Your ATTN Please || Saturday, 1 November

I just love living through future history book chapters on economic collapses, don’t you?

Right now, the global economy is limping… again. This year is set to see the slowest growth since 2008 outside of an official recession - an Armageddon-adjacent sign for marketers. When the global mood says to cut costs and conserve, it’s hard feel optimistic or sound sincere when you blast cheery slogans about growth and momentum. So what can you actually do when tomorrow’s just so dang foggy?

- Devin Pike, Guest Editor 💜

Learn how to ground yourself in mindfulness & gratitude

Join Hira Nathan, best selling author of Whakawhetai, Piki te Ora and Māori Ora for a kōrero about the life-changing journey to find peace, clarity and being.

In this inspiring webinar, Hira will share the personal story behind his mindfulness and gratitude practice, how reconnecting with mātauranga Māori reshaped his sense of purpose, and why building a tūāpapa—a solid foundation—is essential for wellbeing in a busy modern world.

You’ll learn:
 
◾The deeper meaning of gratitude in Te Ao Māori
◾Simple, grounded tools to bring mindfulness into everyday life
◾About upcoming Tūāpapa retreats designed to help you find stillness, connection, & your place to stand

Tuesday, 4 Nov | 2pm NZT | FREE

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MARKETING TODAY?

Amazon plots a robot takeover, Hollywood eyes up tiny dramas & OnlyFans babes bring in billions

Fun! Amazon plans to replace more than half a million jobs with robots.

For America’s second-largest employer, the company notoriously could not care less about its employees. So maybe it’s a good thing it's avoiding hiring more. Amazon’s automation team expects the company can avoid hiring more than 160,000 people in the United States it would otherwise need by 2027. That would save about 30 cents on each item that Amazon picks, packs and delivers to customers.

Executives also said they hoped automation would allow the company to avoid adding to its workforce, even though they expect to sell twice as many products by 2033. That translates to more that 600,000 people the company didn’t need to hire. If these plans pan out, one of the biggest employers in the US will ultimately become a net job destroyer. Don’t you love capitalism?

Hollywood sees big opportunity in Tiny Dramas.

I wrote about this recently and it really does seem it’s the next best thing since sliced bread, especially now that Hollywood's getting in on it. These micro dramas are built for phone-addicted consumers with short attention spans (so, all of us).

Now, Bill Block, a former movie-studio executive, is launching GammaTime: a microdrama platform with more than 20 shows, which will include two from CSI creator Anthony Zuiker. And he’s already raised US$14 million in seed funding, with investors like Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, as well as Kris Jenner and Kim Kardashian. “It's the next wave,” Block said. And I have a feeling he’s right.

OnlyFans has paid creators US$25 billion since 2016, CEO says.

The spicy platform just dropped its own version of a flex: $25 billion paid out to creators since 2016. CEO Keily Blair proudly told Bloomberg, “There’s not very many companies that can talk about creating wealth for others rather than just profiteering”, which is corporate-speak for “we actually share the bag”. Though Blair insists it’s not just adult content, it’s “content for adults" (a subtle but crucial difference when your site hosts both sex workers and cricketers).

Behind the scenes, OnlyFans is reportedly weighing an $8 billion sale. Which makes sense, considering its notoriously private owner Leonid Radvinsky pocketed nearly half a billion in dividends last year. As per Blair: “The next five years is going to be an interesting time for all of us”. Translation: they’re either selling, rebranding, or doubling down on the one universal truth of the internet - sex (and apparently cricket?) still sells.

-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

How to market when the market says "no"

The global economy is limping. Again.

According to the World Bank and IMF, 2025 will see the slowest growth since 2008 outside of an official recession. Trade tensions are rising, policy uncertainty remains high, and the word "slowdown" is doing more heavy lifting than it ever asked for. In the US, the R-word (recession) isn’t quite official, but it’s certainly circling the block. And for marketers, that sinking feeling in your stomach isn’t just about the economy (or the leftover burrito you had for dinner the day before payday).

It’s about your job, your pipeline, your sense of professional purpose. When the global mood is “cut costs and conserve", the business of optimism, i.e. marketing, starts to feel almost obscene. Budgets shrink, campaigns stall, creative briefs shrivel and die on the vine in real time. Suddenly, the cheery slogans about growth and momentum start sounding like punchlines. And if your job depends on getting people to buy into a brighter tomorrow, what do you do when tomorrow looks like a bit of a f*cking grey blur?

Welcome! Come one, come all! You’ve got front row seats, to the existential crisis of modern marketing.

At its core, marketing is a belief system. We sell belief in products, in progress, in possibility. We convince people to act on desire, to trust in change, to imagine that their next purchase or platform or partnership will somehow improve their lives. But belief requires confidence, my darlings, and confidence is in short supply. The economy is shaky, AI threatens to replace us, and we’ve all internalised a kind of cultural burnout that makes enthusiasm feel make-believe.

The irony is painful: the industry built on optimism now feels allergic to it. The language of “growth” has become almost suspicious, the phrase “brand love” sounds naïve asf, and the once-invincible marketing mindset - move fast, build buzz, chase innovation - now feels like the behaviour of someone who hasn’t checked their credit card bill in months. In short, it’s kind of like, hard to sell the future, when everyone’s bracing for it.

What’s happening now is more than economic. It’s also emotional.

When fear creeps into the market, it seeps into the mind. People buy less, yes, but they also believe less. They pull inward. They stop trusting ads, influencers, brands, even their own instincts. And marketers, who’ve been trained to chase growth at all costs, have no playbook for this mood. When the world says “no”, our reflex is to shout louder, to discount, to hype, to rebrand the recession as an opportunity. But audiences aren’t fooled. You can’t spin survival.

That’s the uncomfortable truth: in moments like this, the most dangerous thing marketers can do is pretend it’s BAU.

So, what can you do when the market says no?

When your campaign budget is cut in half, your audience has trust issues and your team is quietly updating their LinkedIn profiles?

You don’t need a new marketing strategy. You need a new goddamn philosophy.

1. Go smaller, go deeper. Scale is seductive, but intimacy converts. When people are anxious, they crave stability and connection. Speak directly to your existing customers. Make them feel seen, not sold to. If you can’t reach more people, reach the right ones more honestly.

2. Measure meaning, not just reach. Forget chasing vanity metrics in a climate that doesn’t value noise. Track signals of trust: retention, word-of-mouth, repeat engagement. Growth will come later, belonging will keep you alive now.

3. Honesty is the new persuasion. Everyone’s exhausted by overpromise. Be transparent about what you can offer and why it matters. Drop the jargon, ditch the “disruption”, and talk like a person with a pulse. The marketers who can speak clearly when everyone else is panicking will stand out by default.

4. Reconnect with your "why." These are the basics. And the basics work. Remember why you got into this business in the first place. It probably wasn’t to “drive pipeline” or “maximize conversions.” It was to tell stories, to move people, to help ideas find their audience. When the tactics fail, purpose becomes your compass.

Here’s the quiet upside no one tells you about downturns: when money dries up, meaning matters more.

A slow market forces clarity. You find out what your brand actually stands for, which customers actually care, and which campaigns were just noise dressed as momentum. The world might not be buying, but it’s still listening… and in this climate, a single moment of genuine resonance can be worth more than a quarter’s worth of paid impressions.

The future of marketing isn’t about pushing harder against resistance. It’s about learning to listen when the market goes silent.

The truth is, marketing has always been a little bit delusional.

It asks us to believe we can change behavior, shift culture and rewrite narratives all while operating in an economy that can’t promise stability for more than six months at a time. But that’s also what makes it noble, in its own weird way.

Because marketing, at its best, is an act of faith. It’s saying: “Something here matters, and I’m going to help you see it.”

Just maybe, right now, say it in a way that’s worth hearing.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

TREND PLUG

Guess my job

This trend's for the ones that love engagement, and I mean LOVE engagement.

This carousel trend's trending audio comes from none other than Rizzle Kicks, the Brighton-origin hip-hop duo, with a banger in the name of "Mama Do The Hump" (2011). How on earth is that 14 years ago, FOURTEEN?!

The trend is relatively straightforward, the first slide is an image of you with the text "Describe your job without saying" The second slide is another photo of you with a list of phrases you frequent at work.

Examples include plumbers, nursery nurses, and babysitters.

How you can jump on the trend:

Using the sound, create a two-photo carousel with the first slide being an image of you with the text "Describe your job without saying" The second slide is another photo of you with a list of phrases you frequent at work.

A few ideas to get you started:

• "Can we put our logo there?"

• "I'm not feeling it"

• "One more revision"

- abdel khalil, brand & marketing executive

FOR THE GROUP CHAT

😂 Yap’s funniest home videos: Halloween Tumble
✨Daily inspo: Get out there!
🎧Soooo tingly: Apple Restock ASMR
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: One Pan Swiss Chicken

ASK THE EDITOR

Do I have to speak on camera to make a viral video? What if I'm too shy? – Catherine

Hey Catherine!

Don't worry—speaking on camera isn't a requirement for virality. Think about it for a second. There are so many successful videos that don't feature anyone speaking at all (I mean, cat videos? haha). What is a non-negotiable is good storytelling. All viral videos will have a story structure of setup, conflict, resolution. And they will have some kind of emotional resonance that makes people connect with them.

So if you’re camera-shy, that’s okay. Just don’t let it become the excuse that holds you back from creating content. Instead of thinking about whether you should talk on camera, you should think about what the human truth is you're trying to convey. Because there are many ways to tell a compelling story. Talking is just one of them.

- 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.

WHAT DO YA THINK?

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