Every two weeks in Zero Clicks, we explore the interplay of AI, media, and commerce. In each edition, we explore…

• The big picture: On AI powered ads with apologies to Pete Townshend

• Job posts: Reddit grows up 

• The meme is the message: How to build a newsletter   

• Cocktail hour:  A screwdriver with panache

AI devours advertising

On Sunday, OpenAI spent $14M to have a bunch of humans craft an ad that says Chat GPT is the next iteration of fire….I think?  I would have shown the actual product doing useful things but what the hell do I know?

Three years ago, Open AI CMO Kate Rouch was head marketing honcho at Coinbase when the Super Bowl ad zeitgeist was dominated by crypto companies, namely Larry David famously pumping FTX in a shockingly similar creative concept to Open AI’s ad. By the end of the year, Sam Bankman-Fried was in jail and crypto’s market cap was down 70% (which it has now made back and then some). I’ll let you decide if OpenAI joining the Super Bowl Ads party is bullish for the industry.

There’s more than a hint of irony in OpenAI airing its inaugural (human generated) ad precisely at the moment that AI is swallowing ad creation whole. On LinkedIn, it’s nearly impossible to escape the video of Icon founder Kennan Davison’s AI avatar introducing his startup to the public. Icon is a simple concept– fully automated ad creation for primarily Meta and Tiktok.

I don’t know Kennan Davison personally but looking outside in, he’s a fascinating founder. He’s an Ivy-League dropout, top 200 League of Legends player and already highly credentialed software leader. His first company Skio is profitable on >$10M ARR and their careers page is a vibe. He builds frenetically in public. His LinkedIn post looking for founding account executives promised $1M/yr salaries if “all goes according to plan” (I’d love a futures bet on what they take home). In other words, he’s exactly the guy you’d think would be at the helm of the AI generated ads gold rush.

As with anything AI, Icon has evoked a visceral reaction, full of the expected pearl clutching and self-righteousness that is common in our business. Really, it’s just the next iteration of software. Icon is the future of performance advertising. It’s also the present and the past.

I’m hyper-bullish on Icon as being the right product for the current zeitgeist but don’t see it as some huge innovation, at least not in the philosophical sense. This isn’t some grand paradigm shift in how digital marketing operates; it’s the next tiny incremental step in how most ads you see on the web were being made anyway. The beards have just grown longer overnight.

Performance creative has a massive regression to the mean type effect– a new archetype of advertising format starts to work and within days, nearly all sophisticated growth hackers have shamelessly copied it.  Regardless of whether the content is human or AI generated, the arc of the universe in online ads bends towards a sea of sameness.

Facebook and Instagram were dominated first by largely static creatives, then this sort of panorama product video  and finally “UGC reviews” that followed more or less the same script. We were told that the key to performance was “authenticity” without a hint of irony.

Second, since practically the dawn of the internet, there’s been a fascinating sub-genre of “ugly” direct response ads that perform exceptionally well, at least in the myopic attributable ROAS sense. I hardly think it’s the highest expression of humanity to create grotesque images for brands to buy “around the web” ads on Taboola and Outbrain. This is a job that AI can, should and will do.

Outside of basic format optimization, it’s really hard to discern what subtle creative cues will get browsers to buy. The only real alpha comes from rapidly experimenting with ad creative faster than the next marketer. When nearly every aspect of media buying is commoditized, speed of experimentation wins the day. For all of AI’s flaws, it will always be faster at producing vast swaths of commodity content to test. That’s effectively what the game is in modern performance marketing and there’s no shame in it.

You’re trying to capture a moment of fleeting attention when someone is going down the TikTok or Instagram rabbit hole. There are so many subtle, even subliminal variables that dictate whether an ad will convert.

In a purely utilitarian sense, this isn’t the right moment for beautiful advertising. It’s the moment for trying to trigger some indiscernible neuron in a shopper’s brain with the right hook. The hypnotized never lie.

But If you’re a living, breathing sentient marketer, you don’t want to play this part of the game; there’s not much fun and glory in it. I do genuinely believe there’s art and beauty to be found in the advertising business but it’s not in direct response. Let’s leave that to the machines and hope we don’t get fooled again.

A quick note for new readers since I’ve gotten some questions on where these jobs come from. Most of the time these are simply interesting gigs I serendipitously find.

In some cases, I know the hiring teams personally and will happily make intros for readers if there’s double opt-in. Will always specify when this is the case!

Staff Product Manager, Reddit Pro

Reddit is continuing its push to move beyond internet degens, hiring for a product leader to help established brands and publishers manage their presence on the platform. The timing is fascinating; Reddit is still riding a major tailwind but seeing some of its organic search traffic cut back as Google might think they are getting a little too frisky with their own search engine ambitions.

Principal Product Manager, Ecosystem, Northbeam

The race to build better GA4…or at least a source of truth not also owned by an advertising platform… is on. Northbeam is one of the market leaders, now looking for a product leader to manage integrations and API partnerships. MMM engines are only as good as the data they take in so this is, let’s just say an important gig.

Enterprise Sales Executive, Flip

I don’t really understand Flip’s business model…mostly it feels like selling dollars for ninety cents. I thought I knew their endgame when they first came on the scene and was bullish…but think I was flatly wrong about them endeavoring to build a Perplexity commerce esque search engine. 

That said, any uncertainty about the future of TikTok is a gargantuan boon to Flip’s business. Brands are desperately looking to get into new social channel and for performant advertising writ large so if TikTok remains in limbo, this could be shooting fish in a barrel.

Sr. Manager, Business Development, Content Acquisition & Strategy, Samsung America 

(Something, something….convergence of content and commerce :) 

Customer Marketing Manager, Fermat

As more of online checkout moves from standard eCommerce websites to more distributed experiences (i.e. drops, landing pages, advertorial), Fermat is set to capitalize in a big way on the tailwind. The team is ultra-talented and among the massive swath of Series A-B Shopify SaaS, they look like one of the likely big winners.

VC Fellowship, Ecosystem & Partnerships, Venture 5 Media 

This one is cool. You help my internet friend John Gannon sell advertising and other sponsorship for his wildly popular VC newsletter for two years and he’ll give you all the skills and connections to land a job in venture capital on the back end.

Let me know if you’d like an intro to John and team!

On how to build a newsletter….

The Creamsicle Screwdriver

There’s no genre of cocktail making that I find quite as satisfying as introducing people to upscale versions of drinks they think they hate because they’ve only had the $10 plastic handle Vodka version of them. Immediately, the screwdriver comes to mind. When made with just vodka and shitty store bought orange juice, screwdrivers are cut out for little else besides the 8AM sorority tailgate. You’re a grown-ass adult now, you can do better.

However, with a little bit of love and the simple introduction of a rum floater, the drink transforms into the piece de resistance of brunch cocktails. Here’s how it’s done:

• 3 oz. FRESH SQUEEZED Orange Juice

• 1.5 oz. vodka (i’ve been using Luksosowa recently which I think is a really good value at ~$17 for a fifth/~$20/liter)

• .5 oz. Diplomatico Rum

• Bar spoon of vanilla extract

• Few dashes on Angostrua bitters

Squeeze your oranges, add vodka and stir like you usually would. Then, mix the rum, vanilla and bitters and carefully float the mixture over the top of the drink. The relative difference in buoyancy here makes this a pretty easy float that doesn’t need much technique. Sip and savor the subtle transition from vanilla to orange.