What SXSW London Can Teach Us About Brand Experience
Why the best brand experiences
give people a role to play.
Looking back on SXSW London, one idea has outlasted the rest.
Across six days of sessions on technology, culture, community and purpose, the conversation kept returning to participation. People want a role in the brands they care about. They want to meet others, contribute something and experience what a brand stands for first-hand.
Some of the strongest ideas were about building worlds, formats, characters and communities that people want to participate in, rather than simply producing more content.
For physical brand experience, that has direct consequences.
Design the room for belonging
Hinge CEO Jackie Jantos gave one of the clearest accounts of what’s happening right now. She explored the tension between a world increasingly optimised for convenience and the human need for meaningful connection.
She also highlighted a striking statistic: young people now spend an estimated 1,000 fewer hours a year connecting face-to-face than they did two decades ago.
Her explanation was equally interesting. When a space feels uncomfortable, people turn to their phones. An hour of scrolling later, they don’t necessarily feel any more connected.
For us, that is a design brief.
Belonging is built or lost in the details of a room. Shared tables make conversation easier. A task gives strangers a reason to talk. Good hosts make introductions that lead somewhere. Unprogrammed time gives relationships room to form.
Get those details right and you create better conditions for relationships that can continue beyond the experience.
That matters for brands interested in building genuine communities rather than creating a single moment of engagement.
Want to know how we redesigned a networking event through small intentional details that encouraged connection? Check out our case study here.
Earn a place in culture
SXSW London’s Programming Director, described the festival as “centred around the idea of convergence”, bringing different voices together, including unexpected pairings that might rarely share the same platform elsewhere.
The music programme showed what that could look like in practice. LatinoLife spotlighted a diverse range of acts through its takeover, while Bangla House showcased Bangladeshi and diaspora talent throughout its bookings.
Existing communities were given a stage on their own terms. There is something brands can learn from that.
Audiences have seen enough brands borrow culture as a backdrop to recognise when the relationship feels superficial. Credibility comes from contributing something: commissioning new work, backing emerging talent or giving a community a platform for something it already cares about.
The test is simple.
The brand needs a clear reason to be there, and the culture should be better off for its involvement.
Turn values into behaviour
Purpose is often communicated through statements and campaigns.
A physical brand experience gives people the opportunity to experience those values first-hand.
A brand that stands for creativity can give people something to make. A brand built around community can design its space to encourage connection. A brand with an educational purpose can create an experience where people leave having learnt or contributed something.
This is why behaviour belongs in the creative brief.
Before we design what an experience looks like, we define what we want people to do within it.
Participation gives people a way to experience an abstract brand message for themselves.
It also gives us something tangible to design around.
Build experiences people help shape
The strongest form of participation leaves a mark. For example, an installation might grow throughout the day with what visitors add. A conversation early in the programme could influence what happens later. Stories, ideas or creative work from the audience can become part of the experience itself.
When people can see the effect of their contribution, they have a greater stake in what happens.
The bar matters, though.
Immersive has become a buzzword. Pressing a button or completing an activity is interaction, and interaction alone means little. Participation, earns its place when what people contribute changes the experience in a way they can see, feel or understand.
That distinction matters when brands talk about creating “interactive” or “immersive” experiences.
The interaction needs a reason to exist and not included just to be "immersive".
Put technology in service of participation
AI came up in almost every session, but one of the more interesting themes was judgement.
As our ability to produce content increases, deciding what deserves to exist becomes increasingly important.
The useful question for any technology is what outcome we are trying to create for people, and what role the technology plays in achieving it.
For physical brand experience, some of the strongest applications make participation possible at a scale or in a form that would otherwise be difficult. Technology can respond to what someone contributes, personalise what they receive or remove friction so people can focus on the experience and each other.
Defining the intended behaviour first makes the role of technology much clearer.
Sometimes it will be central to the experience... And, sometimes it won’t be needed at all.
What this means for brands
The signals that mattered at SXSW London were largely about behaviour.
Community, culture, purpose and technology all pointed towards audiences who increasingly expect opportunities to take part.
That raises the standard for brand experience.
When people have a meaningful role within an experience, there is the potential to build belonging, make brand values tangible and give audiences a personal stake in what happens.
For us, that changes the starting point for experience design.
At Just Honest Agency, our Experience Architecture™ begins by defining the audience, intended behaviour and desired result before deciding what the physical experience should become. One of the most useful questions we can ask when designing a brand experience is also one of the simplest:
What are we giving people the opportunity to do?
Want people to participate in your brand?
We design brand experiences around what audiences should feel, do and remember, creating meaningful opportunities for interaction and connection.
Talk to Just Honest about your next brand experience.
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Disclaimer
The content published on this blog is for informational and inspirational purposes only. While we strive to provide up-to-date insights, expert opinions, and industry trends, the information shared should not be considered as professional advice tailored to any specific event or business need. All views expressed in our blog posts are our own and are intended to inspire creativity, spark innovation, and provide valuable insights into the world of brand experience, event marketing, experience design, event design and event management. However, event strategies, technologies, and trends evolve rapidly, and we recommend consulting with a professional before making any major event or experience-related decisions. Additionally, any third-party tools, platforms, or services mentioned in our blog posts are referenced purely for educational purposes. We do not endorse or receive compensation for mentioning them unless explicitly stated.
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