What brands are missing about social media and relevance

Executive overview

The advertising industry spends 80% of its energy on TV commercials and AI while social media drives more sales than any other channel. Brands resist accepting this, ceding market share to smaller competitors and overpaying for M&A instead. The core debate — "on brand" vs. "off brand" — is a distraction. Relevance is what actually works.

Brands are built on social, and the industry's refusal to accept this is costing them.

The social media blind spot in advertising

• Industry conversation is 80% TV/commercials, 20% AI — social media barely mentioned
• Social ads drive more purchases daily than any other channel globally
• Outside the ad industry, social media is recognised as the most powerful force in culture
• Brands that ignore this keep losing share to smaller, more agile competitors
• The alternative to building on social is wasting money acquiring brands that already did it

The "on brand" problem

• "On brand" debates happen in boardrooms while the market moves on
• Brand managers change; what feels "on brand" shifts with each person
• Viral content slapped with a brand doesn't sell — if it's not genuinely on brand, consumers smell it
• Bad advertising drives people away from platforms entirely
• Relevance is the real standard, not a subjective brand-fit checklist

Creative humility

• Most successful creative outputs are the ones creators least expected to work
• Lack of humility about what will resonate is a structural problem in marketing
• A good hit ratio is not the same as knowing in advance which pieces will land

Decentralised social and the creator economy

• Decentralised social networks will happen — timeline unknown (could be 1–7+ years)
• Without algorithms, creators will be judged purely on merit
• Free social platforms generate significant income for a long tail of creators — not just top influencers
• The value exchange between platforms, creators, and users is more balanced than critics suggest