Yeah, me neither. But marketing’s gone meta. Which means outrageous stunts and ragebait products are popping up everywhere (hello, Marty Supreme promo). The goal? Doing something so unignorable, people can’t help but give their opinion. Because is anyone really going to buy jeans that are also a scarf? Prob not. But are they going to comment and share the post? Heck yes. So, wait, what exactly is meta marketing? And does this mean traditional marketing is dead?! [Find out]

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

At this workshop, join Stanley Henry and the the Attention Seeker team for a 2-hour session to plan out your content strategy for the whole year.

You’ll learn:

✅ What’s actually working on social right now
✅ How to build a viral content strategy for your brand
✅ The exact approach we use to get millions of views for our clients (and build our own audience of 3.3 million)

PLUS we will have plenty of time for Q&A with you.

Wednesday, 28 Jan | 8:30-10:30am NZT | $49

Stop wasting time making content that doesn’t perform. This is your chance to walk into 2026 with a content plan you know will work 👇

I swear there’s something different every. Damn. Day. Instagram is now experimenting with a new Following display, which would change your “Following” count to “Friends” instead, the people who mutually follow you in the app. Yeah… I’m not sure this is the move they think it is.

The goal, apparently, isn’t to change what content gets recommended, but to change how social connections are presented, making it easier to distinguish real relationships from creators, brands, and loose follows. It’s a subtle but “meaningful” shift that reflects how bloated follow lists have become and how little social context they now provide. In a platform obsessed with scale and reach, this feels like a small attempt to re-introduce intimacy and clarity, without touching the algorithm itself.

Marketing Dive’s annual 2026 forecast points to several clear themes shaping the year ahead: AI integration, attention scarcity, and the premium on authenticity. You know, all the usual buzzwords. 

Brands are expected to continue blending generative tools into strategy and execution, while also wrestling with the risk of homogenisation as AI output proliferates. Analysts predict that control over first-party data and owned touchpoints will become increasingly strategic as acquisition costs rise and consumer privacy norms tighten. Meanwhile, differentiators like transparent brand voice, real experiences, and creator partnerships are seen as key to cutting through noise. In a landscape driven by both automation and human connection, balance will be the currency.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

Marketing is no longer about simply selling you something. It's not even about "authenticity" anymore. Which I’m rather happy about. Because if I have to read one more brand guideline with that word in it, you may have to restrain me from throwing my laptop into the ocean and saying sayonara to the whole industry.

For now, we've entered a new phase: meta marketing. Here, the spectacle of the campaign matters more than the product it's supposedly advertising.

You may have seen this creeping into the fashion space already, like Jacquemus putting a giant Nike swoosh onto the side of a literal snowy mountain. Or Moschino's iron-shaped handbag. Or EgonLab’s scarf jeans - obvious rage bait that became iconic anyway. David's cod eye patches that don't actually exist as a purchasable product.

The game has changed. People don't want to be marketed to anymore. Actually, everyone's had it up to their fkn ears being sold to. Instead, they want to be transformed by the encounter itself, to screenshot it, send it to their group chat, and say "can you believe this?"

This is why it's meta. The marketing has become the product.

What's happening in fashion is spreading everywhere. Behind-the-scenes content now routinely outperforms the polished campaign it was meant to support.

The brands making waves in 2026 aren't the ones with the best ads; they're the ones building mythology and surrealism into their DNA. Look at Liquid Death. They sell water. Canned water. But they've built an entire universe of death metal aesthetics, absurd stunts, and cultural commentary that makes buying their product feel like joining a movement.

The spectacle came first; the sales followed.

This represents a fundamental inversion. Traditional marketing asks: "How do we make people want our product?" Meta marketing asks: "How do we make our brand a thing people want to have an opinion about?"

How many cod eye patches do you need to “metaphorically sell” to justify the campaign for a product that doesn't exist? The honest answer is that legacy metrics are breaking down.

Click-through rates and conversion funnels feel quaint when your campaign's primary goal is to occupy mindshare and generate cultural conversation. Brands are chasing something more elusive: becoming a reference point, a meme, a shared cultural artifact.

These are harder to put in a quarterly report for obvious reasons. But they're what actually builds lasting brand equity in an attention economy where people have infinite scroll and zero patience for being sold to.

This is the challenge facing brands in 2026. It's not about bigger budgets or flashier production - some of the most viral moments can cost almost nothing to create.

The key is understanding that you can't "try to go viral" - that's the kiss of death, immediately obvious and cringe-inducing. Instead, successful meta marketing requires:

Embracing absurdism over message control: The brands that win are comfortable releasing things into the world without a clear takeaway or call-to-action. The confusion and conversation are the point.

Creating inherently shareable moments: Not "please share this," but rather things so surprising or delightful or confounding that sharing them is the natural response. The spectacle must be its own reward.

Calculated spontaneity: The most effective spectacles are the ones that feel utterly spontaneous even when they're meticulously planned. The effort must be invisible.

Hiring for cultural intuition: Traditional marketing training doesn't prepare people for this. You need team members who understand internet culture, can spot a moment before it happens, and aren't afraid to break every rule they learned in business school.

Before y’all get your panties in a twist, that’s NOT what I’m saying. Plenty of brands will continue to succeed with straightforward product-focused campaigns. But for brands trying to break through the noise, especially in categories like fashion, beauty, and lifestyle, the spectacle is becoming mandatory.

Brands that understand how to create cultural moments that make people feel changed just for witnessing them, and build desire not through features and benefits, but through mythology and surrealism, are the ones doing it right. 

Stop asking "How do we sell this?" and start asking "How do we make this worth talking about?" The conversation is the conversion, darling.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

The flatmate who's been saying "I'll transfer you tomorrow" for three weeks straight? Your coworker who conveniently steps out right when the coffee order arrives? Yeah, we all have someone in our lives who's mastered the art of selective amnesia when it comes to paying people back. This trend is for the people who are done being nice and are turning the intensity up a notch.

The audio comes from a snippet in the Euphoria Season 3 trailer, where drug supplier Laurie delivers the chilling line "Come on Rue, you owe me money" in the most unsettling monotone after Rue lost $10K worth of drugs.

The internet saw that energy and said "perfect for guilt-tripping people over borrowed Tupperware." Now, creators are using Laurie's chillingly polite reminder to call out every unpaid tab and broken promises. Because nothing hits quite like that "I'm not mad, just disappointed" energy, except replace "disappointed" with "about to ruin your life".  

Some of my fav examples include:

Using the audio, flip the camera to yourself and playfully (or not so playfully) call out debts, borrowed items, or unfulfilled promises. The contrast between Laurie's gentle tone and your petty grievance is *chef's kiss*. For a more dramatic effect, look startled, surprised, or slowly turn to the camera like you just remembered something - perfect for those "oh you thought I forgot?" moments.

A few ideas to get you started: 

-Raewyn Zhao, Intern

😂Yap’s funniest home videos Ragebait inspired by Jaws
❤How wholesome For all my animal lovers
😊Soooo satisfying Clay cracking jellycats
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight 20-minute burger bowls with easy Big Mac sauce

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.