Selfstorming Blog
Insights on advertising, creativity, marketing science and AI in Marketing.
The Creator Casino: What the Playbook PDF Doesn't Tell You
I sat in the room at Cannes when System1 compared creator media buying to a casino. Here is the live argument - Abbott's fax-machine insult, the chart that killed engagement rate, and Gordon Ramsay's tale of two ads.
Social Devices: Distinctive Brand Assets That Learned to Dance
Eugene Healey showed Cannes what happens when a brand strategist becomes a creator with 700k followers: social devices, the death of the brand wheel, and a partnership that returned 10x the retainer.
OpenAI's Task Shift and Ultra-Long Video: The New Creative Pipeline
A strategic look at OpenAI's GPT-5.6 Sol, Alibaba's Wan3.0, and ElevenLabs' emotion-preserving dubbing, analyzed for brand directors and creative strategists.
The Best Advertising Is Invisible (Elasticity Zero, Explained)
Byron Sharp: broad-reach advertising has a short-term sales elasticity of zero. Not because it doesn't work - because you're measuring the wrong 95% of people.
40 Days vs 10 Years: Marketing's Time Horizon Problem
The average brand campaign runs 40 days. Coke Zero needed a decade. Sharp and Ritson on the gap between how long we run things and how long things take.
How to Get Budget for Anything - The Proof-Point Ladder
ElevenLabs shipped a Portuguese ad with English text all over it - on purpose. The ladder from embarrassing test to approved budget, rung by rung.
Translation Is Not Localization (Ask ElevenLabs' Korean Ads)
ElevenLabs runs AI-localized ads in 50+ countries: 17.6% higher conversions, $3.8M incremental. Here's the playbook - and the Japan-shaped hole in it.
Order Pepsi, Not Cola: Winning the Default Reorder in Agent Era
When AI agents handle the shopping, brands live or die by four words in a prompt. How habit categories win the "default reorder" - with Magalu and Dove showing the way.
The $3.35 Trillion Handover: What Happens When Machines Buy
New PHD x WARC research: AI agents will facilitate $3.35 trillion in consumer spending by 2030. The map of what gets delegated first - and what brands must do about it.
OpenAI's Price Cut and LinkedIn's Slop Filter: The Real Cost of Cheap Pixels
A strategic look at LinkedIn's new AI slop filter, HeyGen's instant podcasts, and OpenAI's massive API price cuts through a brand equity lens.
The Brand Equity Illusion: 71% of your brand equity is NOT built via paid media
New data reveals paid ads build only 28% of brand equity. The other 71% is built in places your agency doesn't even have the password to access.
Runway's Agent 2.0 and Claude Cowork: The Strategy Behind the New Creative Pipeline
This week's AI updates from Runway, Anthropic, and Google shift the focus from generating assets to building workflows. Here is what it means for your brand strategy and media budget.
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