, and the limits of chasing short-term ROI and consumer engagement metrics alone. Rory Sutherland explained the advantages of herd mentality, and one session focused on the emotional value of marketing, conceptualising Return on Joy (ROJ) – the idea that the brands people love give them something to look forward to.

We’ve been saying for a while now that performance marketing is plateauing and brand is back, and these talks confirmed it. You can toil over costs per clicks and endlessly adjust your metrics, but if you don’t have a solid brand strategy, your customers aren’t going to care about you (or buy from you).

The creator economy and culture stages were rammed, with sessions on why creators matter more than ever, the "death of social media," and how community shapes what people do next. Influencer marketing was framed as a route into culture, and cultural relevance is now revenue. Bodyform's "data doesn't have periods" talk was a standout, showing the importance of building a category through feelings, rather than just data, and a talk called "Slow the F*k Down". On why creativity can’t be rushed caught our attention.

With client deadlines and impatient algorithms, slowing down can be the last thing on our minds. But giving yourself and your team creative space to think differently is worth the extra hours. Having the time to think outside the box, in different contexts, or to pursue the unhinged, risky idea is what is going to make the difference between someone taking a second glance at your content and someone scrolling on.

‍

So, where is marketing heading?

In 2027, we bet we’ll still be having the same exhausted conversations about AI; it’s not going anywhere. But the important conversations will be the human ones: how we can reject AI slop, how brands can become more human, and how we can genuinely connect with each other. What this looks like, we’ll have to see, but we remain hopeful for the future of marketing.

If you take anything from this article, let it be this: brands need to have a point of view, allow time for creative space and creative thinking, and reject the basicness of being average. In short, think queerer. If you're a founder or marketer who wants to stand out in 2026 and beyond, that's exactly what we help with. Be more human, less slop –  book a call with us today.

‍