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- Your ATTN Please || Saturday, 28 June
Your ATTN Please || Saturday, 28 June
AI chatbots and personas are hot right now - but when does it get cringy?
All the big brands have chatbots playing customer support these days, fulfilling a basic necessity. But where does the AI line get drawn beyond that? Brands like Nike and Estee Lauder have incorporated AI in ways that make sense and build upon their stories without jeopardising them. But should your brand do the same? And if so, how can you go about it without it feeling unnecessary and/or tacky?
- Devin Pike, Guest Editor 💜
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MARKETING TODAY?
Not your average “online” event 👀
Join us for this immersive event designed for anyone who wants to understand how AI is reshaping the future.
TechTALK is a 2-day virtual summit hosted entirely in the metaverse. 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 is speaking about how AI is transforming creative industries
👉 Jony Lee is speaking about how to use AI to supercharge your content creation
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?
Fake luxury items are literal trash, Vogue’s EIC quits & the big 50 social media stars are revealed
Affordable luxury is big business, but fakes are piling up in landfills
Yet another thing to add to the list of sh*t we do to destroy the planet. Goodie! Next up in the tale of apparel waste: affordable luxury, the category coined by savvy marketers wanting to nab the end of the market that can’t quite afford luxury but want Gucci branded sneakers. This has given way to a surplus of knockoffs being easier to replicate, and the environment is indirectly paying the price.
According to 2025’s State of the Fake, an annual report on the US$464 billion global business of counterfeiting. Despite the entire fashion industry being largely problematic for the environment, knockoffs pose an especially alarming threat: not only are they so poorly made, they're also overwhelmingly produced with toxic materials and have a short life span, so make their way to landfills super quick. In other words, don’t be tacky and shop sustainably.
Anna Wintour stepping down as editor-in-chief of Vogue
Say WHAAAT. After 37 years as editor and chief of the literal bible of fashion, the icon has decided it’s time for a new supreme to rise and take her place. A legendary journalist and visionary, Wintour has singlehandedly guided Condé Nast into the digital age and is a peak example of a woman who understands her audience.
She's a brand in her own right. Big shoes to fill for the next, whomever that may be.
Forbes unveils 2025 Top Creators List, the fourth-annual definitive ranking of the 50 highest-earning, most influential social media stars.
We've got MrBeast at #1 (shock), and not far behind him are Jake Paul, Charli D’Amelio, Matt Rife, Druski (duh), Emma Chamberlain (also duh), and a few of the other suspects you can probably guess.
Collectively, all 50 earned an estimated US$853 million across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. That doesn’t even include the “millions in equity deals that creators are increasingly scoring for partnering with brands ranging from snacks, clothing, soda, and booze” as they “continue to rewrite the script for the media and entertainment industries.” Check out the full list here.
-Sophie Randell, Writer
DEEP DIVE
Everyone’s building a GPT - Should your brand get one, too?
I’m not sure if y’all are the same, but all I see everywhere at the moment are headlines about AI-influenced brands.
“Wendy’s launches burger-ordering chatbot”, “Nike drops AI trainer assistant”, and “Estee Lauder builds skincare GPT” are just some of my favourites. It appears everyone is scrambling to build an AI version of themselves, which made me wonder, is this the next must-have brand channel? Or just the Metaverse in new clothes? Because if I’m honest, not every brand needs a talking chatbot. But then again, done well, a branded GPT can go from gimmicky to genuinely really useful, even in relationship-building. So maybe the real question is: does your (hypothetical) GPT do something people actually want?
The GPT rush is happening now.
With tools like OpenAI’s GPTs and Anthropic’s Claude APIs becoming easier to customize, it’s suddenly possible to spin up a bespoke brand assistant in a matter of days. No dev team? No problem. Just upload some knowledge, write a prompt, and poof: you’ve birthed an AI intern. Helloooo, dystopia x.
And marketers loooove a new channel. Especially one that feels innovative in the boardroom. But a custom GPT isn’t content, it’s infrastructure. So, it actually has to do something, otherwise it’s really just an expensive novelty bot.
So then, when does a branded GPT actually make sense?
When you have a rich knowledge base that customers constantly search for.
Skincare routines, financial advice, travel bookings, recipes, product comparisons. You get the gist.
When you offer services that benefit from decision support.
Like helping someone pick the right sneaker, insurance plan, or shampoo for curly hair.
When your audience wants a so-creation or co-pilot experience.
Recipe builders, AI stylists, wellness coaches, interior design tools. All of these become way more engaging with a smart, on-brand assistant behind them.
When you’re extending an existing brand voice or personality.
This works best if your brand already has a distinct tone (Duolingo, Monzo, Liquid Death). A GPT can amplify that into a 1:1 experience.
When you probably shouldn’t bother:
Your brand has nothing new to say that a website or FAQ can’t cover.
You’re making one just to make one.
You don’t have the resources to train, test, and maintain it.
It’s just going to regurgitate your tone of voice doc and hope for the best.
Remember that most people don’t really want to chat with a brand. We all have enough of a hard time maintaining friendship, relationships and client emails in this day and age (speaking for myself lol). Consumers want help. Answers. Ideas. Entertainment. If your GPT isn’t delivering at least one of those it's more cosplay than actually useful.
3 things to make a GPT actually useful:
1. Utility first, personality second
Cool tone won’t save you if your bot can’t answer basic questions. Start with the task, then layer in the sass.
2. Contextual intelligence
Can it remember preferences? Adapt tone? Pull relevant info from product libraries or content archives? That’s what moves it from chatbot to assistant.
3. Invisible UX
If your GPT makes people think harder than your nav bar does, it’s a no from me, dawg. Keep it focused. Don’t try to make it do everything. Give it guardrails and clarity.
The potential risk? Becoming the next “virtual brand island”.
Remember when every brand launched an NFT or built a weird metaverse activation no one asked for? Yeah. This could be that again. A branded GPT without a purpose isn’t innovation. It’s clutter.
The opportunity? Build the next thing people actually need.
My dad always said, if you’re going to do it, do it right. So, make a GPT that:
Helps people use your product better
Turns dense info into something digestible
Personalises the experience in a way your website can’t
Extends your brand’s actual value, not just its voice
In a few years, branded AI assistants will likely be as common as apps or FAQs. But right now, most of them are solving for novelty, not need. Don’t be that guy.
-Sophie Randell, Writer
TREND PLUG
I wanna grab both your shoulders and shake, baby
Behold: the trend for your very last nerve.
Backed by the Arctic Monkeys’ Snap Out of It (which is catchy enough to do most of your heavy lifting for you, tbh) creators are taking the opportunity to vent while it’s still a trend.
It’s a bit like “propaganda I’m not falling for”, but more personal (and we get to shake them).
Taking its cue from the lyrics “I wanna grab both your shoulders and shake, baby”, it’s a rallying cry for people ready to snap over that one comment, trend, or belief they just can’t handle anymore.
This is a great one for expressing industry peeves, even if they’re very niche. Someone, somewhere, is going to appreciate the drama and find it deeply relatable!
Right now, creators are using this to roast everything from TikTok micro-trends to life choices that make them mad. It works for rapid-fire lists of gripes or one particularly infuriating take you’ve seen online. A personal ick that you’re sharing with the world, if you will.
How you can jump on this trend:
Film yourself lip syncing to the lyrics, ideally with exaggerated sass. Grab those imaginary shoulders and shake!
Overlay your text to match one of these formats:
A list of annoying trends, products, ideas, or hot takes (GRWM, Labubus, tradwife core, being non-political)
A quote someone actually dared to say (“I’m so behind for my age” / “I don’t need an education if I marry rich”)
A POV setup (When she cancels grad school to be a stay-at-home girlfriend)
A few ideas to get you started:
Fake urgency, ‘limited-time’ offers that never end, $997 for recycled advice, no-brief clients)
“We don’t need a brand voice, just make it sound cool”
(When the team posts for the algorithm and forgets the audience)
- Helena Masters, Copywriter
FOR THE GROUP CHAT
😂Yap’s funniest home videos: Texas knows how to hold ‘em!
❤How wholesome: THE FACIAL EXPRESSIONS
😊Soooo satisfying: the perfect video doesn’t exi-
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: Creamy Feta One-Pot Perfection!
TODAY ON THE YAP PODCAST
Want even more “YAP”ing? Check out the full podcast here.
ASK THE EDITOR
My social media posts are sporadic and generally only happen when a great idea pops into my head. How can I turn these random ideas into a content strategy? -Heather
Hey Heather!
The truth is your great ideas aren't doing you a whole lot of good if they are only becoming one-off videos. A truly good idea will be something you can repeat over and over because it hits on a core human truth that speaks to your audience. So rather than thinking about something that would just be cool to post, you need to come up with a concept you can return to again and again. Then, you need to just get your reps in rather than trying to make each video perfect.
Most successful creators are only good at what they do because they have created thousands of pieces of content. They've failed, learned from that failure, and continued to improve every day. So don't worry about getting everything just right. The most important thing is to keep creating, keep experimenting, and build your content muscle over time. Even if you make some videos that aren't amazing, you're still learning and improving with every piece of content you create.
- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡
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