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- Your ATTN Please || Wednesday, 28 May
Your ATTN Please || Wednesday, 28 May
Your logo on a political sign you’ve never seen. Footage of your product injuring someone.
A press release announcing a “new” product that’s offensive…one that definitely does not exist. Each situation is a marketer’s nightmare. But each is now completely possible, thanks to generative AI. So, how do you protect your reputation when a hater using Midjourney in their parents’ basement can make anything look true?
- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡
How to *actually* win on Instagram in 2025
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Bring your questions and we will bring everything we've learnt spending thousands of hours on Instagram. We're not gatekeeping anything, so get ready!
Friday 13 June | 8:30–10:00am NZT | $49
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MARKETING TODAY?
Marketers do more with less, TikTok grows audience for women’s sport & UNO launches pop-up game nights
Marketing budgets are stuck.
No surprises here: marketers are still being asked to do more with less. According to Gartner’s 2025 CMO Spend Survey, budgets are holding steady at 7.7% of company revenue. That’s the same as last year, and still well below the 11% we saw before COVID. The report digs into how CMOs are spending, showing clear shifts in where the money’s going. Paid media is getting a bigger slice of the pie, now 31% of total spend, up from 28%, as brands fight to stay visible.
Meanwhile, 39% of CMOs say they are cutting back on agencies and labour, aiming to stretch every dollar further. Not all industries are tightening their belts equally, though. Travel, IT, and healthcare are amongst those pulling back. Meanwhile, industries like pharmaceuticals and consumer goods are still spending strong.
Women’s sport is winning on TikTok.
Gone are the days where female athletes had to wait for mainstream media to give them the same coverage given to their male counterparts. Women’s sport has taken matters into its own hands – by turning TikTok into its most powerful stage. According to research published by the Women’s Sport Trust, 80% of surveyed brand decision-makers said they were likely to invest in women’s sport over the next one to three years. Interestingly, they’ve also reported a major spike in TikTok engagement for women’s sport, right as traditional viewership begins to plateau.
A recent TikTok event in London brought together athletes, content creators, publishers, and brands to explore how platforms like TikTok are helping to build year-round visibility. At the event, football star Mary Earps told audiences she recalled being told as far back as 2019, “If you want to leave a legacy, you need to be on [TikTok].” And it’s not just about reach anymore. Audience engagement = commercial opportunity through merch, ticketing, and partnerships. As one speaker put it: “This isn’t just branding. It’s where the business is happening.”
UNO’s latest move is more than a game – it’s a brand experience.
Mattel is serving up a masterclass in brand extension, transforming classic card play into a full-blown social lifestyle with its new UNO Social Club pop-ups. Launching in NYC and rolling out across the States, these themed game nights tap into the rise of a desire to connect offline. Think curated aesthetics, cocktails, DJs, and high-stakes card battles under neon lights.
But with the global tabletop gaming market projected to hit $34.1 billion by 2030, this isn’t just about playing cards. This campaign is a sharp blend of IRL activation and social-first content. And it's designed to capture the attention of younger audiences hungry for connection away from screens (but absolutely ready to post back on to them!). It's a reminder that the smartest brands aren’t just running campaigns. They’re building culture.
-Helena Masters, Copywriter
DEEP DIVE
How to protect your brand in an era of misinformation
Thanks to generative AI and the internet’s insatiable appetite for content, brand misinformation is multiplying faster than you can say “ChatGPT.”
According to the 2023 State of the Media Report, “maintaining credibility as a trusted news source and combating accusations of ‘fake news’” was the biggest challenge for the media that year. I’m sure it’s no surprise to you, dear marketers, that problem has not only gotten worse, but now extends to us (yaaaaay.)
And no, it’s not just conspiracy theories and fake celeb quotes anymore. We’re talking about doctored press releases, fake screenshots of customer service chats, and AI-generated videos with your logo slapped on top. All things that can significantly harm your brand's reputation.
And in this era of misinformation, marketers have to work hard to protect those reputations. So, let’s break down why this is happening, how it’s impacting brands, and what smart marketers can do to stay ahead of the chaos.
First, why is brand misinformation spinning out of control?
AI makes lies look real. It used to take a team of trolls and a Photoshop license to spread a good fake. Now? All it takes is a prompt and 10 seconds. Tools like Sora, ElevenLabs, and image generators can produce incredibly realistic “brand” content. This could be ads that never aired, logos on fake products, or images of influencers praising something they’ve never touched.
The internet doesn’t check sources. A juicy fake ad travels way faster than your official press release ever will. People want to believe the wild stuff (it’s more entertaining, duh). Platforms reward engagement, not accuracy.
Your brand is part of a bigger narrative. Brands aren’t just brands anymore. You’re a political symbol, a cultural flashpoint, a meme. Whether you like it or not, you’re in the discourse (and misinformation loves a familiar name).
The real-world impact:
Consumer confusion. A fake sustainability claim goes viral, and suddenly your DMs are an angry mob, pitchforks and all. You didn’t make the claim, BUT good luck explaining that in 240 characters.
Loss of trust. Even if you debunk it, the damage might be done. If audiences start questioning whether your messaging is real, you’re in reputation debt.
Hijacked brand stories. Once misinformation becomes part of your brand’s search results or meme identity, you’re no longer in control of your narrative. The internet is. And that, my friends, is scary as hell.
Ok, enough doom and gloom. Here's how marketers can fight back (without losing their minds):
Monitor smarter, not harder. Traditional social listening tools aren’t enough anymore. Use tools that can detect AI-generated content, track brand mentions across video, image, and audio platforms, and identify deepfakes or lookalike URLs. (Think: adversarial brand tracking.)
Have a response playbook ready. You can’t control the chaos, but you can control your response. Draft templates for misinformation response, line up legal and comms teams in advance, and assign clear roles for fact-checking and escalation.
Own your narrative everywhere. If you don’t tell your story, someone else (or something else) will. Build a strong presence across multiple platform so your audience knows where to find the truth.
Lean into radical transparency. In an age where everything can be faked, honesty is your superpower. Show your process. Admit mistakes. Share real behind-the-scenes. Trust is built through vulnerability, not polish.
Educate your audience. Show them how to spot fakes. Let them in on how your real ads are made. If your brand has clout, use it to teach media literacy. (Yes, that’s part of marketing now.)
Speak like a human. If your official statement reads like it was written by a lawyerbot in a PR bunker, no one’s going to believe you. You’re fighting AI-generated content. Don’t sound AI-generated yourself. Clarity and authenticity beat “brand voice” every time.
The AI era demands that marketers do more than advertise. We have to actively defend reality. And while you can’t control what gets made in someone’s basement on Midjourney, you can control how agile, transparent, and human your brand shows up in response.
-Sophie Randell, Writer
TREND PLUG
Holy fkn airball
Today's sound comes from a viral edit of a cowboy on horseback lassoing a calf, set to "Soul Survivor" by Young Jeezy and Akon.
But TikTok has spun it into something even better—a lowkey carousel trend for when someone downplays your work and you get to hit them with the cold, hard truth. It’s petty. It’s polished. It’s the perfect “I told you so.” A few examples:
Charli D’Amelio nailed the tone:
Told him I do social media.
“Oh, so you have a couple followers?
]Screenshot of her TikTok profile with 156M followers] HOLY FKN AIRBALL
Told them I’m becoming a vet.
“So you cuddle puppies all day?”
[Photo of them sedating a lion at a zoo] HOLY FKN AIRBALL
How you can jump on this trend:
Using both the sound and TikTok’s photo carousel, structure it like:
What you said
What they assumed
The reality, with "HOLY FKN AIRBALL" as your mic drop
The stronger the reveal, the better the laugh.
A few ideas to get you started:
“I work in marketing” “So you post memes all day?” → Slide 3: [Photo of your multi-deck campaign rollout] HOLY FKN AIRBALL
“I freelance” “Oh so you don’t have a real job?” → [Photo of invoice paid, client results, and you in Mykonos] HOLY FKN AIRBALL
“I host a podcast” “Wait so like… you talk into a mic?” → [Spotify top 5%, 250+ eps, full studio setup] HOLY FKN AIRBALL
“I run a brand account” “Do you just comment ‘slay’ on people’s posts?” → [Screenshot of 3M monthly reach + viral comments] HOLY FKN AIRBALL
“I make content for a living” “Oh like TikToks?” → [Screenshot of your calendar: edits, briefs, client calls, 5 brand collabs] HOLY FKN AIRBALL
- abdel khalil, brand & marketing executive
FOR THE GROUP CHAT
😲WTF: Britney Spears breaks silence
❤How wholesome: a round of applause for the good boi
🎧Soooo tingly: makeup cracking
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: crispy chicken cutlet caesar salad!
TODAY ON THE YAP PODCAST… PLAY US ON SPOTIFY
Want even more “YAP”ing? Check out the full podcast here.
ASK THE EDITOR
I’ve just been hired for my first social media job. What advice do you have for me? - Bethany
Hey Bethany!
One of the best ways you can learn is to work on building your own brand on social media. Experiment with creating different types of content, noticing what does well and what doesn't. Look at your data and use it to improve your content.
My second piece of advice is to spend intentional time on social media (and I don't mean doom scrolling). So when you're on a platform, pay attention to what you pay attention to.
Question why a piece of content works or doesn't work. Look at what kind of hooks stop your scroll. The more time you spend on a platform with the intention to learn about what works, the faster you'll understand what kind of content to create for that space.
- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡
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