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By Julia Wagner, Account Executive at Bolt PR
On May 12, I had the opportunity to attend Marketing Brew's The Next Phase of Social & Creator Marketing conference in New York City. This event brought together the sharpest minds in brand marketing, social strategy, and creator partnerships for candid conversations about what’s actually working in social right now. I left with a notebook full of ideas and plenty of questions about where AI is headed and what it will mean for brands and clients over the next few years. Here are my seven biggest takeaways.
Cava's SVP of Brand Marketing and Strategy, Nitya Madhavan, told a story that stuck with me. Fans were flooding Cava's social comments demanding the return of the seasonal white sweet potatoes after they were removed from the menu in 2021. Instead of ignoring it, the team not only brought the item back but also hosted Zoom calls with those very fans to tell them the news first.
While there was a five year turnaround to get them added back to the menu, it's a reminder that social media is a rare opportunity to see your audience authentically interact with your brand and get direct, unfiltered feedback in real time. Small moments like that turn customers into evangelists, proving that social listening should feed directly into product and marketing decisions, not just live in a monthly report.
A panel on future-proofing your social strategy was refreshingly honest: not everything is going to perform. Nathan Allebach (Ramp), Tiffany Rivers (Media Cause), and Terri Yowe (Anthropologie) all agreed that brands winning on social media are the ones willing to experiment. You have to try new things to know what works. The brands standing still and waiting for a guaranteed hit are the ones falling behind.
One topic that came up repeatedly throughout the day is that audiences are savvier than ever, and they can spot a brand post from a mile away. The challenge isn't just making good content, it's making content that doesn't feel like content.
The panelists talked about leaning into the "relatable friend" approach and giving people a peek behind the curtain. When your brand can show up on social media as something that feels genuine and human rather than polished and promotional, that's when people actually stop scrolling. The goal isn't to hide that you're a brand, it's to act like one worth following.
Maggie Reznikoff, chief client officer at Open Influence, had a line that deeply resonated: "Brand space on social media is rented, not owned.”
While brands can control their content, at the end of the day the platforms own distribution and control the algorithm. The near loss of TikTok was a wake-up call for the industry. Brands are now adding platform-contingency clauses to influencer contracts so that if a platform disappears, deliverables can transfer elsewhere. Don't put all your content eggs in one platform's basket.
The best creator partnerships happen when brands get out of the way. When you give 20 influencers the same brief and they all post in the same week, audiences see right through it and tune out. Sometimes, the best thing a brand can do is not brief anyone at all.
Anthropologie learned this firsthand with the viral "Anthro Rock" moment. Creator Phoebe Adams posted a TikTok pranking her boyfriend by pretending she'd spent $150 on a plain gray rock from Anthropologie. She'd actually just found it outside.
The video exploded, spawned millions of copycat videos, and racked up an estimated 135 million views across all content. Anthropologie leaned in, set up fake rock displays in stores complete with $1,000 price tags, and ended up with some of their highest TikTok engagement numbers ever. Adams was not someone they would have traditionally sought out as a partner, but she handed the brand a cultural moment they never could have manufactured on their own.
The AI conversation was nuanced and refreshing. Becky Owen, CMO of Billion Dollar Boy, pointed out a striking tension: marketing investment in AI is surging, yet consumers are reporting AI fatigue and actively avoiding AI-generated content.
The panel's consensus was to use AI where it genuinely adds value. Streamline the repetitive tasks like influencer discovery, email drafts, and scheduling, but protect your creative output and your audience's trust.
Most importantly, always label AI content as AI and use it to enhance human creativity, not replace it.
The "From Influence to Income" session with Kay Hsu (Spotify Creative Lab), Mae Karwowski (Obviously), and Diane Perlov (Later Influence) reframed how I think about creator performance.
Reach and follower counts are the metrics clients ask for, but they're not the metrics that matter. Saves and sends signal genuine resonance. It's about the strength of a creator's fanbase, not the size of it. The industry needs to do better educating brands on this. As PR and marketing professionals, that starts with us.
The conversations at this conference made one thing clear: the social and creator landscape is shifting fast, and there is no stable playbook anymore. The brands that will win are the ones staying curious, flexible, and prioritizing real human connection over shortcuts. AI will keep reshaping the tools, but not the fundamentals. The advantage will go to the teams that can experiment without losing their voice, and adapt without losing their judgment.
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