Hi again,

This week I went to a couple of fringe events at SXSW London - BIMA had an interesting session on bridging the brand-performance gap (in short: if you over-invest in performance, you will hit a ceiling and realise you need to invest in brand content, so do it before it’s too late), and Jameela Jamil was an absolute STAR at the Female Quotient lounge - I wanted to listen to her all day long. If you’re sick of everyone shouting about their achievements on LinkedIn, then you’ll want to listen to her new podcast Wrong Turns where she talks to celebrities about the times in their lives when things just went terribly wrong. I listened to an episode today and it’s equal parts hilarious and life-affirming!

If you know of any lovely, artisan, independent sites that deserve recognition, the Tiny Awards are open for nominations - friend of Storythings Matt Klein is a supporter, and we love the idea of the awards itself - so do give it a look.

That’s it for now - have a great weekend and here’s your ten links!

Anjali

GenAI Is Our Polyester (5-min read)

‘The Mozart Of The Attention Economy’: Why Mr. Beast Is The World’s Biggest YouTube Star (27-min read)

Mary Meeker’s Artificial Intelligence Trends (340-page report)

In The Age Of Slop, Craft Is Rebellion (18-min read)

Google’s Veo 3: Startling But Concerning (LinkedIn post with 1-min video)

Creative Freelancer’s Climate Almanac (19-page toolkit)

Are We The Sexbots? Tech vs. Consent (8-min read)

How To Measure Attention And Engagement (8-minute read)

WTF Is AI Slop Doing To Warp Media Metrics? (7-min read)

Charlie Brooker On The Evolution of Black Mirror And His Writing Process (30-min listen)

Don’t become a B2B zombie. STAY HUMAN.

Storythings is the content marketing agency that helps you STAY HUMAN in a sea of marketing slop. If you think you’re at risk of becoming a B2B zombie, we’ve got the antidote. Click the button below for your free guide.

GenAI Is Our Polyester (5-min read)
W. David Marx, author of Status and Culture: How Our Desire for Social Rank Creates Taste, Identity, Art, Fashion, and Constant Change writes in his newsletter about the hope that we will at some point reject GenAI-created art the way polyester continues to be overlooked in favour of natural fabrics like cotton and linen by those who prize aesthetics.

‘The Mozart Of The Attention Economy’: Why Mr. Beast Is The World’s Biggest YouTube Star (27-min read)
I fall in the bucket of people who are not strictly Mr. Beast fans, but I am enthralled by his modus operandi. This long read is exactly for people like me then, and I’m confident it is for many of you too. Last year I saw the then President of the Mr. Beast empire speak at a fringe event at SXSW Austin, and Jimmy Donaldson’s business acumen clearly came through. He is scarily impressive. As this article says, referencing the politics of Mr. Beast’s content and the many ways it has led to where we are now politically and culturally: “Donaldson might not be the genius we need, or the genius we want, but he may be the genius we deserve.”

Mary Meeker’s Artificial Intelligence Trends (340-page report)
The OG tech trends analyst is back after a hiatus of 6 years. Mary Meeker has, unsurprisingly, focussed on what our AI-enabled future holds. There is a lot to unpack, so while the full deck is worth your time (if still badly designed!), ZDNet has a TL;DR version for you too.

In The Age Of Slop, Craft Is Rebellion (18-min read)
Amidst all the analysis of AI that abounds, this was such a refreshing interview with Neal Agarwal on the importance of creativity and the fun side of the internet. Neal is the creator of neal.fun, a much-loved website that hosts his many side projects, most of which are online games that bring a smile to your face.

Google’s Veo 3: Startling But Concerning (LinkedIn post with 1-min video)
Veo is all over the US, and people have been experimenting with it with fascinating results. Digital consultant Dan Taylor-Watt got access to Google Veo 3 here in the UK, and created a video combining a number of different prompts. He says that while the quality is amazing, the ease with which these videos can be created is also concerning: we need to ask ethical questions about tools like Veo.

Creative Freelancer’s Climate Almanac (19-page toolkit)
The non-profit Julie’s Bicycle, which works with the arts and culture sector to take action on the climate, have authored this toolkit which has several useful resources for individuals working on climate action. They’ve split it up by seasons, and it includes suggestions for taking care of oneself as well as spotlights on people and organisations working with specific themes.

Are We The Sexbots? Tech vs. Consent (8-min read)
Comedy writer Joel Morris, who spoke at our conference The Story several years ago, has written about the assumed consent premise that LLM’s operate on, as they get trained using the work of artists, musicians, actors, creators, and makers, giving nothing in return to them. Are creators like the sexbots in the Westworld movies?

How To Measure Attention And Engagement (8-minute read)
In episode four of our series on B2B prototyping, Matt writes about how an unreasonable focus on digital metrics can mean you start catering to the business models of platforms, instead of listening to your audience. Focussing on subscriber-based metrics like acquisition, retention and churn are more meaningful than just looking at numbers, because then you focus on making your content of a high enough standard for people to stay with you.

WTF Is AI Slop Doing To Warp Media Metrics? (7-min read)
I used to work at a media agency when the conversation on metrics and attribution was at its peak, when Facebook was boosting video views and Instagram reels and TikTok didn’t have the cachet they do now. So this piece about what AI slop continues to do to programmatic buying for brands caught my attention, because there has been a 717% increase in AI slop sites in the past year. Thankfully, this is actually good news for quality content, says the piece.

Charlie Brooker On The Evolution of Black Mirror And His Writing Process (30-min listen)
Charlie Brooker talks to Brock Swinson on his Creative Principles podcast about his writing habits, the genesis of Black Mirror, how the latest episode (‘Eulogy’) got made, and advice on writing pilots. We know a bit about pilots at Storythings because we work with clients who want to experiment and create them, so this whole episode was fascinating on many levels.

You made it this far again - excellent! If you have some extra time this weekend, why not look at Wikipedia’s list of lists of lists? Tell us which list is your favourite!

Bon weekend,

Matt, Anjali, Hugh and the rest of Team Storythings

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