Your ATTN Please || Tuesday, 4 November

You didn’t know you wanted an iPad until Steve Jobs told you so.

As marketers, we come at selling from one of two angles. Either we notice what people say they want, then give it to them. Or we skip the demand and just tell people what they want. And if that second one feels a little icky, you’re not wrong. But what if we looked at the power we wield as influence rather than manipulation? And yes, we can use that power to make people feel like they’re not enough—always needing moremoremore. Or we can use it to amplify desire toward things that provide meaning, connection, and growth.

- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡

Learn how to ground yourself in mindfulness & gratitude

Join Hira Nathan, best selling author of Whakawhetai, Piki te Ora and Māori Ora for a kōrero about the life-changing journey to find peace, clarity and being.

In this inspiring webinar, Hira will share the personal story behind his mindfulness and gratitude practice, how reconnecting with mātauranga Māori reshaped his sense of purpose, and why building a tūāpapa—a solid foundation—is essential for wellbeing in a busy modern world.

You’ll learn:
 
◾The deeper meaning of gratitude in Te Ao Māori
◾Simple, grounded tools to bring mindfulness into everyday life
◾About upcoming Tūāpapa retreats designed to help you find stillness, connection, & your place to stand

Tuesday, 4 Nov | 2pm NZT | FREE

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MARKETING TODAY?

IG rolls out Watch History, Pinterest wants to be Gen Z’s happy place & Reddit makes bank selling data

Instagram will finally let you find that Reel you remember watching 3 weeks ago.

Majorly a first world problem, but it is soooo frustrating trying to find a Reel to show someone, to no avail most of the time. Now, Mosseri has revealed a watch history for Reels. You can now find it on Instagram under Settings > Your activity > Watch history.

"Hopefully, now you can find that thing that you were trying to find that you couldn't find before," the Instagram CEO said.

Pinterest is courting Gen Z with "Safer" social media.

This is one of the smartest marketing moves the platform has ever made. Because it's absolutely right. And almost uncanny with the timing of this, as recently my bf asked me what I was looking at on Pinterest, and I explained I've been trying to spend more time there rather than on platforms that are chaotic, toxic and oversaturated with sh*t. It kind of reminds me of the Tumblr days: slower, easier consumption of pretty content that often sparks creative inspiration. And, even if not, it just somehow feels better.

Bill Ready, Pinterest’s Chief Executive, said it’s been focused on winning over Gen Z, partly by positioning itself as a different kind of social media, believing it can be a safer place on the internet. And the world couldn’t need that more than right now as platforms grapple with their effects on users’ mental health. For Pinterest, Ready said the goal is to “make you feel better after time spent on the platform.” Read the full interview here.

Reddit just projected fourth-quarter sales that beat analysts’ expectations.

Reddit’s post-IPO glow-up is still going strong. In a statement last week, the platform said it expects fourth-quarter revenue to be $655 million to $665 million. This exceeds the average Wall Street estimate of $636 million.

With 116 million daily users (up 19% year-on-year), Reddit’s growing faster than analysts expected, even if it’s still smaller than the Meta-Tok behemoths. The real money move? AI. Reddit’s sitting on a goldmine of user data, licensing it to OpenAI and Google for hundreds of millions while staying “asset light.” COO Jen Wong says the company will keep using AI to boost ads, products, and profit. It's proof that sometimes the smartest play is letting everyone else pay for your data.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

DEEP DIVE

The two faces of marketing: creating demand vs. exploiting it

A coworker said something to me recently that’s been living rent-free in my head ever since: marketing either exploits demand or creates it.

It’s one of those deceptively simple statements that unravels the longer you think about it (and trust me, your girl be thinking and spiralling – uh – unravelling everything.)

Because in the end, everything we do: every brief, campaign and creative strategy meeting, falls somewhere along that spectrum. We’re either responding to what people already want or teaching them what to want next.

That’s the duality of marketing. It’s both mirror and maker, a practice built on empathy and manipulation in almost equal measure. (And as a Libra, I am eating that sh*t up.)

Let’s start with the mirror.

Exploiting demand sounds almost sinister, but it’s actually the more honest side of marketing. It’s about recognising what already exists in culture—the needs, desires, insecurities, and aspirations of consumers bubbling just beneath the surface—and articulating them in a way that resonates.

At its best, this kind of marketing is empathetic.

It listens before it speaks.

And it turns chaos into clarity.

Think of Spotify Wrapped, which transformed our listening data into a cultural ritual by tapping into something deeply human: our need to see ourselves reflected in numbers and nostalgia. Or Airbnb, which didn’t invent wanderlust, but reframed it as belonging. Or Nike, which took ambition—a raw, universal instinct—and branded it as performance.

This kind of marketing feels collaborative. It amplifies the emotional truths people already live with. It works with culture rather than against it.

When you’re exploiting demand, you’re essentially saying, “We get it.”

Then there’s the other face. The one that doesn’t just listen, but leads.

Creating demand is where marketing gets… murkier, so to speak.

It’s when we stop identifying existing needs and start manufacturing them. When we turn minor discomforts into opportunities, and opportunities into obsession.

It’s the difference between selling moisturiser and convincing someone their natural skin texture is a huge problem. Between designing a phone upgrade and making people feel obsolete without it.

Sometimes, this kind of marketing is visionary.

Apple did it when it introduced the iPhone, creating a need for touchscreens before we knew we had one. Netflix did it when it redefined entertainment consumption. This is not exploiting demand, but expanding it. It’s reorienting human behaviour.

And often, demand creation slides into manipulation.

We start designing discontent just to sell the cure. We sell the problem and the solution in the same breath. And when that cycle scales: through social media, influencer culture, algorithmic targeting, it moves from shaping buying behaviour to reshaping identity.

We no longer buy to meet needs. We buy to express who we are, or who we wish to be. Desire becomes not just emotional but existential.

Zoom out far enough, and marketing starts to look less like an industry and more like a cultural operating system. What once responded to the world, now writes it.

When we exploit demand, we’re playing historian: capturing the mood of the moment and reflecting it back. When we create demand, we’re playing god: designing the next version of reality.

Neither is inherently good or bad, but both carry power.

And power, by its nature, has consequences.

We see this in the beauty industry’s decades-long reinforcement of narrow ideals. In fast fashion’s transformation of self-expression into disposability. In wellness culture’s subtle pivot from health to moral performance. Marketing has become the architecture of desire. Shaping what we think is normal, possible, and necessary.

The irony is that marketers often describe their work as “meeting people where they are.” But increasingly, we’re deciding where that is.

Today’s marketers are living through an identity crisis of their own.

We’re told to be purpose-driven, empathetic, and transparent, yet still deliver quarter-on-quarter growth in an attention economy that rewards urgency and excess.

We want to make things people love, not things that quietly break them. But the system rarely rewards restraint. It rewards demand. The louder, the faster, the newer, the better.

So we try to split the difference. We chase metrics that measure awareness but not impact. We frame consumption as self-care. We use the language of empowerment to justify the machinery of persuasion.

Maybe that’s the real double bind: we can’t fully tell if we’re creating desire or simply feeding it.

And the monster grows bigger than our little minds could ever fathom – or control.

So then, maybe the question isn’t whether marketing exploits or creates demand, maybe it’s how consciously we do either (wishful thinking perhaps.)

There’s nothing wrong with amplifying desire. The human drive for novelty, comfort, beauty, and belonging is ancient. What matters is what we attach it to. Are we inspiring curiosity or insecurity? Empowering autonomy or dependence? Helping people connect, or just scroll faster?

It would be nice to think the next era of marketing will be less about creating demand from thin air and more about redirecting it toward ideas, products, and movements that add meaning rather than noise. Toward brands that meet real needs and reflect the world responsibly.

But again, that’s probably just a nice thought.

Marketing will always shape culture, whether we mean to or not. The only choice we really have is the direction in which it tilts.

-Sophie Randell, Writer

TREND PLUG

“Sometimes you just have to read your _____’s texts and move on with your day.”

This one’s for those of you harnessing all the unhinged energy of what's sitting in your inboxes and DMs. Just keep it SFW.

The sound comes from @brandonplayspiano on TikTok. It's a soft, slightly melancholic piano cover of "Still The Same" by Autumn. Basically the perfect calm backdrop for your most chaotic screenshots (either real or “set up for engagement”).

My favourite examples comin' thru:

• Sometimes you gotta read your manager's text and just go on about your day

• Sometimes you gotta read your mom's text and move on with your day

• Sometimes you gotta read your TikTok comments and go on with your day

How you can jump on this trend:

This one's a carousel post! Slide one: a clean photo of you looking unbothered, with the on-screen text “Sometimes you just gotta read your (person)’s texts and move on with your day.” Slide two: the punchline! A screenshot of the unhinged, hilarious, or painfully relatable messages or conversation.

A few ideas to get you started:

• “Sometimes you just gotta read your agency partner’s text and move on with your day.” “We didn’t change much, just the entire concept.”

• “Sometimes you just gotta read your client’s text and move on with your day.” “We love it… but can we try something completely different?” 

• “Sometimes you just gotta read your customer’s message and move on with your day.” “Hey, I ordered in 2019. Can I still get a refund?”

-Nico Mendoza, Intern

FOR THE GROUP CHAT

😂 Yap’s funniest home videos: Minion gets turnt
✨Daily inspo: Nobody cares, so DO IT
🎧Soooo tingly: Popcorn ASMR
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: Belarusian Draniki (potato pancakes?!)

ASK THE EDITOR

I would love tips to market my content as a musician and as a vocal coach. -Casey

Hey Casey,

As humans, we have a natural appreciation for talent. So you're in a good position to make content people want to watch because you have a talent to share! My advice is to do some research on the platform where you want to build your audience. See what content formats other people have used to successfully showcase their skills.

Don't just look for content you enjoy—look for content that has gotten good viewership and engagement. Once you've got some source material, figure out how to replicate that content style for yourself. It's important to pay attention to the on-screen text, camera angle, and other details from your source material, then try to match it as well as you can.

You will likely need to do a good bit of experimenting, but if you start by re-creating a piece of content that has already performed well, you will find out what works much faster than just doing what you think might work.

- 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.

PSST…PASS IT ON