Delivering messaging with authenticity and transparency
Matty Beckerman, CEO at IRCODE, expressed the importance of Gen Z wanting human-generated content instead of AI-generated content.
“As a tech company, we use AI,” Beckerman said. “Our developers are doing things at lightning speed, and we’re doing creative at lightning speed.” He shared that while AI can speed up the content creation, it must be human, analog, and authentic content.
Otherwise, Beckerman warned, “The inauthenticity of AI shines through, and Gen Z spots it. They smell it.”
To Beckerman’s point about authenticity, Heather Malenshek, CMO at Land O’Lakes, said brands should focus on patterns, not hype.
“Just because you can doesn’t mean you should is the kind of mantra that we have,” said Malenshek. “Thinking about it, does it make sense for your brand to engage?” For Malenshek, that means stepping back and looking at the trend beyond the moment itself to understand the underlying behaviors driving it, using signals like search, social sentiment, and cultural listening to guide decisions.
Malenshek shared the example of how Land O’Lakes developed a campaign based on the trend of interest in rural lifestyles and backyard chickens, including workwear. The campaign told the company’s farmers’ stories through the clothes they wear and did a workwear runway show in Paris, Wis.
