Fresh from her recent trip to SXSW in Austin, Texas, THINKHOUSE’s Jane McDaid, shares her ‘10 big insights’ and learnings from the event.
When sharing insights, when I can, I try to tap into my network. It means that I’m not just serving up value from my own experience, but I’m bringing insights from the festival through other people’s eyes too. So, there’s some great nuggets here from the different stages and talks I missed and I’m really glad I asked Viv Chambers, Emily Ross, Devon Fox, Jon Jon Meighan and Bettine McMahon to share their insights too.
Here’s my top 10 big insights:
To land a brand with a travelling global audience, own the first 60 minutes.
When you arrive in Austin Airport for SXSW the vibes hit you hard. The airport environment sets the tone; it’s strong, southern and soulful. Advertisements for A.I. advancement, and the companies and brands that want to be associated with that, showed up before I could say ‘Baggage Collection.’ Oversized, eclectically-decorated guitars bring drama and excitement to the airport’s arrivals area.
But within an hour of arriving in Austin, one brand already stood out. From airport branding, branded hotel check-in cards and branded festival tote bags at registration – HBO’s The Last Of Us (the post-apocalyptic drama TV series, premiering season two this April) showed up interestingly, and showed up everywhere. Now I want to watch it.
Will we own our own thoughts?
Right now I’m reading Technofeudalism, by Yannis Yaroufakis. It’s helping me reframe and understand the changing world. According to Yaroufakis, the end of capitalism and the emergence of technofeudalism is here; a societal system where technological monopolies control resources and power, replacing traditional capitalism with a new form of feudal-like control. It’s a great read. I’m not convinced of his ‘alternative’ but either way, it makes you think. (That’s what all good books should do, right?) So, as I ruminate on findings from the book, the conversation about ‘Cognitive Sovereignty’ between Malcolm Gladwell, his podcast co-host Kenya Barris and their special guest Brené Brown really resonated.
She is awesome.
In relation to social media, Brown explains that “Cognitive Sovereignty” is the ability to detach ‘from some mind hive run by people who do not have my best interests.’
Will the new privilege be the ability to own our own thoughts?
Go off-SXSW
According to Devon Fox, Senior Director of PGA Tour; “The talks offered outside the official SXSW tracks were more interesting and accessible. Exploring the shoulder content and edges of SXSW is a must and I wish I’d done it in previous years.”
At a small, blue, residential house, on the edge of Austin, I experienced this first hand. Lively Grit Daily House is a private home, reimagined as a shoulder festival ‘venue’ for just a few days. Here, in the sunny back garden, I caught Emily Ross’s talk on ‘Just Evil Enough’, her newly published subversive marketing handbook. Ross challenges the idea of being a ‘growth hacker’ and instead recommends being a ‘zero day marketing architect’ – finding novel, innovative (but legal) ways to capture attention.
“Zero-day is a term borrowed from the cyber-security world and refers to a vulnerability so critical that it needs to be patched immediately,” said Ross. The book is written for marketers and entrepreneurs aiming to disrupt the status quo. I’ve ordered my copy.
Sport IS culture.
Whilst SXSW is a festival that celebrates tech, innovation, creativity, music and film. ‘March Madness’ was in the air. It got all the speakers talking and predicting. As a non-American, I had to Google it. ‘March Madness’ is the annual NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) basketball tournament, one of the US’s biggest sporting events of the year.
Regardless of how A.I. is going to ‘radically change the world’, how quantum computing will give us ‘sub atomic knowledge that will tell us how nature behaves,’ sport will always bring us together. Sport is culture.
Of course, we’re seeing this unfold in real time here in Ireland now – and not in a positive way. The comments under any rant by Conor McGregor demonstrate how people are ‘coming together’ and how a new ‘culture’ is born. Leveraging sport is open to everyone, not just McGregor. So, here’s to the positive, challenger voices that will emerge. The sporting heroes that will speak the truth to power. Here’s to them. We need them.
Fly Postering is not Dead
One of the most charming aspects of SXSW is the fly postering. It’s everywhere and it’s a thing.
ELF is a really progressive brand. I’ve long been a fan of its marketing – always innovative, always tech led. But at SXSW it was ELF’s ‘Soooo Many Dicks’ fly-posters that made me recall the brand. ELF’s ‘Changing The Board’ campaign is the kind of activism I’m here for. Bold, fun and memorable. And savvy.
Human-centered Storytelling is the Most Powerful Type
Cheryl Muller Houser, the brilliant creative mind from Creative Breed, shared her simple, but brilliant, framework for human-centered storytelling. First of all, listen with an open heart to get ‘from truth to transformation’: Secondly, tell stories of struggles and triumph. She describes this as ‘narrative transformation.” Finally, foster imagination. In this, she encouraged the audience to ‘harness the magic of A.I. to bring stories to life’.
Twitch is Not About Gaming, it’s About Community
The best talk I attended was Twitch’s CEO Dan Clancy being interviewed by Peter Kafta on the Voxmedia stage.
Unsurprisingly, the boomers were not flocking to this one. Instead, it was a venue filled only to about 20% capacity off the main thoroughfare with geeks and a few young gamers in the room.
I love how Twitch works and I love how community-oriented it is, so I was delighted to hear how the CEO described the platform as ‘horizontal interaction’ and to learn about YouTube’s failed attempts to lure Twitch streamers over. Twitch is a real community and I think, in 2025, this is what young people are seeking over everything.
The future of Twitch is exciting too, with Dan claiming that they are going to ‘make it much easier for creators to make money from Twitch.’ He explains that brands ‘don’t understand why Twitch is so special’. He says it’s ‘like minor league soccer but with creators as the owner.’
What Others Had to Say
If you’re as lucky as I am to go to SXSW, you will get to hang out with incredible people for a few days. As I said, to report my insights without including theirs would be missing a trick.
The subject of ‘America’ came up a lot, naturally and Bricolage’s Viv Chambers attended a brilliant talk comparing Trump to WWE Wrestling. He said: “In wrestling the villain is the authentic one because when he throws a chair it’s in script. The good character has an impossible moral perfection to live up to. I met people who wouldn’t vote for Kamala because of Israel and the same day someone else wouldn’t because of Palestine. Being the good guy or ‘face’ is impossible in this complex media environment. It’s easier to be Trump. What will he do next? How far can he go? Who knows. It’s all on character though.”
Emily Ross was at the Fast Company stage and caught the McCann CEO Daryl Lee, talking about its latest study on “The American Dream”. Some of the detail that stood out to her was that 72% of Americans feel like “it’s complicated to be an American”; and 54% of affluent Americans believe “even if you work hard, you won’t get ahead”. At the end of the talk, Lee concluded with a sensible but often contested belief that “creativity is our only chance for getting things right on this planet.”
Jon Jon Meighan, Founder of Loud&Clear Music, said that his SXSW big takeout was that “It’s imperative to remain a fan of the industry you work in, if you want to create great work.” This was inspired by listening to Jimmy Jam, Janet Jackson’s / Mariah Carey’s producer.
Funny Brands that Slay on Social are Magnetic
Duolingo and Liquid Death packed out one of the conference rooms so much that I needed to break in. I sneaked into the sold-out room through a trap door and managed not to get nabbed. It was worth the effort.
“I loved this insight from Daniel Murphy of Liquid Death,” said Bettine McMahon from FUEL: “Instead of worrying about how something will be received, focus on what your audience truly wants to see and hear.” I liked Murphy too. Especially when he said, “The riskiest thing you can do is flame up a load of cash on boring marketing.” He continued, “We look at Liquid Death as a character in an alternate universe.”
On the same panel, Duolingo’s James Kuczynski said, “If the C Suite understands it, we missed something.” Jon Evans, the host, was there to prove the points: “Characters outperform celebrities,” he said, referencing System 1 research. He talked about how the advertising industry is “no longer funny.” In recent years, “the amount of funny advertising has reduced from 25% to 5%. We’ve been so serious for so long,” he said, but “humour is the most potent reaction to advertising and the most unused.”
Ireland is so hot right now
I was speaking on a SXSW panel in Ireland House and was speaking alongside brilliant Irish talent including Jonny Boyle from FUEL, Vivian Chambers from Bricolage and Mark Bambury from Roblox. They are 3 exceptional talents and I learnt as much from them as I did from some of the biggest names on the biggest stages.
I also attended a breakfast event hosted by Kevin Sherry, Interim CEO of Enterprise Ireland. At that event, around 20 Irish business leaders shared their stories. From Madcraft’s Shane Boyle and Paul Murphy from Climeaction and Paddy Dunning from The Giant Company, I was totally energised by the entrepreneurial energy and stories from some of Ireland’s brightest and most courageous leaders who were there to explore the US or expand on the business they’ve already established there. That evening I was invited to be one of four Irish company leaders for a 1:1 with An Taoiseach Michael Martin, just before he left Austin for his meeting with Donald Trump. I shared the story of THINKHOUSE and he took great interest and saw great value in ‘understanding youth’ when I explained the work of The Youth Lab, our department that demystifies youth culture and helps brands see around corners.
The message from all the speakers at Ireland House, throughout the week, was powerful: When it comes to Ireland, it’s all about our people. Ireland’s talented, hard working, innovative business and creative leaders punch well above our weight. Read Ireland’s so hot right now, a report from last year, for even more evidence.
Let’s lean into our Irishness.
Let’s lean into what makes us great: Fun, open, innovative, welcoming and creative.
