95% of Your Customers Do This with AI and Humans, According to SOCi
“AI Suggests, Humans Decide!” That’s the bold statement that emerged from the SOCi 2025 Consumer Behavior Index (CBI). The company warns Brands to “embrace” human validation or get left behind. The study validated the importance of TikTok, Instagram, and real human experiences to determine spending choices. Although 19% of consumers are using AI tools themselves […]
2025 Social Media Playbook: Authenticity, Originality, and Community-Driven Engagement
The era of trend-chasing is over. According to the newly released 2025 Sprout Social Index™, consumers are reshaping their expectations for brand behavior on social media. The verdict? Authenticity, originality, and personalized connections are no longer optional—they’re essential. This shift is more than a passing phase. As Rachael Goulet, Director of Social Media at Sprout […]
Embracing Hyperlocal Creative at Scale
The challenge of authentic content is doing it at scale, in a way that is brand safe, across all markets. While creating custom content could seem like a feasible task for international companies with endless resources at their fingertips, even legacy brands all too often struggle with personalized, custom, local content at scale. It’s equally as challenging for local businesses like franchises, small agencies, and Mom-and-Pop shops who are charged with many business tasks outside of content creation. One of the pivotal concerns in digital marketing as it applies to content and content creation is having an efficient process to scale content production.
So, how can franchises, local businesses, and brands scale their creative marketing content to better reach local markets?
Transparency and Brand Purpose Dominated Cannes
The big topic of the week was industry change, driven largely by transparency. Agencies are evaluating opportunities and challenges to their business model as buyers demand more oversight of media, fees, and attribution. Increasing interest in ad tech in-housing has also stoked soul-searching.
Every brand also talked about reflecting an authentic, real world in its marketing—from the people in front of and behind the cameras, to creative and targeting strategies. The campaigns that seemed the most likely to succeed were all “purpose-centric,” with the brand rallying around a specific and common cause.
Content Marketing in the Era of AI Fatigue
AI wants to help you with your content marketing. In fact, it wouldn’t mind at all being at the center of your content marketing strategy. Tell it what you need, giving it as many or as few details as you’d like, and it will crank out content for you nonstop and freakishly fast. And if […]