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Only high-vibration brands will thrive in the age of AI

PLUS: OpenAI looks to build in-house ad infrastructure

Author

Zihan Lyu
September 27, 2025

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Hi there!

Highlights from today's newsletter:
🧲 Great businesses employ both pull and push marketing strategies
🔄 Being a CMO: The uncomfortable truth about change
🌎 How brands and retailers are preparing for GEO

EDITOR’S PICK

#EXCLUSIVE Q&A

At Retail Media Pioneers, WPP Media’s UK Head of Commerce, David Fieldhouse, argued that commerce can no longer sit in a silo. He outlined how WPP’s Open Intelligence platform is helping brands move past fragmented data, turning billions of signals from retailers and media owners into actionable insights within 24 hours.

Fieldhouse described why clients are shifting spend beyond saturated sponsored ads toward mid- and upper-funnel channels like Amazon DSP and retailer-enriched advanced TV. The goal is full-funnel orchestration, from influencer and social through to sponsored retail search, all running on one connected plan.

The most exciting development? Secure data collaboration that allows brands, agencies, and retailers to work together without data leakage - a model Fieldhouse expects will shape the next three years of retail media growth.

#EVENT INSIGHTS

At last week’s Smartly Advance, Wyclef Jean left marketers with a challenge: use AI to amplify creativity, but never let it strip away authenticity. He called for brands to think beyond dashboards and build true cultural fluency, warning that culture cannot be faked.

Jean also shared why his platform Open Wyclef flips the streaming model to give artists 80% of revenue and pressed for guardrails to protect originality in the AI era. His closing message was simple - the best ideas are the ones that need no hard sell, and the brands that operate at their highest vibration will be the ones that last.

WHAT WE ARE READING

OpenAI is hiring to build in-house tools for campaign management, ad integrations, and real-time attribution. This shift gives it tighter control over spend and could pave the way for brands to run campaigns directly in ChatGPT. Expect more automation, measurement, and eventually autonomous campaign execution - without relying on agencies.

Big holidays like Black Friday are made for promos, but dates like MLK Day or Juneteenth demand sensitivity. Marketers should pick moments that fit their brand, offer opt-outs for sensitive days, and focus on authenticity over quick sales. A sincere message often wins more loyalty than a discount code.

Brands are shifting from SEO to GEO - optimizing for AI search engines like ChatGPT and Gemini. Retailers say structured, machine-readable data and Q&A content are key to appearing in AI-driven answers. Target is prioritizing price, promos, and availability so agents return local, relevant results. SEO still matters, but brands must adapt to longer, conversational queries and content that AI can easily parse.

TOP VOICES

💭 Insights from Janky Patel

Push marketing isn't completely dead.
It's just lazy when that's all you rely on.

Great businesses do both:
🫸 Push = drive urgency
🤜 Pull = build trust

Most founders overdo one: ads with no authority or content with no ask.
In 2025, that won’t work.
🫸 Push = “Buy now.”
Use for quick cash, launches, awareness.
❌ Risk: wasted spend + fatigue.

🤜 Pull = “Discover with us.”
Use for trust, thought leadership, organic growth.
❌ Risk: slow + consistency required.

Bottom line:
Push = cash flow.
Pull = brand equity.
Do both.

.

 💭 Insights from Stephanie McCarty

Being a CMO: The Uncomfortable Truth About Change

If you’re a new CMO and you’re not making people a little uncomfortable, you’re not doing your job.

You weren’t hired to maintain the status quo. You were hired because the status quo was broken.

You were hired to be a change agent. A disruptor. A challenger.

Early in my tenure at Taylor Morrison, I had to have a hard conversation with our field marketing teams. Creativity at the local level wasn’t going to mean one-off logos or off-brand taglines anymore. Instead, creativity would come to life through flawless execution of a centralized brand and strategy.

Was it popular? Absolutely not. Did it work? Without question. It gave us a consistent national brand that could actually scale.

That’s the thing about leadership in times of needed change. It’s not about being liked in the moment. It’s about having the conviction to make the hard calls that move the business forward.

Your job isn’t to keep everyone comfortable. Your job is to build something that's stronger than what you inherited. 🏡💗

WHAT WE ARE LISTENING TO

🎙 MARKETING AGAINST THE GRAIN

Did you know Google’s new AI-powered Chrome could mark “the death of web pages” as we know them?

Kipp and Kieran dive into how Google’s latest Gemini integration is completely transforming search, content consumption, and the future of SEO in 2025. Learn more on how AI is making clicks and traditional web browsing obsolete, why AEO (AI Engine Optimization) is the next big battleground for brands, and what marketers must do to adapt their strategies to a world of conversational and agentic search.

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