The days of banner ads and optimised algorithms are fleeting. People aren’t having their most valuable conversations out in the open in public comment sections, but in private group chats, locked forums and invite-only Discords. Everyone’s walls are higher and more heavily guarded than ever before, so how do you market to people who choose to be unreachable? Infiltration without brute-forcing it may be the solution - that’s right, we’re Trojan Horse-ing this biatch.

-Devin Pike, Guest Editor 💜

(btw - If you’re already using Claude Code or Cowork daily, scroll on by bc this isn’t for you)

But if you’ve just dabbled in using AI, maybe you’re using ChatGPT to help you look up recipes, write basic emails, or attempt to diagnose that insect bite you just got, stay with me for a sec.

When it comes to AI, there’s a lot of “bro you’re so behind” messaging out there. When, in reality, within just a couple hours, you can learn how to use AI better than 95% of people you know. And this why we put together the Beginner’s Guide to Claude AI course.

It’s a 4-week cohort where you learn how to go from using AI as a glorified Google to getting it to actually help you with the sh*tty admin (life or work) you hate doing every day.

We kick off our second cohort on 22 June, so if you want to go from feeling behind to using AI to make your life better, this is for you 👇

The tournament may have only just really begun, but the style games have already been well underway. The Guardian reports that national teams are turning training camps into borderline runways. The French squad is rocking high-fashion off-duty looks, Spain is sporting custom wide-legged Loewe suits, and the Dutch team is flexing an 80s Versace-esque Nike and Patta collaboration.

Sports and fashion have always been synonymous, but I loveee when a huge cultural event brings the intersection to the forefront of the media. And tbh, if you're going to win or lose on the pitch, you might as well look fresh as hell doing it.

This isn’t the only fun the World Cup has brought about, since international tourists have been landing in North America, their culture-shock diaries have been like absolute crack to me. I’m not even American, but I remember my first time there, from the minute I landed in LAX to the time I left, it felt like a f*cking whirlwind of sugar, shopping, and sports terms I didn’t understand. Mind you, I was 16.

ANYWAY, in Texas, Japanese fans are documenting their first impressions of the Deep South on TikTok and are currently losing their minds over the unlimited public transport, fighting for their lives against Texas grass allergies, and calling Torchy’s Tacos "authentic". I’m so obsessed. Because, same.

Truly, nothing unites humanity like being defeated by a giant party-sized bag of American potato chips.

Over in Mexico, the energy is just as immaculate. Fernanda Cortes highlighted South Korean fans completely embedding themselves in local Guadalajara culture. We are talking about Korean tourists downing entire cantaritos of tequila, learning local chants, and being embraced as absolute icons by the locals.

Turns out, when the world stops fighting over politics and just gathers for football and street food, the vibes are actually ten out of ten.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

Many of the consumer base have locked the front door. The most valuable consumer conversations, product recommendations, and cultural trends are no longer happening in public comment sections or open feeds. They have migrated entirely behind closed doors, into private group chats, invite-only Discords, locked forums, and encrypted threads.

The internet is dark, intimate, and heavily guarded. For brands and agencies, this presents an existential crisis. You cannot buy a targeted banner ad inside a private WhatsApp group or optimise an algorithm to force your way into a six-person iMessage thread. The traditional playbook of screaming at the masses until they notice you is… well, kind of obsolete.

So, how do you market to an audience that has actively chosen to become unreachable?

When an audience goes underground, your strategy has to shift from broadcasting to infiltration. You can’t just invite them to your page, so instead you have to create assets so sharp, so funny, or so useful that they voluntarily carry you across their own borders. You win when you become the currency of the private chat.

This requires a complete overhaul of how we define "creative content". If your asset looks like a polished ad, it’s likely it might die on the public feed. But if your asset is a hyper-specific inside joke, a shocking piece of industry data, or a (genuinely) funny af meme, it gets screenshotted, copied, and pasted straight into the group chat.

You aren't so much trying to reach a million people who will passively scroll past. You’re trying to arm a single advocate with something worth sharing to their circle.

If you want your brand to survive an era of encrypted attention, you need to abandon the loud, aggressive metrics of the past and deploy a highly specialised toolkit:

You can no longer buy your way into the hearts of your consumers by simply outspending your competition on a public ad platform. The wall is up, and the security settings are maxed out.

If you can understand how to build products and content so utterly, so inherently shareable that the consumer willingly unlocks the door, reaches outside, and pulls you in, you’re good.

It’s like high school all over again. You gotta give the popular what they want to sit in the cool circle at lunch break. Except, you know, way less traumatic.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

Ttoday’s trend is a sound from hamzahsbellywater. It's being used to capture people’s large moments of frustration, like how married women want to relive their honeymoons, McDonald’s workers can’t wait ‘til their 12-hour shift ends, or teens are beyond irritated waiting for the bell.

People make mental connections and use this sound for moments like:

Lip-sync with this audio, then add a caption above your head or below your chin to describe a moment you can't wait for, a place you want to visit one day, or maybe a moment you want to relive. It's endless!

A few ideas to get you started

-DJ Taivairanga, Intern

😂Yap’s funniest home videos - when kicking is your weakness
❤How wholesome - baby meets lamb
😊Soooo satisfying - free pressure washing
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight - Delicious Brioche rolls

Hey Dmitri!

You can absolutely experiment with different content styles and tones across platforms if you have the capacity to do so. For example, you might focus your LinkedIn content on your career journey. Then, your Instagram could be behind-the-scenes of your day-to-day or feature your team/office dynamics.

However, I wouldn't think of these as different personas. Instead, I'd think of them as different facets of the same brand. Just like you'd show up differently at a networking event versus after-hours drinks, you can show up differently on each platform. You're still the same person, just in multiple contexts.

-Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

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.