Your ATTN Please || Saturday, 21 June

Please be seated - the show is about to begin.

In today’s digital marketing landscape, the fabric of reality is paper thin. Chaos and clarity are constantly at odds, the sweet spot between community and individualism is barely tangible, and almost nothing makes sense. Welcome to marketing in the year of our Lord 2025: it’s a confusing mess, but there’s still cues to look out for and scripts to follow. It’s all like one big stage play - and boy, is it dramatic.

- Devin Pike, Guest Editor 💜

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MARKETING TODAY?

Not your average “online” event 👀

TechTALK is a 2-day virtual summit hosted entirely in the metaverse.

This immersive event is for anyone who wants to understand how AI and IoT (internet of things) are reshaping the future. Think SIMS meets TED talks, but way more interactive and way less buzzword-y.

Over 2 days, you’ll get:

✔️50+ talks on the latest in tech innovation
✔️Real-time access to exclusive keynotes from global leaders
✔️Hands-on workshops to help you apply what you’ve learnt

Plus, you’ll hear from 2 of our own:

👉 Stanley Henry’s speaking about transforming industries & infrastructure
👉 Jony Lee’s on the 5 Under 30 panel

And yep, marketers, this is for you. Because if you touch audience behaviour, brand strategy, or anything digital? What’s happening in tech is definitely your business.

15-16 July | All online | $99 USD

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MARKETING TODAY?

Pinterest gets a coffee fix, Community Notes suffer on X & Your cringe Meta AI prompts are public

Pinterest partners with Emma Chamberlain for its first ever co-branded product

Pinterest X Chamberlain Coffee? Sure, why not. For the first time ever the platform will co-brand a product, that being a “limited-edition ‘Sea Salt Toffee Flavored Blend” made by the influencer-founded company, and exclusively sold within the app.

Feels random AF, but according to Pinterest, the coffee itself was inspired by pins: “A long-time fan of Pinterest, Emma imagined the entire campaign and design on the platform. From exploring flavor profiles to gathering visual inspiration for the launch, each detail was hand-picked to capture the feeling of sipping an iced coffee by the seaside. The Fisherman Aesthetic trend from Pinterest Predicts, our annual emerging trends report, served as a core theme throughout the process.” The collab highlights just how on the freaking money Pinterest is when it comes to trend forecasting.

Use of X’s Community Notes has plummeted in 2025, data shows.

No like, literally half as many crowdsourced Community Notes were created in May than they were in January - ouch. The function that aims to curb misleading posts is lacking the very thing it needs to make it purposeful: participation, according to an NBC News analysis of X data. Fewer submissions means less notes even being displayed on the platform, and Musk, who once would not shut up about the feature, now rarely mentions it.

A spokesperson for X blames the decline on “natural swings in note volume based on world events”. But I feel there’s a lot to discuss right now, don’t you? I think I could name a few other reasons for lack of participation on the app... but I’ll leave that part to you.

The Meta AI app is a privacy disaster – go figure.

I know Meta has the propensity to do us dirty with our data, but this is so funny I’m sorry. Imagine your browser history having been PUBLIC ALL ALONG while you are none the wiser. That’s what’s basically happening on the new stand-alone Meta AI app: people are accidentally publishing their “private” conversations with the chatbot.

When you ask the bot a question, you have the option of hitting a share button, which takes you to a preview of the post, which you can then publish. And some users are blissfully unaware that they are sharing these text conversations, audio clips, images – all of it - publicly with the world. “Hey, Meta, why do some farts stink more than other farts?” I just... I can’t. 

-Sophie Randell, Writer

DEEP DIVE

Two opposing forces: A brand strategy stage play by YAP

Act I: The culture is spinning - and so are we

Let’s set the scene: It’s 7:30am. You open your laptop, and the internet is already on fire. One tab is X, where people are dogpiling on a campaign that “totally missed the tone". Another is TikTok , where a new aesthetic is being birthed. Over on Slack, you get a message asking: “Can we react to this by EOD, but make it feel evergreen?”

Welcome to marketing in 2025: nothing really makes sense, except it all kinda does, and everything’s urgent, apparently. We are no longer just “speaking to our audience.” We are hosting an entire psychological battle between opposing cultural forces and trying to get them to convert.

Act II: Chaos VS Clarity

Two archnemeses (or star-crossed lovers?) enter the scene:

Chaos

• Wearing: Vintage Vivienne Westwood, tiny round black sunglasses, the best goddamn winged liner you’ve seen.

• Line: “What if we jumped on the trend but made it ironic??”

• Motivation: Speed, virality, staying ahead of the curve: even if we forget why we’re doing it.

Clarity

• Wearing: Monochrome COS. Holds a laminated brand guideline like scripture.

• Line: “Is this on strategy?”

• Motivation: Consistency, purpose, and saying something that actually lasts

They’re enemies. They’re soulmates. You need both. but if one takes over, the whole thing collapses.

Act III: All for one? Or one for all?

A second duo takes the stage:

Community

• Wearing: Fan merch, handmade friendship bracelets, and stickers of your logo

• Line: “We did this together.”

• Motivation: Shared identity, culture creation, belonging

Individualism

• Wearing: A self-designed t-shirt that says “You’ve probably never heard of me”

• Line: “I’m not like other consumers.”

• Motivation: Personalisation, self-expression, niche vibes

This tension is trickier. Everyone wants to be part of something AND stand out. Your brand can’t just broadcast anymore, it has to host, facilitate and co-create. Think Spotify Wrapped. Think Nike By You. Think Canva's brand kits for side-hustlers and solopreneurs.

Act IV: The marketer’s dilemma

So how do you create work that hits now, but still holds up a year later? How do you engage both the main character and the crowd they want to impress? The answer is… you don’t pick sides. You choreograph them.

Great brands today don’t eliminate tension… they use it. They give Chaos a sandbox. They give Clarity a script. They let Community build the set, and Individualism improvise their lines. And they trust that the best stories aren’t perfect. They’re layered, alive and messy in all the right places.

Curtain call

You’re not just a marketer anymore - you’re a director, a mediator & a vibe curator with a spreadsheet. If your work is trying to play it safe, please know: no one remembers the brand that got all A’s in strategy class.

We remember the ones that made us feel something. That’s what it comes down to every damn time. Even if that feeling was “what even is this and also why do I love it?” then bravo, darling. Now, take it from the top.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

TREND PLUG

Letting TikTok pick the sound

Is TikTok calling people out? 👀

Now if you've ever made content straight from the TikTok app itself, you'll know that it'll try auto match a song with the content that gets taken and sometimes.... it be doing us dirty 💀

Creators are jumping in on the fun by taking pictures of each other using the TikTok app and letting TikTok decide what song matches your vibe. For some it’s wholesome, for others a harsh reality check.

How you can jump on this trend:

Use this video as inspiration on how to do it. You'll need 2 phones: 1 to record the interactions, and 1 to use the TikTok app on. You and your friends, colleagues. family, take turns seeing what song TikTok matches you to and getting everyone's reaction to it. 

A few ideas to get you started:

Try this with anyone, like:

• Your partner

• Your co workers

• Your friends

• Even just yourself!

- Jony Lee, Head of Growth

ASK THE EDITOR

I know you guys always write about the importance of storytelling, but how does that apply to making educational content? -Oakley

Hey Oakley!

Think about it--one of the best ways to teach something is by telling a story. Humans are wired to learn through stories. It's the best way to convey information to people (and have them actually retain it)! So depending on your brand, you could create educational content by telling the stories of your clients/customers (case studies) or using analogies to explain complicated concepts. It's all about applying a story structure to whatever kind of content you create!

- 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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