• FIR #349: Marketing's Pity Party

“Pity Marketing” is having a moment. Multiple reports have surfaced of people sharing tales of woe, mostly on the X (formerly Twitter) social network, leading many who see the posts to pull out their wallets. Could the same technique work for bigger brands? Also in the August long-form episode of “For Immediate Release”:

• The Associated Press has published its AI guidelines for journalists
• Big advertisers are rushing to take advantage of AI
• Gartner has pegged AI at the peak of inflated expectations
• Motion identities are now a requirement for brands
• Brands are starting to sound alike on social media

In his Tech Report, Dan York reports on Twitch’s plans to roll out blocking, new features on Threads, developments with Mastodon, a new fediverse report, and scientists scaling back their use of X (formerly Twitter).

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, October 2 (but it will be the September episode).

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. You can catch up with both co-hosts on Neville’s blog and Shel’s blog. Neville’s Asides blog is also available.

Link from this report:

• The Associated Press sets AI guidelines for journalists
• From Mad Men to machines? Big advertisers shift to AI
• Gartner Places Generative AI on the Peak of Inflated Expectations on the 2023 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies
• Gartner hype cycle
• Emergent Properties of AI
• Take a Page From the Motion Identity Playbook
• The rise of pity marketing
• Why brands are still trying to be funny and chronically online — even in ‘late stage social media’

Links from Dan York’s Tech Report

• Twitch Will Let Streamers Block Banned Users from Watching Streams
• Threads gets retweets — sorry, reposts — in the reverse-chronological feed
• Twitter’s Rival Threads Is Already Unraveling
• The BBC on Mastodon: experimenting with distributed and decentralised social media
• The Fediverse Report (Search is coming to Mastodon)
• Erin Kissane’s excellent essay about why people leave Mastodon
• The Fediverse Report (a great way to keep up on the fediverse)
• Thousands of scientists are cutting back on X/Twitter