By Al Sefati, Edited by Chelsea Brown

Rise above the noise and turn content saturation into your competitive edge with these key insights.

Key Takeaways

• To cut through the noise, you need to create insightful, experience-based content, focus on original thought leadership, prioritize interactive and engaging formats, refresh and repurpose high-performing content and leverage niche, long-tail keywords.
• It’s also important to improve readability, build authority with data/research and invest in personal branding, user-generated content and employee advocacy.
• Also, be sure to measure and adjust — track what’s working and get rid of what isn’t working.

he internet is flooded with an ocean of content — blog posts, ads, videos, infographics, user-generated content (UGC), social media posts — the list goes on. And what it means is that it is getting more and more challenging to stand out, be unique and ensure your brand’s voice is heard.

Content saturation is a real threat, especially in competitive fields such as B2B, SaaS and ecommerce. Unoriginal content can overwhelm your audience, drive down engagement and make it even more harrowing to climb the search engine rankings.

Considering that situation, the knee-jerk reaction might be to scale back or become more conservative in sharing information. However, that would be wrong.

Instead of pumping the breaks, it’s time to rethink your approach and get more thoughtful about how you cut through all of that content clutter.

The key factors fuelling content saturation

Content saturation isn’t a coincidence nor entirely out of left field or unexpected. Instead, it results from several forces converging in the digital world — a “perfect storm,” if you will.

Here’s why it’s happening:

• The copycat culture: Too many brands and entrepreneurs are cutting corners and taking the shortcut of replicating what works for others, often without bringing anything fresh, original or insightful, while slapping the label of “Thought Leader” on themselves. This leads to an endless cycle of vanilla sameness, making it harder for any voice to stand out … even when they might have something to say.
• Platform preferences: Search engines, like Google, and social media channels, like Facebook and LinkedIn, are built to favour content that drives engagement — enabling the cream to rise to the top. This means that well-crafted, albeit generic, content gets buried underneath an avalanche of content begging for attention.
• Audience fatigue: Our brains are flooded daily with blogs, emails, ads and social media content. This constant barrage leads to content burnout, leaving consumers less inclined to engage with any brand that doesn’t immediately grab their attention (and let’s face it … combine that fatigue with very short attention spans … and Houston, we have a problem).
• The rise of AI-generated content: There’s no use in beating around the bush. AI is both a blessing and a curse to content creators. And the people using it without thinking about how they’re using it are at fault. By simply churning out AI content without a focused intent, the content that is spewed out reads like the back of a cereal box. It lacks personality, empathy and depth. All things that actual human audiences crave and desire.

Cutting through the noise

When you’re neck deep in the content saturation swamp, the first thing to remember is this: It’s not about stopping content creation; it’s about elevating it.

So, how do you rise above the noise?

Here are some actionable ways to cut through nonsense and reclaim your place in the spotlight.

1. Create insightful, experience-based content: Generic content isn’t going to get you far anymore. To stand out, infuse your writing with unique insights from real-world experiences, proprietary data or expert opinions. People are looking for authentic, genuine, emotional and entertaining content. A reader wants to hear about actual challenges and solutions — not about some random, abstract, fictionalized situation.

• Example: Instead of a post titled “X Social Media Tips for B2B Businesses,” offer something more unique, such as “How This Social Strategy Led to a 300% Increase in Engagement in 3 Months.” This provides real-world value, a fresh perspective and a barrier to copycats.

2. Focus on original thought leadership: You’ll get lost in the crowd if you can’t challenge the status quo. Develop a strong point of view on industry trends and be able to back it up. Being a thought leader isn’t about stating what’s popular — it’s supposed to get someone to think.

• Example: When everyone else is shouting “SEO is Dead” from the rooftops, it’s your job to explain how it’s evolving — and why it’s not going away and provide real data and insights to back your claim.

3. Prioritize interactive and engaging formats: Blogs are great, but try diversifying your content. Use podcasts, videos, webinars, live Q&As, interactive tools and infographics — and share them across owned, earned and paid media.

4. Refresh and repurpose high-performing content: You don’t have to reinvent the wheel when creating content. Sometimes, you need to polish up something to make it look brand new. Revise old content with fresh data or turn existing content into a different format, like a LinkedIn carousel post, a quick explainer video or a podcast episode.

5. Leverage niche and long-tail keywords: Don’t waste time competing for broad and competitive keywords. Instead, target phrases your audience is searching for.

• Example: Rather than “blankets,” go after “Washable Wool Blankets” (assuming your blanket is made of wool).

6. Build authority with data and research: People desire new information — especially if numbers accompany it. Conduct original research or partner with a credible source to offer something unique.

7. Invest in personal branding, user-generated content (UGC) and employee advocacy: People trust people more than brands — organic reach soars when your customers or employees share content. Content resonates when it feels real, of the moment and unscripted.

8. Improve readability: Your content has to hold a person’s attention — so you have only a few seconds to grab them. Short paragraphs and bullet points are great for skimmers. Storytelling is ideal for engaged readers. And real-world experiences and case studies are key to credibility.

9. Measure and adjust: Track what is working and hold a funeral for what isn’t. Don’t double down on content your audience is rejecting and spin your wheels.

Content saturation might be here to stay, but that doesn’t mean it’s the end of your story. Rather, consider it an opportunity to push the boundaries, innovate and show the actual value of what you create. When you focus on the value and uniqueness of your distribution, you’ll rise above the noise.

Remember, the key isn’t about quantity; it’s about quality. Publish with purpose.

By Al Sefati 

Edited by Chelsea Brown

Sourced from Entrepreneur

By Amy Houston,

The chief creative officer and art director has been at the top of the biggest shops in the world, creating category-changing work, and in this week’s My Creative Career, he delves into the ins and outs of creating campaigns that capture culture.

Simon Fairweather is an advertising veteran, having been in the industry since the early 90s. Two years ago, when I interviewed Nils Leonard for this series, the Uncommon co-founder explained that Fairweather was one of the first people in the industry to be a mentor.

“[Simon] didn’t just show me design, he showed me life,” Leonard explained at the time. “He showed me how to go to a restaurant and order food, how to behave in a meeting, how to dress for work. He really invested in me.”

Fairweather emphasizes the importance of life experience in creative work, consistently encouraging young people to immerse themselves in culture and real-world experiences.

Starting as a photographer, Fairweather’s first ever shoot was assisting Peter Barry and Trevor Rogers as they shot the legendary singer Iggy Pop for an album cover. “That first year, I was the worst assistant ever,” laughs Fairweather. “I feel bad for the people employing me because I just didn’t know what I was doing.”

Being thrown into the world of music, fashion and art right in the heart of London’s West End was exciting for the young creative. But what truly captured his attention was the work of American photographer, Irvine Penn and his still life images. “It’s the idea of making the ordinary extraordinary,” Fairweather says, explaining that some aspects of creativity cannot be taught, particularly the ability to perceive things differently.

“Once you get going, it’s so hard to stop. You’ll be somewhere and see the light catch something, somehow, or the way someone reacts to something,” he continues. “You’re taking mental notes all the time.”

Creativity runs in Fairweather’s family, with a strong legacy in the graphics industry. His grandfather worked in newspapers in Dundee, primarily for DC Thomson, while his other grandfather was an illustrator for the boys’ comic books The Hotspur and The Victor.

In 1993, Fairweather joined Y&R, where he began his advertising career. Here, he worked under one of BBH’s original creative founders Mike Cozens and was brought on as head of advertising design. During that time, Fairweather worked on some standout print campaigns for the likes of Colgate, Pirelli and Eurostar. “They were big brands, but I didn’t feel intimidated,” he recalls “It was a great creative department.”

Simon Fairweather

Fairweather threw himself into the advertising world at Y&R for the next four years, with the next three at MullenLowe working with the likes of Mini Cooper and MontBlanc, before a move stateside to work at Hill Holiday, JWT NY and Leo Burnett.

Simon Fairweather

While at JWT in New York, he worked on a creative campaign for Rolex titled ‘A Crown for Every Achievement’ that he believes to be one of his “major career achievements”.

During those years, in the early noughties, JWT had won the Rolex account after it had gone into “quiet review” because, as a brand, it is very “careful about its publicity,” explains Fairweather. “You can’t enter Rolex [ads] in for awards. The brand is above all else.”

The art director says that number one, he’s a huge fan of watches and two, he loves the “purity” of Rolex. “We did over two hundred individual print ads in the first year. It was a huge volume of work,” Fairweather says. “Larry [Goldstein, his creative partner at the time] wrote some great headlines. I mean, they’re just phenomenal. One of my favourites is, ‘If only iron will could make a boat go faster’. It was just all about that achievement. You can’t own time, so what you can do is own moments in time.”

Simon Fairweather

Cars are another passion of Fairweather’s and he says it was “interesting graphically” working on the MG and Mini accounts. “It’s craft, creativity and culture, that is pretty much how it goes,” he adds. “And cars are very much a cultural element. The majority of people have one, and it’s the next biggest purchase you have after your house.”

In 2005 and again in 2018, Fairweather had long stints at Leo Burnett in Detroit, which is the “home of American car building,” he says. He explains that when it comes to car advertising, you have 20 seconds to tell a story and 10 seconds to tell the viewer the price.

Simon Fairweather

“The Pontiac work, even though that brands not around anymore, that work was a breakthrough,” he says. “It was all about light and music and, giving it a personality.”

Sadly, Leo Burnett closed its Detroit office in Troy, Michigan on December 31, 2024. The agency laid off employees due to the loss of General Motors business, Fairweather included. He says that the creative scene in Detroit is “excellent,” but it’s been “devastated” by this loss.

Fairweather is a huge advocate for nurturing young creative talent. For several years, he mentored students at the Fashion Institute of Technology, which boasts the likes of Calvin Klein and Michale Kors as alumni. It allowed them to engage with real-world briefs, walk through the agency, and gain a practical understanding of the industry.

Simon Fairweather

His approach was to foster a more supportive environment than the one he had experienced, where feedback could often be harsh. Instead, he focused on helping students understand why certain ideas might not work for certain clients. “It taught me so much about how to approach things,” he adds.

After over three decades in the advertising industry, Fairweather says that he still gets excited when he sees his work out in the world. “I’m like the puppy that chases the ball,” he says. “I’ll chase it every time.”

By Amy Houston,

Sourced from The Drum

By Marina Byezhanova, Edited by Chelsea Brown

This article outlines the key differences between executive branding and PR and emphasizes the importance of building a strong personal brand and thought leadership before hiring PR services.

By Marina Byezhanova 

Edited by Chelsea Brown

Sourced from Entrepreneur

Many companies still treat brand and performance marketing as separate efforts, often isolating brand initiatives from key KPIs and unit economics analysis. Traditionally, brand marketing focuses on building long-term emotional connections, while performance marketing drives immediate actions like lead generation and sales. But this divide is fading as the lines between the two continue to blur.

The Rise Of Product-Led Growth

With the rise of product-led growth (PLG), companies are increasingly positioning their products as the core driver of both brand awareness and growth. A superior product does more than satisfy immediate needs; it tells a brand’s story, builds loyalty and generates organic growth through word-of-mouth. It also drives in-product calls-to-action, such as converting free users to paying customers, driving upsells and encouraging users to share with their network.

In this new era, product innovation, quality and uniqueness are becoming essential to branding. When products deliver exceptional value and stand out in the market, they naturally create brand affinity without extensive advertising. A high-quality, innovative product becomes the most authentic form of branding, driven by customer satisfaction rather than paid media. However, many companies still get this equation wrong, overspending on traditional brand campaigns while neglecting the actual product experience. It’s hard for me to see brands make this mistake, and from experience, if the product doesn’t deliver on its promise, no amount of high-budget branding will change the customer perception.

Leading Examples Of Product-Driven Success

Dyson: Branding Through Product Innovation

A great example of a company that has mastered branding through product excellence is Dyson. Known for its ground breaking technology, superior product quality and unique designs, Dyson has built a brand that thrives on product excellence rather than extensive advertising. You won’t see Dyson investing heavily in traditional brand campaigns because the product itself is the advertisement. Dyson’s vacuum cleaners, air purifiers and other innovations have created such a strong reputation for engineering excellence that they naturally drive word-of-mouth marketing.

Spotify: Differentiation Through Seamless Experience

In a crowded streaming market with minimal product differentiation, Spotify sets itself apart through user experience and continuous innovation. While the core offering—music streaming—is similar to other platforms, Spotify stands out by creating a personalized, seamless experience through features like Discover Weekly, curated playlists and social sharing integrations. These innovations transform Spotify from a simple streaming service into an integral part of users’ daily lives, building deep brand loyalty without relying on heavy ad campaigns. Spotify’s success proves that even in commoditized markets, product quality and innovation can be powerful brand differentiators and growth drivers.

Airbnb: Building Trust Through Quality And Story

Initially struggling to gain traction, Airbnb recognized that user-generated images created barriers to consumer trust and bookings. Staying in a stranger’s house was a novel idea, and travelers were skeptical of listing quality and safety. By introducing an optional professional photography program for hosts along with secure payments, identity verification, host guidelines and user reviews, Airbnb transformed its platform into one that builds trust. Investing in these product features improved their overall brand perception and word-of-mouth recommendations, resulting in increased bookings and revenue. At the same time, the company shifted focus toward brand marketing, building customer loyalty through engaging narratives about travel and community. This combination of trust-building features, platform improvements and storytelling has solidified Airbnb’s market position.

Where Branding Meets Performance

This principle is at the core of brandformance and merges long-term brand building with performance-driven calls to action. Rather than separating emotional branding from performance marketing, brandformance ensures every touchpoint reinforces brand identity while guiding customers toward purchase.

A great example is Nike’s “Just Do It” initiative, which combines inspiring brand messages with clear calls to action. Whether driving consumers to purchase or encouraging sports participation, the campaign connects brand resonance with measurable outcomes, creating a cohesive consumer journey where every interaction reinforces the product’s value and ultimately drives conversion.

The 360-Degree Buying Experience

In e-commerce, whether selling water bottles or luxury items, a smart marketer doesn’t just focus on creating immediate intent. Instead, they continuously drip-feed the brand’s value across multiple channels over time. From product reviews and social media ads to influencer videos and brand ambassadors, every interaction works together to shape consumer perception.

Today’s consumers don’t just visit your website and click “buy.” They research, compare, read customer reviews and seek out social proof before making a decision. When every brand touchpoint delivers a unified message, you’re not just making a sale—you’re creating a unique experience that resonates deeply with the user and builds lasting loyalty.

A truly great product goes even further. It doesn’t just convert customers. It turns them into advocates, driving the most powerful marketing tool of all: word of mouth.

Your Product Is Your Brand

In the end, your product isn’t just part of your brand; it is your brand. A well-executed brandformance strategy ensures immediate action and long-term loyalty by allowing the product to drive brand identity. Rather than relying solely on flashy ad campaigns, the companies that do this well create superior products that speak for themselves, ultimately ensuring both customer retention and organic growth.

The reality is that unless you’re in a “race to the bottom” industry, where price is the only differentiator, product quality is what truly wins customers. That’s why when building your marketing team, hiring product marketers is crucial. These are the ones who are passionate about your company’s offering; they’re deeply invested in the product itself and constantly thinking about its unique value and how to tell its story.

When allocating your brand marketing budget, consider this: Would you be better off investing in high-budget creative productions or making your product even better? Sometimes, cutting back on legacy brand ad spend to prioritize product excellence is the smartest strategy of all. A product that stands out doesn’t need to beg for attention. It sells itself.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Rhett Power

Consumers today don’t just want to buy a product or service—they want to feel something. The most successful brands and businesses are responding by immersing customers in experiences that are engaging, memorable, and emotionally resonant. Whether it’s a futuristic art installation, an interactive retail space, or a high-tech event venue, immersive experiences are redefining how businesses attract and retain customers.

From urban landmarks to cutting-edge retail environments, companies that invest in immersive design, storytelling, and technology are setting themselves apart while driving significant growth. By creating spaces that engage multiple senses and encourage participation, businesses can inspire deeper connections, boost brand loyalty, and unlock new revenue streams.

Creating lasting impressions with multi-sensory engagement

In a world where attention is fragmented, businesses that engage customers on multiple sensory levels create more memorable and meaningful experiences. Multi-sensory engagement—blending visuals, sound, touch, and even scent—can deepen emotional connections, making customers more likely to return and spread the word.

A striking example of this is Kenzo Digital’s AIR at SUMMIT One Vanderbilt, an immersive art experience that transforms a New York City observation deck into a dreamlike, interactive landscape. Visitors don’t simply observe the skyline—they step into a surreal, reflective world that changes with their movement, making the experience deeply personal. As a SUMMIT representative told me: “A truly memorable landmark doesn’t just showcase the city—it invites guests to engage with it in new and unexpected ways.”

The same principles apply across industries. Hospitality brands are designing hotels that feel like curated experiences rather than just places to stay. Retailers are integrating interactive showrooms that encourage customers to explore and engage with products in innovative ways. The entertainment industry, from theatres to theme parks, is turning passive audiences into active participants.

By crafting immersive environments that appeal to multiple senses, businesses create experiences that linger in customers’ minds, driving repeat visits and organic marketing through word-of-mouth.

The business case for immersive experiences

Beyond their artistic and experiential appeal, immersive venues have a powerful impact on business metrics. They attract new audiences, encourage longer visits, and increase spending—three essential drivers of growth.

The rise of experience-driven venues like Meow Wolf and AREA15 underscores the business potential of immersive spaces. These venues merge art, storytelling, and technology to create fantastical, interactive worlds that captivate visitors. The result? Millions of dollars in annual revenue, consistent customer demand, and an ever-growing reputation as must-visit destinations.

Retailers are also recognizing the value of experience over transaction. Brands that integrate immersive elements—such as pop-up activations, interactive showrooms, or augmented reality (AR) shopping—see higher foot traffic, increased dwell time, and stronger customer engagement. These experiences transform shopping from a mundane task into an adventure, making customers more likely to make a purchase and return in the future.

By blurring the lines between entertainment, retail, and art, businesses can create environments where customers want to spend time—and money.

The role of data analytics in personalizing immersive experiences

Creating an immersive space is just the beginning. The businesses that truly maximize their impact are the ones that leverage data analytics to refine and personalize their experiences.

A prime example is the Nike House of Innovation, where digital touchpoints throughout the store track customer behaviour in real time. This allows Nike to adjust product displays, tailor recommendations, and even create personalized shopping journeys—all based on how customers are interacting with the space.

For businesses looking to optimize their immersive environments, key strategies include:

• Tracking engagement metrics to understand which elements captivate customers most.
• Using data-driven personalization to tailor content, recommendations, or offers to individual visitors.
• Continuously iterating based on customer interactions to keep experiences fresh and engaging.

By integrating smart analytics, businesses can ensure their immersive experiences remain dynamic, relevant, and deeply personalized—enhancing both customer satisfaction and long-term loyalty.

The future of immersive business strategies

Immersive experiences are more than a passing trend; they are the future of how businesses engage, connect, and grow. Whether through interactive design, multi-sensory storytelling, or data-driven personalization, companies that invest in immersive strategies stand to gain a competitive edge in an increasingly experience-driven economy.

For businesses looking to differentiate themselves, the key question is: How can you create an experience that customers don’t just remember—but actively seek out and share? The answer lies in crafting spaces that don’t just sell a product or service but invite customers into something unforgettable.

Feature Image Credit: Getty

By Rhett Power

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website or some of my other work.

Rhett is a DC based executive coach who covers entrepreneurship.

Sourced from Forbes

By STEVE STRAUSS

By Lester Mapp

2025 is packed with opportunities, and these ideas are practical, proven, and ready for you right now.

When I was a young whippersnapper, I used to fantasize about being born in 1970. I would’ve bought all the properties in downtown Manhattan. Or if I were born in 1990, I would’ve put all my money into Bitcoin and never sold.

Instead, I was busy wasting my early years being potty trained and figuring out basic stuff like learning how to walk and talk.

Obviously, I’m being facetious!

But!!! I’ve spent much of my adult life searching for the next big thing, my generation’s “dot com” revolution, if you will.

And I think I’ve finally found it!

If you feel stuck and have been waiting for that one big opportunity, 2025 is the moment you’ve been waiting for.

In today’s article, I’ll share:

• Three big ideas that anyone can jump into, even if you’re starting from scratch
• My criteria for selecting these ideas and why they’re worth your time
• How you can get started today even if you’ve never done anything like this before

Sure, inventing a time machine would’ve been ideal, but these three ideas are the next best thing, and trust me, the last one will surprise you.

Quick intro 

Where are my manners? I didn’t introduce myself!

If you’re new to my work, my name is Lester, but feel free to call me Les

I’m a founder with a successful exit, currently serving as the executive chairman of a group of ecom brands. But I’m an award-winning performance marketer at my core, and spotting trends is my thing.

To stay ahead in the competitive ecom space, my team and I built internal tools and processes to spot trends faster than anyone else. We operate more like a data company than a traditional ecom brand.

If you’re into data-driven business and marketing insights and strategies, check out my free newsletter, No Fluff Just Facts. I share what’s working in the business world, along with marketing insights and trends I’m seeing.

But that’s enough about me. Let’s get to the three big opportunities I see coming in 2025.

My criteria for ‘big opportunities’

Let me share my criteria for a “big opportunity.”

First, it can’t be generic, like “sustainability and green business.” Sure, that’s a real trend, but if I’m honest, what will I do with that information, lobby the government for a solar farm? Launch an EV startup?

I’m all for sustainability innovations, but the way my bank account is set up, I don’t have hundreds of millions (let alone billions) to splash on a project like that, nor do I intend to raise money for this venture.

With that in mind, here’s exactly what I look for:

• It has to be a simple idea.
• It must solve a specific problem for a clearly defined group of people. Think niche, but a big niche.
• It shouldn’t require a ton of money to get started.
• It must have the potential for repeat customers.
• I have to be able to do a lot with a little. (Minimal investment, maximum leverage.)
• It needs to be easy to start without special or technical skills.
• It should be fully operational online or remotely, providing location freedom.
• It has to benefit from strong tailwinds driven by market and technology trends.
• I need to test quickly and easily adjust based on feedback.
• It must have a clear path to profitability in a short timeframe (think months and not decades)

Finally, I should be able to automate or outsource easily, giving me freedom once established; I need an opportunity to make moolah and not a job, ya feel me?

#1 – AI agents 

I’m bullish on AI agents because they allow you to do more with less.

I don’t think these agents are replacements for humans (at least not yet) but tools that supplement our workflow. They can automate tasks like email marketing or data entry. 🤖

Here is why I’m bullish…

The global AI agents market is projected to reach $7.60 billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 45.8% from 2024 to 2030. By 2025, 75% of businesses are expected to integrate AI agents, enabling more intelligent decision-making and enhanced productivity.

The big opportunity here is to niche down into very specific functions.

For example, I’m a big fan of AI agents doing the legwork to find prospects and putting humans in the best position to close deals. (I’m not a fan of AI fully handling sales)

You can use this trend by incorporating AI agents into your workflow or offering services that help others integrate these agents.

Think of your service as “AI temp staff” for specific roles.

If you’re technical, you could build a business solving specialized problems using AI agents in areas like sales development or data analysis.

The key is to go deep on one solution, and having domain expertise is a huge advantage.

#2 – Building a personal brand

You didn’t see this one coming, did you? I bet you thought I would hit you with something generic like quantum computing.

Trolling aside, I’m incredibly bullish on personal brands, especially heading into 2025.

This opportunity is twofold: it benefits your business and you as an individual.

On the business side:

82% of consumers are more likely to trust a company when its senior executives are active on social media.

On the personal side:

Personal brands offer benefits beyond direct revenue. They help attract your ideal clients. Believe it or not, with a strong personal brand, prospects come to you and beg you to work with them.

Look, I’m not saying you need to become Mr.Beast, but think about Jeff, Elon, Steve, or Warren. These are all powerful personal brands. I don’t need to say their last names, and you still know who I’m talking about.

It’s a weird phenomenon, but it’s true.

An often overlooked benefit is how your online presence helps recruit top talent. I’m not even famous, but it is unreal how many high-quality resumes hit my inbox because people see me online.

So here’s what you do. Start telling your story. Show the behind the scenes of what you’re building: the good, the bad, the ugly. And if you’re uncomfortable in front of a camera, that’s cool. Do what I did and start a newsletter.

But whatever you do, start putting yourself out there.

In a few years, I wholeheartedly believe the only way to build a direct connection with an audience and grow a business will be through a personal brand, similar to a creator or influencer. Otherwise, you will be stuck spending ridiculous amounts of money to acquire customers through traditional channels.

#3 – I saved the best for last

The best opportunity is combining AI agents and building a personal brand around what you’re already doing.

If you’re already seeing traction with your current idea, doubling down on it by mixing these two strategies is likely your best bet rather than jumping into something new.

I’m not saying this as a blanket statement for any idea because, let’s face it, if your current idea is terrible, AI can’t magically fix that for you. (Promise I’m not being mean.)

But assuming you’re onto something, AI can amplify your results by automating tedious tasks and freeing your time to build your brand and audience.

You don’t have to guess if you’re unsure whether your current idea has potential. Just ask an AI to evaluate it for you objectively.

That said, the combination of personal branding and AI-driven leverage isn’t just smart. It’s the future.

My two cents

Not gonna lie, it would’ve been amazing to know about Bitcoin back in 2010 and throw in $1000 to become a gazillionaire today.

Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, and my time machine progress isn’t good. That’s the bad news.

But here’s the good news!
What a time to be alive right now! With AI, the internet, and a friend named Les, who’s got your back.

I think we’ll look back at this exact moment and wish we had leaned in even harder. Information and powerful tools are at your fingertips in ways they’ve never been before.

But don’t lose sight of what truly matters because the basics never change, no matter how advanced things get. It always comes back to solving real problems, knowing precisely who your customer is, and building genuine connections that go deeper than transactions.

The winners in this new era won’t just master tech; they’ll master empathy, storytelling, and human connection. That’s your biggest opportunity.

Feature Image Credit: Eoneren/Getty Images

By Lester Mapp

Sourced from ZD NET

By Rebecca Bellan

If you spend any amount of time online, you probably noticed that your user experience keeps getting worse.

Websites are waterlogged with autoplay ads, pop-ups, and tracking scripts. Customer service chatbots are useless, despite the promises of generative AI. Social media algorithms boost rage-bait to keep you scrolling and engaged. Dating apps hide all the good ones behind a paywall. Your printer won’t work without a monthly subscription. Oh, and good luck cancelling that subscription in three clicks or less.

This is the backwash of the internet’s shift from a user-first experience to one designed to maximize engagement, ad revenue, and subscriptions.

Ed Zitron, CEO of EZPR and host of the Better Offline podcast, calls it the “rot economy,” the result of “a tech industry that has become so obsessed with growth that you, the paying customer, are a nuisance to be mitigated far more than a participant in an exchange of value.”

In a recent episode of the Equity podcast, I spoke to Zitron — who is writing a book called “Why Everything Stopped Working” — about why the stagnation of major companies creates the perfect opportunity for startups to challenge incumbents across various industries.

Zitron didn’t hold back when describing Big Tech’s decline, criticizing its obsession with quarter-to-quarter growth that leads to subpar products: “They’re ugly, they’re expensive, they don’t work very well, you don’t like using them.” He argued that many of these dominant players have grown “fat and lazy” and “overconfident,” their business models based on the idea that “it’s just easier to stay with us.”

“You can beat that,” Zitron said. “Anything you see on the web that sucks right now is at threat.”

Social media

As Zitron sees it, there are numerous areas that are ripe for disruption. One of the most obvious is social media, where he notes that “to use Instagram right now is to fight Meta to get to the things you want” and get past what Meta wants you to see. “And Facebook is even worse,” he laments.

This crummy user experience, combined with the political manoeuvrings on Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, is why we’re seeing people defect from X and Meta and sign up for platforms on the decentralized web, which is a system of independent, privately owned servers that work together to provide private and secure access to information and services.

Bluesky and Mastodon have emerged as popular alternatives to X, and many startups are throwing their hats in the ring to challenge Instagram and TikTok. In the decentralized space, Bluesky is launching a photo-sharing app called Flashes, and Pixelfed is already attracting users. Many TikTok users have downloaded RedNote as the ByteDance-owned app remains in limbo.

Enterprise and productivity software

Zitron similarly sees massive opportunities when it comes to enterprise and productivity offerings like Microsoft 365 that aren’t “great.”

Zitron said of Microsoft broadly, “They don’t make great products. They haven’t in some time.” Here, he added that he would “maybe put the gaming [division] aside” from this complaint. “I quite like the Xbox division,” he said. Then he added: “But they love laying people off and I’m sure that that place is going to slop soon.”

But it’s not just Microsoft. Zitron argued that many once-beloved Silicon Valley darlings — like Microsoft, Salesforce, Dropbox, and Zoom — lost their way after going public. The pressure to deliver quarter-over-quarter growth to appease shareholders invariably forces companies to prioritize short-term gains over long-term product quality.

He pointed to Google Docs as an example of growing corporate overreach designed to benefit a company at its users’ expense.

“Google Docs was beloved for being this really clean, easy-to-use thing,” Zitron said. “The problem is now it’s telling me that it needs AI. I must use Gemini in it now.”

Zitron called Adobe “the weakest company in tech” at the moment, calling them “desperate” and calling for a replacement. Some potential challengers we’ve seen include Figma, Affinity, and Blender.

Generally, Zitron thinks consumers will have a role to play in this shift as they cotton onto the self-serving “laziness” of incumbents.

“I believe in the next year, we’re going to see a real shift in consumers, both business and otherwise, away from these shitty companies. And when I say shitty companies, I mean most of Big Tech.”

Search

Google in particular is already facing an assault by numerous startups, and deservedly so in Zitron’s mind. Google Search used to surface the best links for your query. Now it surfaces a page of sponsored links that don’t answer your question.

“Google search is bad now,” he said, noting that DuckDuckGo “apparently makes money” and may be able to rise if the judge in Google’s search antitrust trial forces the company to share its datasets with competitors.

Zitron didn’t list all the other search competitors, but it’s worth mentioning a few. Perplexity, for example, is competing with chatbot-style search that answers questions directly in a conversational way while citing resources. Diem is a female-focused social search engine with an AI chatbot that’s fighting against data bias in a world designed for men. In the decentralized space, Marginalia Search boosts obscure, non-commercial sites rather than SEO-optimized junk, while OpenSearch is an independent, crawler-based engine.

For users who prioritize not just a better search experience but also a more privacy-focused search, there’s Kagi, a paid, private search engine with a focus on high-quality results and no ads.

There’s also Brave Search, a fully independent search index that doesn’t rely on Google or Bing. Brave also has a privacy-focused browser that blocks ads and trackers by default.

Email 

Zitron believes email is another area that a startup could “take on.” While email is one of the dominant communication tools, most of our inboxes are cluttered with spam and disorganized due to clunky UX from giants like Outlook, Gmail, and Yahoo. The same is true for enterprise email, like Microsoft Exchange and Google Workspace.

There are plenty of opportunities for disruption here, notes Zitron. He says an offering from the end-to-end encrypted email service Proton “isn’t as usable as it needs to be,” but it’s not the only game in town (rival services include Tutanota and Skiff). At the same time, increasingly popular alternatives Superhuman, Hey, and Shortwave are trying to rethink user experience in email.

Build products that don’t suck

Zitron sees opportunities for disruption everywhere, and not just in a purely digital sense. He also sees an opportunity for startups to take on Amazon’s shipping and logistics business by “creating a coalition of other companies with smaller businesses — a Shopify for the delivery side.”

Whether it’s coming up with a new real estate technology to replace the “fat and happy” Zillows of the world, or a better version of Canva that’s not bloated with AI offerings, Zitron has called for a fresh take on the venture capital model. He says VC has too long focused on growth at all costs, which has created a stranded generation of startups that raised too much money — and have nowhere to go as a result.

Zitron’s PR business is to draw attention to startups, so it’s in his interests to underscore the many shortcomings of Big Tech in comparison. Still, it was an inspiring chat.

If you’re hankering for a better user experience, or you’re working on something to take down the bigs, you’ll definitely enjoy it. Check out our chat here.

Feature Image Credits: Getty Images

By Rebecca Bellan

Sourced from TechCrunch

By Megan Poinski

Plus: Trust In Generative AI Grows, Study Says Bots Make Up 80% Of Internet Traffic, Brands Highlight Stunt Performers At The Oscars, Washington Nationals Negotiate Sponsorship Rights

For many consumers, trust in generative AI is increasing as they’ve had a chance to use it. A new study from consumer research platform Attest shows that about two-thirds of Americans have used generative AI tools, and nearly seven in 10 trust the information it gives them. In fact, they trust AI results just about as much as traditional search engine results—both organic and paid.

Generative AI is seen as a sort of personal assistant, with 49% of Americans likely to use it as a tool to research purchases. Two out of five look to AI to answer questions or explain complex topics, while close to a third use it as a study aid. More than a quarter use AI to help generate ideas, and to help write letters or emails.

As a personal tool, AI is here to stay. More than half—57.4%—expect to be using these tools more in the next six months. Just 5.1% say they will use it less. And a total of 35% of consumers—an increase of 4% over last year—trust AI companies with the data they collect.

The study also bodes well for marketing. Attest asked consumers a variety of questions about brands’ use of AI technology. Opinions on campaigns and AI-generated models remained largely unchanged since last year, though recognition of benefits increased by a couple percentage points across the board. The biggest jump came from consumers recognizing that AI can help with more creative advertising, a sentiment shared by 38% this year as opposed to 34% in 2024.

If you’re not fully making the AI transition yet, there’s also good news for you in this study: 56.6% of consumers said they’re going to use traditional search engines the same amount in the next six months. And more than a quarter—27.4%—plan to use them more.

The fate of TikTok is still pending, but its brief blackout in the U.S. in January was a wake-up call to many creators and influencers who rely on the platform. Jonathan Goodman, an entrepreneur behind online fitness-based apps and author of The Obvious Choice: Timeless Lessons on Success, Profit and Finding Your Way, built his brands without an overreliance on social media. I talked to him about how to build brands in today’s atmosphere without leaning too heavily on social apps. An excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.

And a reminder that we’re seeking feedback from leaders to help compile Forbes’ next installment of the New Ivies—the public and private colleges that are graduating the most prepared and competitive young talent. Please share your experience in this survey.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

While AI might be good for consumer research, it’s terrible for publishers. Forbes’ Rashi Shrivastava and Richard Nieva report that AI search engines send 96% less referral traffic to news sites and blogs than traditional search, according to a report from content licensing platform TollBit. The report showed that OpenAI, Perplexity, Meta and other AI companies scraped websites 2 million times on average in the fourth quarter of 2024, with each page being scraped an average of seven times. This seems to show Gartner’s prediction last year—that traditional search traffic would drop by 25% by 2026 due to AI chatbots and agents—is coming true. (Forbes has taken action against two AI companies for accusations of republishing and training models on its content without permission. Forbes sent a cease-and-desist notice to Perplexity, and is part of a group of publishers suing Cohere.)

But AI bots aren’t just a problem for publishers. A report from B2B marketing agency and media connection hub DesignRush finds that 80% of all web traffic is made up of bots. While bots’ share of web traffic has been increasing, DesignRush says it increased by 7% in just one year. This massive increase means that most digital ad spend is likely being wasted on bot traffic, DesignRush says, as well as increasing business server and security costs.

IN THE NEWS

Hollywood’s brightest stars came out on Sunday for the Oscars. At the 97th Academy Awards, 19.69 million viewers tuned in on ABC and Hulu—a five-year high for the awards show, writes Forbes senior contributor Marc Berman—to watch Conan O’Brien host as Oscars were handed out for actors and producers of films including best picture winner Anora, while Adrien Brody won his second career Oscar for his performance in The Brutalist.

But a lot of the action—quite literally—took place during the commercial breaks. L’Oréal Paris, Carnival Cruise Line, Kiehl’s, MNTN and Samsung teamed up to run six ads highlighting stunt performers. The lineup was the largest multi-brand ad stunt in Oscars history, and featured more than 75 stunt performers in starring roles, according to a press release about the campaign. Forbes senior contributor Celia Shatzman focuses on the L’Oréal ad, in which stunt performer Samantha Win repeatedly crashes through a plate glass window in a slinky red gown—and her makeup still looks perfect, thanks to L’Oréal’s Infallible 3-Second Setting Mist. L’Oréal Paris USA President Laura Branik told Shatzman the spray is a top seller—one sells every 23 seconds—and the ad shows that it can help makeup stay put in any condition.

RIGHTS + SPONSORSHIP

Baseball’s last team without stadium naming rights or jersey patch sponsorships is likely to get one or both this year. The Washington Nationals hired marketing and talent representation agency Excel Sports Management to take both of these partnership deals to market, and initial conversations started in January, writes Forbes’ Brett Knight. Forbes estimates the sponsorships could be worth more than $20 million annually. Nats Chief Revenue Officer Mike Carney told Knight that any announcement would be likely to come at the height of baseball season in the summer. The Nationals are pursuing a stadium naming deal that would last at least 20 years, while a jersey patch deal would have a minimum three-year term.

Although the 2019 World Series champion Nationals have only had two winning seasons since then, Excel Senior VP for Properties and Corporate Partnerships Preetam Sen told Knight that the stadium’s waterfront location—in the up-and-coming Navy Yard neighbourhood in Washington, D.C.—makes it extremely visible to tourists visiting the nation’s capital. So even if it takes some time for the Nats to draw viewers outside the D.C. area, the stadium is guaranteed to get exposure.

ON MESSAGE

How To Market Effectively When You Don’t Own The Social Media Platform

The fate of TikTok is still up in the air, and many marketers and influencers who depend on the platform were shocked when it went dark for part of a day in January. But should so many marketers really be dependent on one social platform? Jonathan Goodman, a fitness entrepreneur who has built business without overreliance on social media, says there’s a better way to use social media tools for marketing. His recent book, The Obvious Choice: Timeless Lessons on Success, Profit and Finding Your Way, addresses the issue. I talked to him about using the tools more effectively. This conversation has been edited for length, clarity and continuity.

The TikTok sell-or-ban bill was passed by Congress last spring, so those who depended on the social network for marketing presumably had time to prepare. Would you say that the brief shutdown of the app in January took them by surprise?

Goodman: I think anybody who’s done business online for any period of time knows that these things come and go, but the reality of it is it’s become so loud and so in your face in the last couple of years. Not just TikTok—Instagram, what’s been going on with X and how insane that community has gotten. It’s like if you’re not famous where you exist, you don’t matter. Ignoring the fact that there’s an entire world outside of that, of course.

I think we all intuitively understand this thing, but our world that we’ve decided to silo ourselves within is so insulated that it’s all that we see, and therefore it’s all that matters to us. So yes, I think people were probably very surprised by it, and I think people probably feel like they were blindsided by it.

TikTok went back up like three hours after it went down, but I think it showed people [that] maybe you don’t have control here. Maybe you don’t own this platform. The general sentiment is pretty clear, which is: What are we even doing here? But the [answer] that always results is: I don’t know another way. That’s because these platforms have been engineered to become addictive to the producer of the content.

Social media seems to be getting more fragmented by the day. How should a brand that has been building a strategy on social media for the last decade re-evaluate what they’re doing?

Try to figure out what’s the 1% that’s different about you, not the 99% that’s the same. What’s the uncommon commonality that you have in common with your best customer? Can you work backwards from that? What’s weird and different? What’s that kind of geek flag? Where are these people hanging out in these tiny little pockets online?

Instead of just creating content that you hope is going to get as many likes as possible, would you prefer to have 15 or 50 [from] people who are influential in that space that you have really tight connections with, or have 5,000 people who tangentially are interested in fitness follow your post because you were able to articulate something that frustrates them?

How can a brand authentically connect with new potential customers outside of the generic social media strategy that many have used?

I’ve got four stages of social media growth that I think every company goes through. Stage one is you create content for yourself. Stage two is for your customers. Stage three is for your industry. Stage four for the world.

I believe that the vast majority of businesses should actually stay at stage two for their entire business life cycle. Which means that you view your social media accounts, you view your online platforms—it might be your email list, you might decide to have a podcast—as a place to nurture your existing customers and to answer common questions. You don’t view it as a place to generate leads. You view it as a place to nurture, retain leads and generate referrals from your existing customers.

When doing that, you actually build it out kind of like a sales page. You create content genuinely to help the people that you’re already serving, and, of course, that’s probably going to resonate.

Now, will that go viral? Maybe, but this really is a call for you deciding to play your own game with your content platform, and also figuring out what metrics you need to measure in order to be successful on the platform. The metrics that the social media platform is going to give you are the metrics that are going to reinforce their goals, which are for you to become a famous entertainer. That’s probably not your goal in using social media.

For my mentorship company, we measure the amount of inbound DM inquiries that we get as a result of our content. We’ve become more sophisticated now: we measure the amount that turn into customers that retain. What we’ve found out is that there’s almost an inverse correlation between engagement and the type of content that actually generates customers. Whatever you’re doing, figure out what tangible business outcome you need as a result of your content. Measure that and look past the amount of engagement that you get. Engagement perhaps is an instrumental step, but it’s not the final goal. Goodhart’s Law states that when a measure becomes the goal, it ceases to be a good measure.

Feature Image Credit: Illustration by Fernando Capeto for Forbes; Graphics by Cherezoff/Getty Images

By Megan Poinski

Sourced from Forbes

This is the published version of Forbes’ CMO newsletter, which offers the latest news for chief marketing officers and other messaging-focused leaders. Click here to get it delivered to your inbox every Wednesday.

By Slava Bogdan, Edited by Micah Zimmerman

These ecommerce trends are set to reshape the industry, offering insights into the future of online shopping and business strategies.

Key Takeaways

• Social shopping, voice tech and AI are shaping ecommerce’s future.
• Sustainability and hyperlocal marketing drive consumer loyalty and engagement.
• Immersive experiences and personalization enhance online shopping convenience and conversion.

By Slava Bogdan Edited by Micah Zimmerman

Sourced from Entrepreneur