THE 2026 REFRAME AROUND AI

THE GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY IN 2026

LET’S WRITE A BAD ROMANCE

It’s probably the new TikTok trend of guys dancing to Bad Romance by Lady Gaga in front of their girlfriends as a prank (hilarious) that got me thinking about this, but why is this song to this day so iconic?

Released back in 2009, the song got mixed reactions at first. Up until that point Lady Gaga had only released Just Dance and Poker Face. She wasn’t seen as star material yet. Both songs were hits, but nobody thought then that Gaga was gonna be the iconic star she is now.

When the song came out, the industry was oversaturated with overly polished diva wannabe’s making songs that were a lot like Just Dance. Hardly anything stood out. Lady Gaga was seen as just another drop in the sea of sameness that the pop industry was at the time. Most likely following “the rules” set by the industry at the time. Until she didn’t.

Making that music video must’ve been cathartic for Gaga, but releasing it was probably nerve-wracking. That fear is exactly what holds many artists back and stops them from ever doing anything different or authentic to their style of art. Even though we’ve seen time after time that it’s the ones who do are the ones who go on to become icons.

Gaga released Bad Romance and the rest was history. Mixed reactions, sure. But one thing nobody thought Gaga was anymore was basic or another uninspiring diva wannabe. We saw a Gaga who was theatrical, artistic, bold… a true storyteller. And now, an absolute icon.

There are brands who have done this too. Tommy Hilfiger’s hangman ad in the ‘80s was exactly the type of disruptive ad that put them on the map, when many other brands were doing the same high-fashion crap that the big brands were already doing.

Oatly was a brand following rules, guidelines and best practices at one point too. Until they didn’t…

THE COST OF NOT HAVING A BRAND

Anybody who ever worked sales before understands how painfully difficult it is to get a client to trust a company with no brand. Clients make you work harder to prove you’re up for the task. They ask for samples. They ask for proof. They tell you to follow up with them next week. Before they tell you they decided to go with someone else. No matter how good of a salesperson you are, the sales cycle is longer for a low awareness brand and conversion rates are lower.

The salespeople who do succeed are the ones who basically become their own brand. Their clients are their clients, not the company’s… no matter what clauses you’ve added to the contract. That salesperson will drain your company for every penny cause they know they can. They’ll walk all over you and break all your rules.

They’ll stay knowing you need them more than they need you and the moment your competitor offers them more money, they’re gone. And so are their clients. I see this happen to those so-called “sales-oriented organisations” every day.

Brand awareness is your way of making sure clients buy from your company, not your sales people. Having a brand means shorter sales cycles too, cause your salespeople don’t really have to prove your value. The client knows that already. It baffles me how very few marketing and ad people know how to explain the value of building a brand within their organisations. It’s probably why our budgets are the first to get cut when the boat gets rocky.

2026 BRINGS A UNIQUE WINDOW

In the age of “I can do this with AI in seconds,” all your competitors are trying to create crap content with AI. Our feeds are flooded with AI slop that no one wants to engage with, cause no one wanted to create it to begin with.

More than ever, people are actively going out of their way to ignore your “content” and AI;DR is becoming a popular phrase. A sea of AI sameness similar to the pop culture scene in 2009 when Lady Gaga created the very disruptive Bad Romance.

The great news is, it’s never been easier to stand out. Because everyone’s writing and visuals have become uniform, you just need a hint of brand personality to stand out. People might even share your content out of spite for your competitors who are flooding their feeds with AI slop.

CARPE DIEM, CARPE ANNUM

It’s time to hit the archives, discover your brand’s story, define its personality and let that shine. What does your brand do for its clients/customers? What does it help them achieve? How do they feel once they’ve achieved it? How should you bring your narrative to life visually?

In this once-in-a-decade opportunity, it’s time to have a distinct style that people can recognise without a logo. Maybe you write a bad romance. Maybe you create something even more iconic.

Throw out the old rule book – it’s obsolete. If you think rules are gonna help you stand out, you’re going about this the wrong way. You need to be bold, unapologetic, unconventional, human, authentic – and you need to do it before your competitors do.

NEW YEAR, NEW BUZZWORD

CORPORATE WORLD’S NEW OBSESSION: STORYTELLERS

THIS ISN’T A ‘DISCOVERY’ OR WHATEVER

For those who just tuned in, a storyteller is arguably one of the oldest jobs in the world. The skill? Even older. When we lived in hunter-gatherer communities, storytellers (probably some sort of Shaman-like person) passed on wisdom, culture, values, and life-saving advice through the art of storytelling.

Storytelling has always been a great way to make a message stick without being didactic. More people remembered not to walk alone in the dark, and fewer people got eaten by tigers—increasing the number of offspring who could potentially follow you on LinkedIn today.

WHO IS A STORYTELLER?

Throughout history, storytellers have been recognised as artists, writers, politicians, historians, lawyers (the good ones), marketers, ad agency creatives, teachers (the ones who didn’t make you fall asleep), journalists, film directors, salespeople, and lately, content creators. Rarely scientists. Although Mr Wilkinson always explained complex physics theories very well using LEGO but I guess he’s an anomaly. My point is: You can find storytellers in any field. Not just marketing.

A storyteller is anyone who knows how to tell a story. This probably doesn’t help you if you work in recruitment, but I mean come on, did you really think your ATS was gonna be any help finding you candidates for such a position?

If I had to define what kind of a person would be a storyteller, I would describe them as someone who:

This person’s DISC profile would likely be Yellow/Influence. They’d have that je ne sais quoi that tells you they’re somewhat quirky and nonconforming. Most likely has an artsy hobby of some sort. Most definitely not a Windows user.

Still too vague? You should probably define the outcomes you’d like them to achieve for your company and look for people who have achieved similar outcomes in other places, and sort of have that profile outlined above.

Keywords you wanna look for in their results: shaped narrative; created campaign; wrote content; translated business objectives; defined brand tone of voice; defined brand story. A mix of a conceptual copywriter and a brand strategist, but more senior would be the profile I would look for.

If you’re still not clear on what to look for (I can’t believe I’m doing this), but here’s a description you can customise and use:

WHY THIS, WHY NOW

The corporate world may seem like the polar opposite of an environment for storytellers, and it is. Let’s not sugarcoat it. Corporate world sucks. But years of hostility towards the storyteller type have created what storytellers knew was gonna happen decades ago: Corporations ‘corporated’ too much. They became dull and uninspiring. They have no story, no real mission, vision, or values. They all sound the same.

For years, the focus in advertising was to make things shiny as quickly as possible, and with minimal spend. When AI entered the chat, the race towards efficiency and polished work moved to a different terrain. As everyone continues to look and sound like everyone else, the brands that will stand out are those with clear stories and unique personalities that shine through, even in AI-generated content.

IS THIS THE FIX?

Let’s explore a couple of scenarios and see how this could play out:

VS

Scenario A

A corporation hires a storyteller. The expectations are clear and realistic. They’re empowered with tools and the ability to make decisions. They’re given proper input. They’re given tools to execute their vision. They’re involved in the right conversations. They can see the impact of the work. They can define accurately what the brand does/doesn’t. The environment is collaborative with minimal to no hierarchy. Result: They establish a brand with an inspiring story that resonates with the audience and connects the company to its potential customers. They’re appreciated, and they continue to improve.

Scenario B

A corporation hires a storyteller. Their task feels like Mission Impossible. No tools, no budget, no proper input. They’re micromanaged to death. They’re kept in the dark about important changes. After months, they still have no idea what the company does or who its audience is. They have no access to results and metrics. The environment is suffocating them with pointless rules and a rigid hierarchy. Colleagues are threatened by them, so they don’t collaborate. They might even sabotage them. Result: After a year, the management looks at their “KPIs” and finds their performance unsatisfactory. Their entire department actually did very badly, but their colleagues find them the easiest target to throw under the bus. They’re fired—or something like it. Then on to the next one.

Realistically, it’s probably gonna be somewhere in between. People like to dump on corporations, but some are genuinely trying to incorporate storytelling. They just lack the tools and knowledge to manifest it properly. For those hiring a storytelling expert, it could be a great start if they’re open to trusting them. Both the hire and the corporation have a big role to play here. What they do determines what scenario they get closer to. One side expecting the other to do all the work definitely won’t get either to the finish line. As they say, it takes two to tango.

What are your thoughts on this? Let me know in the comments, or feel free to ask me a question.

Quotable, Distinct & Screenshot-worthy

The 3 Non-Negotiables for Content Marketing in 2026

Seven days ago we entered a new year. I’m proud to share that I’ve already hit my first goal for this year: beat the hangover! Yay! Now that I’m sure that I’m in the right state of mind to share insights without talking out my upside down (how did you like the ending of Stranger Things 5 btw? I loved it!), I’m confident enough to dive back into the content trends for 2026.

Something I came across recently was a new trend in making films and TV shows, which I thought would be relevant. Can you look at these images and see if anything stands out?

Some people on TikTok are discussing how Netflix injects these “meme-able” moments or shots within their shows, hoping for them to become popular online memes. Whether this is intentional or a happy accident for Reddit, we can’t know for sure. Although Netflix does use them as memes on their socials. Either way, they work. Many shows are discovered when people come across these memes and wonder “where is this from?”

What am I suggesting? Be it memes or something else, you have to create screenshot-worthy content that generates hype naturally for your brand. This could be many other things like graphs, figures, stats, memorable quotes—anything of value makes the user take a screenshot and share it.

In 2026, the marketing league is a bit different. We really enter the survival of the fittest era of content creation. Half-arsed content that doesn’t entertain, educate or add value in any way isn’t gonna cut it anymore. With people prompting AI to create pretty much anything of no value, value becomes the main differentiator. AI slop will only hurt your brand and make your content sound like bla bla bla. Even “bold” or “engaging” content isn’t enough anymore.

If your content isn’t one of these, it shouldn’t exist:

1. SCREENSHOT-WORTHY

The reason those moments in film become memes is because they’re funny and relatable. People can place them in a different context and they’d still fit—only now they create more shock value and are funny. If memes aren’t your brand, that’s okay. Not every brand is meant to be funny, although it doesn’t hurt to introduce a bit of humour every now and then. I’ll elaborate on humour in a later post.

Let’s say you’re a bank or an insurance brand. What insights could you share that people would wanna remember? So important that they take a screenshot of it so they won’t lose it? Who can you interview at your organisation who is qualified enough to share such insights? These insights should become the backbone of your content strategy. In a time when hundreds of teenagers are pretending to be investment experts on TikTok, sharing (sometimes harmful) “expert advice” to gain followers, your brand could climb the ladder of that space with actual insights that helps you gain more visibility and trust.

Here’s how we break this down into a very simple framework:

2. UNMISTAKABLY YOUR BRAND

Let’s do a little fun quiz. How many of these brands can you recognise without the logo?

QUESTION 1 OF 8

SCORE

0 / 8

Play Again

Let’s chat and take advantage of the new shift to make your brand a winner.

WORKFLOW, PROMPTS, AND INSIGHTS

NEW YEAR, NEW TRENDS. ARE YOUR PRODUCT PAGES READY FOR 2026?

As we enter 2026, a crucial part of staying-on-top-of-things will be optimising for “Buyer Bots”. That’s right. AI is now your audience too. Sure it might not need shoes and cars, but it’s chatting to your consumer who is fed up with clicking away your banners and going through 4759450983204 landing pages to get to your product.

The marketing playbook you’ve been using so far is obsolete. You want to focus on optimising your PDPs (Product Description Pages) with the goal of having it picked up by LLMs and AI agents. Let’s break this down in simple human language.

WHAT ARE BUYER/SHOPPING BOTS?

AI-powered bots that help customers find products, compare prices, offer discounts, track stock, and even facilitate checkout on a website or through chat. Think AI agents but also LLMs recommending your product to someone who just asked ChatGPT “What are the best running shoes for running a marathon?”

WHAT DO BUYER BOTS LOOK FOR?

Bots are programmed to read the underlying code and structured data of web pages rather than interpreting the visual layout or lifestyle content that influences human shoppers. This allows them to process vast amounts of product information very quickly. Storytelling is great, but bots don’t give a shit. They target specific keywords, benefits and usage situations. They assess credibility and authority based on rigid standards of professionalism. Your tone of voice and brand personality have little influence here.

HOW DO I OPTIMISE FOR BUYER BOTS?

It starts with providing the right input [literally, always!]. You wanna imagine how someone might search for your product. What problem does your product solve? What is it used for? In what situations? What makes it special? Work these into your description copy and visuals. You wanna be detailed, thorough, and you wanna give your PDP lots of TLC (tender love and care).

HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THAT AT SCALE?

Fair question, honestly. If you’re a major clothing brand, for example, you probably have millions of PDPs. How the hell are you gonna optimise each one for buyer bots? There’s an easy way to do this at scale using automated workflows with software like Make.com or Microsoft Power Automate.

This will help you elevate your PDPs and optimise them for buyer bots or LLMs. Remember: Good input leads to good output. Invest time into providing a liberal amount of information about the product for best results. I’ve based on this on an adidas running shoe, as an example, but it can be customised to many different types of products.

WELCOME TO 2026

With this workflow (first draft) you’re ready to step into 2026 and smash targets. Ideally, you’d want to eventually train a team of AI agents who will carry out these tasks more efficiently and using less AI tokens. This will help you handle a bigger volume, decrease generation time, and use less energy. Training AI agents will take time though.

Need help building or implementing a similar workflow for your organisation?

It’s time for a new marketing playbook. In 2026, the landscape will operate on fundamentally different physics.

We are moving away from a world where the one who shouts the loudest wins, into a world where trust, distinctiveness, and machine-readability equal survival. If you’re walking into this new year thinking you’re gonna flood feeds with more low-value AI slop or try some tired algorithm hacks, get ready to clean up your desk in 3 months.

The forecasts are in, and they paint a very clear picture: AI is shifting from a tool to a customer. Yep, you’re gonna sell to AI now. Audiences are retreating from public squares into private, "dark" corners, away from an internet filled with pop-ups and mediocrity.

The most seismic shift of 2026 is the rise of the "Buyer bots.” With AI agents entering the chat, more people will continue to prompt these agents to look for products and services. Think “find me the cheapest flight to Mallorca” or “I need a tripod for my iPhone 16”.

If your brand isn’t legible to these machines, you do not exist. Buyer bots do not care about your "brand storytelling" or emotional hooks. They care about structured data, specs, verified reviews, and logic. It’s time to optimise for “eligibility" not persuasion: Your product data, pricing, and availability must be pristine and machine-readable. Rewrite your product pages. Less fluff, more hard facts. You want your page to be the easiest option for a machine to verify.

Storytelling can still happen on earlier touchpoints (ads, content, PLPs), but your product description page needs to be factual, easy to understand, and trustworthy. They should communicate benefits and usage cases. Vague descriptions or ones that don’t tell you when to use this product, won’t be optimised for buyer bots.

As the internet drowns in AI slop and deepfakes, trust will shift from a hygiene factor to the primary differentiator. People are becoming allergic to polished, faceless corporate content. A perfectly polished brand now looks suspicious. Many Brand Managers are gonna push back on this, but in a synthetic world, perfection implies artificiality.

Human-first media: The brands that win will feature real faces. Founders and employees speaking imperfectly. Non-scripted, real, raw content is 100% in this year. Behind-the-scenes content, live streams, and spontaneous commentary will vastly outperform sanitised, highly-produced crap. If you haven’t done that by now, 2026 is the time to appoint internal "creators.” Give them permission to speak without a script. Without all the corporate red tape. Show the mess, the process, and the failures. Humanity is your premium asset.

In 2025, we saw a disgusting abuse of AI to pump out instant content. No imagination, no original thought, no value. Just desperate attention seeking that flooded everyone’s feeds. If you continue to chase volume, you are fighting a losing battle against infinite supply.

The way to stand out in 2026 is to focus on creating content of value. If AI could have written it, don’t publish it. Focus on proprietary data, expert-led opinion, and genuinely new perspectives. Stop the content mill. Kill your weekly content quota. Publish one piece of undeniable, expert-quality content a month rather than four pieces of fluff.

Nobody can be bothered to go through Google search results, click several links, each making you click away at least two banners, only to find out that the page doesn’t offer them the information they were looking for, and then get disappointed by the next page. AI gives you the answers so much faster. Discovery will happen inside chat interfaces and AI summaries. You will lose traffic, but you can gain influence.

If you’re still judging your website traffic metrics in 2026 by 2024 standards, they will look disastrous. This has nothing to do with your SEO strategy. SEO is dead in 2026. Your goal isn’t to get clicks anymore, it’s to get cited by AI.

How do you do that? Clarity is queen (Uh-huh, that’s right. Queen): Semantic clarity, clear definitions, and direct answers to FAQs increase the likelihood of an AI citing you. Structure your content to answer specific questions directly. Be the definitive source of truth for your niche, so that AI has no choice but to reference you. Basically, AI needs to see you as the most credible answer there is to that question.

As AI homogenises output—making every email, image, and website look "correct" but generic—distinctive taste becomes a massive competitive advantage. "Best practice" design is now your fast track to Invisiville (Invisibility ville…get it?). If you look like everyone else, you will be filtered out.

Aesthetic distinctiveness: Your brand needs a visual and tonal identity so strong that users recognise it without seeing the logo. Treat design and user experience (UX) as core infrastructure, not decoration. Audit your brand. Are you making "safe" choices? If so, stop. Be weird. Be bold. Be memorable. Ask yourself: If this didn’t have my logo, will people still know it’s my brand?

Don’t be so scared. I’m not asking you to step into the dark web just yet. We’ll probably be doing that in 2027 or 2028. In 2026, public feeds are dead. Real influence is moving to "Dark Social”. Private group chats, Slacks, and Discords.

Many marketers hate this because they won’t have “metrics” to show leadership. Next year is when we stop creating for feeds and start creating for group chats. Don’t think clickable, think screenshottable. Make content (charts, facts & figures, memes, hot takes) that is designed to be shared privately.

For TikTok, create video formats that people can stitch, duet, and remix. The one metric that you might be able to use for your KPI’s is gonna be the "shares."

The 2026 Verdict: Taste and value over volume and “fake metrics”

The old ways are dying. But to some of us, this is great news. Most of your competitors will get lazy. They will let AI write their blogs, they will hide behind corporate logos, and they will drown in the sea of sameness.

You can choose differently and win big. By 2026, the winners will be the brands that are:

Don't wait for the calendar to flip. The shift has already started. Let me know in the comments if you have any predictions for 2026.