This Old Marketing
Meta Creates Toll Road, LinkedIn Fakes Getting Rid of AI Slop (534)
Why It Matters
The episode highlights how AI is infiltrating everyday financial decisions, raising questions about oversight and consumer risk. It also reflects cultural shifts in how celebrities and institutions engage with viral trends, underscoring the evolving landscape of media consumption and monetization for creators.
Key Takeaways
- •Robinhood launches AI-driven agentic trading and credit card.
- •Meta rolls out AI subscription services for marketers and creators.
- •LinkedIn starts campaign to purge AI‑generated content spam.
- •Stephen Colbert moves to YouTube, challenging traditional late‑night economics.
- •Thomson Reuters debuts fiduciary‑grade AI for financial analysis.
Pulse Analysis
AI is reshaping finance faster than regulators can keep up. Robinhood’s new agentic trading platform pairs an AI‑powered credit card with automated investment decisions, promising convenience while raising questions about oversight and risk. At the same time, Meta has introduced a suite of AI subscription services aimed at marketers and creators, turning machine learning into a recurring revenue model. Thomson Reuters’ launch of fiduciary‑grade AI adds a premium layer of accuracy for financial analysis, signaling that enterprises are willing to pay for trustworthy, data‑driven insights.
Social platforms are also fighting back against AI noise. LinkedIn’s new campaign to strip away AI‑generated ‘slop’ reflects growing brand fatigue and a demand for authentic professional content. Meanwhile, Stephen Colbert’s abrupt shift from network television to a self‑produced YouTube show illustrates the economic pressure on legacy late‑night formats, where hundreds of staff members may no longer be justified. The discussion highlighted how lower‑cost, two‑person productions can rival traditional broadcasts, yet quality expectations still favor higher‑budget operations, forcing creators to balance scale with audience standards.
Pop culture moments peppered the episode, from Drake eclipsing Michael Jackson’s Billboard record to the Pope’s viral ‘6‑7’ hand gesture, underscoring how quickly memes become brand assets or liabilities. The hosts also reflected on the ten‑year anniversary of selling the Content Marketing Institute, sharing lessons on negotiation and preserving team culture during exits. Finally, they noted emerging trends such as brands producing music videos and indie horror releases gaining box‑office traction, reminding marketers that diverse content formats remain vital for audience engagement.
Episode Description
This week, the boys open with Meta's new subscription plans for Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Meta AI. The features are mostly small upgrades, but the bigger story is clear: Meta is building a toll road around access, visibility and creation. The rent on rented land keeps going up.
From there, Joe and Robert talk about LinkedIn's campaign against "AI slop." LinkedIn says it wants to reduce low-value AI content, generic posts and engagement bait. But is it really getting rid of anything, or just marketing the idea of a cleaner feed? The platform rewarded slop long before AI arrived. AI just made it easier to scale.
Winners and Losers
Joe's winner is YouTube creator Curry Barker and the box office success of Obsession, another reminder that creators can still break through outside the traditional Hollywood machine.
Robert's winners are OpenAI's new CMO and brands making music videos.
Rants and Raves
Joe raves about The Guardian's U.S. success and its growing donation-supported business. It's a strong example of a media company building direct audience trust and turning that trust into revenue.
Robert's commentary is on Rand Fishkin's take that "inimitable product" is the new "make great content."
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Get all the show notes: https://www.thisoldmarketing.com/
Get Joe's new book, Burn the Playbook, at http://www.joepulizzi.com/books/burn-the-playbook/
Subscribe to Joe's Newsletter at https://www.joepulizzi.com/signup/.
Get Robert Rose's new book, Valuable Friction, at https://robertrose.net/valuable-friction/
Subscribe to Robert's Newsletter at https://seventhbearlens.substack.com/
This Old Marketing is part of the HubSpot Podcast Network: https://www.hubspot.com/podcastnetwork
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