Tech & humanity: a love story #5

Welcome to “Tech & humanity: a love story”, your go-to source for insights, strategies & stories to understand and master the ever-evolving relationship between technology and humans in the world of business and brands.

Join me as I delve into the power of collaboration in the AI age, how to enhance your personal brand, and lead with purpose. I will also explore the shifting values of the new customer, the future of work, and how sustainability can become a competitive advantage for businesses.

👀 INSIGHT: Is Google losing its grip on search?

For the past two decades, it has been hard to imagine a competitor to Google in search. But that could be about to change as GenZ users increasingly turn to social platforms like TikTok to find businesses, and a new breed of AI search engines hit the market.

➡️ Discover more in my latest blog.

👏 Desperate: an unconventional job hunt with a happy ending

When speaking to job seekers, I often advise them to take the road less traveled. 🛤️ A large number of vacancies are filled through the hidden job market these days, so if you can find a backdoor to come to the attention of the businesses you’re interested in, it often proves to be a far more efficient use of your time than the algorithm lottery of LinkedIn. 🎲

A bold and creative example of this was provided recently by UK graphic designer Courtney Summer Myers. 🎨 First, a little background. LinkedIn’s “Open to Work” banner has been the subject of a bit of debate recently among HR professionals. 💼 Some former recruiters linked to major employers like Google argue that it sends out the wrong signal, while others see it as a useful tool, especially for smaller firms. 🏢

Enter Summer Myers, who hilariously news-jacked the debate by creating a replica of the banner that said “desperate” rather than “open to work”. 😂 The stunt earned the graphic designer prominent coverage in a range of publications including the Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Forbes, and Fortune among others. 📰 Her LinkedIn post announcing the new banner fuelled over 400,000 reactions, her LinkedIn connections grew by over 15,000, and she says that she has received some “truly excellent opportunities” in response. 🌟 She may be a graphic designer by trade, but with results like that, she could have a bright future in marketing. 📈

🎯 To learn more about how to tap into the hidden job market and land your dream job, check out my Job Hunting Course. 🚀

🤖 GenAI: We don’t need labels to tell us what’s fake, we need them to tell us what’s real

There have been two contrasting trends in branding recently: a quest for authenticity and an embrace of generative AI. When it comes to brands, everybody wants authenticity. For decades now, business experts and leadership coaches have been emphasizing the need to discover and express your authentic self to inspire others. More recently, authentic branding has risen in prominence, with some 86% of consumers now saying that it is a key factor in determining the brands they like and support.

All this talk of authenticity seems to fly in the face of the embrace of generative AI 🤖 by the likes of Levis, Toys “R” Us and many others in their advertising. Needless to say, it is a bit difficult to build a reputation for authenticity when your most visible brand ambassadors don’t exist. 🫥 But as AI gets more and more sophisticated, will consumers be able to tell the difference anyway? 🤔 And if we have to assume that everything we see is fake, where does that leave authentic branding?

Many people have spoken about the need to label GenAI content. 📜 The recent EU AI act even included a requirement that users should be informed if content has been generated or modified using AI systems. But why not flip the script and label authentic content instead? 🔄 The C2PA standard uses encryption to trace the provenance of an image or video from when it is first taken on a camera 📷, through the editing process, to when it reaches your screen. 🖥️ In an encouraging development, YouTube has created a new feature based on C2PA that will enable creators to display a “created with a camera” label on their videos. 📹

There is a long way to go before all the wrinkles are ironed out and it reaches widespread adoption, but to me, this approach makes a lot of sense. ✅ In today’s world, we don’t need labels to tell us what’s fake, we need them to tell us what’s authentic. 🏷️ For brands and businesses, disclosure would be motivated by a race to the top, not fear of sanction. And that can only be a good thing. 🌟

⛓️ Google releases new AI text watermark

Google has open-sourced a system called SynthID which is capable of watermarking text generated with AI. Large language models (LLMs) produce text incrementally out of building blocks called “tokens”, which can be either a word or part or a word. If you look at the sample text above, it contains 21 tokens in total. Notice however that “I’m” contains three separate tokens, whereas a word like “marketing” is only one. At each stage of the formulation of a string of text, the LLM tries to select the next most likely token based on what it has already written. To do this, it assigns each potential token a probability score. 😱

SynthID works by subtly modifying these probability scores according to a schema contained in a cryptographic key. The same code can then be used to analyze whether a text contains the secret “winning” tokens, indicating that it has been generated by AI. While no AI watermark is completely resistant to determined attempts to remove them, SynthID is believed to be more difficult to circumvent than other methods, even if the text is lightly edited or run through a different LLM afterwards. 👀

👼 Wings Clipped: Victoria’s Secret rebrand criticized on all sides

In the late ‘90s and early aughts, Victoria’s Secret & Co. (VS) was the brand that epitomized a culture obsessed with flawless beauty, glamor and sexiness. The essence of this vision was celebrated each year in a glitzy, high-octane show that was broadcast on network television stations like CBS . In a spectacle that former exec Ed Razek described as “a fantasy”, supermodels like Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum, and Gisele Bündchen paraded on a runway wearing revealing lingerie while carrying massive, ornate wings decorated with feathers and jewels that reportedly weighed as much as 18kg.

📈 During the show's heyday in 2001, it attracted 12 million viewers. But these numbers gradually began to dwindle as the brand lost touch with the zeitgeist, fading to 10.3 million viewers in 2011 and just 3.2 million by 2018. Then, just as the brand was starting to feel dated, it was hit by scandal. A New York Times article exposed allegations of widespread bullying, sexual harassment and misogyny. Razek resigned and the show was canceled in 2019 as the brand scrambled to adapt to the times. 📉

What followed was one of the most drastic attempted rebrands in history. 🌐 A new CEO, Martin Walters, was appointed on a promise to make VS a global advocate for “female empowerment”. ✨ An eclectic team of advisors from outside the traditional fashion world were assembled to lead this transition, comprising US soccer player Megan Rapinoe ⚽, Chinese American freestyle skier Eileen Gu 🎿, and inclusivity advocate Paloma Elsesser 💪 among others. This year, the brand announced that it was bringing back its catwalk show in a new, more inclusive guise. 💃 Women in their 50s like Kate Moss, plus-sized models like Ashley Graham, and the first trans models to ever feature in a VS show were on stage. 🌈

But rather than receiving acclaim, the brand seems to have managed to annoy everybody. Feminists and advocates for body positivity accuse it of cynical pandering and hypocrisy after years of promoting dangerous stereotypes. Meanwhile, the remaining fans of the old-school show are nostalgic for the days when it was still what they call “sexy”, never mind how subjective the term remains.

Apart from VS being very late to the party, I think the rebrand shows the danger of attempting to carry out a complete 180-degree turn. There is a lot of investment in solar energy at the moment, but petrochemical companies like Shell or British Petroleum would have a tough job convincing the world that it has always been their vision to save the planet. 🤪 Similarly, it was never really credible that VS could relaunch itself as an advocate for body positivity. Consumers have a keen nose for inauthenticity and this was never going to pass the smell test. The Guardian summed it up well when it said that the failure of the rebrand “has less to do with wokery than corporate hypocrisy and inauthenticity”. Other brands would be advised to take note. 🤡

😍 Back to more human interaction

🗓️ Upcoming: World Marketing Summit 2024

💬 Don’t miss my talk at the World Marketing Summit 2024 on Dezember 6 at 17:30 CET, where I’ll discuss the importance of authenticity and personal branding in the age of AI. In the digital age, cultivating a personal brand is pivotal to make connections and boost your career. I’ll explain what personal branding is, why authenticity is key to building your reach, and how to express yourself authentically. Sign up here to tune in live.🎧

🌿 Green, green, green ...!

I was super honoured to do the closing keynote at the incredible Tork NZE Conference in Paris from Essity ! More than 1,300 attendees joined us live from around the world! Thank you Luca, Reneé and the entire team for the incredible effort behind advancing the agenda of Sustainability, through this incredible production, full of relevant insights by recognised experts and leaders in the space. Fantástico! 🙏

Don't be shy to give me your take on those topics in the comments and feel free to share — it won’t bite I promise. Gracias y hasta la próxima. 👋