The Rise of Vibe Marketing

PLUS: Dirt Is Good's Global VP of Marketing on Culture, Technology, and Leading with Brand Essence

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Highlights from today’s newsletter:
How to build a winning marketing playbook
The State of AI in Marketing report findings
The Frank Slootman framework for ad creation

EDITOR’S PICK

#EXCLUSIVE Q&A

At SXSW London, Dirt Is Good (known as Persil and OMO globally) showed what brand essence looks like in motion. In our Q&A with Tati Lindenberg, Global VP of Marketing at Unilever, she explains why “every stain should be part of the game,” how storyliving trumps storytelling, and what it takes to build campaigns that are culturally grounded, locally authored, and creatively disciplined.

#EXPERT INSIGHTS

At Cannes Lions this year, one word kept surfacing: brand.

In a performance-obsessed world, brand feels harder to defend. It doesn’t show up in ROAS or fit neatly into a reporting cycle. But that doesn’t mean it’s not driving results.

As Rory Sutherland put it, “A brand is like a pension… one day you wake up and go: bloody hell, where did all this equity come from?”

He’s right. Data at Fospha shows brands investing more than 10% in upper-funnel activity see 2x the overall marketing efficiency. But belief isn’t the issue — buy-in is.

To protect brand budgets, we need better evidence. That’s why we’ve identified early signals—like branded search and engaged visits—that connect brand activity to business outcomes.

WHAT WE ARE READING

Vibe marketing leverages AI to create culturally resonant content rapidly, transforming marketing strategies by reducing costs and time. Using AI for content creation and workflow automation, it enables single marketers to design campaigns quickly, challenging traditional marketing approaches.

Generative AI can effectively capture your brand voice when trained properly with clear guidelines and consistent feedback. The process involves selecting an AI platform, teaching it your specific style, providing examples, and iteratively refining outputs. This is crucial for marketing teams aiming for consistent, efficient content aligned with brand messages.

AI in marketing is rapidly advancing, but challenges like misinformation and inconsistent output quality persist. While tools such as ChatGPT enhance efficiency, AI’s role in strategic outcomes remains limited without human insight. Marketers must focus on content integrity and procedural oversight to harness AI’s potential effectively.

Top Voices

Insights from Evan Lee
Insights from Kristin Gallucci

Hills I will die on as a marketer: | Kristin Gallucci

1️⃣ Marketers should always be driving sales overnight and brand over time. There are no shortcuts.
2️⃣ There is magic in marketing. It’s part art, part science layered with intuition, experience, and risk-taking.
3️⃣ Behind all great marketing is a lot of unsexy work.
4️⃣ There are no best practices. Test, tweak, test, rollout.
5️⃣ Marketing is digital there is no such thing as digital marketing.
6️⃣ Consumers would rather watch a video than read to learn about a product.
7️⃣ Your audience is always right.
8️⃣ The purpose of branding is to create conversation, a point of differentiation, and an experience for the consumer. You are ultimately securing your position in the market. If you don’t communicate what your brand stands for, your customer (or your competitor) will do it for you.
9️⃣ Know your customer like you know yourself.
Good content connects with your audience, but great content inspires them to take action.
1️⃣1️⃣ Sometimes when you’re focused on your own brand day in, day out, it’s hard to see your strategy with fresh eyes. Consult experts outside of your company.
1️⃣2️⃣ Marketing doesn’t work in a silo, it needs to be weaved throughout every department of the organization.
1️⃣3️⃣ Modern marketing is as much about metrics as it is about messaging. Make every word matter, no fillers or jargon.
1️⃣4️⃣ Value is defined by the customer. Value is when a customer perceives that she gets more than she gives up.
1️⃣5️⃣ The role of the CMO is marketing: growth marketing, content marketing, digital marketing – it’s doesn’t matter what you call it, what matters is the impact on the business.
1️⃣6️⃣ “Brand” is a noun. It’s an object. Branding” is a verb. It’s action! They are not interchangeable.
1️⃣7️⃣ Brands often fail because of a lack of vision. If you don’t know clearly where your headed, either do your customers.
1️⃣8️⃣ Martech must be a balance of automation and humanization. You need both.
1️⃣9️⃣ If you try to stand for everything you stand for nothing.
2️⃣0️⃣ Smart marketing is obsessing about outcomes not activity.

WHAT WE ARE LISTENING TO

THE MARKETING MILLENNIALS

Kyle Coleman, Global VP of Marketing at ClickUp, shares insights on achieving a $100 million incremental pipeline in a year and discusses the significance of “No Lead Left Behind” in enhancing brand awareness and sales success.

His experience highlights the value of uniting sales and marketing efforts, essential for tackling an AI-saturated market, proving crucial for the growth of platforms aiming for enterprise deals.

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