Your ATTN Please || Friday, 24 October

Tell me one of your core childhood memories isn’t going to the mall.

Your mom would drop you off and, for a few hours, you were free. You’d get McDonald’s or a sweet treat and window shop to your hearts content. Ah, simpler times. Now, the mall lives in our pockets. And increasingly, every platform is wiring its algorithm to get you to do one thing: buy sh*t. You’d think this would be good news for us (we are marketers, after all). But when people have SHOP NOW waved in their faces 24/7, the temptation is to tune out. However, if you can use your content to connect rather than merely transact, you might just get them to tune back in.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

Tired of posting “great” content that gets ignored?

You’re hitting “publish,” but something's off. As in, you're not getting comments, followers, or sales.

The problem? You don't know how to tell a good story. You know, one your audience cares about. Because when they buy into your story, they buy into your brand.

In this 90-minute workshop, we’ll show you how to use storytelling to make your brand un-ignorable.

What you’ll learn:

✅ How to create content that builds trust, gets engagement & creates loyal followers
✅ How to build an emotional connection with your audience
✅ The 3 crucial elements every story NEEDS

You'll leave with practical frameworks you can apply right away. Bring your questions and we’ll bring everything we’ve learnt from growing an audience of 3.2M followers.

30 Oct | 8:30-10:00 NZT | $49 (recording included!)

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MARKETING TODAY?

Media outlets don’t like the word “poop,” Reddit cofounder says the internet is dead & Social media makes kids dumber

News outlets won't describe Trump's AI video for what it is.

Can I preface this with the fact that this video even exists is f*cking insane. The fact that the literal President of the United States posted it is even more so. Big media outlets are tip-toeing around it, so let’s call it what it really is: Donald Trump posted an AI-generated video of himself dropping a “brown liquid” from a jet. It's a pretty blatant depiction of him sh*tting on America. When did he post it? While millions marched in the No Kings Protests, protesting Trump’s rise, his monarch-style imagery and escalating executive power.

404Media argues that rather than frame the video as satire or digital art, outlets should recognise it as a symbolic moment: Trump portraying himself above all, dismissive of democratic norms and literally doing a dump on the country. Instead they say “brown liquid” or “appeared to be faeces”. And I’d have to agree with the article. The linguistic caution is telling: if you can’t call it poop, you’re helping sanitise the spectacle.

Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian says "much of the internet is now dead."

Oh, Alexis, I couldn’t agree more. Considering over 50% of the internet is now AI slop, this is the sad reality we are facing. The infamous, ever looming “dead internet theory” becomes more real every day. Ohanian said that the internet is less human now, and much more "quasi-AI." What once was a point of connectivity, he said, has become inhuman.

But not all is lost, apparently. He also said he thinks we’ll see a next gen of social media emerge that’s “verifiably human” through group chats and apps like Signal and Discord for a human-to-human connection. One can only pray.

Kids who use social media score lower on reading and memory tests, a study shows.

Go figure. The new study, published in JAMA, suggest a link between social media use and poorer cognition in teens. “Preteens using increasing amounts of social media perform poorer in reading, vocabulary and memory tests in early adolescence compared with those who use no or little social media.”

Babes, we been knew. 

-Sophie Randell, Writer

Hey, do you like YAP?

If so, why not share it with a friend? The more we grow this thing, the more resources we can put into making it awesome for you. Even if every subscriber invites just 1 person to YAP, we’ll meet our growth goal for 2025. So, you in?

DEEP DIVE

Why every platform has become a checkout line (and what marketers need to do about it)

Remember when YouTube was for cat videos and not cart checkouts?

When Pinterest was for dream weddings, not drop-shipping? And when TikTok was for chaotic dance trends instead of “girlies, you need this serum”?

When I wrote the internet is a mall back in April, I was mostly talking about ownership: how creators and brands are basically renting space in someone else’s shiny digital shopping centre. I remember writing something like “own your audience or get priced out.” What I didn’t realise then was just how literal that metaphor would become.

Because now, every platform is a mall. No, not figuratively. Literally.

TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Twitch. One by one, they’ve all rolled out in-app shopping. YouTube’s 2025 Culture and Trends report is basically a soft-focus ad for creator commerce. Twitch has integrated merch sales into live streams. Pinterest has turned its inspo boards into storefronts. Even on freaking ChatGPT, shopping tools are quietly being woven in.

I fear this is about more than just monetisation. To me, it seems like a slow, subtle shift in what the internet is for.

It used to be a place for curiosity. Now it’s a place for conversion. And the algorithms don’t care if you’re entertained, inspired, or having fun… they just want you to buy. It’s frictionless by design: see it, want it, get it. What was once a process of discovery is now merely a transaction. The dopamine hit of learning or connecting replaced by the checkout ding.

Buy buy buy. It’s efficient, yes. But it’s also hollow AF.

And this hollowing out is happening at the same time AI slop is flooding every feed.

Over 50% of online content is now machine generated. Synthetic reviews, automated articles, AI-generated influencers. We’re living in an uncanny valley of engagement—endless content, no substance. A perfect storm of commerce and automation where the “social” part of social media has quietly died.

People love to criticise the dead internet theory, and I get it. But for the first time since its conception, much of the internet genuinely doesn’t feel human anymore. It feels like a pop-up store that never closes in a city that never sleeps.

This is also a problem for marketers.

Because while platforms are chasing conversions, audiences are craving something real.

They’re allergic to salesy, they scroll past perfect, they can see automation from a freaking mile away. In a landscape where everyone’s shouting “buy now,” the only thing that actually cuts through is a whisper that sounds human.

So then, how do we adapt without becoming part of the sludge?

1. Stop feeding the machine

Yeah obviously use the tools, test in-app shopping if it makes sense, but don’t let the platform’s sales logic define your brand’s creative logic. The algorithm doesn’t love you, baby. It just rents your reach.

2. Bring back friction

The more seamless the shopping journey, the less meaningful it becomes. A teeny bit of friction: humour, weirdness, honesty, slowness, is what makes content stick. Dare I say, friction is the new authenticity?

3. Build your owned spaces

Your newsletter, your site, your community, that’s the real asset. It’s the difference between being a pop-up stall in someone else’s mall and owning the building.

4. Lead with story, not sell

Robert Herjavec once said “good salespeople sell features, great salespeople sell outcomes, and really great salespeople sell feelings."

You know this. The future of marketing isn’t the flashiest product tag—it’s storytelling that reminds people there’s a human behind the account (did we mention we’re running a workshop on this exact idea next week?).

The irony is that in a world built entirely to sell, the only thing that still sells is being human.

We’ve gone from connection to conversion, from discovery to delivery, from people to products. We’re too far gone to reverse it completely. But we can choose to make the spaces we control feel like a conversation again, not a transaction.

The internet might be a mall. But that doesn’t mean your brand has to act like a store.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

TREND PLUG

“Can you give me a sec? Allan, we are so fu*ked.”

Panic alert! This one's for those in deep sh*t, pouring one out for you as I type this.

In Smiling Friends, Mr. Boss utters this line "we are so fu*ked" to Allan just as things go catastrophically wrong in their office building situation. The tone is conversational at first, then panics, and that shift is what gave TikTok the meme fuel.

Creators are using the sound to show that exact moment when everything goes sideways. The setup: calm scene → realisation → panic. Examples:

• When my sister wants to hear us talk while we play the game

• When me and bro are outside and get a notification our tests were graded

• When 6 year old me finds out the sun is gonna explode in a few billion years

How you can jump on this trend:

Use the sound and throw up the text explaining your moment of DOOM. Easy.

A few ideas to get you started:

• When you open your email and see “RE: please review ASAP”.

• When the campaign goes live and you realise you used the wrong link.

• When you hit “send” on the deck 2 minutes before the meeting but your laptop freezes.

- Nico Mendoza, Intern

FOR THE GROUP CHAT

😲WTF: Strange footage captured 👽️ 
✨Daily inspo: Be you.
🎧Soooo tingly: ASMR keyboards
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: Traditional Swedish Meatballs

ASK THE EDITOR

If I want to start making videos on Instagram, should I create a new account or post videos on my personal account? –Fatima

Hey Fatima!

It doesn't really matter. Don't let these small details stop you from getting started. Just pick one approach and go for it. Whether you use your personal account or create a new one, the most important thing is actually creating and sharing content.

Your brand will build over time, and you can always adapt your handle or approach later. What truly matters is whether you're creating attention-grabbing content that connects with people and sells a human truth. So stop overthinking it and just start making videos. The name of the account isn't important - the content and how you connect with your audience is what really counts.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

Not going viral yet?

We get it. Creating content that does numbers is harder than it looks. But doing those big numbers is the fastest way to grow your brand. So if you’re tired of throwing sh*t at the wall and seeing what sticks, you’re in luck. Because making our clients go viral is kinda what we do every single day.

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