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Your ATTN Please || Thursday, 23 October

Your ATTN Please || Thursday, 23 October

Charlotte Ellis
October 23, 2025

You did it. You created the perfect post.

The copy’s on point. The graphics are *chef’s kiss*. And as you hit “publish,” you prepare for all the likes, all the “OMG I love this” comments to roll in. But instead…crickets… It’s literally the worst feeling (ask me how I know). If you’ve been there, I can take a not-so-wild guess that you’re storytelling’s off. Because without it, doesn’t matter how great you think your content is. It will never land.

So, what’s the secret to storytelling that makes your content (and, by extension, your brand) impossible to ignore? We’re diving into it in our workshop next week, Storytelling that makes your brand un-ignorable. Nail this, and you’re playing social media on easy mode. See you there 👇

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MARKETING TODAY?

NYC mayor makes politics fun, Meta loses its safety accreditation & YT drops Culture & Trends report

Zohran Mamdani makes political ads ⋆˙⟡ fun again ✧˖°.

Well, Morris Katz, the political media strategist behind the ads, is. This spot, which ran during last week's airing of Survivor, featured NYC mayoral candidate Mamdani, along with past and present contestants of the show. Styled like the show’s tribal council, the contestants and Mamdani all vote to kick Andrew Cuomo “off the island and back to the suburbs.”

“We accept all too often that political advertising [can] put the creative in the backseat,” Katz told Ad Age. “There is no reason it has to be like that. There is no reason that every political ad you see on TV looks like it was made in the 1980s.”

And he’s right. Katz's goal is to bring the same level of creativity to political campaigns that is seen in other consumer advertising. With the state of politics today, I can see this getting real weird. But like, in a fun way. May as well crank this sh*t up to 11.

Surprise! Meta loses safety accreditation just months after it was issued.

The Media Rating Council (MRC) has revoked Meta’s brand safety accreditation after the tech giant decided to opt out of the MRC’s annual auditing. MRC CEO and Executive Director George Ivie told Adweek in a statement last week, “as is our procedure when a service withdraws from audit, we informed our members, revoked accreditation, and removed Meta from our site as accredited.”

Meta has now lost its MRC brand-safety accreditation for feeds on Facebook and Instagram. This comes as no surprise really, after Meta replaced its longstanding fact-checking program for a controversial user-based content-moderation approach called Community Notes, making the announcement shortly after President Donald Trump was re-elected earlier this year.

YouTube shares latest “Culture and Trends” report.

And this time it’s heavily focused on shopping in the app. The platform is aiming to become a hub for product discovery and purchase, “with a particular focus on creator-originated products” according to Social Media Today.

“Through formats like unboxings, hauls, and reviews, creators have long fostered shared shopping experiences on YouTube,” the report says. “ In YouTube’s new ‘shoppable’ era, these shared interactions have been transformed into a tangible reality. Today, viewers can easily browse and purchase products created or recommended by creators, reshaping the long-standing relationship between creators and their fans.”

In-app shoppable formats are quickly becoming popular among platforms. Pinterest, Twitch and even ChatGPT have all integrated such tools recently.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

DEEP DIVE

I read the 36 predictions for social media in 2026 so you don’t have to

My first thought: I ain’t reading all that.

Because I’m sorry, who has the time? They do know their audience is made up of MARKETERS, RIGHT? The most notoriously always-on-time-poor-losing-hair-and-sleep workers in the fkn field.

So, who has the time? Yeah, not me. Not you. Not even the intern who probably had to format that listicle at 11 p.m. on a Thursday.

So, I did the heavy lifting, or, okay, light scrolling (I’m a theatre kid, give me a break) to bring you the five predictions that might actually matter. Because five is normal. And palatable. And doesn’t make me want to implode. Which, at this time of year, doesn’t take much at all.

Let’s fkn go.

1. The death of organic reach??? Perhaps for real??

Every year someone declares organic reach “dead,” (remember when I did and almost got a warning hehe) and every year we still find a way to keep her alive and pumping. But this time? Social Media Today thinks the machines might actually win.

The publication predicts platforms will double down on pay-to-play visibility. Meaning if you want eyeballs, you better bring your damn wallet. With more content flooding feeds than ever (and half of it being AI sludge), algorithms will prioritise “quality signals”, aka people who spend.

So, yeah. Organic reach isn’t dead. But it may become more locked away behind a paywall. Like everything else these days.

2. AI becomes the intern we all need (and deserve)

AI is about to become the ultimate overachieving intern. The one who never sleeps, doesn’t complain (oh sh*t) and can spit out 20 caption variations in 0.2 seconds. Gulp. She’s better than me already.

The report predicts smarter AI tools that go beyond “generate post,” such as automatic content repurposing, tone matching, and real-time trend adaptation. Which sounds dreamy until you remember: AI still can’t tell when your joke sounds unhinged (racist) or when your carousel looks like an HR training slide.

To excel here, it won't be by using more AI. It will be about using it better, freeing up humans to do what robots can’t: make things that actually matter/ evoke emotion.

My favourite prediction of the bunch. Mostly because I just wrote an entire piece on it. The report highlights how “dark social” tactics like DMs, Close Friends, broadcast channels, private communities, are becoming the new frontier of influence.

Meta’s already paving the way. A-la the Ray-Ban Meta Neural launch, seeding the campaign through Close Friends lists, not ads or pesky PR blasts. The goal wasn’t reach, it was intimacy. Gatekeeping, but make it strategic.

In 2026, influence will hinge on how close your followers feel, not how many you have. It’s the digital equivalent of “If you know, you know.” And the more you make your audience feel like insiders, the more likely they are to evangelise you in public.

Dark social isn’t the death of virality—it’s just a more exclusive club.

4. Influencers become media networks

Creators aren’t just “influencers” anymore--they’re full-blown production houses. And 2026 will make that impossible to ignore.

Social Media Today predicts creators will professionalise further, building teams, IP, and content verticals. Some are already doing it, like the rise of “vertical soap operas” on TikTok and Instagram I wrote about earlier this week.

The new creator economy looks less like #sponcon and more like mini media empires. Which means for brands, the smartest move won’t be hiring influencers to post about you; it’ll be co-producing narratives with them.

5. Brands start acting like people again

Finally, some NORMALITY. After AI-perfect polish, chaos posting, and “who let the intern run the account?” humour, audiences are craving something real again.

The report predicts a swing back to grounded, personality-driven content. No, like, for real, the kind that feels like it came from a human with a pulse, not a content calendar and an over-caffeinated underpaid graduate.

I’m hoping for lo-fi videos, genuine opinions, behind-the-scenes mess. The brands that can strike that balance of professional yet personal will be the ones that actually build trust in an age when nobody trusts anyone, anywhere.

So, there you go. Five predictions that actually feel plausible, maybe even exciting.

If even half of them come true, 2026 could be the year social media finally grows up a little. Maybe that’s ambitious… so, if not, don’t stress. Someone will publish another 36 predictions next year. And yes, I’ll probably skim those, too, purely for research.

Once again, you’re so welcome xx

-Sophie Randell, Writer

TREND PLUG

Just be yourself

This one’s for those moments you actually WERE being true to yourself... only for it to backfire in spectacular fashion. Oops.

The sound comes from Wheatus’ “Teenage Dirtbag”, specifically that iconic falsetto: “I’ve got two tickets to Iron Maiden, baby…”

Creators are pairing the sound with the on-screen text "Just be yourself." The catch? It’s immediately followed by the fallout of actually doing that. Brutal.

Some of my favourite examples:

It’s dry, ironic, and painfully funny; the perfect blend of “haha relatable” and “wow that hurt.”

How you can jump on this trend:

Record yourself to the sound with a deadpan or confused look (bonus points for the slow blink). On-screen text should read: “Just be yourself” I did and…Then finish it with your sarcastic twist about how that backfired.

A few ideas to get you started:

“Just be yourself” I did and now every email starts with “sorry for the delay”
“Just be yourself” I did and now all my clients have discounts and I’m broke
“Just be yourself” I did and now I have a meeting with HR about my last social media post

- Nico Mendoza, Intern

FOR THE GROUP CHAT

😂 Yap’s funniest home videos: Same day delivery
❤How wholesome: Woman walks for the first time in 10 year
😊Soooo satisfying: Satisfying Minecraft POV
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: Garlic Butter Spaghetti

ASK THE EDITOR

We have a business page but want to try out some different content styles. How do I try new things without confusing our current followers? -Harris

Hey Harris,

If you want to completely change up your content style, you can literally just create another page. It's really that simple. There's no reason you can't have multiple pages for different types of content.

Just look at Nike - they have 300 social pages with unique content targeting different audiences. Creating a new account means you can push out your different content without worrying about your audience getting mixed messages. No need to overthink it!