Hello Marketers!! This Friday is packed with stories from how brands are winning culture with fastvertising, to the craft behind standout social video, to the cultural shifts that’ll shape how we market in 2026. Plenty more stories inside too, including email tactics, AI shifts, purpose-led growth, and more. Let’s dive in now...

The New York Times’ Arjun Ram Srivatsa shares how he creates high-retention social videos by ignoring rigid best practices and focusing instead on emotion, rhythm, and visual storytelling inspired by ’90s MTV. He edits as if he’s “losing his own attention,” uses energy-driven hooks, leans on abstract expression through motion and color, and records voiceovers through casual phone chats. His work on It’s Your World shows that curiosity, vibrancy, and craft, not trends, are what make people actually watch. Why It Matters (POV): In a copy-paste social landscape, retention now comes from taste and originality, not hacks. Arjun’s approach is an example for brands that want to stand out instead of blending in.

New research analyzing 750 ChatGPT prompts shows that “best X” listicles make up 43.8% of all cited sources. Brands that rank highly on third-party lists (and update their own lists frequently) are significantly more likely to be recommended in AI responses. 35% of cited lists come from low-authority sites, and 79% of lists ChatGPT references were updated in 2025, suggesting freshness outweighs domain strength. Across AI platforms, including Google’s AI Overviews, the same pattern holds. Why It Matters (POV): Publishing high-quality, frequently updated comparison pages is becoming table stakes for showing up in AI answers. 

Top AI models have regressed by ~9% on standard SEO tasks, performing worse than their previous versions. The decline isn’t a bug but a shift in model design: newer architectures prioritize deep reasoning, massive context windows, and stricter safety filters, which ironically makes them worse at direct, binary SEO tasks like intent mapping, technical checks, and canonical analysis. Why It Matters (POV): Upgrading to the newest model may actually downgrade your SEO output. SEO teams must now build structured systems, pre-load context, and use older or fine-tuned models for technical tasks.

(1) Start planning early so creative assets, segments, and offer structures are ready before the inbox flood. (2) Define clear metrics based on past seasonal data. (3) Segment aggressively so promos feel personalized and relevant. (4) Use incentives that actually move behavior (VIP early access, tiered deals, gift-with-purchase). And (5) keep engagement high with creative formats like gift guides, advent-style drops, or daily reveals. Crucially, manage send cadence to avoid fatigue. Holiday success comes from intentional timing, not blasting. Why It Matters (POV): Holiday email is a conversion engine only when the strategy is engineered, not improvised. 

5 cultural shifts brands must design for: (1) consumers are escaping stress through softness, fantasy, and “cute culture”; (2) forming emotional bonds with AI while distrusting synthetic content; (3) returning to nature, rituals, and hyper-local living for grounding; (4) rebuilding community through intentional, hobby-led social spaces as loneliness peaks; and (5) rejecting algorithmic sameness in favor of imperfect experiences. Why It Matters (POV): This is a roadmap for positioning your brand in a world where consumers crave both high-speed digital utility and slow and meaningful connection, which means your competitive edge will come from experiences that feel less optimized.

Trust has shifted from institutions to individuals among Gen Z. Product discovery is feed-driven, creators act as credibility gatekeepers, and social platforms compress the journey from awareness to purchase in one click. For brands, winning Gen Z requires reallocating budget to creator-led storytelling, building a presence inside social feeds, and adapting operations for attribution blind spots, brand-safety risks, and always-on content cycles. Why It Matters (POV): Brands that operationalize creator frameworks, measurement, and long-term partnerships will gain efficiency, trust, and conversion advantages that their slower competitors can’t replicate.

“Fastvertising” is a reaction to cultural moments in real time with quick, relevant creative. It has gone from clever Oreo one-offs to a core capability, because when you hit the moment (like Oreo’s blackout tweet, Aviation Gin’s Peloton response, KFC’s “FCK” apology), you unlock outsized earned reach compared to slow, polished campaigns. Why it matters (POV): For marketers, this is a competitive advantage: fast, culturally tuned content can outperform polished campaigns, drive disproportionate earned media, and make your brand feel human (but only if your team can move fast with the right tone). Ryan Reynolds is a good example of capitalizing on this strategy. Here is more explanation from him.

Brands don’t need to invent a purpose; they need to uncover it by talking to customers, understanding how people actually perceive the brand, and identifying the emotional value already tied to their experience. Once that purpose is clear, the real work is integrating it everywhere: messaging, hiring, culture, product decisions, and customer touchpoints. Brands that authentically live their purpose grow faster because customers feel aligned with their values and reward that with loyalty. Why It Matters (POV): A clear, authentic purpose becomes a driver for profitable growth by strengthening retention, elevating brand affinity, and creating raving fans who do your marketing for you.

— Sam C.