We’re back with July’s slightly delayed marketing thoughts and this one’s short. I’m off overseas this week, and squeezing this in between client deadlines and the packing that has not yet started, fitting this in was borderline delusional (and miraculous that it’s being published).
the ai-inception of thinking ai is real and the real things are ai #help
I didn’t say anything at first about Astronomer’s Gwyneth Paltrow ad. You know why? Because I legit thought it was AI. Seriously. I saw the clip of Gwyneth on the couch and my immediate reaction was, “God, AI is getting so real.”
And then it wasn’t.
Which says less about Gwyneth and more about where we’re at with content. We are now at the point where even major campaigns trigger this low-grade confusion. Is it real? Is it parody? Is it AI? Is it even worth checking?
What’s wild is that this was a huge campaign. Big celeb. Big narrative. It should’ve dominated my LinkedIn feed for a week. But instead? I really didn’t see much about it at all. It just… didn’t stick. Maybe it’s because we’ve become so conditioned to expect this kind of uncanny valley content that even the real stuff feels fake. Maybe it’s just that no one knows what to believe anymore (or is that just me struggling with tech like an 84 year old).
Between this, the Wimbledon influencer plant, and the TikToks of fake Hawaii tsunamis – it’s all starting to blur. Even UGC (user-generated content) feels less trustworthy. How do we know someone actually filmed something themselves? Or that it wasn’t stitched together with AI, repurposed from something else, or generated entirely?
And it’s made me rethink what trust even looks like in marketing now. For so long, trust was built on:
- Real customer testimonials
- Real reviews
- Real user-generated content
- Real celebrity endorsements
But when all of that can be faked in seconds – then what? How do we build trust when the things we used to rely on as “proof” start losing credibility? I genuinely think this is the next big shift for marketers: Not more content. Not better branding. But trust. The messy, behind-the-scenes, here’s-how-it-actually-works kind of trust. It’s not about looking real. It’s about being verifiably real. Less polish. More proof. Less “look at us.” More “here’s how.”
Everyone’s been saying for years that trust is the new currency. But the ways we earn it? I reckon that’s about to change completely.
aspirational vs relatable
IKEA just rolled out messy showrooms and I am very, very torn about how I feel about it.
It’s part of their ongoing campaign “The Wonderful Everyday” – bringing “real life into retail”. Designed by interior designers, each space tells a believable story about how people actually live. Less Pinterest, more parents with three kids and a dog.
And I l actually really love the insight behind it. But I’ve been sitting with this one for a while because I’m not totally sold on the execution.
To me, part of going into a showroom is to imagine a life better than yours (hahaha is that kind of depressing? I swear I don’t roam Ikea showrooms wondering what life could be like). That aspirational moment of “Oooh, I want my bedroom to look like this. I want to be the kind of person who folds their towels like that.”
If everything looks a bit TOO real, it stops being inspirational and starts feeling like your own messy house. And that’s not always a vibe you want to buy into. Maybe for OOH campaigns it works? Social feeds? Maybe I’m just torn about the showroom execution part of this?
We’re so obsessed with making things feel human and relatable in marketing – and that’s great for some things. But I’m not convinced it works for everything. Do you want to walk into a Toyota dealership and climb into a Rav4 that smells like last night’s Uber Eats run? Or do you want the new car smell and a dashboard without fingerprints?
There’s a line between human and aspirational. And IKEA is dancing on it in my opinion.
Maybe this is more of a brand play than a direct sales one. It tells a great story. It earns attention. It sticks. But does it move product? I’m not sure. Curious what their showroom sales look like compared to the old layouts! And curious if it’s just me that feels this way about relatability vs aspirational selling!
product placements are now holding a place in my heart <3
ICYMI: Expensify spent $40 million on putting their brand into the new F1 movie. The team in the movie was called Expensify APX GP, and the logo was EVERRRRYWHEREEEE. On suits. On cars. In dialogue. But weirdly – it didn’t feel forced.
Why? Because we’re already conditioned to see logos plastered across every inch of motorsport. So when you see one in a movie about F1, your brain doesn’t even question it. It feels native. Seamless. I’ve many times watched Drive to Survive and my marketing brain questions how any brand can get ROI when their logo is on a shirt surrounded by 43 other logos. So in a movie? Felt kinda normal.
And more importantly than if it feeling normal? It’s working for the business. Expensify searches are up. Sign-ups spiked 4x after one of the stars wore the race suit to the Met Gala. It’s a long-game brand awareness play – but they’re already seeing ROI.
And then on the weekend I watched Happy Gilmore 2 (great watch by the way, I bloody love an unhinged Adam Sandler movie). But the product placement? SO MUCH. Golf brands. Fast food chains. Energy drinks. It should’ve been distracting. But somehow, it wasn’t?
It actually worked. Not because it was subtle (lol, it was not), but because it matched the tone. The world of the film is chaotic, and the brand chaos just… fit. Because it made sense. You expect to see brand logos on golf gear. On hats. On drinks. So when it shows up in a movie about golf, it feels believable. Like yeah, that’s probably what a pro tournament would look like.
It only stands out when a brand wouldn’t be front and centre in real life, but is in the movie just for the sake of it. That’s when it gets cringe in my opinion.
The takeaway (for all of us who don’t have Brad Pitt or a $40 million budget): if the branding wouldn’t show up naturally in the real world, don’t force it into the content. Make it make sense. Placement only works when it feels native.
Three thoughts this month. That’s as much as my brain can pull together at this time, thank you for your understanding.
See you next month!
