Welcome back to another Monday, fellow victims đ«Ą
In todayâs newsletter, youâll find 20-ish examples of great content from last week, produced by brands and creators alike. You wonât find any riffs on the âColdplay affairâ, because imo, using someoneâs humiliation as clout is tacky :)
Inside todayâs newsletter:
The brand content that inspired me last week
Social news you may have missed (sexy chatbots, AI legislation and more)
What Iâve been watching (and loving)
Post ideas for the week
Letâs get into it.
The best content I saw from brands last week (a few ICYMIâs from last week, with some fresh ones thrown in!)
Laneige US using abandoned products (and a highly relatable experience) as content. The engagement on this one was massive (250k likes???).
Frida explaining insemination using oranges. Was it slightly confronting? Yes! Was it extremely effective at explaining what could be a complex topic? Also yes! Frida continues to be a great example of how you donât need a âfaceâ for your social account in order to achieve huge reach and recognition.
Craighill explaining how they made Marcell the Shellâs shoes for his movie. Social tends to lean lo-fi these days, but Craighill stands out with their cinematic content that has me riveted from start to finish.
therealcerealcompany scrambled my brain with their cereal binder. This kind of feed-disrupting content can be very effective for gaining attention.
Onetrickponynuts telling the story behind their innovative product packaging. Whether or not youâre interested in the product, you canât deny that this tried and tested formula (show the problem, the trial and error process, then the solution) works. I watched the whole thing.
WorldofTavi with a simple but effective sunscreen post.
Peachyden did a collab with Amelia Dimoldenberg of Chicken Shop date. The clever part was having Amelia replicate the little dances sheâs already doing on her own TikTok - for her fans (itâs me), this didnât feel like an ad so much as a tribute to her effortless cool.
Carolina Herrera with this high production value video.
Bedazzled vaseline - the comments were full of Vaseline stans begging for their own. If I was Vaseline, Iâd be turning this into a limited edition product STAT.
KFC staged a fake brainstorm to make the Colonel âhotââŠand then followed up with this. I donât understand whatâs happening but Iâm certainly watching, which means itâs working.
Olipop had very gen z coded variety pack announcement.
New Balance relaunching their Rosalia collab with this unique take on storytelling via carousel.
Meshki had a smart way of calling out their IG Broadcast channel - theyâve been doing a lot of work to promote their IG Broadcast community, which has me wondering if itâs a highly lucrative channel for them.
Laneige putting out sunscreen samples in London on a sunny day. Real people love seeing other real people.
Cosrx hopping on the âperfect dayâ calendar trend - the video clips made this stand out.
đŠ Aussie special đŠ: Up bank partnered with restaurant guide Secondz to tour Sydney neighborhood Newtown. This made sense to me, given Up is the millennial focused bank that promotes saving and smart spending.
Clinique showing off the long term results of their 3 step system - honestly, show me a woman who hasnât tried the three steps!
Social Creatives, what are you posting this week? Before you panic, here are some ideas to get those creative juices flowing.
Scrapbook core is everywhere - whatâs your take? Options could include:
Summer survival kit feat. your product
A scrapbook showcasing the journey of your brand (from âgarage daysâ to now)
Overheard in the office
Custom iPhone emojis - Iâve seen this one bopping around in the past week, nowâs the time to get on board!
The best (unbranded) content I saw over the past week.
And the Academy Award for best picture goes to⊠This absolute banger of a vid.
We are all the parents trying to learn the gnarly dance.
This queen in her anti-influence era more of this, please.
Denmark allows citizens to copywright face against AI
The Danish Government has also said they will hold tech companies accountable for AI misuse (potentially meaning deepfakes). As AI becomes more embedded into our daily lives, we should expect to see more legislation of this type.
xAI launched Grok AI, including an anime-inspired sexy chatbot
While sexy AI isnât exactly a shock (it was bound to happen), whatâs perhaps concerning is the fact that Grok AI is currently listed on the App store as being for ages 12 and above, under the âproductivityâ category. This doesnât bode well for isolation and loneliness amongst youths.
Grok AI also praised Hitler
It was a big week for xAI! Grok, which sits on X (formerly known as Twitter) had a field day last week, referring to itself as âMecha Hitlerâ and doling out extremist views to many unwitting users. In a lengthy apology, xAI explained that this happened because Grok was âsusceptibleâ to learning from posts on the platformâŠwhich sounds like a fancy way of saying the anti-semitic calls are coming from inside the house.
From Wednesday: LinkedIn released a report on âThe Art and Science of Video Storytellingâ
LinkedIn analysed 13,000+ video ads and 550,000+ video frames using AI and machine learning, and distilled what makes B2B video actually work in the real world. The findings arenât exactly revolutionary (they included tips like âlean into memesâ *cue eyeroll*), but hereâs what piqued my interest:
Video viewership on LinkedIn grew +36% in 2024, hitting 154 billion views - everything really is LinkedIn now :â)
55% of marketers say short-form social video has the highest ROI, yet 40% still struggle to build an effective strategy for LinkedIn
Iâm interested to see how many B2B companies continue to pivot into entertainment led, short form content (ClickUp is leading the charge here!).
From Wednesday: TikTok refuted reports it is building another app for the US.
ICYMI: Trump announced that heâs close to finding a buyer for TikTok in the US, which led to a supposed âinside source at TikTokâ leaking that a whole new app was being developed for the US app store. Itâll be interesting to see whether TikTok is getting hung up on semantics and really will be releasing a modified app, or if this really is just a rumour.
Thatâs it for now!
If you liked this newsletter, Iâd love it if you let me know, or even shared it with a friend.