Tag: Advertising

Hve we reached ‘Peak Attention Economy’?

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

It’s not your imagination – we want our time back.

Ask anyone who truly understands investing what the most valuable asset is and they’ll tell you Time. It’s the only one you can’t buy more of!

Now take a look at this amazing Polaroid advertising campaign below:

Now ponder this: Is it anti-tech or pro-analogue? For me, it’s probably pro-analogue, and I think we can have our ‘tech cake’ and eat it too.

I think most of us want to spend less time on screens. But it’s difficult when our work, our families, and our social lives have all been sucked into the screen vortex. My hope is that AI can, in some way, allow us to escape the screen—to reduce our need to attend to it so we can spend more time on the human side of life.

I think a lot about industrial technology, and I believe it is far more mature—not just older as a technology, but more mature in its relationship with humanity. It requires less from us. It is truly automated.

That can’t be said for the screen. It’s like a little baby crying for attention.

Think about how much industrial machinery we rely on around the home: the washing machine, the dryer, the refrigerator, and the heating and cooling. We flick a switch and they simply do the job.

One of the key problems with modern digital technology is that the product itself is unfinished until we attend to it. Big Tech likes to call it user-generated content, but without us there is a void. The machine doesn’t really work. Could AI be the solution we’ve been seeking?

There’s some potential that AI could create an offset, where we automate our digital lives and escape screens. In the same way a washing machine does its job without requiring us to stand there watching it, guiding it, and cajoling it.

Either way, this campaign—and the ones that will inevitably follow by tapping into this zeitgeist—can work incredibly hard. We are beginning to realise that the world is irrevocably physical, and that we are physical beings.

Great advertising campaigns often give us permission to make the societal changes we were already hoping for.

AI Video of the Week –

Big Tech Gets Investment Heavy

I also think analogue businesses could become more financially competitive in open markets as Big Tech companies increasingly become infrastructure businesses rather than software businesses. They are committing staggering amounts of capital to AI build-outs and data centres, which is already reducing their free cash flow. In the past year, Amazon’s free cash flow fell by around 95%, while Alphabet’s fell by around 47%.

Ironically, the very AI these companies are investing in—with little financial upside so far—is lowering the operating costs of the analogue businesses they serve. Perhaps this is Big Tech industrialising itself. Instead of building products that constantly demand our attention, they may end up building digital infrastructure and intelligence that requires far less human input. In that sense, the industry itself could finally mature.

This could be the beginning of a major shift in valuations, profitability, and competitive advantage across a wide range of markets.

The upside for humanity and entrepreneurs is to lean into the human. From AI slop to taking back time and control, the market is starting to provide some real signals to a shift, one many of us can leverage.

Keep Thinking,

Steve.

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In AI we Trust ?

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

The AI Brand War just Started

The most common use case of AI (Large Language Models) like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini is… Therapy.

Yep — the stuff that is often as personal as it gets. And while we all know we tell Google and our “AIs” way too much about ourselves, our thoughts, our problems and our desires… here we are. Of course, we know it could be used against us, especially if it gets into the wrong hands. But opting out doesn’t feel like an option.

In order to participate in the modern economy, people not using the latest tools will fall behind. And this is probably true. So a reckoning is about to happen in 2026. A moment of truth — or should we say trust — in AI. And it starts today.

If you haven’t heard, ChatGPT is about to start running advertising inside its AI — which I think is a very bad idea. Just look at Google to see where this ends up. In fact, Google has made search ‘worse on purpose’ to make more money. This explains what happened in under 2 mins.

The adverts from Claude harpoon this idea and demonstrate how ads in ChatGPT could make it a lot worse — even creepy. They’re darkly comedic with a core message: “Ads are coming to AI. But not to Claude.”
You can check them out below:

  • “How Do I Communicate With My Mom?”
    A man in a therapist’s office asks the AI for advice on improving his relationship with his mother. The AI offers thoughtful advice, then abruptly interrupts itself to pitch “Golden Encounters,” a dating site for young men looking for older women. Watch it here.
  • “Can I Get a Six Pack Quickly?”
    A man doing pull-ups in a park asks his AI for fitness advice. The AI breaks its guidance to sell “Step Boost Max” height-increasing insoles to help “short kings stand tall.” Watch it here.
  • The “Business Plan”
    An entrepreneur works on a business plan and asks her AI for advice, only for the AI to interrupt its professional guidance to offer high-interest financing solutions. Watch it here.
  • The “Essay/Schoolwork”
    A student asking for homework help is interrupted by a blatant, distracting ad insertion in the middle of their educational, critical task. Watch it here.

The hot take? Advertising will erode the integrity of LLMs. And possibly make the entire experience a little creepy

AI is entering an era where trust matters more than they think. The trouble is, so much money has been invested in the sector that the big players are scrambling to get an ROI. Which often leads to bad decisions… and sometimes bubbles bursting. (Over $600 billion has ben invested by large firms lone in the Ai sector in the past 3 years)
Worth noting: A bubble bursting doesn’t make AI less important — it just means organisations may have invested too much in the fervour to win. We saw this during the Dot-Com bubble.

Ironically, Super Bowl ads often have another feature: industries in the middle of a bubble trip over themselves to create Super Bowl ads. US$44 million was spent at the 2000 Super Bowl by dot-com companies — around 70% of which are now defunct following the bust.

The Super Bowl is really the last bastion of reaching a mass audience in a single moment — it’s expected to have an audience of around 130 million people. I wouldn’t be surprised if AI has a financial bust this year.

But here’s what that won’t mean: that we use AI less, or that it won’t continue its path of changing the world more than anything in history.

—

Keep Thinking,

Steve.

** Get me into do an AI keynote at your next event and as a blog reader – get 2 nights free at my luxury farmhouse on the Bellarine Peninsula.

AI Just Rewrote the Advertising Playbook

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

How your business will appear in the next Netflix blockbuster

No, it isn’t through doing 70,000 prompts to get a below average AI Christmas CocaCola ad. It’s going to be through product placement.

Product placement isn’t new. In fact, it’s one of the oldest tricks in the advertising playbook. If you’ve watched TV or films at any point in your life, you’ve already been marketed to — you just didn’t notice. Actually, you did notice, but in a more natural way.

Product placement is simple: Brands slip their products into the story instead of interrupting it. And it has worked well. Really well.

Here’s a few of examples through history:

E.T. (1982) – Reese’s Pieces Hershey said yes when M&M’s said no. Result? Sales jumped 65%.

Sex and the City – Manolo Blahnik A TV show turned a niche luxury shoe into a global cult item. Manolo himself credits the show for driving a massive surge in demand, especially in the US and Europe.

The Italian Job (2003) – MINI Cooper BMW relaunched the new MINI and the movie turned it into a cultural icon overnight. Sales surged globally as viewers fell in love with those nimble little getaway cars.

The Reese’s Pieces example is telling — great placement, but no global upside because the candy wasn’t sold worldwide. That era is now over.

Product placement for one – you!

With recent developments in AI, large tech firms have been working on a revolution in advertising. Instead of interrupting the movie with ads, we’ve started beating ads into the movie. AI is now changing the actual objects inside scenes. Coffee cups. Billboards. Posters on walls. Beer labels. Bus stops. Same scene. Same actors. Same moment. Different product for every viewer. You and I will watch the exact same movie — and see completely different products, baked into the scene.

And it has already happened – in China.

Who’s doing it? Tencent.

For those not familiar: Tencent is one of the world’s biggest technology companies, based in China. They own WeChat (China’s everything-app), massive gaming studios, major social networks, the world’s biggest esports titles, and huge chunks of entertainment and fintech. Think Google + Facebook + Netflix + PayPal + Activision, all mashed together. Its current market capitalisation is $US 854 billion.

They’ve quietly begun inserting AI-generated, personalised product placements into films and TV shows — at scale. This is where the advantages of an autocratic government, with near zero privacy concerns can facilitate technological innovation (not saying I’d prefer to live under such a Government) – but I probably would prefer to see advertisements in movies which show products aligned to my lifestyle and preferences.

They’re not alone. A UK company called Mirriad is already inserting virtual ads into classic films and new dramas. Amazon, NBC, and others are testing the same technology.

Every time you use Meta AI, Instagram AI, YouTube, Google AI, you’re training the machine that will decide what you see on screens later — inside the content itself. You’re also training it when you use AI apps like Meta AI, or Sora.

What It Means: Ads That Know Who You Are

The platform knows: where you live, the cafés you visit, what you buy, what you drive, what you search, your hobbies, your favourite sport, what you eat, where you shop, your economic profile and even your vibe and the language you use.

So instead of seeing Starbucks in a movie, you might see your local café — simply because your phone is 800 metres away from it. The actual scene in your local cafe with Ryan Gosling and Scarlett Johansen chatting (for me it would be Rudimentary)

Instead of global beer brands, you might see your local craft brewer, sitting on the bar. In the very same scene I watch with a completely different brand. (maybe Footscray Draft)

Same movie. Different world. Different marketplace. This changes how we go to market.

Yes, It’s a Bit Invasive… But It’s Also a Massive Opportunity

Here’s the twist most people miss: For the first time in history, local businesses can appear inside global blockbusters.

A business in Geelong could appear in a Netflix movie streaming in… Geelong.

A local electrician could be on a billboard in the background of an Amazon show — visible only to viewers within 10km.

A micro-brewery could show up in a YouTube video — only for locals.

The cost of “being in a movie” collapses from millions… to a few dollars targeted at a postcode. All of a sudden local brands get to participate in global media properties. It’s contextual. Relevant. Unskippable. And possible becomes a feature viewers get excited about – especially the first time they see it. OMG – that’s the restaurant down the street! It’s even better than when a movie was filmed in your city.

Not interrupting you. Not shouting at you. Just quietly existing inside the story you’re already watching.

Advertising becomes ambient.

The Big Shift

The company that kicked this into high gear — Tencent — has already scaled it to millions of viewers. Netflix, Amazon, Disney, YouTube and others are following fast.

Product placement has evolved from: Global exposure in a single film, for a big budget brand. → Micro-targeted exposure inside every film. For any business with a micro budget It’s coming fast, expect it to start arriving as an advertising option in 2026. The future of advertising won’t interrupt you. It will blend in, adapt, reshape itself… and become part of the world you’re watching.

And that’s the moment product placement stops being a “placement” — and becomes an algorithmic paintbrush on culture itself.

Keep Thinking,

Steve.

** Get me into do an AI keynote at your next event. I’ll use this as my testimonial!

Touch Down – Super Bowl hits & misses

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

It’s very difficult for standup comedians to maintain their edge once they become super stars. It’s not that they stop being funny people, or lose their stage mojo, it’s that they often lose touch with their audience. It’s hard to relate to ‘the people’ once you drive a Ferrari and live in a mansion. Their stories and anecdotes become distant, even foreign. The same thing happens to successful companies and it’s happening to Meta.

This week the Super Bowl happened in the USA. The capstone event of not just American Football, but advertising. At US$7 million for 30 seconds – it’s quite an investment. Despite US centricity, it also serves as a barometer for technology and the global economy. You can see all the ads here.

As expected we saw adverts for snacks, beer and automobiles. The latter was all about our all electric car future. In the US, electric cars are 9% of sales, yet they are getting close to 100% of the attention. By my reckoning, we’ll all be driving electric long before government regulations make it mandatory. There was even an advertisement for an electric car charger! In Australia alone, this install market is a AUD$40 billion opportunity (20m cars @ $2000 per charger). And yes, every car will have its own charger.

Dropping the ball

Big budgets doesn’t always translate to great stories. Two of the tech titans, Meta and Amazon, had terrible advertisements. Their ads felt like public service announcements of why we need to be suspicious about them. I’ll start with Meta. If you haven’t seen their Super Bowl advertisement already, watch this, and I’ll see you in 60 seconds….

Here’s my outtake:

“When the real world really blows – just sub into the metaverse”.

Is that a subliminal message from the Zuck himself? Is he admitting his contribution to the decline of civilisation? It seems his most loyal lieutenants didn’t have the courage to tell him he’s lost touch.

Now onto Uncle Jeff’s empire, Amazon. Their ad, which can be seen here was unironically called Mind Reader. It features Scarlett Johansson and Colin Jost using their Alexa. This one is kinda real, and even a little funny, but mostly unsettling. While the device can’t quite mind read yet, the biggest fear most people have about always-on, always-listening devices like Alexa is that the system is gathering far more personal information than we want. Another great antidote to buying what they are actually selling.

If you ever wanted a clear idea, then Coinbase delivered. While they are not about to win any story telling or creative awards for this piece, it was very clever. Running a floating QR code for 30 seconds at a cost of US$7 million has to be the most single minded marketing proposition of all time…. and people took action. It had a whopping 20 million hits within 1 minute. A twenty percent success ratio – unheard of in advertising in the modern era.

The Touchdown!

For me the touch down went to Salesforce. Their ad took a shot across the bow of their technology brethren. While every other tech firm and billionaire seems to be trying escape from the messiness of earth to mars or the metaverse – Salesforce had this message. Brilliant.

One of the most promising brand plays today is to tell people how and why you don’t act like big tech. There’s a real movement against them, and it’s gathering pace. It’s going to be a long war before we get back our data, our humanity and long needed regulation – but in the interim, not doing many of the things they do, and telling people about it can be a bankable strategy.

– – – –

Keep thinking,

Steve.

The Secret Innovation Budget

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Research & Development and Marketing traditionally lived in different worlds. R&D for innovation purpose happened in secret, in the lab, while Marketing was mostly just advertising. The advertising itself? Well, that was generally about convincing people to buy what the company could already make. It was rarely about the future and what the brand might become. Smart companies however, have merged these two disciplines. It’s a ‘trick’ any firm big enough to have a marketing budget might want to embrace. Yes, the marketing budget should really be an innovation fund, and vice versa.

In times of great change we idolise the new. The wonder created by what was once the realm of science fiction, are todays most shareable artefacts online. Cool stuff we see for the first time like an Amazon drone delivery, a Google driverless car, or an Uber air taxi get viewed millions of times, voluntarily, without media expense. These companies are telling the market, we are inventing the future. If you’re a large corporation today, and you’re not inventing the future, during such a revolutionary time, then you just might be inventing your own demise.

But here’s a few questions worth asking:

  • When was the last time you had something delivered via drone?
  • When was the last time you took a ride in a driverless vehicle?
  • When did you last hover above traffic in your air taxi?

If you’re like most people, you haven’t, yet. That’s not to say that these things aren’t on the way – they certainly are, but in truth these companies have purposely talked up the technology many years before any of them were actually functional, let alone a commercial reality. This is where the trick part comes in. The time lag between the concept phase and the reality of these innovations being in market is a great brand building exercise for the firms smart enough to do it. Cleverly, their R&D has become their advertising. They’ve earned free global media attention and further ensconced themselves as innovators.

The perception this creates in the market isn’t just nice to have. It can also have a massive economic impact on the firms financially. Just compare the unit sales, price earnings ratios and valuations of firms serving the same set of customers:

Automobiles:

  • Tesla makes 245k cars per year, and has a PE ratio of infinity (no dividends yet), and a market cap of $48 billion.
  • Ford makes a 7.9m cars per year (one per 4 seconds) and has a PE ratio of 9.3x, and a market cap of $34 billion.

The market has clearly voted on how it values innovation.

So could an old world industrial company use innovation as a brand communication tool? Could they be seen as on the cutting edge of technology and reap the valuation benefits? Of course.

But it requires some shifts in attitude.

It requires the firm to set lofty goals in their innovation efforts, it can’t be incremental. They also need the courage to share these innovation dreams with the market and own them publicly. It also requires the vision to shift investment from traditional marketing and advertising budgets into innovation arenas and moonshot product developments. All of which can not only become an exponential product improvement, but be an effective form of advertising in the interim. But mostly, it will send a strong message and provide a new confidence to the firms customers, employees and investors that they have a chance at inventing the future too.

The weird world of people as brands

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

The new year often brings career considerations. How will we position ourselves to take the next step? These days, this involves the nuanced world of personal branding. And while it makes many of us feel squeamish to think of ourselves as a brand, it’s not a new phenomenon.

Before industrialisation, we were what we did. Just quickly scroll through the contacts list on your phone and there’s a chance you’ll see a few of the OG personal brands. Surnames like Smith, Carpenter, Taylor, Baker…  If you think personal branding has gone too far, then don’t forget our brands used to come with us everywhere, and not just appear on our LinkedIn page. Washing powder and electronics aren’t the only brands, people are too, and have been for a very long time.

But then, once we industrialised much of our branding, as economic participants at least, was derived from where we studied and the corporations we worked for. ‘She went to Harvard.’ ‘He worked directly under Henry Ford.’ We built ourselves around the institutions we spent time in. The evidence of who we were and what we were capable of was a function of where we spent time. It was their brands that we had to leverage as we became cogs in their machines. The era of being known for our output got lost, and this was for one simple reason – most of us became part of something much bigger than ourselves. For most of us, there was no longer a table we could imprint our name on, or suit with our name in the jacket pocket. Our work became shared, we only made a slither of the final output – we got lost in the system. As people, we essentially morphed into sub-brands of large corporations. It was then that the great brand reversal started to happen, as mass media infiltrated our homes.

Once upon a time, things were once just things – bread, washing powder, suits, you name it. But in order to build trust, corporations who now made what we used to make, used the branding process to personify what they were selling. In a way, things replaced people as brands. Companies had to make things seem reliable like people, because, who the hell knew who made what? The bread didn’t come from Billy’s bakery – who we knew and trusted – it came from a big factory somewhere.

The tool used to personify the products and build brands during the 20th century was mass media. The factory and the TV were the perfect partners. Big budgets and big scale were both mandatory. Together they combined to make us believe that very average things were worth more than they actually were. Much of the value, credibility and the premium price we paid was a function of the advertising. What we were consuming was ostensibly a parasocial relationship. It was a closed shop for the big and privileged – until now.

For the first time in history, people can now brand themselves at scale. The emergence of fragmented, low-cost and highly distributed media on the web means anyone can play. Anyone can build their brand, and then charge a premium for their services. Just like brand XYZ became known as a premium brand, so can we. The more well-known someone is in their industry, the more they will earn – it’s just a modern inalienable truth. I know it feels like a very uncomfortable transition, especially when the world of personal brands is filled with hucksters, and camouflaged Amway sales people on Instagram trying to sell you milkshake weight loss powders by showing their photoshopped abs. Yes, there’s lots of dodgy players out there, using the new cheap tools and make a quick buck – but isn’t there always?

What we might consider instead, is to build something respected and sustainable based on real work and insight. How do we display, using the tools available, our capability? How do we become more than our formal qualifications and experience by sharing new ideas, projects, industry transitions and connection? How do we share things of value with others and then let the law of reciprocity set in?

In simple terms, we just need to decide what we want to be known for – and take that to the market. For me it’s being the guy who understand technology’s impact on business and society – and helping people navigate the future. I study this stuff all day long, so my customers don’t have to. They can focus on their industry and plug in my skills when required.

But in a busy world, where everyone is the CEO of their own personal media corporation, it’s hard to be heard, where everyone has something to say. It might even mean we need to invest in ourselves, and actually pay to build our personal brands. Yes, advertise ourselves, just like the hero brands of the TV Industrial Complex did back in the day. It’s never been more affordable to take control of our own futures, perceptions and capabilities. If it’s good enough for corporations products, then why not people?

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Thanks for reading this year. Have a great 2019. Steve. 

Content & distribution always beats resolution

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

This week Australian pay Tv operator Foxtel announced the launch of its IQ4 box. The key selling feature is that it enables 4K resolution of content like sports, documentaries and concerts. An interesting move considering all those around them are growing not based on ‘resolution’, but different business models. The numbers for subscription TV services are already telling this tale with Netflix already well ahead and growing, while Foxtel declines.

Number of Australian subscribers at August 2018 (and % change vs last year):

  • Netflix 9.8m (+30%)
  • Foxtel 5.4m (-3%)
  • Stan 2.0m (+40%)
  • Youtube Premium 1.0m (+40%)
  • Fetch 700k (+40%)
  • Amazon Prime Video 300k (+90%)

When was the last time ‘high resolution’ was the deciding factor to subscribe to any content platform? I can’t remember anyone ever saying;

‘You know, I’d totally sign up to Amazon Prime or Netflix if I could watch it at 4K’.

At best, resolution is a hygiene factor – hardly a reason to buy or switch when it comes to content. Are our eyes really that special?

What is clear though is that there is now a 2 speed economy when it comes to content. It needs to be either all-you-can-eat for one low price (streaming services) or a la carte (such as Apple tv). The mash-up package model is clearly broken.

The overriding point is simple – all screens are now created equal. People care less about how shiny the content looks and more about availability, simplicity and price. This is why iMax theatres are still niche at best. And sport won’t save Foxtel either, as we can expect these two things to happen:

  1. Tech firms like Amazon and Facebook to start hoovering up rights to major global sporting properties. FB already has rights to Major League baseball, La Liga Football in Spain and the World Surf League, to name a few.
  2. Sporting organizations will very soon realise they don’t even need a media partner – they can sell their own advertising and subscriptions directly for more than their broadcast rights deals generate.

While Foxtel have moved a towards streaming, it seems that they still love their historic infrastructure more than the truth of where the market is headed.

When it comes to business strategy in any realm, it pays to be agnostic about the tools and to remember what our audience are really buying.