First Published: 03 August, 2026
Across sessions on AI, creators, social, commerce, Reddit and creative effectiveness, the message was clear: technology may be accelerating, but trust, emotion, community and creativity remain at the heart of how brands grow.
Search is changing, but trust still matters
The day began with Caroline Rainsford from Google, who gave us a look at the innovations shaping a new era for the Google brands we know — and a few newer ones to watch. Her framing, “harder, better, stronger, faster”, captured the pace and possibility of this next wave. But her most useful advice for marketers was simple: in a world of super-powered search, “the best ads are the right answers”. From discovery to decision, relevance must be underpinned by trust.
AI execution starts with the problem — not the platform
Britney Muller then joined us from Orange Labs, beaming in from the US to share what strong AI execution really requires. It was an enormously popular keynote, with the room hanging off every word — even after we were briefly kicked off the call and rejoined after a short break.
Britney offered four practical starting points:
One piece of advice I especially loved was not to be fooled by AI “experts” using technical jargon. As Britney put it, that is often just “competence by complexity”.
So, is there an execution gap? With a ratio of around 90% talk to 10% build, there is no awareness problem. What Britney brought to life were practical use cases — real people with the courage to execute imperfectly.
The key is to start small and build: begin with the business problem, choose one specific task, and be prepared to build an “ugly v1”. Validate, prove and improve quickly. Crawl, walk, run. The end goal may be to scale and automate, but we do not need to start there.
Of particular interest to me was Britney’s observation that data governance remains a huge blind spot for many organisations. She estimated that 95% of the work needed to execute well is “janitorial” — cleaning up, connecting and preparing data before it can be turned into insight and action.
For those who feel they are just starting out, Britney suggested experimenting for 10 minutes a day with a low-risk tool such as Claude or Gemini. Her practical advice was refreshing: learn by doing, keep the scope small, and build confidence through use.
Creators are the architects of internet culture
Caroline Oats from YouTube was next and shared fascinating insights into creators and micro-creators — the evolution from “influencers” to people who build content, culture and community in real time. She described creators as the “architects of internet culture”: both creating and consuming as the world turns.
Caroline made the point that creators bring communities together. People return to follow their favourites, and research points to a strong sense of inclusion and belonging among those audiences. Creators hold positions of trust with their communities, and that trust can extend to the brands they choose to work with.
The challenge for brands is to build trust and relevance with creators first, so that trust and relevance can then be earned with their communities.
A fireside chat with Remo Clarison from PHD brought this further to life in a campaign context, reinforcing the importance of credible partnerships and authentic audience connection.
Building an AI culture takes permission, practice and confidence
Dean Napier took us back to the days of Nokia mobiles and Blink-182 to show just how far technology and culture have moved. In putting AI first at Trade Me, the marketing team also took a meaningful leap into previously uncharted territory.
Dean’s view was that culture is the gap — not technology or awareness. He outlined the practical steps Trade Me’s Marketing Guild took, including hands-on training, applied use cases, check-ins, “AI Power Hours”, dedicated time to practise, and regular celebration of wins.
The culture change was also a confidence shift — a matter of ambition and permission. Dean’s phrase “co-pilot, not autopilot” neatly captured the right mindset: use AI to augment human capability, not replace human judgement.
Some practical tips from Dean:
From customer obsession to customer inspiration
MECCA’s Hannah Fillis then gave us a glimpse into the brand’s always-on, social-first strategy.
It struck me that several themes came up repeatedly during the day, echoed by very different brands and speakers. One was the evolution of customer experience — and even the customer relationship. MECCA’s devotees do not just love the brand; they live in it, own it, curate it and co-create it. Control sits increasingly with the customer and with the sense of belonging created by the community.
For brands, the role is no longer to control the conversation. It is to understand it, enable it and participate credibly. To join in, not take over. The scale is significant: from one-way communication to what Hannah described as “a focus group that never sleeps”.
Technology may lift the floor, but humans need to lift the ceiling
The international keynotes continued with John Mescall, Dentsu Creative’s Global Chief Creative Partner.
John spoke about the role of emotion and innovation in creating iconic campaigns. After a day rich with AI and digital channel discussion, it was refreshing to be reminded of the power of human creativity and emotion in driving action.
As someone who is naturally right-brained but has adapted into a more logical data world, I found myself in a very happy and inspired place. John’s session was a reminder that feelings and emotions have a rightful role in commercial success — and should not be diminished or dismissed.
John challenged marketers to feel the argument viscerally. If we do not feel something, how can we expect to unlock that feeling in our audience? Persuasion starts with emotion. People act on feelings, not logic.
His central provocation was powerful: “Innovation led by emotion = outrageous impact.”
John recounted the genesis of the ‘dumb ways to die’ and ‘fearless girl’ campaigns, and how these were driven by anger – the client was angry, the creatives felt angry.
John delivered so many one-liners – truths and witty wisdoms that will stay with me, summarised from my notes below…
One of John’s most memorable lines was that AI and technology will lift the floor, but we — humans — have to lift the ceiling. We have to ask more of ourselves: create impact, not just output. Set an embarrassingly high ambition. Chase fame, not awards. Create a story. Light a fire.
“AI is exciting technology that feels like it’s being imposed on us”.
“People and AI need couples therapy - we need to define the relationship”
And before you think all this was without a solid footing, John emphasised ‘Extreme Pragmatism’ leads to outrageously great work. Those things that are human, are odd, are interesting. We need to go deeper with this, not wider – local is killing global. And brands need to be open to fan-dom – the idea that the customer is actually the one running the business.
From search to recommendation to agentic commerce
Megan Simons from Mastercard had the unenviable task of following John and did an excellent job of shifting the room into the future of agentic commerce: “Your customer just handed their wallet to an AI”.
Megan took us on a shopping trip through time, showing the evolution from search to AI assistance and broader generative AI solution design — for example, planning a family holiday in Queenstown, complete with flights, accommodation, itinerary, activities and a spa day. Brands are no longer only competing for attention; they are competing for recommendation.
So far, so good: the human remains in the loop and completes the transaction. But take that one step further and agents will work with agents to complete bookings and payments.
We are moving from find-and-compare to buy-and-execute; from inspiration and curation to programmable outcomes. Agent pay will rely on intent, consent and tokenised payment.
For brands, the implications are clear: be found, stand out, be chosen and stay preferred.
To win with AI, brands will need to be findable, trusted and loved.
Reddit, authenticity and the communities AI listens to
Richard Conway and Sophie Neate took us through Reddit “Ask Me Anything” dos and don’ts, providing an eye-opening overview of a platform that is often overlooked and misunderstood by marketers.
One striking statistic: Reddit has 3.8 million users in New Zealand, equivalent to 72.2% of the population.
And large language models love it.
Reddit is one of the top sources for AI answers and one of the most cited domains because it is, at its heart, a collection of communities. It is crowd-sourced advice, not advertising.
Brands that use Reddit well listen first and contribute second. They build trust through conversation and value, with promotion playing a much smaller role. This is a domain where authenticity counts and where brands are quickly found out if they try to manipulate the conversation. Again, the theme came back to human connection: real people, real value and real trust.
There are entities that claim they can manipulate, seed or up-vote content, or provide “comment armies”. But not only is this frowned upon — it can also get you banned.
Boringly effective beats annoyingly efficient
The final session of the day belonged to Andrew Tindall, who made the case for being “boringly effective” rather than “annoyingly efficient”. He challenged the marketing industry’s long-running focus on doing more things, faster.
His memorable line: “Sh*t that arrives at the speed of light is still sh*t.”
Andrew’s analysis showed that over the past 15 years, marketers have been spending 50% more on media while achieving 36% less. In a cluttered multiverse of channels and messages, we are failing to achieve cut-through.
The reason this matters is simple: creativity drives brand growth and business outcomes.
We need to invest enough in media to grow, but particularly in longer-term, high-attention media that can build brands — not only low-attention media focused on short-term conversion.
Andrew introduced the Creativity Stack: distinctiveness, emotion, showmanship and consistency.
Distinctiveness is the collateral that tells customers it is you — your logo, colours, tone and sonic cues. Echoing John from Dentsu, Andrew was emphatic that emotion sells. It “feels like the right choice”, and emotion returns profit.
His argument for showmanship was to entertain for future commercial gain — capturing future demand and creating lasting effects, like making deposits in the bank of customer goodwill.
Consistency is about creative foundations and coherence: a culture of coherence, and a consistent look and feel in execution.
Andrew also shared a 2x2 matrix with media support on one axis and creative dividend on the other. Excessive media without creative capital leads to paid noise, while outstanding creative without reach risks becoming only a cult hit. The real opportunity sits in the top-right quadrant: strong creative and sufficient media, working together for brand growth.
In the Q&A, Andrew was challenged on his advice around long-form media in a world of apparently decreasing attention spans. He was quick to respond that he does not believe attention is disappearing; rather, it is becoming more targeted and more fragmented. His conclusion was clear: if brands — especially challenger brands — want to build brand equity, media planning needs to make room for longer-form, higher-attention environments.
My takeout
What stayed with me most from Digital Day Out was the balance between acceleration and humanity. AI is changing how people search, choose, buy and create. But the brands that will thrive are not simply those that move fastest. They will be the brands that are useful, findable, trusted, emotionally resonant and culturally relevant.
The future of marketing may be increasingly AI-enabled, but it will still be won through human connection.
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