THE LIST: To stand out, should you follow trends or subvert them?
Inspiration for content marketers, content creators & storytellers every Friday.
P.O.V. Social media platforms have become global trend engines rewarding people for packaging themselves into algorithmically friendly boxes and it's about to get much, much worse with A.I. helping to refine people's looks to a globally acceptable standard on IG or "craft" bland platitudes about #sustainability, #diversity and #innovation on LinkedIn.
The question is, can we beat ‘em or must we join ‘em? Here’s some content to help you make your decision.
Have a great weekend, Neal 😉
Read this…
Have you noticed everything on the Internet starting to look and sound the same? Think about every male podcaster you've seen sitting in front of his great big (and completely unnecessary) pod mic telling us how "studies prove" that everything we're doing is wrong. Every TikToker that's "trying this trend" cuz the algo likes it. Every YouTuber that takes 20 minutes to explain something that really only needs 30 seconds because longer videos make more money for YouTube. And every guitarist posting headless videos playing some impossibly fast but completely tuneless riff without a song. Why? This essential long read explains it, the question is what are we going to do about it? The tyranny of the algorithm: why every coffee shop looks the same.
Credit to Click2View for bringing this article to my attention, follow their Substack below:
Watch this…
German beer brand BRLO parodied the viral Calvin Klein ad starring Jeremy Allen White and it’s, well…see for yourself 😂 This is a great way to subvert a trend rather than simply brief an agency or filmmaker to do more of the same kind of serious, po-faced fashion films.
Look at this…
Pablo Delcan, an artist from Catskills, New York, has created what he calls a “non-AI generative art model” – an online service where users can submit text prompts and receive an artwork in return. Just like Midjourney, the website will interpret your prompt artistically, the only difference being that Pablo is the one generating each output image by hand! Try it, https://www.delcan.co/promptbrush
Listen to this…
Episode #2 of ‘The Business of Storytelling’ is out featuring Glenn Bacalso, Head of Customer Advocacy at Workday AND Pride Leader talking specifically about how you can find and tell authentically diverse stories for your brand or organisation.
Do this…
In August last year, PlayPan, an initiative co-founded by entrepreneur Gary Hong, convinced developers to postpone Peace Centre's demolition so they could use the abandoned mall for "a social experiment to bring (the) community together"
They were given the space to host performances and workshops for several months, allowing artists, students, charities and small businesses to set up shop for free or at heavily discounted rates.
I visited last weekend where I picked up some second hand books, thrifted clothes and saw an underground punk performance by Iman & The State of Mind. But there’s only one weekend left until place gets torn down so go and get inspired while you still can. See what’s on at: https://playpan.co/