TLDR MARKETING 2025-09-23

Don't sleep on the next big discovery channel. Start free

WHY YOUR LATEST ROMANCE FIND MIGHT COME FROM A BRAND

Romance-driven marketing is gaining momentum as consumers seek more uplifting content amid a heavier news cycle. Campaigns range from Audible's immersive fan events to Neutrogena's influencer partnerships and Doritos' humor-infused romance parodies. The approach allows brands to test creative boundaries while connecting with consumers looking for entertainment and positivity.

BRAND PURPOSE…ARE CONSUMERS AWARE TO CARE?

Across the US, UK, and Australia, average recognition of brand purpose sits at just 18%, and likely closer to 9% after accounting for false positives. Nike stands out with 32% in the UK and 52% in the US, but this reflects broad brand reach rather than purposeful messaging. Brand purpose is unlikely to drive significant sales. Marketers should weigh the opportunity cost versus strategies that boost brand availability or support social and environmental causes directly.

A HACK TO GET 5% MORE LEADS

Verify emails before form submission to prevent silent lead loss. Most missed leads come not from bounces but from mistyped addresses. This wastes ad spend, disrupts onboarding, creates support issues, and blocks re-engagement. One enterprise client discovered 5% of signups had typos, resulting in thousands of lost contacts and millions in potential LTV. Real-time verification keeps your funnel clean and conversion-ready.

DON'T CALL YOUR BLOG A BLOG

Avoid calling your blog a blog, as the term now suggests low-value content. Instead, frame your content hub with names like Content Hub, Research Center, Insights, or Idea Hub, depending on your business. Audiences are less interested in generic listicles and more drawn to unique data and insights relevant to their field.

PINTEREST PRESENTS (VIRTUAL EVENT)

Pinterest's annual virtual summit is on September 25 and free to attend. It will showcase the latest product innovations and strategies to increase performance on the platform.

HOW ANTHROPIC TEAMS USE CLAUDE CODE

Page 15 of Anthropic's internal guide explains how its team uses Claude Code for growth marketing. They generate hundreds of new Google Ads variations using specialized sub-agents, produce up to 100 social ad creatives at once via a Figma plugin, and analyze Meta Ads campaign performance directly within Claude Desktop. A memory system tracks previous tests and hypotheses, enabling self-improving ad experimentation that would be impossible to manage manually.

THE STATE OF MARKETING DATA QUALITY 2025

CMOs estimate that 45% of the data their teams use is incomplete, inaccurate, or outdated. Poor-quality data costs organizations an average of $12.9M annually. 30% of CMOs view improving data quality as the biggest lever for marketing performance, ahead of automating data workflows and improving data democratization. The most common data quality problems are completeness and consistency.

I WOULDN'T HIRE A CONTENT ENGINEER, AND YOU SHOULDN'T EITHER

The “content engineer” role is misguided as scaled AI content delivers diminishing returns, faces search penalties, and is easily copied by competitors. The real opportunity lies in experimentation, originality, and quality, with AI serving as a creative partner. As AI fluency becomes a baseline skill for all marketers, a dedicated engineering role is unnecessary.

CLAUDE'S NEW AD IS A REFRESHING TAKE ON AI BRANDING

Anthropic launched its "Keep thinking" campaign to position its AI assistant Claude as a creative tool rather than a threat. The 90-second ad contrasts pessimism with optimism, showing people solving problems with Claude and framing AI as a partner in creativity. Its warm visuals and retro style avoid the sterile feel common in AI ads.

10 B2B TACTICS THAT WORK RIGHT NOW

These include trigger-based email sequences, using employees as LinkedIn content creators, and showing up to in-person events.

INSIDE ESPN'S TWO-YEAR OVERHAUL OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL GRAPHICS AND BRANDING

A look into ESPN's new visual identity for college football.