Your ATTN Please || Saturday 25 October

Remember how engagement and connection used to go hand-in-hand? Pepperidge Farm remembers.

Back in the ancient days of social media, there was more to likes and comments than scoring cheap internet points. They were like little forehead kisses, signs that people truly cared about what you had to say. But these days, it’s all about baiting people into being reactionary by shouting as loud as you can, regardless of truth or context. So what ever happened to empathy? And how can we steer ourselves back on course?

- Devin Pike, Guest 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?

Gen Z resists office “emergencies”, A24 opens a bookstore & f**k it - let’s talk about 6-7

‘It’s PR, not the ER’: Gen Z is resisting the workplace emergency

The number of times I’ve said that exact phrase, only to go back to pulling my hair out over a menial task, is more than I care to admit. So, the fact that this has a genuine ethos of the generation after me, means maybe, hopefully, we are finally healing from Millennial burn out culture. Particularly in this industry. Because the ping of a Teams message should not be so recognisable you can hear it in your dreams.

When Lauryn Jiles, 26, first entered the workforce, every time coworkers acted like the building was on fire, she, as we all do, followed suit. Ah, that old slippery slope. The one that, before you know it, leads to doubled workloads and constant anxiety. “I started developing a stress rash on my skin,” said Jiles, who is based in South Carolina. “That’s when I was like, yeah, I’m not going to do this anymore.” It's not that you shouldn’t invest in your career. It’s just that you life and health shouldn’t take the backseat for a job that would replace you within a couple weeks if you died 😊 

"6-7": ‘It’s really beautiful because it’s dumb.’

So as far as I understand, this is how the trend goes: you shout “6-7!” That’s all. What does it mean? Nothing really. And that’s kind of the point. I’m sorry but I have to say it: kids these days. I can’t imagine the state of classrooms, since this has moved from social media to an irl phenomenon, teachers must be on struggle street. Math teachers even more so. Triggers include hearing the word “six,” hearing the word “seven” or any situation involving numbers. Awesome.

Aspen Bohlander, 15, estimated that she hears “6-7” around 80 times a day. “It’s more of an ironic thing,” said Bohlander, a sophomore at Oak Park and River Forest High School. “People are making fun of the fact that it’s not funny. It’s going to die out soon, and there’s no meaning behind it." Go figure.

Wake up babe, A24 bookstore just dropped.

In other less brain rotting news, A24 gets nerdy about its literary aspirations. As are we all. The collection includes the official screenplay collection from a number of their films, which feature scripts and BTS content, along with some gorg zines.

And I know my coffee table hates to see them coming. If you’re a fan, I urge you to check it out. 

-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

Engagement farming and the death of nuance

Once upon a time in a far away land, in a time now forgotten, engagement, in some ways, meant connection. 

Think about it: a like or comment was like a tiny little forehead kiss, a sign that someone out there actually cared about how you looked, how cute your cat was, or what you were saying. Now it kind of feels like a game of emotional bingo, the louder you shout, the more points you score.

The thing is, these days social platforms don’t reward truth, context, or care. They reward reaction. We’re living in a post Kanye-shock-value-world. Meaning, the more emotionally charged the content, whether it be outrage, irony, shock or amusement, the further it generally flies. Every algorithm has been quietly trained on this principle: if it makes you feel something fast, it’s good for business, baby.

Which has landed us here, in the age of engagement farming, which is basically a digital ecosystem optimised for arousal, not understanding. Nuance doesn’t trend, but outrage does, and irony, even more so.

The attention machine

The formula is simple: posts that make people mad, laugh, or roll their eyes get boosted. The platforms call it “engagement”; behavioural scientists call it reward conditioning. Users are nudged toward extremes because moderation doesn’t perform. Complexity doesn’t click. What started as somewhat of a ‘quirk’ of the algorithm has become the dominant tone of the internet. It’s like almost everything is either absurd or infuriating.

Creators farm outrage for clout; brands copy the format for reach. Even news outlets lean into “can you believe this?” framing just to stay visible. And then we have the marketers, ever adaptable, who saw the data and adjusted. Social teams were told to be “spicy,” “unhinged,” “playful” and campaign briefs started asking for “thumb-stopping hooks.” It feels as if the goal shifted from communicate to provoke.

And then, brands became performance artists.

You know what I mean, you’ve seen it. The fast-food chain tweeting like a feral intern or the skincare brand picking fights in the comments… and a special mention to the influencers building mini scandals for engagement (you know who you are). This style works… until it doesn’t. Because while provocation gets attention, it rarely earns affection.

It builds a kind of hollow intimacy, where people recognise you but don’t actually like you. That’s the thing about engagement farming: it’s extractive. It treats the audience like a resource to mine, not a community to nurture. When every post is designed to harvest clicks, not understanding, you’re not going to get too far in terms of ‘positive sentiment.’

The empathy gap

In this arms race for reactions, we lost the plot. The internet used to feel participatory, and now it feels god damn gladiatorial. Why? Because empathy slows things down, and the algorithm hates slow. It asks for context, reflection, sometimes even contradiction. Outrage asks for none of that for double the clicks.

For marketers, this is the empathy gap: the growing distance between what the algorithm rewards and what humans actually respond to. Platforms push us toward extremes; audiences crave something that feels real. All the while, the internet becomes everything but. Empathy is the long game because it doesn’t spike your metrics overnight, but instead, builds memory, loyalty, and trust - stuff that doesn’t necessarily fit neatly into an edgy, forgettable, 200-character post.

So, what can we do instead?

1. Measure differently. Stop optimising for engagement rate and start looking at engagement quality. Not just how many people reacted: who reacted, and why.

2. Context over controversy. Depth doesn’t have to mean dull. Long captions, storytelling threads, even admitting uncertainty, that’s the new rebellion.

3. Speak with texture. Humour and honesty can coexist. irony doesn’t have to erase empathy. the best content still feels human.

4. Choose longevity over virality. The internet’s memory is short, but trust accumulates quietly. It’s better to be respected slowly than shared instantly.

Engagement farming is what happens when entertainment replaces empathy as the dominant language of the internet. It’s profitable, but it’s not sustainable. People are tired of being baited. They want to be seen.

That’s the irony of engagement farming, it’s the fastest way to make people stop engaging. Womp womp.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

TREND PLUG

“An Insidious situation”

This one’s for the spooky season creeping up on us!  

Halloween’s next week, and you know the horror audios are making their way back onto people's feeds.  

This sound comes straight from the Insidious soundtrack by Joseph Bishara: a spine-tingling, violin-heavy track that truly gets the skin crawling. Perfect to pair with a scary experience of your own, not with ghosts or demons, but with working in marketing - OoOoOOoo!

The trend works because it takes this eerie, tension-filled audio and pairs it with situations that aren't technically paranormal, but definitely some type of possessed or cursed. Some of my favourite examples:

• “When you sense horrendous energy from someone but can’t say anything without seeming like a psycho…

• “When my boyfriend says something so niche only another girl could have taught him that.”

• “When you get an unwanted update on an ex and they’re STILL talking about you.”

How you can hop on this trend:

Film yourself in slow motion with a wide-eyed look, add the sound, and pair it with on-screen text that builds up your “insidious situation". Easy!

A few ideas to get you started:

• When the client says "I just have a few small edits"

• When your boss says "let’s circle back" and you know you’re the circle.

• “When a coworker says "I added my thoughts to the doc" and it’s 47 new comments.”

- Nico Mendoza, Intern

FOR THE GROUP CHAT

😲WTF: Cursed jewellery
❤How wholesome: send this to ya bestie
😊Soooo satisfying: frozen orbee stressball
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: Chicken & Rice

ASK THE EDITOR

Is it possible to get into marketing without having some sort of formal education? And, if so, how? -Kev

Hey Kev!

Yes, it's absolutely possible to get into the industry without a degree in marketing. Of course, it is definitely helpful to have an understanding of consumer behaviour and marketing principles. But with all the free resources out there, you can take it upon yourself to learn from books, podcasts, YouTube, etc.

As far as getting experience, if I were you, I would immerse myself in the industry as much as possible. Go to in-person marketing events. Follow and connect with marketers on LinkedIn. Book coffee chats with anyone who will give you 30 minutes of their time. Not only is this the best way to learn, but it may even lead to an opportunity to intern or get some actual work experience. Good luck!

- 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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