I’ve a confession to make.
I simply hosted the 2025 version of The Rebellion, my annual advertising retreat. Throughout this occasion, I turned so intensely targeted on the content material and the conversations that I forgot to take notes. Occurs yearly. So, it’s fairly a battle writing a weblog put up with out notes!
This can be a nice alternative to ask for an AI help, and the mix of sources that went into this write-up is spectacular.
First, Daniel Nestle and Brian Piper used a recording know-how known as Plaude to immediately transcribe the reside classes. Brian then took these transcripts and the session slides to construct a Customized GPT based mostly on the occasion. I might then question the AI to assist me fill within the blanks and current a consultant pattern of what occurred at this electrical occasion!
First, let’s set the stage …
What’s an Rebellion?
I don’t like massive advertising occasions. They’re crowded, overwhelming, and usually boring. They’re iterative — how you can make slight enhancements on our Fb advertisements or enhance our search engine optimisation — whereas the sphere of promoting goes by means of a cataclysmic transition proper in entrance of our eyes.
The Rebellion solves 4 issues in advertising occasions at the moment:
- It’s restricted to 30 individuals. You will have actual conversations and make lifetime pals.
- The main target is the longer term. What’s coming subsequent, and the way can we prepare?
- It’s protected and trustworthy. My proudest second was when individuals mentioned, “I wish to push again on that.” When do you see THAT occur at a advertising occasion?
- It’s co-created. Everybody has a possibility to take part at their consolation degree. So we use the brains within the room! And … it’s loads of enjoyable! It’s a retreat, in spite of everything.
Virtually everybody who attends will inform you an identical factor: It’s troublesome to explain. This mixture of a wooded lodge, beneficiant individuals, nice meals, massive brains, and enjoyable enjoyable ignites individuals and takes them to a brand new degree of competence and confidence.
The Rebellion has at all times been about digging beneath the floor, about significant connections and daring concepts. However this 12 months, it felt totally different. Extra pressing. Extra human. Extra audacious. It was the perfect one ever.
By the way in which, The Rebellion was impressed by my call-to-action in Advertising Rise up to carry individuals collectively. You’ll be able to’t have a revolt with out an rebellion!
Now … what occurred this 12 months? Listed here are the voices, the visions, and the visceral truths that made this gathering unforgettable.
How AI is altering our prospects
I kicked issues off with a two-part presentation: 1) information on how AI is altering humanity (our prospects!), and a pair of) how people match on this new AI-dominant ecosystem. It turned a community-driven revelation of what it means to be a marketer within the age of artificial intelligence.
This was a rallying cry. As AI seeps into each pore of our skilled lives, I challenged the group to zoom out—to don’t obsess over AI’s creepy components. Take a look at how we should evolve as entrepreneurs and serve these altering prospects.
Drawing on my analysis for Belonging to the Model and the newer Audacious, I painted a stark image of the close to future. We’re stepping right into a world the place content material is infinite, artificial, and indistinguishable. AI gained’t simply change how we work. It would change who our prospects are. Their expectations. Their behaviors. Even their identities, which I coated in this weblog put up.
All through the occasion, we mentioned eight seismic shifts AI will carry to humanity: cognitive decline, emotional intelligence, a seek for reality, ethical judgment, human company, creativity, which means, and demanding pondering.
And but, there may be hope. If we perceive what makes us irreplaceable — our skill to type group, to encourage, to offer consolation, security, and hope — we are able to thrive.
We reside in a world the place individuals could not care if the content material is human or AI. My pressing plea was to MAKE THEM CARE. That phrase echoed by means of each session, changing into the unofficial motto of the occasion. It’s not about resisting the machines and extra about embracing what will preserve us related, together with the private model, model communities, and content material that transcends this pandemic of lifeless.
Decoding Authenticity by Generations
Dr. Mara Singer revealed some new, unique analysis on how emotional wants shift by technology. Along with her six pillars of authenticity—accuracy, connectedness, originality, legitimacy, experience, and integrity—she deconstructed essentially the most overused phrase in advertising.
She didn’t simply speak in regards to the significance of authenticity; she confirmed us how totally different generations assemble it. For Gen Z, legitimacy and consistency matter greater than you’d anticipate. For Boomers, experience and accuracy nonetheless rule.
In a time when AI can mimic tone, replicate imagery, and pretend nearly every part, authenticity turns into your solely actual differentiator. Mara’s message was clear: authenticity shouldn’t be a method. It’s a technique.
One jaw-dropping actuality is how kids as younger as six or seven have gotten TikTok influencers as they swarm Sephora shops to attempt skincare merchandise. One other counter-intuitive truth is that older individuals place little worth on originality in manufacturers and advertising.
The Pleasure of Immediate Engineering
Andy Crestodina, Lindsey Bowshier and Shannon Yost at The Rebellion
The good Andy Crestodina of Orbit Media delivered an exquisitely sensible speak. His rapid-fire breakdown of the seven ranges of AI proficiency was like a map by means of the AI jungle. Ranging from fundamental immediate writing to full-on multi-step automations, Andy gave us the instruments to show AI right into a artistic ally.
One in all his themes: “Each immediate is a draft. Iterate. Enhance. Reuse.”
He reminded us that AI doesn’t diminish creativity—it redefines it. And with the best mindset, we are able to all change into architects of reusable, scalable, and deeply impactful content material programs. Andy’s generosity in sharing his immediate playbook turned his session into an immediate basic.
Navigating the Infinite Content material Abyss
Brian Piper, with a futurist’s eye and a practitioner’s rigor, pulled again the curtain on what’s coming subsequent in content material.
He warned that we’ve moved from a world of content material shortage to Content material Shock. And AI is making the aim of visibility much more troublesome. On this new panorama, human-made content material could quickly be simply 10% of what exists on-line.
His recommendation? Construct communities. Concentrate on content material that builds belief and emotional connection. Optimize not only for serps, however for AI discovery programs, voice platforms, and rising interfaces.
And most critically, change into identified. Not viral. Not well-known. Recognized. As a result of within the chaos of AI, belief will likely be our final foreign money.
The AI-influenced buyer journey
Dr. Matt Wilkinson introduced PhD-level readability to the AI dialog. As soon as a skeptic, now a strategic believer, he emphasised that AI shouldn’t be a savior, however the highly effective new affect on the client’s determination course of.
What stood out most was his name to reimagine the client journey. With 80% of it taking place earlier than a human contact, AI is already deciding which manufacturers get seen, which tales get heard.
His warning? Don’t get caught prior to now. The “how-to” weblog put up period is dying. We have to evolve into trusted guides, thought leaders, and distinctive voices that resonate even after we’re not within the room.
The Invisible Labor of Nice Content material
Ann Handley’s fireplace chat with me was a masterclass in emotional resonance. She reminded us that significant work requires emotional fortitude. Each sentence you sweat over, each nuance you take into account—all of it issues.
She spoke of the significance of making a physique of labor that endures. Of utilizing ephemeral platforms to construct one thing lasting. And of displaying up together with your complete coronary heart, not simply your content material calendar.
Her perception? The journey is the end result. And in a world chasing outcomes, that’s a radically stunning stance. Ann and I talked about Phronesis — the traditional Greek idea of sensible knowledge gained by means of onerous work. In a world optimized for pace, perhaps our biggest revolt is thoughtfulness.
Ann gave us a glimpse of her upcoming ebook and captivated everybody wither her daring and trustworthy solutions to questions on her profession and writing course of.
The Way forward for Social Media
Kami Huyse took us on a journey from 2005 running a blog panels to at the moment’s fractured, frenetic social panorama. Via all of it, one reality stays: group is the fixed.
Her viral quote summed it up: “The primary rule of social media is every part modifications. What doesn’t change is the group’s need to attach.”
Kami reminded us to comply with the individuals, not the platforms. And extra importantly, to co-create with them. Whether or not it’s a tweet, a TikTok, or a city corridor, if it doesn’t resonate together with your group, it’s noise.
Orchestrating Phrase-of-Mouth in a Scalable World
Valentina Escobar-Gonzalez, Chelsea Caught, Sarah Neely, and Mark Schaefer at The Rebellion
Sarah Neely, at her fourth Rebellion, delivered a lesson in fashionable magic: scaling the unscalable. Phrase-of-mouth could really feel spontaneous, however Sarah confirmed us it may be engineered.
She began with a deeply private story of hauling plywood at muddy occasion websites and rose to architect campaigns that helped manufacturers like Pink Bull infiltrate Main League Baseball. Her framework? Actions. Targets. Targets. Story.
In that order. If you would like individuals to speak about your model, you need to perceive what they do earlier than they purchase after which intersect with these behaviors. Her message: Viral isn’t magic. It’s math. It’s emotion. And it’s a narrative value sharing.
A Fashionable View of Metrics
Kyle Akerman led a session on fashionable advertising metrics. He recognized frequent measurement issues all entrepreneurs face, together with having an excessive amount of information, having information in too many locations, and specializing in vainness metrics.
Entrepreneurs spend little or no time on measurement (one hour or week, or generally only one hour a month). So the problem is, how can we profit from that point?
Kyle mentioned we should always create (and doc) a easy measurement plan. It ought to embrace the questions you wish to reply, the info you must reply the questions, and the actions you’ll take based mostly on the info. plan additionally consists of the KPIs (with time-based targets), and key consumer segments (as a result of aggregated information hides the necessary insights).
Most corporations can successfully measure advertising efficiency utilizing Google’s “Holy Trinity” of free instruments: Google Analytics (the place information is saved), Google Tag Supervisor (the measurement implementation), and Looker Studio (visualization device). Many entrepreneurs additionally profit from the free warmth mapping and session recordings supplied by Microsoft Readability.
A strong reframe for measurement – it’s how we “pay attention” to the conversations taking place on our web sites.
The Audacious Workshop: Wine, Grit, and Daring Storytelling
Alice Ferris leadning a model activation workshop at The Rebellion
The heartbeat of this 12 months’s Rebellion was the Audacious Workshop. With a real-world model (Nicole Hayden’s Indiana Daylily Estates Vineyard) and a room stuffed with good minds, we put the theories of my ebook Audacious to the check. With the assistance of a brand new Audacious workbook (obtainable right here), we twisted her startup model by having three groups brainstorm methods to disrupt the story, the media, and the storyteller.
From “our wine slept together with your beer” to corn mazes ending in wine tastings, this was a ton of enjoyable that resulted in an actual advertising framework!
The Human Renaissance
As we wrapped Rebellion 2025, one reality emerged above all: we’re not simply entrepreneurs. We’re artists, connectors, philosophers, and warriors of relevance in turbulent occasions.
Folks described the occasion as unforgettable, magical, and inspirational. However most of all, I feel each particular person walked away with a brand new sense that the human connection all of us skilled makes all of the distinction. Even when AI dominates the advertising scene, we are able to nonetheless make them care.
I hope you’ll be a part of me on the subsequent Rebellion occasion, which will likely be April 21-24, 2026. Area is extraordinarily restricted and registration is open right here.
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