By Adam Hayes, Creative Director, Inizio Evoke Europe
Last week’s inaugural SXSW London brought the global creative community together for an energising few days of inspiration, and unexpected perspectives. From the rise of generative AI to the resurgence of age-old storytelling principles, the sessions explored how technology, psychology, and craft are converging to redefine how we communicate, influence, and create.
Below are five reflections from the event that sparked ideas, raised questions, and offered fresh ways of thinking about the work we do every day.
AI is both the most and least interesting topic in creativity right now
The queues for any talk with ‘AI’ in the title told their own story - that it’s by some margin the hottest topic in the creative industries right now. I attended sessions on its potential to replace search and SEO, as well as the geopolitical implications of its relentless and accelerating rise. But from a creative standpoint - and given that even the those building these large language models don't fully understand what’s happening within their trillions of lines of code - it struck me that humans might not be the best equipped to speak about AI in a truly deep or meaningful way. That said, in her talk The Geopolitics of AI, Sarah Kreps of Cornell University suggested that when it comes to global AI governance and regulation, it will likely fall to society as a whole to shape the ethical norms of AI use - through the way we collectively interact with it. It’s a view that sounds admirably democratic, but perhaps also naively optimistic. Only time will tell.
Whatever you do, do it with confidence
It seems like an obvious point, however the one thing that unified everyone I saw speak at SXSW was the confidence in which they spoke about what they did or the way in which they framed what they did within the context of a wider topic as part of a panel discussion. On reflection I think that confidence, in most cases, comes to being a specialist in a certain field or aspect of creative endeavour. Depth of knowledge and not trying to be all things to all people is something that a marketing and communication agency such as our could do well to remember, even if the breadth of what we offer makes this harder than it might otherwise be for others.
Our unpredictability as humans may be our most powerful creative advantage
David Ogilvy once said, “People don’t think what they feel. They don’t say what they think. And they don’t do what they say.” Those words, at least to me, have taken on renewed significance in an era where AI is becoming more integrated into creative processes. It may not have been his intention, but during his half-hour talk, Dan Bennett — Head of Behavioural Science at Ogilvy — reminded everyone in attendance just how strange and counterintuitive we are as a species. In doing so, he reinforced a valuable truth: that when it comes to persuasion, influence, and ultimately, changing behaviour, humans still hold a meaningful edge. One of the key takeaways was the importance of testing. Dan shared an example from a $1 fries campaign for KFC, where they tested a remarkable 60 different versions of the same ad to determine which behavioural science tactic — from social proof to loss aversion to anchoring — delivered the best results. For now, I’m feeling renewed confidence that our messy, irrational, wonderfully human approach to creativity remains one of our greatest assets — especially when combined with rigor, testing, and a clear measure of impact.
Don’t be fooled, we humans are primitive beings
In a talk entitled ‘Lessons in Entertainment for the Stone Age’, brand anthropologist Richard Wise made a compelling case that the elements which captivated humans 2.6 million years ago still resonate today. Wonder, strangeness, risk, laughter, rivalry, and endearment remain powerful levers for modern-day marketers seeking to capture attention — even if our attention spans have evolved quite a bit since the days of cave paintings and mammoth hunts. I’ll definitely be revisiting this list when looking for fresh angles to crack a creative brief in the months ahead.
It’s okay to lose yourself in your work
We all feel it, don’t we — that sense that we spend 90% of our working day doing everything but our core job. Meetings, emails, instant messages… distractions are constant, especially for creatives working in commercial environments. That’s why I found Aardman director, Darren Dubicki’s, showcase of his working process so absorbing. Darren designs sets for films such as Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fow, entirely in VR. Using software called Gravity Sketch, he fully immerses himself in a 3D environment, sketching and sculpting entire worlds that form the foundations of Aardman’s physical sets. This immersive approach hasn’t just modernised Aardman’s workflow for their award-winning stop-motion work — it also served as a powerful reminder of the importance of getting lost in the act of making. Sure, it’s easier to ignore emails when you’re wearing a VR headset, but the principle stands: I’ll be encouraging my team to carve out uninterrupted time for deep creative focus. In a world of constant pings and pop-ups, it’s not just helpful — it’s essential.
SXSW London offered a timely reminder that amid all the buzz around technology — and AI in particular — it’s our most human qualities that continue to matter most: our unpredictability, our imagination, our depth of expertise, and our ability to become fully immersed in meaningful creative work. Whether through behavioural science, virtual reality sketching, or revisiting what captivated our earliest ancestors, the event underscored the importance of staying curious, grounded, and unapologetically human in a rapidly shifting landscape.
At Inizio Evoke, we believe that breakthrough creativity happens where intelligence meets intuition — and this year’s SXSW only reaffirmed our commitment to bringing that philosophy to every challenge we take on.
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