In 2012, a 26-year-old man stood outside Surbiton Train Station trying to drum up business for his boot camps. He’d go every day. But it just wouldn’t work, and often, no one would show. So, he took to Instagram and started posting videos full of energy – healthy recipes and exercises. At the time, the limit on Instagram videos was 15 seconds, so Joe Wicks introduced the UK to “Lean In 15”.
Ten years later, it’s easier than ever to create and share your marketing message – whether typing, snapping or shooting videos on a smartphone. Canva and ChatGPT have made us all marketers, which is not a bad thing in my book: It just makes things very, very noisy.
Last week, I spent time with a client, looking at some videos we’d created and viewing drop-offs. People’s attention spans are very small. My argument, and don’t take this the wrong way, dear reader, is that people like you, well, you just don’t pay attention. Oh, look, a rainbow.
You’re not doing anything wrong, by the way; it’s just the way things are. It’s for marketers to adapt to the market, not vice versa.
Joe Wicks couldn’t do what he did then, now. He’d have to be the one in a billion. But, the key thing he had on his side was personality. Spend as long as you want with AI, and that’s the one thing you’ll always have over it.
AI is good; it can do some of the heavy lifting. But HI? Human intelligence carries so much more weight. Let’s never forget that.