The Marketing Revolution: Why Some Brands Will 10x While Others Die in 2025

In partnership with

Picture this: You walk into a marketing conference in 2025. Half the room is celebrating record-breaking campaigns. The other half is updating their LinkedIn profiles.

Welcome to the K-shaped marketing revolution.

Here's what's happening: AI isn't just changing marketing – it's splitting it in two. Some brands and marketers are going to absolutely crush it. Others... well, let's just say they might want to start learning how to code.

Let me break down what I'm seeing:

The Death Zone

Remember Gatorade's legendary "Be Like Mike" campaign? Cost them $13.5M. Today, an AI could probably write 1000 variations of that copy in 3 seconds. For free.

Look at Hershey's recent moves: They used AI to analyze mobility data during COVID and boosted chocolate sales by 30% when everyone was locked down. The old "spray and pray" marketing approach? Dead as disco.

Traditional marketing tasks dying faster than my New Year's resolutions:

• Basic copywriting

• Simple design work

• Market research

• Campaign analysis

• Basic social media management

The Rocket Ship

But here's the plot twist: Some marketers are absolutely crushing it. Look at Duolingo – their unhinged AI-powered social strategy drove 6M new followers and 22% more app installs in 2024.

Or take Stanley's viral moment: When a Stanley cup survived a car fire, they didn't call a crisis meeting. They gifted the woman a new car and turned it into $5M of earned media. Why? Because they understood something crucial: AI helps you move at the speed of culture.

The New Marketing Playbook

Want to be on the winning side of this K-shaped future? Here's your game plan:

1. Stop doing what AI can do: Your value isn't in writing basic social posts or analyzing spreadsheets anymore. Let the robots handle that. Your value is in:

• Creating unique brand voices

• Building genuine community connections

• Spotting cultural moments

• Making bold decisions machines can't

2. Become an AI conductor: Remember what Dan Koe said about productivity? The best creators work 4 focused hours, not 12 scattered ones. Same principle applies here. Let AI handle the grunt work while you focus on strategy and creativity.

3. Speed > Perfection: The brands winning in 2024 weren't the ones with perfect plans. They were the ones who could jump on trends fastest. AI gives you superpowers here – use them.

The Bottom Line This isn't about AI replacing marketers. It's about AI creating two types of marketers:

• Those who use AI to become superhuman

• Those who compete with AI (and lose)

Your choice which side of the K you want to be on.

Until next time...