Illuminating glimpses of the 2022 Zeitgeist

SXSW started as an independent music festival in Austin Texas 35 years ago. In 1994, it added a “Film & Multimedia” festival where 200 people gathered to discuss the next big thing: CD-ROM’s. In the years that followed it was renamed “Interactive” and illuminated the early Internet and the birth of dot-coms. After the bubble burst in 2000, it went quiet for a few years but by the mid-2000’s, it came to life again. A new app called Twitter was launched at SXSW when it had 2,000 users. Facebook, a “social networking” site for several million college students had just decided to recruit membership from non-college students. The Internet was a quirky niche for most of American society and business. Today, 60% of the entire planet is connected; six of the ten most valued companies in the world are digital businesses. And culture has massively changed along with it. Southby remerged this year with its first live event since 2019 as?the?place to see what’s round the corner, for leading-edge marketers to share their hard-won truths and for all of us to catch tantalizing glimpses of the ever-evolving cultural Zeitgeist.

“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance even less.”

John Maeda?is Chief Technology Officer at Everbridge, founded after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to help governments and businesses prepare for things that can go terribly wrong. John’s whole focus is on how to be resilient in the face of risk – which he defines as “any uncertainty that matters.” John says our brains are hard-wired to be afraid of change. And we live in an era of both exponential technology growth and shortening half-lives for the big companies. His advice: know what you can’t change and accept it. Then lean into every change both positive and negative that can affect your future. “Be risk-versed, not risk averse,” is his mantra. Words to live by.

“America has become so ridiculous, it’s hard to keep up with it in fiction.”

Noah Hawley?is an award-winning six-time novelist and screenwriter with the?Fargo?TV series in his credits. His 2022 novel?Anthem?is what he calls a realistic fantasy set in post-pandemic America where young people leave an Anxiety Abatement Center to rescue a friend from a cult led by a conspiracy-theorist character called the Wizard. Noah reflected on the change that has taken place in America. On 9/11 everyone understood the facts of what has happening but then came, many months later, the “truthers.” A generation later, the conspiracy theorists spin their narratives in real time, live – as it’s happening. A third of the country doggedly believes things that are blatant lies and disguise their violent intent with farcical cosplay (like the horn-wearing insurrectionists on January 6). If you want to know what America could be like in a few years, look at Putin. Because, when you reach the outer edge of reality, your only recourse is to violence.

“Be transparent. It might cost you 2% of your profits but people will enjoy you more.”

Facebook whistleblower?Frances Haugen?took the center stage to thunderous applause. Last year, she began raising questions about the civic integrity of Facebook in internal memos and was rewarding by having her department dissolved. She quit her job taking with her 10,000 documents that appeared in a five-part blistering?Wall Street Journal?exposé?of Facebook’s blatant disregard for human welfare. They knew their products were damaging teenager’s mental health. They knew their products were fomenting ethnic violence in Ethiopia, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. They knew their failure to curb misinformation led to the US insurrection of 6 January. She maintained her calm throughout the firestorm that ensued and her transparency advice to Facebook is good advice for all of us.

“Without facts, you have no truth. Without truth you have no trust.”

Thus spoke Duterte-persecuted Filipino journalist?Maria Ressa?joining forces with fellow journalist?Peter Pomerantsev?(whose Ukranian father was arrested by the KGB for “distributing anti-Soviet literature”) in a session entitled, “How to stand up to a dictator.” Putin and Duterte are modern totalitarians who share skills in using social media as disinformation and propaganda machines. The scandal is that companies like Facebook wash their hands of this pernicious misuse of their “neutral platforms.” “You are not a phone line; you are a publisher. When are you going to take responsibility for what you have done, Mark Zuckerberg?” asked Maria. To which Peter added, “How is your technology good for democracy, Facebook? Open up your algorithm so we can see.”

“Our emotions are paleolithic; our institutions are medieval; our technologies are God-like.”

Tristan Harris?likes to quote E.O. Wilson, above, in framing the challenge for mankind today. Tristan started his career as Silicon Valley insider helping Google and Facebook maximize their awesome scale. But he became alarmed by the ways social media feeds addiction, lies and social polarization. He became the subject of the alarm-raising Netflix documentary?The Social Dilemma?which has been watched by 100 million people in 28 languages worldwide. He painted an alarming picture of our world today. “The more you use social media, the worse you are at understanding other people. We’re trapped in a hall of mirrors fighting with phantoms. We simply can’t perceive the truth anymore.” So how do we upgrade our paradigm? To answer this daunting question, Tristan has founded the Center for Humane Technology which is providing free training to people of all ages to help promote new ways of thinking about social tech: respect human vulnerabilities; minimize harmful externalities, create shared understanding, support fairness and justice, consciously center values, help people thrive. For Tristan, wisdom consists in knowing our limits and trying to understand our complex and interconnected problems.?

“If you’re shopping for a metaverse, ask yourself: how are they going to make money?”

Hard to believe that the science fiction novel?Snow Crash?- which introduced us to the term metaverse - was published by cyberpunk novelist?Neal Stephenson?exactly thirty years ago. He was at SXSW to promote his latest novel set in a world running out of time to deal with climate catastrophe,?Termination Shock. Of course, he got asked about his perspective on the “new” hot topic, the metaverse. He responded with a wry smile and the encouragement to look at how metaverse providers intend to make money. “If it’s going to be the same way they’ve been doing it with past products, then the question is, do you want to support that?”

“Facebook’s definition of the metaverse will not be successful.”

Reggie Fils-Aimé, former CEO of Nintendo, architect of its dramatic turnaround, and now a leadership guru, reflected on the metaverse. “Like the Internet back in the day, then the Cloud, every business is obsessed by it and wants to announce they have a presence there. Look, it’s just a way to interact with friends and colleagues and to play in immersive worlds. It’s already here. Fortnite and Roblox have given it to us. I don’t believe Facebook will prevail. They are not an innovations company. Other than the original product so many years ago, they either acquire or fast follow. They don’t think consumer first. They think advertising revenue first.”

“The future always comes faster than you think – when you bet on it.”

If there was anyone who didn’t need an introduction at Southby this year it was?Mark Zuckerberg, interviewed remotely (of course) by Daymond John, founder of FUBU and chief shark on Shark Tank. In explaining why incrementally improving the huge and immensely profitable platforms of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp no longer occupy the top priorities of his company, he expounded what he thinks the focus of business leaders should be. “The leader’s job is to say, ‘This going to be the future,’ and then plant the flag there.” As he outlined the myriad of science and technology challenges facing the development of the metaverse, you could not help but realize that he’s desperate to separate the future of Facebook from its moral failures. He’s right that that the future belongs to those who believe in it – but do we want it to be dominated by Facebook, sorry, Meta?

“The metaverse should be all about its users, not its owners.”

Sebastien Borget, COO of Sandbox gave an overview of his open metaverse platform which has already attracted the likes of Ubisoft, Snopp Dogg, Gucci and Adidas to build new experiences for their rapidly growing user base. Think Minecraft fused with NFT’s and you have the essence of Sandbox. The key to its success? Sandbox gives its users the power to build their own experiences, publish into the metaverse and retain 100% of the revenue they earn by selling their generated content. For brands, the paradigm of success is to give value to their fans and let them sell and exchange fully owned items they create in partnership with them.?Watch?this review ?of Sandbox to see if you want to invest some time in it. If so, get started?here .

“What if the metaverse is already here – in your ear?”

Scott Galloway, tech visionary and best-selling author of?The Four, The Algebra of Happiness,?and?Post Corona?is dismissive of Facebook’s rebranding as Meta and Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of the future metaverse. “Fact is, Oculus Rift gives 1 out 5 people who use it nausea. That’s the future…really? But look at Apple, they already have multiple doorways into another dimension: their app store. And their portal device? Airpods – which, if that was all that Apple sold, would make it a Fortune 200 company.?Ready Player One?didn’t show us the future.?Her?did. Everything we experience through our ears goes deep into us.” Galloway can always recognize the difference in how strangers talk to him. If they treat him with familiarity and intimacy, he knows they been listening to him with Airpods. A good reminder the sonic experience is always overlooked in favor the visual experience.

“Targeted Dream Incubation – if it sounds like?Inception, it is.”

Futurist?Amy Webb?paints a set of vivid pictures of the near-term and long-term future, letting us see the adjacent possible in both its most frightening and inspiring terms. Our toilets will become narcs. We’ll be eating loads of real meat but none of it from real animals. Single people will be having babies made only from their own DNA. We’ll have so many avatars all over the Web that we will look back at the Tinder Swindler and smile at how simple things were in 2022. Celebrities will have to pay ransoms to avoid being targeted by a designer virus made just for them. And brands will seek to penetrate our dream with Targeted Dream Incubation technology. Oh wait. That’s already happening. Coors is doing it?right now .

“What if I’m trapped in low-res in the afterlife?”

Greg Daniels?is a screenwriter and tv producer whose credits include?The Simpsons,?The Office,?Parks & Recreation,?Space Force?and, most recently,?Upload.?Upload?is dystopian comedy set in 2033 – a must-watch on Amazon Prime. We can upload after death into a metaverse and the experiences we have there are determined by the kind of plan we can afford. Of course, you’ll want to live in Lakeview, a vacation resort that looks like it was designed by Ralph Lauren. Otherwise, you get stuck in “2 Gig” where your whole life freezes if you’ve used too much data. A reminder that every business these days is based on a subscription-model experience (even automobiles are now doing it). So, what’s?your?brand subscription model? How does it become something for which there’s no acceptable replacement?

“The attention economy has failed us.”

Shama Hyder, the CEO of digital PR firm Zen Media (who went to her first Southby in 2008 and wrote her college thesis on the new app Twitter) says chasing after attention so often?hasn’t?entrenched brands in the hearts and minds of consumers. Modern marketers have developed an over-reliance on data and unhealthy obsession with quantitative ROI; “social” and “media” have split and most of our social takes place in dark media – invisible to marketers. Meanwhile they’re still measuring click-through rates yet there’s no correlation between click-through and retention and intent. They think decisions are made though a linear funnel when the truth is we buy things in a messy way; exposure, often unmeasurable, is how you win. Or they focus on loyalty when loyalty belongs to the leaders. Or they think new features and attributes will drive sales when it’s the message that matters. “Beware of the lies we tell ourselves; they are treacherous.”

“That deep feeling of dread that something’s not right – never ignore it.”

VMLY&R’s?Amber Chevenert?and?Karen Boswell?joined forces with Ulta Beauty’s?Karla Davis?and Google’s?Melonie Parker?to bring us back a renewed appreciation of that vast bacteria-based ecosystem and neutral network running inside each of us – our gut. It’s always there running quietly. But as we’re being shown a new idea based on data and logic, suddenly it might send us signals that alert us, if we’re listening, that there’s a strong “ick” factor in the new idea. Ignore it at your peril. Experienced marketers learn to listen to their gut, not just the data and the logic. Karen also hosted a four-part series podcast from SXSW. Listen to her wrap-up?here .

“Want to be more creative? Stop posting on TikTok.”

Jack Conte?founded Patreon, the platform that has distributed more than $3.5 billion to 200,000 creators by connecting to them to new fans. He himself is of course a creator, a member of a band. In reflecting on what staying creative during lockdown taught him and his creative community, he shared that he got good at what he calls “subtractive thinking” – getting rid of habits that suck away valuable creative energy. He and his bandmates realized they were spending too much time coming up with cool stuff for TikTok.?As we rush to populate content charts full of all kinds of messaging, it’s possible to be so industrious, we lose the ability to be genuinely creative.

“Are we copying more than we’re creating?”

Creativity is, by definition, original thinking and original thinking only comes from having a singular point of view argues?Brent Anderson, Creative Director at Media Arts, Apple’s global agency. Yet corporate culture tilts to “follow the data” and “we’re all aligned” consensual thinking. It’s no surprise then that the corporate reflex, when faced with a new challenge, is to ask the agency to come up with examples of how other big brands have handled similar challenges. But think about it. Isn’t that just a way of asking, “Who can we copy?” What if marketing were not constitutional law and there didn’t have to be a precedent for every undertaking of the brand? What if the brand found its creativity just cultivating a singular point of view combined with a deep empathy for the people it wants to make into its fans?

“If you don’t see my tears, you’re not going to respect my joy.”

There was no?Lizzo?before Lizzo. If fact, that’s exactly what propelled her ambitions. She wanted to finally see “people who look like me” in the limelight. So she became that person who "looks like me" and has gone on to get 3 billion streams for her music and has just launched her own Amazon TV show?Watch Out for the Big Grrrls. She puts it all out there. Seeing the real her, not the hustled her, is the key her power. An encouragement for modern brands. Don’t be so polished that you’re just slick. Don’t be so well thought out that you’re just playing it safe and following a calculation rather than an inspiration.

“If you want to stand out, the weirder the better.”

In their presentation on “Weird, Wonderful and Wild,” marketers from?We Transfer?and the arts collective?Meow Wolf, shared their insights on how to captivate the minds and hearts of creative people. They don’t trust the usual self-serving bull. They want the “Wait, what is that?” moment. They want content that appeals to their curiosity. They want experiences that bend their minds. If you’ve used We Transfer lately, you’ve noticed the strange kinetic wallpaper that invites you to explore. And if you’ve visited Santa Fe, Denver or Las Vegas lately, you can’t help but notice the exploration spaces that the Meow Wolf collective – now supported by Wieden + Kennedy – where modern art becomes fun and crazy-good again. “Is there any weird that’s too weird?” they were asked. Maybe, they said, but save it – you’ll probably end up using it in a couple of years. Meow Wolf?info . We Present?here .

“Ready. Fire. Aim. Every entrepreneur knows this is what really happens.”

Billionaire investor and Shark Tank celebrity?Mark Cuban?was talking with Influencer Tinx and Nat Holloway who started Bala Bangles with Shark Tank.??They reflected on all the mistakes they’ve made and asked Mark, “What are you biggest mistakes?” “Oh me? I’m just a big f*ck up,” Mark said. He added, “But my strength is I’m curious and I love to learn. People say follow your passion. Wrong! That’s too much pressure. How are you supposed to know what your passion is in your twenties? No, no: follow your curiosity. What draws you in? What do you find you spend time on? Follow that and you’ll find your next idea. And you’re going to have lots of them. And you will fail. You’re going to do stuff, you’re not even sure why you’re doing it. So what? All you have to do is succeed once, and suddenly you’re a legend.”

“Low chance of success? Huge possible outcome? Now we’re talking.”

You wouldn’t normally connect “Walmart CEO” with moonshot-blue-sky-WTF business ideas. But that’s just what?Marc Lorre?represents. He has all the gritty operational focus of his Walmart background but look what he’s done since: a flying cars start up and a new app that brings great chefs to cook you something at your front door (Whaaat?). Most significantly: a new city start-up called Telosa that 20 years from now will become the kind of place we’re all talking about: a “city of the future” that puts its residents at the heart of its purpose and is radically open, fair and inclusive. Amazing. What does Marc put his focus on in start-ups? He writes, rewrites and writes again the mission, vision and strategy keys until it’s so compelling and crystal clear, the business starts to unfold organically. Good old-fashioned purpose-based strategy, a craft he takes as seriously as anyone we’ve ever met – an example to follow.