Note: This is the first Innovators Brief that is publicly available. Briefs 1-155 were sent to a private group of subscribers.
It’s been a while since the last Innovators Brief, but I found a little extra time this week and wanted to share something I found interesting! If this plays out the way I think it might, then a completely new version of social media is right around the corner.
This week everyone was talking about Google’s AI announcements and OpenAI partnering with Jony Ive to launch some kind of AI powered hardware device.
What everyone missed though was Mark Zuckerberg revealing the future of content and ads on Meta’s platform during a casual podcast interview.
Let’s jump in.
Mark Zuckerberg has been making the podcast rounds and trying his best not to appear to be a robot while wearing cool necklaces and talking about is passion for Jujitsu. I must say though, I like this new version of Mark much better than old Mark.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I’m a Zuck fanboy. Of all the tech leaders, I think he’s the one that cares least about humanity, but I’ll save that rant for another time.
Today, I want to share an insight I heard while listening to Zuck on the Dwarkesh Patel podcast.
Given how rapidly AI is advancing, what do you think the future of social media content and advertising will be like? Particularly when it comes to the content and ads themselves, not necessarily the targeting, algorithms, and all the backend boring stuff.
If you’re like me, your LinkedIn and X apps are filled with people proclaiming, "it’s over for agencies," because anyone can now whip up video or image assets with just a prompt. While I love these tools, I still believe the human spirit is far more creative, and these tools will only empower great agencies, not kill them. The flip side, though, is that mediocre agencies are getting slaughtered.
Or there's the crowd shouting, "AI user-generated content is the future!" Sorry, AI UGC is the worst idea I’ve ever heard. Soon, ad platforms will either ban these types of ads, or the FTC will require clear disclosure when AI actors are positioned as real customers. Furthermore, once someone realizes a brand is using AI UGC to generate fake customer reviews, trust will drop to zero, if not negative. No serious brand will adopt tools like Arcads.
A quick glance at the evolution of social content
Ok, here’s the meat of what I wanted to share today. Zuck begins by saying:
“Look at the evolution of things like Instagram and Facebook. If you go back 10, 15, 20 years ago, it was text. Then we all got phones with cameras, and most of the content became photos. Then the mobile networks got good enough that if you wanted to watch a video on your phone, it wasn't just buffering the whole time.”
The key takeaway is this: whenever Zuck describes how content will evolve on his platforms, it’s always a precursor to how ads will evolve.
Today, most of the time spent on Facebook and Instagram is on video. But do you think in five years we’re just going to be sitting in our feed and consuming media that's just video? No, it's going to be interactive. You'll be scrolling through your feed. There will be content that maybe looks like a Reel to start. But you can talk to it, or interact with it, and it talks back, or it changes what it's doing. Or you can jump into it like a game and interact with it. That's all going to be AI.”
This one quote reveals exactly how every brand and agency needs to evolve their content and paid social playbooks. Static images and video content will remain in the mix, but interactive content and ads will become the new norm.
This newsletter reaches people from every major agency and half the fortune 1,000. My hope is that we can now start a discussion around how we will evolve strategy, teams, and building brands when interactive content is the new normal. One prediction I have is that the vibe coders of today will be integral to content teams and paid social efforts. More on this below.
I’d like to think I have some decent credibility when it comes to making predictions like this. I ran my first social media ad in 2007 the day Facebook launched its self-serve platform. From there I joined a big agency, built a team, and ran over $200 million in paid social before venturing out on my own.
AI has no doubt already impacted the client work I do. I use it heavily to iterate on ideas and brief my creative team in fundamentally new ways. The test and learn feedback loop has accelerated exponentially. I hope to share more on this soon.
What is vibe coding and how does it intersect with social media in the future?
When I heard Zuck’s quote above about interactive content, I had the realization that vibe coding is the future of content on social platforms. And in turn, vibe coding is the precursor to interactive ads in social feeds.
If "vibe coding" is unfamiliar to you, it's simply creating apps and software by prompting AI. One of the most popular tools for vibe coding is Replit. If you haven't tried Replit, I highly encourage you to. They have a Vibe Coding 101 tutorial here, and you can check out this video from Matt Palmer:
Vibe coding is super simple and fun. For instance, I built a pushup coach and tracker app to help me do 100 pushups a day. It took me about 10 minutes.
Connecting the dots: vibe coding meets social media content and advertising
Right now vibe coding is strictly thought of as a process and toolkit for allowing non-technical people to build apps.
If you connect the idea of vibe coding and tools like Replit, back to Zuck’s quote about interactive content in your social feed, you can clearly see where social content and advertising are headed.
The same way that you can create an app without knowing how to code, you’ll be able to create interactive social content without needing any technical skills.
Wild prediction: interactive content, one upload away
Here’s a wild prediction for you. Currently, Instagram lets you upload photos and videos. Imagine a new button that allows you to upload interactive content created with tools like Replit. What if you vibe coded interactive ads in Replit and then ran them in paid social?
To me it is clear, the future of content on social platforms is interactive. The precursor to this interactive content is vibe coding. Static image, motion, and video assets will still play a role, and we’ll create them in entirely new ways using AI, however they will serve more to support interactive content, rather than being the star of the show.
The winning brand and social strategy of the future will be to create interactive worlds that live inside social feeds.
Discussion and Feedback
If you’d like to share your thoughts on today’s Innovators Brief, drop a comment on this LinkedIn post. Or if you just want to smash the like button to let me know you enjoyed today’s brief, that’s cool too!
Jeff
P.S. the Innovators Brief now lives on jumpintothefuture.com.