April 24, 2025
In this week's edition: Every marketing channel sucks, why crisis preparedness is still so bad, media saturation, why AI company logos look like b*ttholes, how to influence POTUS, and much more...
Time Spent With Media Reaches 'Saturation,' Declines First Time Since Great Recession - “Media consumption has reached its saturation point as digital device penetration rates having peaked in major developed markets, like the U.S.” (MediaPost)
Every marketing channel sucks right now - “A lot of channels are not working, or are slow, expensive, or one-time only. This is the natural end state for things, and maybe we’re in a bit of a lull due to the technology super cycle as we’re 15+ years into the mobile wave, we’ve had various kinds of paid ads for 20+ years, and so on.” (Andrew Chen)
Musk and AI among biggest threats to brand reputation, global survey shows -
“In appraisal, international public affairs leaders warned companies about aligning with ‘polarizing’ Trump ally.” (Guardian) On that point, Can the Tesla Brand be Saved? (Fast Company)
Heathrow Fire: A Failure of Preparedness or a Case Study in Resilience? “Information integrity—communication, transparency, and situational awareness—was tested under pressure at Heathrow. Internally, Heathrow’s teams communicated swiftly to execute safety protocols. However, inconsistencies emerged across the broader information ecosystem as the disruption unfolded between airport authorities, airlines, ground handlers, and passengers.”
Why is crisis preparedness still so bad - with no real sign of improving? “Most managers agree that reputational or operational crises are among the greatest threats to their organisation. Yet survey after survey shows a frightening lack of crisis preparedness, with no real sign of improving.” (Managing Outcomes)
The Case Against Corporate Cowardice - “Companies willing to abandon their values in the face of intimidation are basically betting that American democracy will not survive the current crisis.” (PRovoke)
How to Make Friends and Influence POTUS - “Lobbying in U.S. politics has always had a transactional side. But executives must understand the new realities of the current environment — and AI-powered influence peddling.” (MITSloan)
2025 LinkedIn Benchmarks - “In 2025, LinkedIn isn’t just a professional network—it’s a full-scale content engine. With organic reach still very much in play and user engagement continuing to increase, brands are doubling down on the platform.” (Social Insider)
Bluesky Is Rolling Out Official Verification - “Bluesky’s new verification process launches today. It mixes the old-school, Twitter-style blue check bestowed by the platform with a more decentralized option for trusted organizations.” (Wired)
Facebook increasing as part of social traffic mix after algorithm change, data shows - “More than a third of major global news websites saw both Facebook share and total social referral traffic growth in March.” (Press Gazette)
Mark Borkowski On The Future Of Journalism & The Changing Media Landscape - “Trusted voices – whether in newsletters, podcasts, or new formats – will rise. But disinformation will grow too, and it’s a real threat to democracy. Every political TikTok account was targeted during the last UK election. Big Tech figures like Peter Thiel now openly question whether democracy is even viable.” (Country & Town House)
5 Better Ways to Answer “Anything Else You’d Like to Add?” in Media Interviews - “That closing question is potential free earned media. It’s a chance to reinforce a key message, extend the story, and make it more compelling.” (PR News)
OpenAI is building a social network - “A social app would … give OpenAI its own unique, real-time data that X and Meta already have to help train their AI models. Musk’s Grok surfaces content from X in its results (Musk recently went so far as to merge X and xAI into the same company), while Meta trains Llama on its vast trove of user data.” (The Verge)
Why do AI company logos look like b*ttholes? “Looking at the logos of the Big AI companies, you can see that they almost all of them have a circular or snowflake-like shape and a central opening. Only DeepSeek and Midjourney don't follow the trend. Interestingly, both are sea-related.” (VelvetShark)
And finally, the most popular story from last week was ‘Views’ are lies by The Verge. See you next week!