Once I saw Maria Alex’s post, I knew marketers were collectively in for a wild week ahead.

Marketers have quite the demanding job, one that involves a commitment to being chronically online. Not doing so, means you simply miss out on the ever revolving hamster wheel of micro-trends that have a shelf life of approximately one week before it enters, what I call, “millennial territory” - also known as Instagram Reels. This is more commonly known as the graveyard of TikTok trends that have lost relevancy and have made home to older audiences who are always, for lack of a better term, slightly behind on the cultural consciousness. This is not to stereotype of course, but I have been there and done that. In fact, I once had to convince my boss why hashtags are better left in 2014 and not 2024. It took weeks for them to come around. 

And so, one day you’re scrolling TikTok and you see a catchy, happy song against a backdrop of rainbows and silly little dolphins go viral. Aww. Oh wait, a message pops up - “I have depression”, you start laughing, immediately. A juxtaposition between optimism and disturbance, the perfect cocktail for self-deprecating humor. You bookmark the video, see it evolve over the weekend and then a feeling of dread comes your way. “I'm going to have to really dumb this down and suck the joy out of this trend to get others on board, aren't I?”. 

Unfortunately, this is the reality of working for brands that might have these kinds of dynamics. We know that agility is absolutely essential in marketing nowadays. If you respond too late to a trend, you risk looking like an opportunistic brand trying to jump on a bandwagon of clout and you put a sour taste in audiences’ mouths. This is the relentlessly, unforgiving reality of marketing, today. Gen Z audiences can assess the authenticity of a brand’s intentions within two seconds of scrolling. So it’s no wonder that the biggest roadblock to getting something out is the internal conversations you have with your team. But if that involves having to have a slightly soul destroying conversation, then so be it. The best brand marketers at the forefront of culture and who may have all the budgets in the world, will still need to give their justifications. And sometimes that can be a good litmus test for the overall accessibility of your content to cut through more than just Gen Z audiences. Data, industry examples, a good knack of storytelling and an unshakable confidence will be what eventually garners the respect you need in the room. Don’t ever sell yourself short, because it’s you who has the finger on the pulse.