The AI Revolution isn’t just about creating new tools – it’s about transforming how we learn, understand, and interact with information. And that’s exactly why NotebookLM has become the darling of the AI research community. As someone who’s spent decades observing how technology reshapes human behavior, it’s been fun for me to experiment with this new application.

Here’s what’s really going on: We’re drowning in information. Between podcasts, blog posts, and the endless stream of developments on social media, staying current is like drinking from a firehose. NotebookLM isn’t just another note-taking app – it’s an AI-powered research companion that actually understands context and helps connect the dots.

It’s as close to getting a brain extension as you’ll see (at least for now!).

What makes NotebookLM different is its ability to act as both a librarian and a study buddy. When you’re deep in research mode, it doesn’t just store your notes – it actively helps you understand them. It can summarize complex papers, explain difficult concepts, and even highlight connections between different pieces of research that you might have missed. This is game-changing for anyone navigating the complex world of AI development.

But there’s something even more profound happening here. In all my years of studying digital transformation, I’ve noticed that the tools that truly stick are the ones that feel natural – that work the way our brains work. NotebookLM gets this right. It’s not trying to force users into a rigid system. Instead, it adapts to your thinking style, helping you build knowledge in a way that feels organic and intuitive.

NotebookLM — But wait, there’s more!

A few months ago, NotebookLM users discovered they could use the voice mode to command the app to have a discussion with itself, something similar to a podcast episode. A few people have even produced AI-fueled podcasts with synthetic hosts!

While I have no plans to do this with The Marketing Companion, I did turn to NotebookLM to help me in a pinch this week. My podcast is now in its thirteenth year, and remarkably, I’ve never missed an episode. But this week was close!

My human co-host became too sick to record, and out of time, I turned to NotebookLM for help. The new episode provides extraordinary value in two ways: It’s a mesmerizing demonstration of AI voice capabilities. But what’s really cool is that I uploaded my upcoming new book “Audacious: How Humans Win in an AI World” and asked the “hosts” to review the book.

The result was more than I expected, and I think you’ll love this mind-bending podcast episode. If you haven’t experienced NotebookLM in action, this will get your head spinning. Ready? All you have to do is click here:

Click here to enjoy Marketing Companion Episode 304

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Illustration courtesy MidJourney

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I’ve had the honor of working with some mega brands on their community strategies. There’s a growing recognition that this is where the real conversations, collaborations, and insights are taking place (and it’s out of reach of social listening platforms). But how does a brand get involved in consumer communities?

Many brands — big and small — have built their own consumer communities. Look to Nike, IKEA, and Lego as best examples. Sephora operates 2,700 brick-and-mortar stores, yet 80% of its revenue derives from its online community of 6 million fans. That’s not just a community – that’s an economic force of nature.

Here’s the wake-up call: Your customers are already having conversations about your brand. On Reddit. In Discord channels. Through Slack communities. The only question is: Are you part of that conversation or the awkward outsider looking in through the window?

Even if you don’t build your own community, it makes sense to have some presence in hotbeds of consumer insight. Let’s talk about how to do that today.

Community versus audience

Let’s start with an important point. An audience is not a community.

I wrote the bestselling book about why brand communities are the future of marketing (Belonging to the Brand), and one of the most important ideas is understanding the difference between an audience and a community. For example, I hear many people describe their “blog community” or “Instagram community,” but those are not communities. Those are audiences. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s not a community.

An audience is one-way. If I blog, I have an audience. If I go away, I don’t. But a collective of people sustains a community and this has important implications for brand marketing.

Here are the three differences between an audience and a community:

COMMUNION

In a community, there is communion — people know each other, like a neighborhood. Members of an audience don’t know each other. This is a critical difference because the goodwill and friendship that occurs in a community spill over into the love for the sponsoring brand. Customer communities represent the highest level of emotional brand connection. If customers are emotionally invested in a community, they literally belong to the brand.

PURPOSE

Something must drive a customer to your community — a unifying purpose. What are your customers yearning to do? Learn something? Change the world? Create, connect, or collaborate? The best communities occur when the brand and the customers share a common purpose.  A community thrives when a company realizes that it can have a bigger impact when the customers come along to help.

A well-known example is Patagonia. What is its purpose? Responsible outdoor recreation. Patagonia’s customers are also devoted to this purpose, creating an ideal opportunity for community.

CONTROL

A company controls its mission, a marketing plan, an ad campaign. But community members drive the direction of the community, at least to some extent. This might sound scary, but wouldn’t it be amazing to have your customers help drive your future based on their wants, hopes and dreams? Access to this first party information is golden for any brand.

The biggest hurdles

Why isn’t every brand participating in brand communities? I consistently hear these obstacles:

Scale — Brands are accustomed to an advertising strategy that can generate millions of impressions. Even a community with 50,000 members doesn’t meet their expectations for vast reach.

Personal involvement — How does a “brand” show up in a community? It doesn’t. A “person” shows up in a community. Real people have to create real connections and relationships. This is a new dimension of customer intimacy that seems intimidating for marketers who are comfortable in cubicle land. There’s no effective way to automate interactions in a community. Somebody has to show up.

Outsourcing — Even when companies buy into a community strategy, they struggle to figure out how to delegate this to an ad agency partner. After all, throughout marketing history, the ad agency usually does the heavy lifting. How does an agency represent the brand in a customer community? It might be possible, but I think that would be unusual. I’m not sure a brand should out-source community relationships.

Measurement –Brands need to understand that these communities aren’t just marketing channels – they’re genuine spaces where people share experiences, advice, and support. If you come into a community trying to reach quarterly sales objectives, you’ll fail in a spectacular way.

For these reasons, brand communities could be a more likely strategy for small- and medium-sized companies with a culture geared to patient, human participation in customer communities.

Connecting to a community

So here’s the million-dollar question: How do brands respectfully enter these spaces?

I’ve reached out to community leaders and asked them, “How could a brand add value to your community?” Several themes emerged:

• Show that you really understand us, and not just selling stuff. Spend time observing the community’s conversations, pain points, and values before jumping in.
• Show us relevant new products and how to use them. Pay attention to our pain points.
• Provide educational content. Teach us something new.
• Actively participate in community conversations. Be transparent about who you are.
• Offer exclusive access to executives, designers, marketers, and others who can help us grow.
• Every community needs content. Is there content that can spark conversations in our community?
• Offer to help organize community events or challenges.
• Amplify community members’ voices and expertise, not just your own
• Help us have fun. Can you sponsor contests, quizzes, and games?

In addition to direct involvement, here are three ideas for indirect involvement that might fit the culture of larger brands:

1. Many community founders have a blog, podcast, or YouTube channel. Sponsoring their content can be an indirect way to access their communities.
2. Most large communities have offline events. Could the brand sponsor those activities to gain access to the community?
3. Could you create an event adjacent to a community? For example, fast-food restaurant Jack In The Box hosted an online late-night party on Discord during Comicon with live music, contests, and food giveaways.

The future

We all live in a world longing to belong. We don’t just want community. We need community to function as healthy humans. A brand community might be the only marketing tactic customers actually embrace.

I’m often asked if any brand can have a community and I don’t know the answer, but I take a clue from Yeti. This is a juggernaut of a brand that began with an ice cooler. They didn’t create this success with advertising. They relied almost entirely on community. In fact, Yeti hosts 12 different communities ranging from skiers to rodeo fans. If a cooler can create a cultural movement, what’s your excuse?

Connecting through communities isn’t just brand marketing; it’s brand anthropology. Your social listening platforms are just scratching the surface. The real gold — the authentic discussions, the brutal honesty, the passionate advocacy — that’s happening in communities you can’t track with a dashboard.

We need to connect to the world in new ways to keep our brands relevant. That means patiently learning about our consumer communities and showing up in a meaningful way.

Need a keynote speaker about brand communities? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post How should brands connect to consumer communities? appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Jaguar has been an easy target for critics after the company re-branded itself with a foppish, silly ad and a strange new logo. However, I am not one of those critics. Today, I’ll explain why I’m the only marketer on earth defending the Jaguar strategy. In fact, they are on the only reasonable path for the brand.

Let me be clear that at this point, I am separating the ad/logo from the strategy. In fact, I hate the ad, which seems like an AI fever dream of what “creative” is supposed to be:

I also abhor the logo re-design because Jaguar had one of the coolest logos on the planet and they ruined it.

Why am I pro-Jaguar? Because I think the strategy is brilliant, even if the execution (so far) seems disastrous.

Why Jaguar needs a new strategy

Beyond the disdain of the brand creative, there are three main criticisms of the Jag re-brand:

1. Ignores a legacy of “Britishness” and performance / luxury
2. The ads didn’t feature a car
3. Targeting a creative customer base seems like nonsense.

Let’s break down each criticism:

1. Ignores a legacy of “Britishness” and performance/luxury

I would probably be considered a potential Jag customer. I have owned a luxury car for decades, primarily Audi or BMW. But I have never considered a Jag. In fact, I’ve never known a person in my life who has owned a Jaguar, which, in hindsight, seems remarkable.

Jaguar is not even in the top 10 of luxury car brands. In terms of market strength, it is a has-been, an unprofitable, forgotten also-ran. When was the last time anyone said, “Man, I can’t wait to get my hands on that new Jag!” Right. Probably somewhere between bell-bottoms and Beta video tapes.

In addition to style, research shows there are two big considerations when deciding among luxury cars: performance and maintenance costs.

How does Jaguar stack up? Automotive engineering is dominated by Germany, Japan, Italy, and America these days. To most, Jaguar means frequent break-downs and high maintenance costs. Am I rolling old tapes? Maybe. But that is the brand’s image and it would cost a lot to change people’s minds about that. Is the classic image of James Bond driving a British car relevant for young buyers today? Is it worth holding on to? Do you really want a mercurial British car as your first choice in a luxury car?

I put Jag in the same category as another recent brand rebel — Nutter Butter. Nutter Butter is Jaguar’s brand chaos soul mate — an also-ran in the cookie business with no strong brand meaning. Creating bizarre, unsettling TikTok videos upends cookie marketing tradition and any brand heritage. But who cares? Nobody was talking about Nutter Butter, and now they are.

Could Oreo go down this road? No. They’re the leading brand and have spent millions to develop “meaning” with its customers. BMW can’t suddenly start acting like a TikTok influencer on a sugar rush. Mercedes can’t go full re-brand gonzo. They’ve got too much to lose.

But Jag isn’t a leading brand. It’s a losing brand. So why not shake it up in a bold and conversational way? The content of the advertisement is a red herring. We’re looking at Jaguar for the first time in decades.

2. The ad didn’t feature cars

One of my favorite ad campaigns in recent years never featured a product. Never even mentions it.

A Chick-fil-A employee sits on a red couch with a customer and talks about how the employee met a special customer need. For example, an employee learned sign language to serve a customer who was deaf. Another bonded with a child who had a heart transplant.

What does this have to do with chicken sandwiches?

Brand marketing is about creating an emotional expectation between you and your customers.

To illustrate this in my speeches, I’ll ask the audience to shout out what they think of when I say “Coca-Cola.” Without exception, they say “polar bears.” There was the one time when a guy in the front row said “sadness,” but that’s a story for another day.

My point is that Coke has spent billions to move your mind away from brown sugar water to playful, happy Christmas bears. Coke is a feeling. 

Chick-fil-A has its critics, but it is more than fast food to its raving customers. It’s a warm and happy feeling reinforced by food-less commercials.

So I don’t dismiss the Jaguar ads just because they are car-free. Will you buy a luxury car for its engine dimensions and gas mileage or because it actually means something to you? Jaguar’s brand meaning before last weak was as thin as Earl Grey Tea.

Finally, let’s address the target market strategy, which is aimed at …

3. Designers and Creatives

Years ago, I worked on an influencer marketing project with a luxury automotive brand. The company was introducing a stylish new car and wanted to host events nationwide for social media titans.

But I found that every car company was going after the same small group of luxury car influencers. It was nearly impossible to get their attention. So I started researching adjacent demographic markets. What other categories of people talk a lot about cars?

I discovered two groups obsessed with cars: technology geeks and creative directors. That makes sense, right? Cars are about tech and style.

Tesla has probably cornered the market for techno geeks. But what car brand has a special and unique appeal to creatives? There isn’t one. I think Jag studied the market data long and hard and saw a seam they could own. Brilliant. Early feedback shows creatives applauding the brand.

And by the way, the “copy nothing” appeal to creatives is a direct line to the Jaguar brand heritage.

The holistic strategy

Jaguar prototype

An ad is not a strategy. A logo is not a strategy. So what else do we know about the re-brand?

• Jag has built a radical new electric car that will sell for roughly double the price of current Jaguar vehicles. The car is expected to debut soon at the Miami Art Show. In an interview with Automotive News, Jaguar Land Rover CEO Adrian Mardell said the still-secret Jaguar GT will make people “salivate” when they see its styling.
• They are targeting young, wealthy, design-minded people. After the internet / AI boom, there are a lot of young millionaires out there wanting to make their own statement.
• The new all-EV Jaguar cars will be positioned as “exuberant,” “modernist,” “compelling,” and all about “fearless creative.” The strategy is spearheaded by an experienced and respected auto brand marketer, Gerry McGovern. So this re-brand is not the whimsical idea from some GenZ agency. There is data and insight behind the strategy. By the way, McGovern already turned the Range Rover brand around. So I am willing to give him a pass on the ad fumble.
• The company is overhauling its dealership network which will also feature high-end art and cusine. That is a BOLD reinvention of the auto dealership.

Jag is re-imagining the whole automotive experience through the lens of the creative class. It’s ludicrous to judge the entire strategy based on one ad.

Let’s give it time.

I just finished writing a book about disruptive marketing (“Audacious: How Humans Win in an AI Marketing World” available in February 2025). I see the underlying logic of what Jaguar is trying to do. Jag might be a competent brand. But competent doesn’t cut it. Competent = commodity. Competent doesn’t create conversations. My book explains how the world’s best creatives are breaking through the noise by disrupting the:

• Narrative
• Medium, where the story is told
• Who is telling the story

From what we know about the brand’s holistic strategy, Jag is completely upending the luxury car narrative. This is exactly what they need to do. 

The risk? There is none. You can’t kill what’s already dead. The only risk is continuing to be forgettable.

They’re in that sweet spot where “nothing to lose” meets “everything to gain.” They’re in the perfect position to pull a Nutter Butter — to be so outrageous, so unexpected, that people can’t help but notice.

The new car is supposed to be introduced in a few weeks. If it’s as sleek and cool as it is rumored to be, if the dealerships become something more than a place where people hate to shop, if Jaguar creates a story that truly connects with a creative class longing to be understood … Jag will be newly relevant.

Perhaps it’s already on the way. After all, when was the last time we spent this much time talking about Jaguar?

Exactly.

Update: Jaguar has now introduced the car. The first look:

Here is the introduction video:

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy Jaguar

The post In defense of Jaguar (I think I’m the only one) appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

I’ve been a faculty member at several different universities since 2009 and have lectured far longer than that. I care about these institutions. They’re part of the American heritage, and in many cases, they’re a gift to the world. But we live in fast-changing times, and universities do not change fast. I’m worried about our colleges. How do we reimagine universities in the Era of AI?

I have some ideas about this, and if you’re currently associated with a college, you will hate them.

To begin with, my thesis is that in the AI Era, universities will fail (and are already failing) to prepare students for many careers. Change isn’t just knocking; it’s kicking down the door, raiding your fridge, and redecorating your living room. There has to be a radical reimagining of the university education that matches the radical disruption of our times.

First, let’s get a few things off the table. If a student attends college for the social aspects or to spend a few years maturing, today’s university system is fine. If a student attends for a purely academic pursuit without any thought of employment, they will thrive in the system we have today.

But I assume most students attend college to launch a career. And that’s where the problems begin.

I’ll break down the problems one by one before offering some solutions.

Organization

I’ve talked to many leading authorities in the tech space — people right in the middle of AI development in Silicon Valley. And I’ve asked them, “How would you prepare young people for a career with the amount of disruption occurring?” Without exception, the answer is, “I don’t know.”

This presents an existential problem because universities are generally organized by career choice: engineering, teaching, art, journalism, etc. But if nobody knows what future careers look like, how can you organize based on jobs that won’t exist as they do today? Except forestry. That might be safe for awhile. But you get my point. Many job categories are rapidly evolving and fluid right now (especially marketing).

The future of education isn’t about preparing for a specific job. It’s about preparing for anything and everything. It’s about teaching students to surf the waves of change rather than trying to build sandcastles on a beach that’s shifting before our eyes.

Speed

A university professor friend of mine recently lamented that it has taken two years to get a new class approved. The glacial pace of change at universities is legendary and … stupid. The bureaucratic lunacy of universities is so well-known that I don’t have to explain further why this culture is a death sentence in an AI world.

Economics

Universities are proud of their park-like campuses and ancient limestone buildings bolted to the center of the earth. While taking selfies in front of Old Main might enchant the alumni, the fact is, you can get a superior education today without that legacy overhead.

If you had to bet on disruptive innovation coming from somebody in a co-working space versus a person who has to spend part of their time fundraising for the Psychology Building renovation … well, it’s not even a race.

The economics for students is even worse. The average four-year education in the U.S. is $160,000 (tuition only). Why does every major need to be completed in four years? Well, somebody has to pay for those limestone buildings. If you step back and look at it, it’s a ridiculous model. No matter the major or career aspiration, it’s four years. Huh?

Any new vision for universities must include significant cost and time reductions enabled by technology.

Faculty

The purpose of the university faculty has been to dispense information. However, universities are no longer the gatekeepers of information. When information is free and abundant, colleges have to reinvent themselves in the context of a new job to be done — eternal relevance. This is a radical idea, but in my estimation, it is the key to the future of colleges.

And the tenure system … don’t get me started. Let’s just say there is almost no incentive for tenured faculty to change and stay current. The stories of lazy, irrelevant faculty I could tell you are shocking, but I won’t embarrass anyone.

At this point, I think all of my university friends could use a photo of a puppy.

No need to thank me. Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Solutions

I’ve covered some of the problems facing a university in a short and simple way because this is a short and simple blog post. I recognize there are many nuances, layers, and complexities that I’m blowing right past. However, not many people care about those, especially young people preparing for a career … in something less than four years, please.

My advice to universities is to start over. There is just no way your Reinvention Committee will twist your bureaucracy into something functional. Take that giant endowment fund and create an entirely new form of education that is fluid enough to meet the needs of today’s teens.

Education in the past assumed there is a logical endpoint. Once you learned A, B, and C, you had enough under your belt to be an engineer, to be an accountant, or a journalist. But today, there is no endpoint. The endpoint keeps moving. What was true for a career yesterday may not be true today. Education needs to be a journey of lifetime learning. So we need something radically new.

No more degrees

Here is my vision: Instead of enrolling in college, students subscribe to one. Students would enter a lifetime learning program accredited by the university of their choice. The program would be designed to get students into the workforce and keep them there through learning modules that adapt to changing times.

The subscription price should be very affordable. However, over a student’s career in the workplace, the financial return to the university would far exceed $160,000 because the relationship with the student would last decades.

Each student would need to pass a battery of tests to ensure they’re ready to join a learning cohort. Some might start with remedial work to get them on the right track. I’ve seen too many university marketing students who can’t write a coherent sentence. Sorry. Fix that first.

Instead of degrees, students would earn accreditation on a topic, sort of like earning a series of merit badges. For example, it would mean much more to a marketing employer to see that a student earned accreditation in digital media production from a university, rather than just knowing they received an A in French and a C in geology during their sophomore year.

No more curriculum

The idea of a standard curriculum that changes every few years, littered with nonsensical, soul-stealing electives, is pathetic. This anachronistic system was created when a gentleman needed a well-rounded education in the classics. And I do mean gentleman.

Instead, my view is that a curriculum committee would create new learning modules every year, or even every few months, depending on the major. The major role of university employees would be overseeing the design of a continuous and ever-changing learning experience.

And by the way, we need a learning path that addresses both the hard skill and soft skills required in the modern workplace. Students need to learn to lead, but also how to be an effective follower and team player.

The lifetime university experience might include guest lectures, field trips, demonstrations — anything to keep the students relevant in their careers.

AI teaching agents

In the short term, we will still need a human faculty. Topical experts (not tenured) would share their views of the current state. And hey, instead of repairing Old Main and installing that new landscaping, let’s pay those teachers a decent salary, huh?

In the next two years, human-like AI learning agents will often make better teachers. This might sound like the Jetsons but it’s already here. Have you had a conversation with the mobile version of ChatGPT? This will only get better.

AI agents enable the creation of personalized learning pathways tailored to each student’s needs, performance, and goals. This approach can accommodate different learning speeds, styles, and even disabilities, leading to better outcomes than traditional classroom education. And, these teachers would cost far less and know … well, everything.

I do think there is a human role in the new learning environment as mentors and guides. Humans still need a human touch. Especially young students.

A learning cohort

I recently declared about the RISE marketing community: “This is my university.”

We have no curriculum or classes there. But we have each other — people from around the world teaching each other as we navigate this confusing world. Why couldn’t a real university be the same way? It can be, and needs to be.

That’s why I recommend a lifelong cohort of people (the subscribers) who become friends and support each other in a community. Today, education simply cannot end with a piece of paper. It’s a never-ending process, and we need each other.

A cohort could meet on campus once a year for some special programs but keep in touch constantly through an online platform. And the cohort should be multidisciplinary. It will be that way whether it’s designed that way or not. How many people are still working in a field related to their original major? Diverse views make the cohort more interesting and valuable.

The cohort would stay together for decades. I think it makes sense to add new people now and then, just as it benefits a community to have new members with new perspectives. A virtual community format allows people from many nations to be included.

Real learning happens in conversations, not classrooms.

Finally …

Did this post come across as mean? I hope it’s seen as tough love. I love so much about colleges and what they stand for. A university is hope. It’s a dream. It is the future.

But most career academics who read this will think: “We could never do this. It would screw up our US News and World Report rankings. This obsessive focus on rankings does not serve your students. Besides, Malcolm Gladwell and others have shown how the rankings are about as meaningful as a participation trophy in your kid’s soccer league. Yet, here we are, still doing the rankings rumba.

The world is changing faster than a chameleon in a Skittles factory. AI is rewriting the rules of education, work, and probably your department’s parking policy. And you’re obsessing about a made-up number in a magazine? University friends, it’s time to carve a new path that breaks the ranking shackles. Universities spent centuries building ivory towers. I’m proposing we build meaningful bridges to students and their real needs instead.

I know dramatic change seems daunting. And what I’ve proposed here can be poked and prodded and questioned. Here’s what I know. Imagine the most far-out scenario for our AI future. The reality will be much more insane than that.

Change has to start somewhere or universities risk becoming the academic equivalent of a typewriter repair shop. Disrupt or be disrupted.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy MidJourney

The post How to Reimagine Universities for the AI Era appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

Some brands are making a U-turn away from safe and reliable marketing practices into something bizarre and even … horrifying. The trade press began to characterize the new wave of unhinged brands as DGAF (for Don’t Give a F*ck).

But nothing could be further from the truth. These brands care deeply about their products and customers but realize that their enemy is indifference. Without awareness and conversations about the product, there are new sales. A disruptive narrative unlocks consumer attention and the DGAF brands are plowing into exciting new territory.

To understand the connection between today’s over-the-top weirdness and consumer attention, we need to start with Liquid Death.

Liquid Death: A pioneer of unhinged brands

When it comes to disrupting a boring brand narrative, Liquid Death is a rocket-fueled joyride to the kingdom of badassery. It’s turned a bland, commoditized category (water) on its head by breaking every marketing taboo in the history of marketing taboos.
This is fearless marketing.

• Let’s start with the name. “Death” is usually not the ideal topic to bring up when selling a consumer product, especially when competitors are normally called something like Rainbow Springs.
• And its packaging. Water is supposed to be a symbol of purity. Liquid Death does the opposite—it’s sold in oversized aluminum cans featuring a macabre illustration of a heavy metal skull. By embracing the imagery and language of darkness and danger, Liquid Death subverts every expectation of what a politically correct brand should be.
• One notorious campaign featured a blind taste test in which participants compared Liquid Death to toilet water. The brand’s founder, Mike Cessario, drank from a toilet on camera to prove that Liquid Death tastes better.

The brand embraces its (many) critics. One review said, “I would rather lick the back of a sweaty fat man than drink Liquid Death.” The company turned this into a viral video when it asked customers to lick the back of a sweaty fat man. It quickly proved that 100% of consumers prefer its drink.

You really need to see this:

Liquid Death aligns with controversial figures and subcultures like heavy metal bands and tattoo artists. By embracing fringe elements of society, Liquid Death appeals to consumers who feel alienated by the mainstream and crave a sense of belonging and rebellious fun.

Unhinged brands emerge

Recently I wrote about the nightmarish TikTok videos published by Nutter Butter brand cookies. If you haven’t checked this article out, go ahead, I’ll wait.

At a time when many marketers are covered in fear-induced night sweats over the potential to make a mistake or offend, there’s a growing crop of brands proving people will reward crudeness and candor when it’s actually entertaining. The strategies and product markets differ, but brands like Nutter Butter, Liquid Death, Duolingo, and Pop Tarts are using edgy, agile laughs to win over audiences. Arguably, the much-maligned Jaguar re-brand is a DGAF nod to the old school marketing world.

While there has always been an element of weird in the ad world, I think we’re on a cusp of really audacious content because the world is ready for it.

Indifference is the enemy

I don’t pretend to completely understand the imagery and narrative presented by Nutter Butter or Liquid Death. But I do understand that they have people talking.

And I love this refreshing take. It’s objectionable but not offensive. I mean, what is the legal department going to say about people licking sweat of a guy’s back?

It doesn’t cross a line because it creates new lines in a unique brand universe. Liquid Death and Nutter Butter have looked at the “rules” of water and cookies and determined that they need to be re-written. Awesome.

Weird marketing isn’t new but perhaps it is newly relevant in a world where people are just tired of the same repetitive ads and marketing.

If you’re going to take a big brand risk, maybe the safest play of all is inventing a new world where there are no rules and nobody to offend. Even small brands are entering the DGAF universe.

You only win with brand

In an interview, Liquid Death founder Mike Cessario contended that dull is usually embedded in a brand from the beginning. “Entrepreneurs create something new. They have a product name, and maybe they hire a graphic designer, but it’s not that interesting or smartly branded. Later in the game, when they have money, they hire marketing agencies to build campaigns around this uninteresting thing to make people care about it, or somehow make it relevant when it’s not. But when you can have the people involved at the beginning who understand culture and psychology and have them create the brand, it’s a far more powerful position.

“You’re only going to win with branding. You won’t win with some functional ingredients you can’t own. In that case, when you’re big enough, Coke or Pepsi or someone else will just produce the same thing—same ingredients, cheaper, more widely distributed, and then you lose. With water, there’s minimal, if any, functional difference between the brands. The difference is purely marketing. People want to walk around with this thing instead of that thing. None of the water brands were interesting. I did my homework. There was a huge opportunity to tell a different story.

“The big mistake entrepreneurs make is thinking ‘what has worked in the past is what’s working now—let’s make something like that.’ Most new things are just copies of existing things. If you aspire to be truly unique or innovative, you have to trick your brain and force yourself to consider bad or dumb ideas. That makes you consider things that don’t exist, because why would anyone create a product that’s a bad idea?”

DGAF brands? No. The wisdom is far beyond that.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

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The other day I checked in on Twitter (Still can’t bring myself to say X) and saw this tweet:

About a year ago, Twitter started injecting tweets into my “notifications” stream from people I don’t follow. So, I don’t know Faith Back Rub. Never heard of the account before. And yet, Twitter’s algorithm somehow thought this was one of the most important things for me to see that day.

The message I received was “a famous American football player slammed a presidential candidate.” And then I went on to something more interesting in my busy day.

But then I thought about it a little more: this celebrity American football player is usually non-political. He makes millions in product endorsements and podcast sponsorships. This statement seems uncharacteristic. So I went back to the tweet and clicked on the actual Kelce message:

Now my reaction was — well, this is a verified account. Looks like Travis Kelce really did take a clever swipe at Trump. Surprising. But what is this “Parody by Rub” thing in the corner? Is this real or not? Now, I had to dig to figure out what was going on. And here’s the truth:

This did not come from Travis Kelce, but how would I obviously know that? Remember how this showed up in my news feed: There was no indication that this was fake news when it was displayed to me. I read the headline and moved on.

As it turns out, most people who clicked through were fooled by this tweet, even though it was identified as a “parody.” I know this because there were nearly 1,000 comments on this tweet, most of them Trump supporters blasting Travis Kelce — who had nothing to do with this opinion.

And this is the true problem with social media. The threat to our society doesn’t necessarily come from what people say, it comes from algorithms amplifying disinformation.

The implication of amplification

Everybody has a right to say what they want to say, even if it’s incorrect or controversial. When the American Founding Fathers drafted the Constitution, even the most powerful and compelling voice back then could only hope that somebody would read their pamphlet or hear a speech. Information spread slowly, and mostly, locally. Even a juicy conspiracy theory couldn’t get nationwide attention very easily.

But today, damaging content can spread instantly and globally. And that puts a new spin on the issue of free speech.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously said there is a limit on free speech: “You can’t yell ‘fire’ (with no fire) in a crowded theater.” But today, anybody can yell fire, and it can impact the opinions of hundreds, thousands or even millions of people. Amplification matters. Amplication is the threat. Why isn’t anybody taking responsibility for this?

Social media companies must be accountable

Let’s think through the case study I presented today.

• Twitter’s algorithm—no human being—decided to amplify news clearly marked as fake into user news streams without indicating that it was a parody (the first screenshot above).
• Based on the comments, two-thirds of the recipients of this tweet thought it was real, or 342,000 people.
• But that’s just the beginning. This fake news was retweeted 7,700 times!

This example was relatively harmless. The parody tweet probably caused Travis Kelce some irritation, but maybe that goes with the life of a celebrity.

However, what if this amplified fake tweet was devastatingly serious?

• What if a “verified account” called off evacuations in the middle of a hurricane?
• What if a fake account said every computer was hacked and would blow up today?
• What if the tweet accused Travis Kelce of beating up his girlfriend Taylor Swift?

My point is that Twitter and any other platform that employs algorithms to knowingly spread false claims should be held accountable.

In a recent interview, author and historian Yuval Noah Harari made this comparison: People can leave any comment they want on an article in The New York Times, even if it’s false. But amplification from social media companies is like the newspaper taking a bizarre, false comment and putting it on the front page of their newspaper.

That’s irresponsible and dangerous to society. Nobody would stand for that. And yet, we do.

Aim at amplification

As we enter the AI Era, the danger of fake news and its implications grows profoundly.

Let’s cut to the chase — Twitter knowingly lied to me to increase my time on their site and benefit its bottom line.

While it would be nearly impossible for any platform to monitor the comments of millions (or billions) of users, it’s much easier to hold companies accountable for spreading known false information to innocent people. This is a simple first step to protect people from dangerous falsehoods.

Why is nobody talking about this? Addressing bot-driven “sensational amplification” is a much easier fix than trying to regulate or suppress free speech. This must be a regulatory priority.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

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Today, I’ll explain the Parasite Economy and why it is destroying businesses but opening up new opportunities for creators.

For many years, I’ve subscribed to Ted Gioia’s newsletter, “The Honest Broker.” It’s hard to describe this newsletter. Ted is a music critic and historian whose musings tend to wander all over the cultural landscape. But he has a knack for consistently connecting the dots in insightful ways, and I almost always learn something from his posts.

In an article titled “Are We Now Living in a Parasite Culture?” Ted makes an observation that is profound in its simplicity and wisdom. It goes like this:

“Nowadays, parasite businesses are the largest corporations in the world. Their technologies do many harmful things, but lately they have focused on serving up fake culture, leeching off the creativity of real human artists.

“Just take a look at the dominant digital platforms—and consider how little they actually create. But the amount of leeching they do is really quite stunning, especially when compared with the dominant businesses of the past.

• What does Facebook really create? Almost nothing. It relies on 3 billion users to create content (ugh!—their word, not mine), and then monetizes these people and their unpaid labor.
• What does Google really create? Almost nothing. Just look at how it destroys newspapers, while doing zero journalism itself. The comparison with a parasite could hardly be more apt. It feeds off the news, but never adds to it.
• What does Spotify really create? Almost nothing. The folks at Spotify don’t worry about their lousy app, because they’re so busy sucking blood from the creative economy, to which they contribute not one whit. Meanwhile, their CEO is now richer than any musician in the history of the world.
• What does TikTok really create? Almost nothing. This company relies on one million creators—none of them are employees. Most of them are working for hopes and dreams. TikTok is run like a Hollywood studio, but without cast, crew, directors, scriptwriters, or any creative talent whatsoever. But that hardly matters when you’re just a parasite living off unwitting hosts.

“Consider the case of the woman who attracted 713,000 TikTok followers and generated 11 million views for her videos—and got paid $1.85 over the course of five months. No that’s not $1.85 million—it’s one buck and eighty-five pennies. You can practically hear the lifeblood getting sucked out of the creator economy.”

Ted’s post continues, and he concludes by saying, “For the first time in history, the Forbes list of billionaires is filled with individuals who got rich via parasitical business strategies—creating almost nothing, but gorging themselves on the creativity of others.”

As usual, Ted made me think long and hard. I agree with him, but there is another side of this coin. In fact, the Parasite Economy is the best thing that ever happened to me in my professional life. And it can be for you, too. Today I’ll explain why.

The Parasite Economy’s Poster Child

On the surface, I am the poster child for “Victims of the Parasite Economy.”

I’ve probably added 20 million words to the social web through my blog and podcast alone. Google and its algorithm brotherhood crawl the internet like bugs, chewing my content like termites and then hurling it back out as an indistinguishable paste. The molecular material of my precious content is within everything now—no attribution, no money, no customers.

The years of effort behind this content are now part of the immortal glue that holds AI together. How have I been compensated for my significant content contribution? Nothing at all. I’ve never received one penny from Google, social media sites, or an AI company.

And yet, after 15 years of blogging and 12 years on the podcast, I keep churning out more. In fact, I think I’m doing my best work ever, giving away my most valuable ideas and insights every week.

Through Ted’s view, I should be incensed. But I’m grateful. Here’s why.

The Benefits of the Parasite Economy

While it’s true that I’m not making money from my content, I’ve made millions of dollars over the course of my creator career because I built an audience. You can’t have an audience without awareness, and you can’t have awareness without giving away valuable content.

I can see why Ted or any creative would feel abused because their content is consumed, loved, and shared without compensation. The key to surviving in the creator economy is not counting on your content for revenue. Those days are gone. So go ahead and grieve that reality, but get over it and look for other profitable ways to serve your audience.

I have 24 revenue streams. The most important ones are:

• Keynote speaking events and corporate workshops
• Personal coaching
• Book sales
• Private marketing retreat (The Uprising)
• Online classes

Until last year, I would have had marketing strategy consulting on the list — this was number one for many years. But I’ve been turning down these opportunities due to the wear and tear of travel.

My point is that, purely based on the awareness provided by the Parasite Economy, I’ve reinvented myself in a way that has allowed me to move away from the 9-5 corporate job.

The economics of our world today

I’ve never received a dime from Google or Facebook, but I’ve also never paid them (or anyone) a dime in advertising. So, at least for me, it’s been a fair trade-off.

Likewise, even a media company like The New York Times has been able to reinvent itself by diversifying into new media properties like podcasts, events, books, and speaking (they are building personal brands for their best reporters).

I am NOT dismissing the galaxy of negatives about internet parasites, including many of the good points Ted made in his post.

But I wanted to provide an alternate view that, with some creativity and resourcefulness, a creator can thrive, even under these strange circumstances.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy of MidJourney

The post The Parasite Economy: An Upside for Creators appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

The hottest marketing topic in the world right now is Nutter Butter.

And that’s the point.

Nutter Butter, the sixth most-popular U.S. cookie brand, has upended TikTok with unhinged videos that cross horror movies with an acid trip. Here’s an example:

@officialnutterbutterTHE DAYS–when. .plow? original sound – nutter butter

This might seem like an inexplicable, or even dangerous, way to promote a cookie loved by children. But this strategy aligns with research I’ve done for my new book (“Audacious,” out January 2025). In the context of modern marketing, this strategy is bizarre but also brilliant.

Today I’ll explain why the Nutter Butter campaign is more than chaos.

The biggest problem in marketing today

… is attention.

We live in a world awash with content. Our ads don’t just compete with other ads. They compete for attention with Netflix, Candy Crush, and photos of the new grandkids on Facebook.

And this war for attention grows even more desperate with AI. AWS reports that already more than half the content on the web is AI-generated slop.

To break through this incredible wall of noise takes something bold … maybe even a little crazy. So let’s start there. Nutter Butter needs awareness for its brand and is taking a risk to be audacious.

Purpose behind the outrage

This campaign is getting so much attention because it’s unsettling, perhaps even horrifying. But there is a method behind this madness.

Jonah Berger, a Wharton marketing professor and author of one of my favorite books, Contagious: Why Things Catch On, identified emotional connection as one of the key factors influencing content virality. He explained that when we care deeply about something, we are more likely to share it with others and remember it.

Jonah’s research showed that content that evokes strong emotions, whether positive or negative, is more likely to be recalled and talked about than content that is purely informational or emotionally neutral.

Virality is most associated with high-arousal emotions like excitement, awe, anger, outrage, and fear. Yes … anger, outrage, and fear.

Another company embracing anger and outrage is the fast-growing water brand Liquid Death. It created its brand by starting with WRONG —  Naming its product Death. Selling water in cans emblazoned with skulls. Adopting gruesome images as its brand vision. Collaborating with porn stars and other alternative niches. And in three years, this brand went from nothing to a valuation of $1.4 billion.

The bizarreness effect is a facet of human memory suggesting that we better remember things that deviate from the norm. This phenomenon is also known as the “von Restorff effect” or the “isolation effect.”

One of the highlights of my new book is the idea that most marketers typically focus on positive emotions. By highlighting fear and outrage, Liquid Death and Nutter Butter are tapping into an overlooked strategy to increase awareness and relevance.

The world wants weird

The Nutter Butter campaign is on TikTok for a reason. Gen Z likes brands that go their own way, and the weirder, the better.

• A study by the market research company Ipsos found that 65% of Gen Z respondents believe that “being true to yourself” is more important than being popular, compared to 43% of Millennials and 35% of Gen X.
• Research by the advertising agency Wunderman Thompson found that 70% of Gen Z respondents believe that being different is a good thing, and they prefer standing out from the crowd.
• A Live Nation study showed that 82% feel “weird is in” and 58% say the more absurd something is, the cooler it becomes.”
• Much has been written about the rise of absurdist Gen Z humor that baffles older generations. The weirder, the better.

So the unexpected weirdness of the campaign might not make much sense unless you’re part of Gen Z.

Is Nutter Butter “on brand?”

Some of the criticism of this campaign is that this is just too weird for a cookie brand. These horrifying images are off-brand.

Well, let’s start with a question: When you think of the Nutter Butter cookie, what IS the brand? That’s what I thought. Nothing comes to mind. You probably haven’t had one of these cookies since you were a kid … if you’ve ever had one at all.

My point is that Nutter Butter has no meaningful brand recognition and has nothing to lose by stepping into Crazy Town.

Would this work for Coke or Nike or Apple? No, because these companies actually have brands. Nutter Butter had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

If a cookie competitor like Oreo created insane videos like this, it would be truly off-brand. So Nutter Butter is turning its weakness —  it has no brand meaning — to its advantage by owning the weird.

And it worked.

Here’s a funny thing. If you search for Nutter Butter on TikTok, it’s actually hard to find the ads because there are so many influencer posts talking about the ads and directing their followers to the account. One influencer video garnered 3 million views alone. In a few weeks, Nutter Butter has added one million new TikTok followers. Each video is receiving thousands of comments and shares.

So, the brand is suddenly relevant, in the middle of the culture, creating conversations. What a success story.

It’s also getting attention from the general public. Here is the search interest in Nutter Butter over the last year, according to Google Trends:

The nightmarish campaign is receiving tons of mainstream media coverage, including The Today Show and Fast Company. The cookie chaos has spawned numerous reddit popular threads trying to interpret what it all means.

Is it having a financial impact on the brand? It’s too soon to tell, but it’s hard to imagine that it’s not experiencing a significant sales boost from all this attention.

Is it sustainable?

Is this a stunt or a strategy?

I think it’s too smart to be a stunt. My guess is that there is actually a narrative here. There are characters, codes, themes. I think a subcult of people will devote themselves to unraveling the mysteries and Nutter Butter would be wise to keep the momentum going with actual clues and rewards.

It will be interesting to see how all this madness might spill over to their packaging. What would happen if they had a special edition Nutter Butter Man package? There are a lot of ways they can go with this. If they keep this madness going and there is some underlying depth to a storyline, it would be sustainable.

Here’s the lesson

To stand out in the world today, competence doesn’t cut it. Competence doesn’t create conversations. Competence isn’t culturally relevant.

If your marketing is competent, it’s ignorable.

Nutter Butter is no longer ignorable because they have stepped off the cliff and taken a dive into audacity.

What you’ll learn in my new book is that you don’t have to be horrific or shocking to be audacious, but you do have to disrupt the marketing patterns in your industry. With the help of some of the world’s most renowned creative experts, I’ll teach you how to disrupt your marketing narrative.

I can’t wait for you to see the new book … and I also have a new speech on this topic!

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

The post The Nutter Butter campaign explained. Yes, this nightmare makes sense appeared first on Schaefer Marketing Solutions: We Help Businesses {grow}.

On vacation in Italy, I visited a lovely wine shop in Florence. So of course, I wanted to talk to the owner about marketing (can’t help myself). The proprietor had a lovely place filled with antiques and art — such an interesting, visual environment! And yet, she wasn’t on Instagram. In fact, she didn’t use social media at all, a personal decision that certainly goes against the grain.

“Everyone tells me I should be posting,” she said. “But I don’t feel comfortable with it and would rather spend my time talking with customers.”

She spread her arms to indicate this sacred space where she sits in her shop, sipping wine with customers. “This is what I love about my business.”

Obviously, this anti-social media strategy has worked well. Her business has been growing for 18 years, built on her reputation of quality products and personal attention.

Sometimes, you can’t just listen to the gurus. Marketing is often a personal decision.

And I’d like you to consider this alternative thinking as a possible competitive advantage …

Marketing lemmings

The biggest problem with marketing, and especially social media marketing, is that “best practices” are so well known and so easily absorbed. Once a new competitive trick is discovered on a social platform, it spreads like wildfire and becomes part of everyone’s normal practice.

For example, the “shocked look” video thumbnail pioneered by Mr Beast:

Leads to this:

I’m not judging whether this is good or bad. It probably works on some level. But it all looks the SAME.

My point is that by going your own way, following your muse, and ignoring conventional wisdom, you can evolve into your own competitive advantage simply because when it’s YOU, it’s different.

Go your own way

I was an early adopter of social media marketing. In 2006, as part of my corporate marketing duties, I led an early social media team and started my own blog a few years later.

And I was a big rule-follower. I desperately tried to fit in and follow all the best practices of the day. I dutifully created my strategic, SEO-optimized content for my “ideal customer personas.” And two things happened.

First, nothing happened. Nobody was reading or commenting on my content.

Second, I became bored. What was I doing? Creating keyword-infused content for a made-up persona? Blah.

So I stopped.  And I started telling my own story, following my curiosity, expressing opinions (even when they went against the grain), and breaking the shackles of Google-driven content.

And something amazing happened.

When I went my own way, instead of finding my ideal audience, my ideal audience found me. And they were all over the world. When I decided to be a real person, real people responded back, and it changed my career.

There is no way this would have happened if I had stayed in the social media trough of best practices.

It was a powerful lesson, and since then, I’ve broken rules all along the way as I’ve written my books, created The Uprising, and established a speaking career. That personal decision to have your own little rebel yell doesn’t mean you’re reckless or offensive. But it requires courage to show up differently when boring is the path of least resistance.

The personal decision and marketing

Are you in a marketing trough? Are you so focused on what other people are doing that you’re overlooking your unique value and inherent creativity?

More importantly, are you happy and excited about your work, or are you becoming bored with all these rules, as I was?

Stop trying to game the system and start being unapologetically you. Because in the end, people don’t connect with keywords or personas. They connect with stories, passion, and real human beings who have something genuine to say.

There is a place for best practices, but don’t overlook the power of going your own way, especially when most marketing is so dull. There is tremendous pressure to do what everybody else is doing. It might seem scary not to follow the crowd. But that might be your most powerful and meaningful differentiator.

Need a keynote speaker? Mark Schaefer is the most trusted voice in marketing. Your conference guests will buzz about his insights long after your event! Mark is the author of some of the world’s bestselling marketing books, a college educator, and an advisor to many of the world’s largest brands. Contact Mark to have him bring a fun, meaningful, and memorable presentation to your company event or conference.

Follow Mark on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram

Illustration courtesy of Austrian National Library and Unsplash.com

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