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Marketing Brew

Ryan Barwick

marketingbrew.com

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Duolingo, Osea Malibu, and Truff are among the brands that tell us they’d turn to alternative short-form video platforms, like Instagram Shorts and YouTube Reels.

An @ symbol denoting social media and influencers

Social & Influencers

Jennimai Nguyen

MKBR-AI in social media audio embed

Duolingo is now “AI-first,” job postings are emphasizing AI competency as a desired skill, and it seems every company is hungry for AI-powered efficiency. The AI boom is officially in every business corner, and branded social media is no exception—but should it be?

Much of social media content creation relies on creative thinking and production, and creative types haven’t been shy about criticizing AI reliance, particularly the kind that might eliminate jobs. At the same time, the allure of taking advantage of a moment like the ChatGPT-generated-action-figure trend is too strong, and all of a sudden, it seems the hottest (and quickest) thing a social media manager can do is get in on the AI buzz. It’s an impulse made even easier when companies like Adobe and OpenAI roll out creative-focused AI products.

But social media consultant and writer of the newsletter Link in Bio Rachel Karten has a theory. Rather than AI being the next big thing in brand social, it could end up encouraging an alternate route, a phenomenon that she’s dubbing “proof of reality.” In an effort to emphasize quality and craftsmanship, Karten expects some brands to use their social media feeds as a place to emphasize their human creativity, attention to detail, and the real, human-led work that went into making certain content for the brand.

“As the ways that posts are made on social media become more and more unclear…we’re going to see brands ramp up this proof of how they made the post,” Karten told Marketing Brew. “I don’t think it’s new necessarily, but I think those types of posts are going to hold more weight, especially for the consumer.”

Karten said she got the idea for proof of reality from watching 

, a satirical Apple TV+ show about a Hollywood film studio. In promoting the show, Apple put out a behind-the-scenes clip showing how an episode featuring one long continuous (and chaotic) shot was made. That’s when the proverbial light bulb went off.

“Not only does the content of the show feel [like it’s] in reaction to slop online, but so did the promotion of it,” Karten said. “We’ve seen this on social as well, with like BTS of the campaign…and sometimes the BTS even gets more engagement than the original post itself.”

Even as behind-the-scenes posts find resonance, companies both big and small are taking the opposite route. Coca-Cola faced backlash last year when its holiday ads were loudly and proudly 

, and the fast-fashion retailer H&M is planning to use AI-generated 

Karten said she has noticed AI-generated images being used on social accounts, like the athleisure brand Set Active. On TikTok, Set Active’s chief brand officer has noted that Set Active uses AI (and Midjourney, in particular) for some social image creation.

Karten surmised that small businesses in particular might find AI tempting as they try to capitalize on trends and figure out their own social media approach. But while the tech might speed things along, brands using it risk receiving negative comments and their campaigns becoming a talking point for the wrong reasons.

“That’s a piece of marketing that you need to think about now,” she said. “If you piss off some customers, they’re not just a few customers in your database that are leaving. A few customers…might create a TikTok that is bashing your brand that goes viral, and everyone is piling on.”

According to freelance brand designer and Adobe Express ambassador Julie Christie-Clark, small businesses are exactly who can benefit the most from AI tools. Christie-Clark frequently uses Adobe AI products like Firefly and Express for client work, and she makes educational content on 

 showing how AI can be implemented in creative design.

“I have lots of small businesses that can’t afford brand photography, brand photo shoots, or even buying lots of stock imagery, and they can’t quite find what they want in the libraries,” Christie-Clark said. “So it’s kind of game-changing for small-business owners to be able to have really impactful, professional graphics.”

Christie-Clark uses AI throughout the strategy, production, and final-delivery processes, finding that it can save time and improve her brainstorming abilities. She particularly leans on Adobe’s brand-safety tools, which Adobe Express’s VP and head of product Ian Wang emphasized is key to what makes tools like Firefly useful to brands.

“For us, it’s all about commercial safety and on-brand creation,” Wang told Marketing Brew. “We have custom models that our brands now are training based on their own content and data…when you do that, that’s another lever to make it look realistic, because all that’s clearly coming from this brand.”

As AI usage in brand social media ramps up, there’s still plenty of gray area. Karten has noticed some brand images looking similar to previous campaign concepts, and she wondered if AI is enabling ideation that doesn’t meaningfully diverge from prior creative work.

“When you can feed your mood board into AI and generate something original for your brand, where is that line?” she said. “It’s very tricky.”

The rise of AI’s usage across brand social seems to signal a change in attitude toward the tools. Christie-Clark was “a wee bit skeptical” of using AI tools, but she changed her mind on the matter over the last year, which she said was because of the quality of AI products. She now believes in using AI in final products, not just in the brainstorming process, which is a method that some social media experts, like Karten, prefer.

“I’m tending to start to work AI-first, which I’m actually really surprised myself, with how long I’ve been doing things the same way,” Christie-Clark said.“I’m embracing the change to keep moving with the times.”

Whether or not AI is the next big thing in brand social, Wang said what will make AI products stand out is identifying ways to make the tech useful, not just exciting.

Being useful in creative fields doesn’t need to always mean using generative AI. According to him, incorporating AI into already existing brand work could be a step forward.

“There’s a massive bridge that needs to be crossed between exciting stuff that you love to play with, and it looks cool, to it being truly useful for your day-to-day and your livelihood,” Wang said. “That bridging layer is really what we’re focused on to make sure that it’s really useful to everyday users. I think [if] we do that, it becomes less intimidating.”

Three images of AI generated coffee cups on social media posts

Should brands use AI in social media?

Social media consultant Rachel Karten thinks “proof of reality” will bear more weight for brands than obvious AI, but companies like Adobe are betting otherwise.

AI use is becoming more common on social media. Should brands use it—or shun it?

Upfronts week is all about talking a big game, and YouTube closed it out eager to talk the biggest.

The platform hosted its annual Brandcast event Wednesday evening for the second consecutive year at Lincoln Center—but this year, the stage, the scene, and the brand promises were much grander. As YouTube celebrates its 

, it spent as much time talking about its history as it did its future, with the platform now ranked the No. 1 streaming platform in terms of watch time two years in a row, according to Nielsen.

“YouTube has become the epicenter of culture,” CEO Neal Mohan told the audience. “But what comes next is even more exciting…This isn’t about YouTube becoming more like traditional TV, this is about TV becoming YouTube.”

Mohan pointed to YouTube’s creator series, gaming livestreams, sports content, podcasts (of which the platform has 1 billion monthly listeners), and music videos as evidence of its wide-ranging content and cross-screen influence. Perhaps there was no better example of its cultural pull than the closing act of the night: a no-holds-barred set from Lady Gaga, the first artist to reach 1 billion views on the platform.

, YouTube continued to emphasize its creator connections during the presentation, beginning with a red carpet pre-show outside Lincoln Center featuring creators Haley Kalil and Julian Shapiro Barnum. Creator Brittany Broski kicked off the event inside as host, and MrBeast, Sean Evans of 

, and IShowSpeed were brought onstage during the presentation to discuss their podcasts and video series.

 during this year’s upfronts, sports were emphasized as a key selling point. For YouTube, the big announcement came in the form of the 2025 NFL kickoff game in Brazil between the LA Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs, which was announced by Mohan and celebrated by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell onstage later in the show. (Goodell also made an appearance at 

just a few hours earlier.) Former NFL players Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman were also present to participate in one of MrBeast’s tug-of-war challenges.

 YouTube announced new advertising options for brands to seize on its pitched cultural and streaming dominance, including:

Cultural moments sponsorships, which allow advertisers to place ads at the top of searches related to cultural moments like the Oscars or Black Friday, in addition to creator takeovers

Peak points, which use Google’s generative AI tool Gemini to identify the most important part of a video and place ads immediately after

Redesigned, full-screen Masthead ads on the YouTube homepage

And new CTV shopping options, like a “send to phone” feature where consumers can continue browsing products on mobile using a QR code

 While Lady Gaga stuck to her more recent songs (plus “Shallow”) in her set, her closing performance pushed forward the theme of new and enduring legacies. She certainly wasn’t the only one there living for the 

“The energy in this room and what you just saw outside is really a testament to what we’ve built at YouTube over the past 20 years, and the next 20 promises to be even more transformational,” Mohan said. “We can’t wait for you to join us as we shape the future of entertainment and culture together.”

Youtube CEO Neal Moyan appears onstage at YouTube's 2025 Brandcast event, with the Youtube logo, the words "Brandcast," and creator images displayed on a screen behind him 

YouTube caps off upfronts week with a bang—and Lady Gaga

The platform put its streaming dominance and 20-year history of cultural impact on display Wednesday night.

YouTube, which is expected to surpass Disney to become the biggest media company in the world by revenue this year, wasted no time at its NewFront event on Thursday reminding everyone that, per Nielsen, it’s currently the No. 1 streaming platform in the country.

“Audiences are watching on every screen, from their living rooms to their phones and across every video format,” Anne Marie Nelson-Bogle, VP of YouTube ads marketing, said onstage. “That unrivaled breadth spanning everything from long-story blogs to podcasts to short form makes YouTube indispensable to people’s lives today.”

Throughout the presentation, which marked Google’s second 

 to advertisers in a week’s time, YouTube executives took a page from 

 NewFronts playbooks and similarly pitched the platform as the arbiter of culture.

“YouTube is where audiences come together, not just to swap flaming memes, but to participate in culture,” Nelson-Bogle said.

 Much of YouTube’s presentation was focused on the creators who help drive the platform’s cultural relevancy and utilize its 

. Lifestyle creator Ashley Alexander, Julian Shapiro-Barnum of the social series 

, and Alisha Marie and Remi Cruz, who host the podcast 

, were among those brought onstage to talk about how they balance long-form videos, Shorts, and livestreaming on the platform, as well as share case studies from brand partnerships.

The announcements made at YouTube’s NewFront also centered on YouTube Creators, with the following tools and updates added:

A creator partnerships hub with “improved” sponsored video and creator search capabilities for brands, as well as paid and organic reporting for linked videos

New APIs that will provide insights into creator analytics

A new Insights Finder report that will return information about creators and their fans

Takeover lead-ins, which feature a personalized message from creators at the start of videos

“YouTube has breadth and depth across every screen and every format,” Kristen O’Hara, VP of agency platforms and client solutions at Google and YouTube, said in her closing remarks. “It is the place people go to for information and inspiration, with fans who go so deep on the content they love from creators they really trust.”

While it didn’t come up at the event, YouTube told advertisers in a NewFronts blog post that its AI-powered campaigns allow advertisers to “get more from [their] social strategy on YouTube.” On Monday, YouTube’s parent company, Google, 

 its AI offerings, including some new generative AI features coming to its Display & Video 360 platform.

 YouTube will host its annual Brandcast event during next week’s Upfronts, with the platform’s top execs present alongside even more creators, including MrBeast and Brittany Broski. Given YouTube’s dominance in the streaming sector, don’t be surprised if other streamers look to 

 against the platform and put their own creator- and digital-ad-related chops on full display.

YouTube puts the spotlight on creators at this year’s NewFronts

The platform is where audiences come together to “participate in culture,” Anne Marie Nelson-Bogle, VP of YouTube Ads Marketing, told the audience.

Jasmine Sheena

At Meta’s NewFronts presentation in New York on Thursday, three creators, including social series 

host Tiff Baira, participated in an onstage game show hosted by comedian Roy Wood Jr.

The stunt was an apt representation of how Meta wants to position itself as a centralized hub for the creator economy. Advertisers continue to pour billions of dollars into the space, and other companies, including Snapchat and TikTok, also spent NewFronts week emphasizing the ways they can help facilitate work with creators on their platforms.

On Thursday, Meta didn’t just talk creators during the presentation; it also touted a handful of new live and video ad capabilities all aimed at continuing to keep advertisers interested.

On the creator side, Meta is testing a trends feed in Instagram’s Creator Marketplace, a feature that is designed to help advertisers identify trending topics on Instagram Reels with links to examples of Reels that fall under the trend, so they can see the types of content and topics that are resonating with audiences. Meta’s also testing trending ads on Reels, which will also allow advertisers to show up against trending content.

“By discovering trends like ‘spring nails’ or ‘festival vibes,’ brands can get inspired to create culturally relevant Reels partnership ads for their next campaign,” Ricky Van Veen, Meta global creative strategy VP, said onstage.

Creators can also directly partner with brands on partnership ads as part of an update that will introduce a new ad format that centers creators by featuring one partner instead of two in the header. (Previously, both brand and partner had to be in the header.) Van Veen said onstage that adding creator content to partnership ads drops cost per action by 19% and increases brand lift by 71%.

Meta is also starting to test a Creator Marketplace API that will “enable partner agencies and third-party developers to easily search for and vet creators,” Van Veen said.

 Meta’s renewed emphasis on live content and video comes while the tech giant is jockeying for position in the creator economy. The company is bringing some advertising opportunities to Facebook Live, allowing brands to pay to boost livestreams from creators. Additionally, Facebook Reels is getting a video expansion tool that will work by “generating unseen pixels in each video frame to expand the aspect ratio,” creating “a more immersive and native experience,” according to the company.

The focus on video also extends to Threads, which now has over 350 million monthly active users; Meta, which just opened up ads on Threads to all global advertisers, will soon test video ads on the platform.

“We know advertisers want a more video-rich experience on all of our platforms, not just static images,” Simon Whitcombe, VP of Meta’s global business group, North America, said.

Comedian Roy Wood Jr. appears onstage with three Meta creators including three creators, including Tiff Baira, at Meta's 2025 NewFront presentation

Meta touts creator partnerships, video, and livestreaming options at NewFronts

The pitch, featuring creators like Tiff Baira and comedian Roy Wood Jr., is part of a continued creator focus from the tech giant. 

Two hands holding a smart phone next to a heart, a star, and a wall full of post-it notes

Discover how brands like Lush, American Girl, and CAVA are redefining relevance in the digital age by embracing authenticity, internet culture, and bold experimentation in social media strategy.

Rewriting the social playbook: Brand strategy in the age of authenticity

What do Cynthia Erivo and Snapchat have in common? Only one has defied gravity, but they’ve both been behind the scenes of 

On Wednesday night, executives from Snap., the parent company of Snapchat, announced new, more direct ad products and a push into live entertainment sponsorship opportunities at its annual NewFronts presentation, capped off with a jazzy performance from Broadway, film, and TV star Erivo. To show off some of the new offerings, the company highlighted several successful previous partnerships on stage, including cheeky BTS footage from the 

set fronted by Erivo’s costar Jonathan Bailey that made the rounds on Snapchat this past fall.

The presentation comes after the company reached several milestones in Q1, including surpassing 900 million global monthly active users, growing revenue by 14% YoY to $1.36 billion, and increasing subscribers to its paid subscription offering, Snapchat+, by 5 million for a total of 15 million. (During the company’s earnings last week, though, the company 

 its full-year guidance, citing the difficulties of forecasting future quarters amid “macroeconomic uncertainty.”)

To help highlight the platform to more users, the company debuted its latest brand campaign, called “Say It in a Snap,” which encourages both advertisers and app users to communicate on Snapchat.

“Snaps, like a great moment, are memorable,” CMO Grace Kao said during the presentation. “Because it’s happening in the moment, it’s happening in moments that matter to your brand.”

 For brands trying to reach younger people, Snapchat is offering a chance to slide into Snapchat users’ DMs. This year, the platform is rolling out an expanded version of Sponsored Snaps, visual ads that appear like direct messages in users’ chat feeds that lead to a call-to-action message. The company is also updating its sponsored message opportunities with auction ads for both web- and app-based advertisers that want to use goal-based bids like pixel purchase, pixel add-to-cart, pixel pageview, pixel sign up, app install, and app purchase.

“Everyone knows that messaging is at the heart of Snapchat, just like we invented Stories, just like we pioneered the vertical-video format that we now see is quite common across the industry,” Ajit Mohan, chief business officer, said. “But for the longest time, brands have been excluded from tapping into this power. You told us this a lot, and we heard you, and we are now doing something really big about it: opening up messaging for marketers.”

In addition to opening up the chat feed, Snapchat is also introducing First Snap, a single-day takeover-style offering that places ad content in a premium app position; and promoted places that appear on the Snap Map, which Mohan said now reaches 400+ million people a month.

For advertisers looking to DM with the help of Snap-beloved personalities, the company is rolling out Sponsored Snaps from creators, which will allow brands to send ads that appear like messages from individual content creators like Dillian The Celebrity.

“A lot of creators I work with, they’re getting really excited about this additional way that they can connect with their communities,” Brooke Berry, head of creator development, said at the event.

 Like many companies this NewFronts season, Snap emphasized AI-powered offerings, including sponsored AI lenses and a bundle of products called Snapchat Smart Campaign Solutions, which senior director for product marketing, Abby Laursen, said will help drive brand value without sacrificing community values.

The solutions include Smart Bidding, a strategy that allows advertisers to set a target cost-per-action that Snap’s platform will automatically adjust bids and budgets to, and Smart Budget, which will allow advertisers to automatically shift spend to the highest-performing ad sets within a campaign. The latter is still in alpha testing, and more updates are to come.

 Snap has long looked to showcase sports content on the app, and sports content remains a highlight for advertisers. Both WNBA and Super Bowl content on Snapchat saw major viewership increases of 326% and 88% YoY, respectively, according to Laursen, and Snap is offering WNBA and NFL ad packages featuring behind-the-scenes footage, AR experiences, and real-time highlights ahead of this seasons’ starts.

In a new live event offering that bears shades of resemblance to NPR’s popular Tiny Desk series, Snap unveiled Under the Ghost, a music performance series hosted at Snapchat’s Santa Monica studio that will allow musical artists to connect with fans while giving brands some cultural caché.

“We know that Snapchatters aren’t just interested in discovering new music. We want to dive deeper, even more,” Laursen said.

According to Snap, Under the Ghost will offer artists the ability to engage fans more directly with intimate studio sessions and raw video clips while giving brands full-funnel media package sponsorship opportunities, including Sponsored Snaps, creator content, Total Takeover placements, and more.

While Erivo might have already dazzled a live Snap audience this week, perhaps 

 fans should keep an eye out for an Under the Ghost appearance to come.

Three images of Snapchat's interface, featuring the chat feed, an open message, and a video message still from Dillian the Celebrity. 

Snap leans into messaging ads and live events at NewFronts

The social media company is opening up its chat feed to advertisers for the first time.

It goes down in the DMs: Snap leans into messaging ads and live events at NewFronts

Khartoon Weiss, VP of global business solutions, kicked off TikTok’s 2025 NewFront presentation with a simple 

“TikTok is here,” she said. “We’re here.”

Without explicitly naming the existential 

, TikTok executives made the case to advertisers Tuesday afternoon that the platform isn’t going anywhere. During her speech, Weiss said the company is “confident in the future of this platform,” perhaps due in part to 

 made by President Donald Trump earlier this week where he said he has a “warm spot in [his] heart” for TikTok and would grant the platform an additional ban extension if it does not find a US-based buyer by June 19, when the current extension ends.

 in a row where TikTok was faced with reassuring advertisers amid a drawn-out legal battle over the future of the platform. This time around, speakers onstage repeatedly made the case for TikTok as the brand-safe platform du jour for creating and engaging with cultural moments.

“Go to Settings, check your screen time. You know the monster you have become,” emcee and comedian Hasan Minhaj said during the presentation. “[TikTok] is where culture starts and where it evolves and where it spreads.”

 At Tuesday’s event, the platform announced new ad products and updates designed to place advertiser content next to trending and cultural content, including Sponsorship Solutions, which puts advertiser content in search results.

TikTok also announced that it’s continuing to build on its Pulse Suite offerings with Pulse Core, which guarantees placement next to top trending UGC based on categories like holidays, sports, or beauty. Also in the Suite is Pulse Premiere, which places ads next to professionally generated content from publishers like Disney, Hearst, the NFL, and Paramount. Formula 1, Red Bull Media, and Warner Bros. Discovery were announced as new Pulse Premiere partners at the event.

 While TikTok’s execs pitched advertisers in New York on “industry-leading” data protection, the platform 

 it was opening a data center in Finland as part of its “Project Clover” EU data privacy initiative that seeks to protect sensitive European user data. The announcement came just days after the EU hit the platform with a $600 million fine around the platform’s data-protection 

 Weiss closed out TikTok’s NewFront event with additional reassurances to attendees. “Our advertising business, ladies and gentlemen, will not change,” she said. “We remain open for business and we stay streaming.”

TikTok’s message to advertisers: We’re not going anywhere 

At its NewFronts presentation, TikTok executives assured advertisers that its business “will not change” as they emphasized the platform’s cultural centrality. 