Your ATTN Please
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Your ATTN Please || Thursday, 22 May

Your ATTN Please || Thursday, 22 May

May 22, 2025

Once upon a time, posting great content actually... worked.

You made a post, hit publish, and real people—actual humans with pulses—saw it. Maybe even shared it (imagine that)! Now? You’re lucky if your content gets seen by your mom, your ex, and three bots named Gary. Organic’s not dead, but the rules have changed. And if you’re still stuck in your old ways, it’s seriously time to rethink.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MARKETING TODAY?

Trump criminalises AI-gen p*rn , Gemini comes to Chrome & Digital ads enter “precarious period”

Trump signs the Take It Down Act into law.

Y’all remember that mess with the Taylor Swift deepfakes? Last year AI-generated p*rn, fuelled by misogyny, flooded the internet and literally no one was safe. Not even beloved pop stars like T-Swizz. Now, Donald isn’t exactly known for 1. Anti-misogynistic acts, 2. Liking Taylor Swift, or 3. Doing the right thing by the people.

However, I am going to take this and run with it. Because the bill will criminalise the distribution of non-consensual intimate images (NCII) — including AI deepfakes — and require social media platforms to promptly remove them when notified. It also makes publishing NCII, whether real or AI-generated, criminally punishable by up to three years in prison, plus fines. No more revenge p*rn. No more AI-generated unholy images. It’s a win in my eyes.

Google’s Gemini AI is coming to Chrome.

The company announced the development at Google I/O on Tuesday. This means Gemini will be able to “clarify complex information on any webpage you’re reading or summarize information,” according to a blog post from Google Labs and Gemini VP Josh Woodward. Google envisions that Gemini in Chrome will later “work across multiple tabs and navigate websites on your behalf.” This is extremely timely, considering AI has recently absolutely upended the search game. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em – or in this case, merge ‘em.

Digital ad revenues grew in Q1, but 2025 outlook dims.

According to eMarketer, digital advertising had a strong performance in the first quarter of this year. Major platforms reported growth across search, social, streaming, and retail media. However, it’s not all fine and dandy. The report claims the digital ad sector is entering a “precarious period” marked by inflation concerns, trade policy shifts, and regulatory threats. While Q1 performance showed resilience, the slowdown in guidance across nearly every platform signals a “cautious recalibration.” Ominous. If you’d like to read the full report, you can find it here.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

DEEP DIVE

Is organic reach dead?

Once upon a sepia-toned time, posting great content on social media actually did something.

A clever caption, a well-timed carousel, a blog post you slaved over for hours actually made its way to its intended audience. It got clicks. It mattered in some way, shape, or form. Now you’d be lucky if your brilliant post hits 34 views (and one of them isn’t your mum).

Organic reach has been slowly dying for years. And I think we may have reached its bitter end. No longer does it “need improvement.” No longer “in decline.” Not “sleeping.” Dead. Buried six feet under in Meta’s backyard, with a gravestone that reads: “Here lies your unpaid content strategy, you cheap b*tch.” Ah, well, it was good while it lasted.

So, if you’re a brand still pushing content out the wazoo, hoping for virality with no budget, no plan, and no understanding of how ruthless the algorithmic overlords have become, it’s time to let go. So let’s hold a little funeral, pay our respects, and then get to work on a rebirth.

Because lucky for you, this marketing witch knows just the spell.

The platform bait-and-switch.

Social platforms used to love organic content. Why? Because they needed you to fill the feed. But once they got big, bloated, and ad-funded, they started playing hard to get (sound familiar? lol).

Now, TikTok throttles reach unless you boost. Instagram favours video unless it doesn’t. LinkedIn shows your post to five people to test it, then forgets you ever existed. The house always wins, and like any casino, the house wants you to spenddd.

Here’s where it gets existential.

The Dead Internet Theory suggests that a terrifying amount of online activity is no longer from real humans… but bots, recycled content, SEO-churn, and AI-generated sludge. Some think the internet “died” around 2016 and that what we’re now experiencing is a ghost town run by algorithms faking engagement to keep ad dollars flowing.

Sound like a conspiracy theory? Maybe. But look around: timelines full of déjà vu posts, comment sections that feel like AI soup, and “viral” content that mysteriously vanishes after a day.

Whether or not you buy the theory in full, its implications are real for marketers: the internet feels less alive, and so does your content. Organic reach doesn’t just feel dead because of bad strategy. It feels dead because the audience you’re trying to reach might not even be real, or they’ve stopped showing up.

Engagement metrics are liars.

A like isn’t a lead. A share isn’t a sale. And a comment that says “LOL” is definitely not the start of a conversion funnel. Vanity metrics give the illusion of performance while your ROI weeps in the corner. Because you can have high engagement and still have no real business impact.

So, if you’re still measuring success by hearts and haha reacts, sweetie, it’s time for a hard reset.

Content fatigue is real af, and so is audience burnout.

Everyone is creating content. You. Your competitors. Your intern’s cat. Your intern's cat’s adoptive grandmother. It’s overwhelming. The result is scroll fatigue. Brands start sounding the same and audiences start caring less. All the while, the attention economy starts to crumble under its own weight.

Okay so like, what does work now?

Not all is lost. Organic isn’t actually useless. It just needs a glow-up. So, here’s where to shift your energy:

Own your platforms. Build your newsletter. Start that blog. Create content that lives somewhere you control.
SEO > social virality. Writing for humans and algorithms will carry you longer than a trending sound ever will.
Repurpose smarter. One strong article can become ten different assets: threads, shorts, carousels, even scripts for your founder.
Build communities, not audiences. Focus on long-term engagement over short-term reach. Forums, Substacks, Discords. These are small spaces with big impact.
Pay to play, but strategically. Boost only what’s working. Use ads to amplify, not rescue, content.

Oh, also, you need content that’s unignorable.

Which sound obvious – like, duh, aren’t we all trying to get noticed here? Yes. But if you want people to choose to engage with your brand today, you have to be more than visible. You have to be literally unignorable.

That means sharper hooks. Stronger opinions. Better storytelling. Not more content, but better content in smarter places.

The eulogy.

You can mourn the days of free distribution all you like. But clinging to a dead strategy is like putting a ring on your situationship…it’s not going anywhere, and it’s starting to feel, well, a little desperate.

Let your old content strategy rest. Then build one that respects the new rules: owned platforms, strategic distribution, and actually giving your audience something worth their time.

Because if attention is the new currency, then bland content is a bounced cheque. And the bots aren’t buying anything anyway.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

TREND PLUG

Oh fck, oh sht

TikTok legend Joshua Block is TikTok's latest viral meme.

In a clip where there's a helicopter roaming the skies, Josh thinks it's flying over his house in some sort of manhunt. The realisation hits him, he panics, and in a healthy mix of shock and disbelief, and says "Oh f*ck, oh sh*t!" And really that's all you need for TikTok to turn it into a viral green screen + sound meme!

Now, creators are using the green screen template to display moments you realise someone is in deep sh*t. Think walking into the principal's office and finding your whole friend group there, when you were meant to take the meat out the freezer 5 hours ago and hear mom open the garage door, or even finding out about quicksand in second grade. (There's more crazy examples under the sound, but a man wants to keep his job.)

How you can jump on this trend:

Use this green screen template and put it on top of a setting where you get hit with the realisation you're in big, big trouble.

A few ideas to get you started:

You posted a collab and forgot #ad
You meant to forward the tea, not add them to the thread
POV: you told a joke at work and now HR wants to hear it too
POV: The brand’s name is misspelled but the ad is already live

- abdel khalil, brand & marketing executive

FOR THE GROUP CHAT

😂Yap’s funniest home videos: One of the best pranks we’ve ever seen
❤How wholesome: this video made me tear up so proceed with caution
😊Soooo satisfying: Glass bottle vs stairs
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: 20 Min Portuguese chicken burgers

TODAY ON THE YAP PODCAST

Want even more “YAP”ing? Check out the full podcast here.

ASK THE EDITOR

I'm putting out a lot of content but I'm struggling with getting our message right. It seems like I'm just posting just to post. What should I do? - Wendy

Hey Wendy!

Getting your message right is going to come down to your brand positioning. How do you want your audience to see you? What makes you different from all the other businesses that do the same thing yours does?

This can't just be that you have the “best” product. Pretty much everyone thinks they're the best. It has to be some kind of value your audience can get behind. Once you know what this is, it will be your core message.

Then you need to figure out how you're going to get this across in your content. Because this is the thing that your audience will be able to connect with. So focus on figuring out your positioning, then let your content stem from that!