July 3, 2025
In this week's edition: faceless creators, Reddit's vow of 'humanity', Tesla's robotaxis and the media, the creativity dividend, Chanel's new magazine, AI-personalized news, and much more...
WTF is behind the explosion of faceless creators? “Over the past three months, AffiliateNetwork.com — a network of faceless creators across social platforms — has grown from 5,000 members to 21,000… (whose) top creators in the network had made an average of $30,000 to $40,000 per month in brand deals. Media buyers at Publicis and Dentsu also said that faceless creators represent an increasing share of their clients’ influencer marketing budgets.” (Digiday)
Let's Stop Pretending Corporate Comms Can Be Authentic - “The harder we perform authenticity, the more inauthentic we become” (Mixternal Comms Playbook)
AI-personalized news takes new forms (but do readers want them?) - “Many outlets have been personalizing news recommendations for years, but generative AI introduces the possibility to personalize news formats.” (Nieman Lab)
Reddit vows to stay human to emerge a winner from artificial intelligence - “As Reddit becomes an increasingly important source for LLMs, advertisers are responding with what one agency chief described as a “massive migration” to the platform… However, Huffman warned against any company seeking to game the site with fake or AI-generated content, with plans to bring in strict verification checks to ensure that only humans can post to its forums.” (FT - $)
‘We are the media now’: why Tesla’s robotaxis were dominated by Elon Musk superfans - “Journalists from the newsroom weren’t allowed inside the robotaxis and were mocked for asking riders basic questions.” (The Verge)
Artificial intelligence use in NHS communications - “Insights, risks and recommendations for safe and effective adoption of AI in NHS communications
How NHS communications professionals are adopting AI tools and what is needed to enable safe, ethical and confident use.” (NHS Confederation)
The Creativity Dividend: New Research - “Across the world, marketers lack confidence in creativity’s power to drive business results, to identify the outcomes that matter, which metrics to track and the best ways to ensure advertising truly pays back. Creativity is seen as a risk, not an investment.” This is good stuff. Read the LinkedIn post here. (System 1)
Comms budgets and influence is on the rise, while DEI takes a back seat - “Communications professionals have long complained that they have not been represented at board level, but at a time of volatile markets and when trust in media, government and brands is low, the skills and experience of communications professionals are becoming more valued.” (Chris Lee)
A third of in-house comms and marketing pros feel overwhelmed, research finds - Other findings: “While 92% say they’re confident in their brand voice, but 32% of B2C professionals say fear of reputational backlash is holding brands back from being more relevant and impactful, compared to 26% of B2B professionals.” (PRmoment)
Chanel Looks to Build Cultural Capital With Arts Magazine - “The fashion house hopes the new title, Arts & Culture, can extend Coco Chanel’s legacy of surrounding herself with ‘audacious creatives.’” (NYTimes - $)
Google search’s next cash cow - “Google now needs to build a new industry that is equally complex, where lots of companies play a role in organizing information for AI agents… It’s kind of like advertising, but without the marketing appeals to human emotion that define what we think of advertising today. Credibility will become currency in this system as agents learn how to avoid untrusted sources.” (Semafor)
Can ‘reputational pull’ save biotech from pharma’s image problem? “A reputation is tough to build and easy to bruise. For drugmakers stuck in reputational limbo, embracing a clear direction and forward-thinking strategy can foster a rosier image.” (PharmaVoice)
Adults in Great Britain now spending more time on mobiles than watching TV - “Daily average for watching all types of screen is now almost 7.5 hours, annual survey for IPA finds” (Guardian)
Is the decline of reading poisoning our politics? “Your brain isn’t what it used to be.” (Vox)
A.I. Is Starting to Wear Down Democracy - “Content generated by artificial intelligence has become a factor in elections around the world. Most of it is bad, misleading voters and discrediting the democratic process.” (NYTimes - $)
LinkedIn CEO says AI writing assistant is not as popular as expected - “The ‘barrier is much higher’ to posting on LinkedIn, because ‘this is your resume online.’ Plus, users can face real backlash if they post something that’s too obviously generated by AI.” (TechCrunch)
And finally, the most popular article from last week was The Age of Storytelling is Over by Jurunn Aamodt.