PREVIEWING:
THE HEX STAGE
MAD//FEST 2026
In partnership with:
8 June 2026
Through the lens of this year's theme, The Human Touch, the Hexagon Stage will be home to the biggest brands and boldest creative voices who'll take the spotlight to explore how empathy, emotion, and real human insight are shaping the future of brand marketing.
This is where brands lead with heart, using meaningful stories, authentic connections, and cultural insight to not only inspire, but deliver real business impact.
Algorithms, Advertisers, Toxic Content: Standing Up for Humanity
Hard on the heels of his Netflix documentary Inside the Manosphere, renowned filmmaker and journalist Louis Theroux will take to the stage at MAD//Fest London to explore this tension.
In a session that’s grounded in empathy and insight, Louis will remind us why nuance, understanding, and humanity matter more than ever.
Crucially, he’ll challenge brands and marketers to consider their role in shaping culture, from the impact of their ad spend to purpose-driven marketing, and what it truly means to stay human in a world that’s becoming increasingly polarised and detached.
The Human Connection: Why Efficiency Might Be Killing Your Brand
AI has made marketing faster, cheaper and more personalised than ever - brilliant and dangerous. Sam Kelly, the new CXO at Virgin Group, argues the biggest risk isn't falling behind on AI, but becoming so efficient and frictionless that your brand becomes forgettable. Drawing on Virgin's experience across travel, hospitality and entertainment, he makes a provocative, human case for why memory, emotion and connection are the real competitive advantage.
10 Myths about AI and advertising, what it all really means and what to do about it?
Everyone's talking about AI. Most of it is wrong. Tom Goodwin, Founder, All We Have Is Now, dismantles the ten biggest myths in advertising, replaces hype with reality, and lays out what marketers should actually be doing about it. Provocative, practical and long overdue.
Beyond the Signal: Why Human Insight is Unilever's Most Powerful Data Point
Data can tell you what people do. It can't tell you why they care. Christina Habib, Chief Insights Officer at Unilever, has spent her career bridging that gap and right now, that gap has never been more dangerous to ignore.
In a world drowning in signals, Christina will make the case that the brands winning tomorrow aren't the ones with the best algorithms, they're the ones who never lost sight of what it means to be human.
Addressing the people problem - have humans lost control of creative marketing?
“The Human Touch” sounds great. Reassuring. Safe. Purposeful.
But what if the truth is the opposite? What if humans, with our egos, slow decision-making and obsession with control are actually the thing holding marketing back?
Right now we know that AI is faster, platforms are smarter, and data is objective in a way humans can never be.
And yet we still believe we are in control.
So, to three agency group leads we ask: is the “human touch” the magic ingredient, or the bottleneck we haven’t been brave enough to remove? And can we regain creative control in an industry battling to stay relevant?
With Sir Martin Sorrell, Founder and Executive Chairman S4 Capital plc, Ndidi Oteh, Chief Executive Officer, Accenture Song and Charlie Rudd, Chief Executive Officer - Creative Practice Publicis Groupe.
Paradise is Personal: How Sandals Keeps Luxury Human in an Automated World
Join Tony Cortizas, Chief Marketing Officer, UVI (Sandals Resorts) on a journey of what getting real looks like. Brands don't matter unless they do. The pervasive narrative is that the tools are taking over, and there is no denying the impending transformation we are facing. But they are still just tools. The task facing brands to achieve an emotional connection might seem like it is getting harder. Maybe the potential rewards are just getting bigger? Maybe keeping it human is what is still what matters.
Molly vs The Machines: What the Platforms Must Do Next
Chaired by Mary Keane-Dawson, this panel asks a hard question: what happens when digital advertising systems built for clicks and efficiency collide with real lives? Bringing together voices from the Molly Rose Foundation, Virgin Media O2, the Conscious Advertising Network and ex-Meta insider Natalie Trye, the session examines where responsibility really sits and what a more human advertising ecosystem actually looks like in practice.
Revenge of the fabulous fuck ups!
Vicki Maguire explains why she believes your humanity, creativity, fallibility and wonky thinking are now your biggest advantage in a left brain AI-driven world...fuck ups, our time is now!
BRAND
SPEAKERS INCLUDING:
Human by Design: Dishoom and why the experience IS the brand
Dishoom didn't build a restaurant group. They built a feeling. While hospitality rushes toward speed and efficiency, Dishoom has taken the opposite path, crafting every detail of the guest experience as a deliberate act of brand building, with one of the most loved brands in the UK as the result. With Dishoom co-founder Shamil Thakrar.
Interview with Munya Chawawa
One of the UK's sharpest comic voices sits down for a candid conversation about creativity, culture and what it takes to cut through. Munya Chawawa has built a massive audience by finding the joke in the zeitgeist and in this interview he reflects on his creative process, what keeps him relevant, and what brands consistently get wrong when they try to be funny. Expect honesty, plenty of laughs, and a few things the industry probably needs to hear.
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