What a way to wrap Activate Tour 2025! ✨
From London to Los Angeles, New York to San Francisco, this year’s Activate Tour brought together marketers, innovators, and builders redefining what customer engagement looks like.
Four cities. Dozens of speakers. Hundreds of marketers redefining what’s next. We mixed ideas, mocktails, and bold visions for the future of customer engagement. And the energy? Unmatched.
Activate Tour London
The visionary behind LEGO’s global transformation, Sara Riis-Carstensen, shared how bold storytelling and brand bravery can turn nostalgia into cultural relevance.
💡 Takeaway: A brand isn’t what you say it’s what people feel when they experience you.
Sara also drew from her time leading brand strategy at De Beers, Carlsberg, and now Lufthansa Group, giving attendees a rare inside look at how iconic brands stay timeless.
Activate Tour New York
From craveability to community, Jay Livingston shared how iconic “cult brands” like Shake Shack and Bark scale hospitality and loyalty in a digital-first world.
💭 Takeaway: Brand love doesn’t happen by accident. It’s hospitality, at scale.
✨ The tour’s finale featured leaders from ADWEEK, Morning Brew, and RealSelf, exploring how CEOs are steering growth and innovation in the AI era.
Activate Tour San Francisco
Nicole Fisher revealed how Glassdoor shifted from high-volume campaigns to journey-based engagement that drives retention and trust.
🤖 AI for Marketers took the spotlight next, speakers from AWS, Bounteous, and Twilio Segment showed how to make AI actionable today, from personalization to creative testing.
💬 Sona Iliffe-Moon, Chief Communications Officer at Yahoo, wrapped with a powerful reminder: pairing technology with human connection is the ultimate marketing differentiator.
Activate Tour Los Angeles
Carlye Wycykal, Director of Lifecycle Marketing, at Therabody shared how to move beyond surface-level personalization to create meaningful, multi-channel engagement.
🧠 Pro tip: Leverage zero-party data, custom events, and cross-team collaboration to avoid list fatigue and build lasting relationships.
🍸 Bonus highlight: Attendees rolled up their sleeves for Shaken, Stirred & Savory, a culinary + mocktail session featuring tuna tartare, yuzu aioli, and a basil-cucumber crush. New skills, new friends, new connections.
Coming 2026: Activate Summit returns to Los Angeles! 🌆
- Got a story to tell?
- A strategy to share?
- A vision for the future of marketing?
This is your moment. Apply to speak by Friday, November 14
