VTubers are Going Mainstream and Brands Want In
Plus: Altman's AI bubble, CEOs don't get AI, and Adobe's solution for AI content authenticity.
👋 Happy Tuesday AI Marketers. Brands are inking major deals with a new breed of AI influencers. CEOs are pushing for AI adoption, but don’t seem to understand it. And, as the integrity of the internet continues to evaporate, Adobe is taking real steps to ensure trustworthy content. Let’s get you caught up…
Brands are Betting Big on VTubers in 2025
VTubers, or virtual YouTubers, are live streamers and video creators who use anime-inspired avatars instead of showing their real faces. What started in Japan is now exploding in the West, with names like Ironmouse and Gawr Gura pulling millions of followers. And where fans go, brands follow. McDonald’s, Kura Sushi, even the LA Dodgers are signing deals. For Gen Z, these digital personas feel authentic, and that loyalty is creating serious marketing opportunities.
Sam Altman Agrees: We’re in an AI Bubble
In a wide-ranging interview, Altman compared the AI frenzy to the dot-com bubble, admitting valuations are irrational and some investors will get burned. He expects OpenAI to survive the shakeout and even spend trillions on infrastructure. The takeaway: if even the hype master is saying we’re in a bubble, the froth is real. And timing your bets matters.
Do CEOs Even Understand AI?
CEOs may be pushing for AI adoption, but many top executives still haven’t folded it into their own routines. They understand the stakes, yet remain one step removed from the day-to-day experimentation happening deeper in their organizations. This piece highlights the rare CEOs taking a hands-on approach, from asking junior staff to demo AI workflows to making senior leaders build with the tech themselves.
AI Isn’t Helping Marketers Build Brands
AI thrives on data-rich tasks, which is why it has slotted neatly into performance marketing. But brand marketing has always been harder to measure. Metrics like affinity, lift, and awareness are fuzzier, feedback loops are longer, and the outcomes less clear. Making it tougher to know how to best put AI to work. Digiday digs into the gap and shows how some agencies are bridging it.
Ad Schools Must Equip Grads For The AI Age
Portfolio schools are scrambling to stay relevant, folding AI training into copywriting and design tracks. Programs from Miami Ad School to Brandcenter now teach students how to create with AI, preparing them to operate like one-person agencies. The bet is that fluency with AI will keep grads employable even as junior roles shrink. Whether that reinvention saves the model remains an open question.
Adobe’s Content Authenticity Initiative hasn’t gotten nearly the attention it deserves, but the implications are huge for marketers and brand leaders. It’s a cross-industry collaboration with dozens of major companies working to add verifiable trust into digital content, showing audiences not just what they’re seeing but where it came from and how it’s been edited. With AI raising the stakes on misinformation, this is one to follow.
🎙️ My top 3 podcast episodes this week:
BIG TECHNOLOGY PODCAST
Can the Web Survive Generative AI?
Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince raises a big question, can generative AI turn the open web into a ghost town? Host Alex Kantrowitz pushes him to imagine a future where bots reap without sharing. Hear Prince propose a fix that could change how creators get paid.
THIS OLD MARKETING
Have the Search Wars Started Over Again?
Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose bring their trademark banter to a wild news week. They chew on Perplexity’s audacious $34 billion bid for Chrome, rip into OpenAI’s botched ChatGPT‑5 rollout, warn about YouTube’s new rules, and celebrate marketing winners like Marketing AI Institute and an Oreos Reese’s mashup.
THE HUSTLE DAILY SHOW
GPT-5 is Here and Well, It’s a Disaster
Jon Weigell and Maria Gharib deliver a quick, punchy rundown of last week’s hottest stories. They tear apart OpenAI’s chaotic GPT‑5 launch, weigh Perplexity’s $34.5 billion Chrome bid, and squeeze in Sling TV’s Day Pass and Gildan’s buy of Hanes.
Have a favorite podcast to recommend? Shoot me the details.
🚨 AI-forward companies are looking for AI-forward marketers:
Growth Marketing
OpenAI
Drive global growth for ChatGPT by leading full‑funnel performance marketing and experiments, scaling paid acquisition, building AI‑native workflows and creative systems, and collaborating with technical teams on optimization and analytics.
Growth Campaign Manager
Storyful
Develop integrated outbound campaigns, build ABM programs, refine generative AI prompts for copywriting, automate workflows with tools like Zapier, and use AI enrichment for lead management and education.
Campaign Manager, AI
CDW
Lead integrated campaigns promoting AI solutions across digital and in‑person events, collaborate with performance and field teams, manage budgets and analytics, optimize programs using marketing automation and data‑driven insights.
AI Growth Marketing Manager
Conductor
Spearhead AI‑driven content growth by using LLMs, no‑code automation, Python and GPTs to create scalable workflows and content, refine prompts, train teams, and optimize distribution and performance metrics.
Director of Growth Marketing and AI Ops
Smartcat
Lead growth marketing and AI operations, architect AI‑powered multi‑channel demand generation and lifecycle strategies using tools from ChatGPT to Zapier, Mutiny, and n8n, while aligning marketing with sales and revenue teams.
📅 Join AI marketers at conferences, summits, and industry events.
AI Accelerate
San Diego, CA, August 20–21
WordCamp
Portland, OR, August 26–29
Contact.io
Denver, CO, August 27–29
Inbound
San Francisco, CA, September 3–5
DTC Live
New York City, NY, September 4
Product Marketing Summit
San Francisco, CA, September 10–11
AI for Marketers Summit
San Francisco, CA, September 11
Content Marketing World
San Diego, CA, September 16–17
AI Conference
San Francisco, CA, September 17–18
HeroConf
San Diego, CA, September 23–24
GAI World
Boston, MA, September 29–30
Have an event to add? Send me the details.
