Marketing Happy Hour - Social Media Algorithm Updates and AI-Driven Creative | Digital Summit Philadelphia 2025

Episode Date: October 9, 2025

Ally takes the host seat to debrief with Cassie on her recent trip to Digital Summit in Philadelphia. Digital Summit is where digital marketing leaders connect, learn and obtain resources to inspire and enable a growth mindset. We discuss Cassie’s learnings from various sessions and workshops across AI, innovation, digital marketing and culture. Key Takeaways:// Create for discovery. Not your followers. Assume every viewer of your content doesn’t know your brand.// Algorithms are rewarding relevance. Have a trend playbook to tap into ones that align with your brand.// Stop tracking vanity metrics and start tracking depth signals. Track completion rate, saves, shares, and comments with depth insights over emojis.// Use AI as a tool to scale various processes. AI tools are only as smart as the information we feed it with. Find a Digital Summit event near you. Use code ‘MHH20’ for 20% off!____Say hi! DM me on Instagram and let us know what content you want to hear on the show - I can't wait to hear from you! Please also consider rating the show and leaving a review, as that helps us tremendously as we move forward in this Marketing Happy Hour journey and create more content for all of you. ⁠Join our FREE Open Jobs group on LinkedIn: ⁠Join now⁠Get the latest from MHH, straight to your inbox: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join our email list!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow MHH on Social: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

I think that the way that we create content needs to be human. The way that we're engaging with audiences still needs to be human because people do still crave connection, even though a lot of the engagements and interactions we have with people nowadays is very technologically focused. People still want that human touch. They want personalization. Welcome to Marketing Happy Hour. I'm Cassie, consultant, podcaster, and your host.

Every Thursday, you'll hear episodes packed with insights from brand leaders on an array of topics from crafting effective marketing strategies and hitting career goals to building leadership skills and launching your own business inspired by those unfiltered happy hour combos with peers this show is all about practical empowering chats to support your professional journey so grab your favorite drink and let's get to the episode hey everyone welcome back to marketing happy hour we are switching things up for today's episode so It's Allie. I'm actually going to be the lead host today, which I'm super excited about, as we dive into Cassie's recent experience attending Digital Summit, Philadelphia, and also

moderating two sessions. Before we jump in, Cass, what's in your glass lately? Oh, my goodness. Lots of coffee. We talked about on the last episode that I've been loving espresso, but I needed a little extra boost this afternoon. So I have a lot of this today. So I'm going to be wired for the rest of the day. but yeah feeling good lots of water in my glass it's still warm here in florida so got to stay hydrated yeah the same i've got for those keeping score at home i've got my 40 ounce stanley on the desk i had a spin drift earlier um keeping it keeping it water only um lately because it has been brutal here um you'd think that in early october it would be not 90 degrees but here we are

uh yes typical florida life um but Before we jump in, let me just set the scene again, I think, for everyone with a quick overview on Digital Summit. So it's really a traveling summit where digital marketing leaders are coming to connect. They're coming to learn and get resources, really, to help inspire and enable that growth mindset in their careers. And you and I had the opportunity to attend Digital Summit in Tampa this year, which we loved, particularly the really intimate style of the event. We met so many old friends, new friends. It was an awesome opportunity for both of us to attend on behalf of Marketing Happy Hour. And we did do a debrief episode as well with our dear friend Rob back in late May.

So for anyone listening, highly recommend you go back and check that out. We chatted about content strategy planning and really ways to simplify that. So just a little plug for that episode. It was really good. But today we're chatting about your experience at Digital Summit in Philadelphia. And it was your first time in Philly. I'm curious what you thought. Yeah, it was great.

You know, it's funny. I lived in New York City for a while, and Philly's like an hour and 30-minute drive, and I just never made it over there. But it was a very historic town, of course. I got to see all the main things that you see when you go to Philadelphia. But it was almost like a mini New York. Like it felt quieter and a little bit quainter, but it still had kind of the vibe. Like, I took a few photos, and I'm like, this looks like New York.

It does not look like a different city. So that was cool, but I love seeing new places. And so when this popped up on my radar, I was like, of course I want to go. I want to see Philadelphia. I want to kind of experience the local things. And then also just love Digital Summit. So got to learn as well. Yeah, that's awesome.

Philly is really cool. I agree. I think the architecture of a lot of the buildings there because the city itself is so old is really endearing and very different than a lot of cities. I think particularly that we see here more in the south, I think that sort of northeast area, just being from there, like the history there is really beautiful. So I'm so glad you enjoyed. Diving, diving right in. I'm curious. What kind of themes, trends really stood out to you across the sessions that you attended? Yeah. So the thing with Digital Summit, it's very digital online focused, very technology focused. And so even in March, we talked a lot

about AI, which is obviously a topic across all marketing conferences and just events that you go to nowadays, but the thing that was interesting about this conference in particular is I feel like the discourse on AI is shifting a little bit. Yes, it's an important tool. Yes, we should all be adopting it and using it or we're going to unfortunately get left behind. However, I think the approach is a little bit different now. So essentially, yes, we want to use it to expand our brain and to capitalize on the knowledge that we have, but we really want to be careful with how we are using it to replace content and replace the way that we are producing in a marketing sense. And so there was a lot of discussion on what creativity looks like nowadays and how we should

still be using our imagination and how we should still be tapping into the information we have inside of us versus using a computer to produce this information. And so that was fascinating. We also talked a lot about with that what consumers are picking up on and what they're looking for out of a brand experience. And so it was cool to see that discourse shift a little bit. I think a lot of marketers have been very fearful quite honestly about what our roles look like and are we even going to need to be creative anymore. And the consensus is absolutely yes, but, you know, continuing to go down that route and not get almost too lazy or too caught up in this tool as a way to kind of replace the work that we're doing.

but to enhance what we're already creating and what knowledge we have inside. So it was a good reminder, talked a lot on that, talked a lot on, again, audience behavior, what audiences are looking for nowadays, how they're consuming content, how we should be describing audience demographics and like creating our personas and things like that. So it was really, really good. And again, we've, both of us have been to a lot of conferences this year. And it was great to just see as we near the end of 2020. five, what some of those trends are looking like going into a new year here.

So sure. I have a couple questions, and I'm sure we'll get into it from a double-click perspective, particularly on AI. But I think you said something really interesting just in terms of not wanting to get complacent with it and like using it to help enhance versus having it be a hindrance or a barrier for us. So I really, really like that. I have a quote here from David Schengi. Imagination is the future, not data.

So I'm curious how you're interpreting that in the context of today's AI landscape. Yeah, so he was the keynote speaker for the conference. So he really kicked us off. He's a designer, both digitally for brands and just branding perspective, but just kind of a traditional designer as well, lives in Mexico on a farm, like just on the earth and that's it. And so he is very creative, very just. his own brain and still looking at the world in a very holistic kind of natural way. But he

really emphasized, again, you know, imagination in the human brain is still incredibly important. And he showed us some of these campaigns and ads that have been developed by AI and how kind of, yes, creative they look, but not, not, there's not much depth to them. talking about some of the things that we're still able to develop from a human brain mindset and how those two can come together. So again, I think the emphasis is on we need to still be developing our skill set. We need to still be being creative ourselves and like getting in a boardroom with just a piece of paper and no phones and coming up with ideas and sharing those ideas with team members, but then taking those ideas and yes, using AI to enhance them, right?

So I think for him, you know, AI works off of data. It works off of the input that it has. And it's only as smart as the content you put into it. And so, again, using our brains to feed that and to enhance what we're doing versus replace it is going to be important because, again, audience members are really sniffing out this, this AI-driven content. It doesn't, it feels forced sometimes. It doesn't have a lot of depth to it, like I said.

And so how can you still create something that is unique? unique and different and creative and not sacrifice that originality. And so it was a really. Yeah, I love that. Because I do think so often at different brands, you get kind of caught up in the day to day. You forget to kind of have those, almost those kickoff meetings, those brainstorm meetings where it's like literally you and the key stakeholders in a room with a whiteboard. And in that time together is so important to feed off of different ideas. and again, to this point of imagination and imaginative ideas, like, that's where the innovation

comes out. And then using AI to kind of plus that up, whether it be from a process perspective, et cetera. So that's great to hear. One thing to add on that, he shared this really interesting strategy, which he was talking, he was talking so fast. So I was like trying to write it down as sharing it. But he shared this concept called brain cycling. So essentially, you go into a room, there's one problem written on the board. And you, everyone has a piece. of paper in front of them and the idea is that you write one paragraph of information to solve that problem and then you move seats read your team members uh illustration or description and then add on it and so at the end of this exercise where you go all the way around the room and finish out your

piece of paper everyone reads the concepts out and then you vote on which idea is kind of the best or the greatest solution to the problem. And it's a very, like, objective, organic way of solving issues. So I thought that was really fascinating. I'd be really curious people listening how they would want to utilize that strategy. But again, he's very much, you know, let's get back to pen on paper. Let's get back to just use the brain and things like that. So it was interesting. I wanted to share that. How cool. I have never heard of anything like that, really. I've heard of Sort of that, you know, the type of prompts, but never that you would then go around the room and feed into the other different prompts there. That is fascinating. Wow. I wonder. I know. I wonder how that could be applied, like, in terms of different brand strategies, but I love it. I love the idea of like getting back in a room and feeding off of each other's creativity. And it also removes a little bit of bias, right? Like, because the ideas as you're going around, you're just taking it in real time and adding on to. them. Really cool. And you're not, you're not reacting quickly to someone's audience. It's a bad idea.

Like you have, you're not talking. Like, you're just allowing self to kind of decompress, write it out, and then read the next thing without kind of doing a quick, you know, that's a bad idea. Here's why this wouldn't work. So it allows you to kind of digest that without putting too much personal emphasis on your own concepts and getting, uh, yeah. Yeah, I don't know. It's interesting. So another standout talk that you had mentioned, was about social strategy, particularly in the age of evolving algorithms, which we know are changing rapidly and can affect social strategy across the board. So what did you learn about how algorithms are changing? Oh, gosh. So Meredith Howard of Deloitte spoke all on this.

And again, another talk that really changed the way that I think I'm going to be looking at social strategy and just helping clients out with this. So she was talking specifically on Instagram and sharing how social scrolling is now this kind of hybrid experience. It is the follower feed plus AI driven recommendations plus search integration. So it's this, it's this kind of combination of experiences now where traditionally you would go on the platform and see mostly just the follower content or the people that you're following mixed in with some additional content here and there. But it is no longer about creating. content just for your followers now because there is so much opportunity to be found by new people,

which is a pro. However, it kind of takes away some of that fostering community with your direct followers experience in a way, which I see as a con. However, I think you have a lot of opportunity now to bring more people into the funnel if you were developing content in the right way. And so she essentially said that nowadays you have to assume that every viewer of your content does not know your brand. They're a first time viewer. They've never seen anything that you've created. So you shouldn't ever really assume that people know what you're talking about. Just frankly, right? And so this makes the hook the way that you're describing the content at the beginning of a video or a piece of content ever more important because you either capture

someone's attention quickly who's never heard of you or you don't and they'll keep scrolling and so it kind of feels simple in a way like the solution to this however it is going to change the way that people are fostering those those relationships with their current followers the other thing that she mentioned is leaning into culture and trends algorithms are rewarding those like high signal content pieces and so yes do not force it do not force trends into your content but but have a plan of how you're going to apply trends because that stuff is being rewarded as well in follower feed. She kind of used the Taylor Swift engagement as an example where I don't even follow Taylor Swift,

but I had Taylor Swift all over my page and here's why and just sharing how brands capitalized it and how that kind of worked. And she said that the reason that she got all that content is because she's not a Taylor Swift fan, but she's a pop culture fan. And her algorithm knows that. And so that's why a lot of this content. showed up, but also brands were very intentionally tapping into that trend or that cultural moment. And then as always, I mean, we talk about this all the time in marketing, but we as

brands need to be tracking depth signals, not vanity metrics. Depth signals are completion rates for videos, how long are people watching, saves, shares, comments with in-depth just notions to them versus emojis or just a quick little response. And we should be deprioritizing likes and followers. Again, because that is a low signal touch point, but it doesn't really mean much. Again, that kind of audience engagement doesn't mean a whole lot anymore. And the other thing, too, is we need to be spending time in the comments section and replying to comments and seeking out posts related to your interest groups and talking there with your community and people with similar interests. And so, again, we talked about AI a little

bit too is just repurposing long form content how can you use AI not to replace creativity but to identify hashtags and keywords in different topics that your interest group would be looking for so it was very helpful and again I think just reminding brands that assume people have no clue who you are and how should you be creating content to speak to new audience I do think that's interesting particularly when you think about like what is the one piece of creative or one one liner that you would want a non-follower to see because they're going to see it if they're even remotely interested in a related brand towards you. And my brain is kind of churning, thinking about, you know, some of the brands that I'm working with right now in what is the one message that we would

want them to to know about us or what is the one value prop we would want them to know about us amongst a very crowded competitive space, right? And I think that's a challenge. Like that is a real challenge particularly for when I think about brands like brand messaging overall but also social because it's got to be like really like clicky and it also has like the piece of creative has to be really strong so that is that is super interesting it needs to be engaging in health yeah period like it has to be value nowadays or else people will not care like just posting something and saying look how great our food menu item is like no one cares about that why what does it matter and how can you kind of share that narrative in that way. And so that's really important. It's going to get us

as brands to think differently. Yeah, definitely, definitely. So Meredith also talked about this notion around interest clusters. Can you explain that to me how it can help someone really build a stronger contract strategy? I think we've talked a lot about this sort of niche groups and how that's really the new mainstream and how you get into these, you know, micro communities. So I'm curious to hear this. I think again, this came up in a number of different talks, but audience personas are essentially an old idea in marketing now, which is so fascinating to me. When did not know this was the thing? I don't know.

But essentially, this is actually a really good illustration. David actually shared this. He put up a list of demographic notes on the board and was like, what does this person look like? These notes described both King Charles as well as Ozzie. Osborne. And so even though there were like literally the same age where they live, where they're from, et cetera, it's two completely different people. Like King Charles and Osborne do not have the same interest. Do not look at products and things in the same way, of course. And so he was explaining

and Meredith back this up that we need to stop looking at things so black and white in that way. And now it's more about interests more than ever. So I may look very. differently than you, Allie, but we could have the same interest. And so we are both the target demo for a specific product. But we may not have the same descriptor points if you were to just kind of paint it out plainly. Right. So fascinating. Like it makes a ton of sense. But again, in our traditional like marketing mindsets, we don't think about things in this way. We're taught like, oh, you write down the age and gender occupation and like all of this. Yes. And so what she was saying is instead of building those traditional target demos right down two to three areas

that you want to be known for target interests in that way and group content by recurring themes so for example it could be for a food brand like healthy recipes for moms or it could be myth busters on theme parks or whatever and so thinking about like based on what you are providing what does your audience want to see what are they interested in and how can you create content around those interests that that is fascinating and just giving me like some pause because i'm just thinking about again current sort of ad campaigns and things like that that i'm that i'm privy to and thinking about taking it from 55 to 64 and like actual double click in the interests of those 55 to 64 year olds looking at the content right are our

platforms or partners equipped to provide that information from an interest level, right? They may have not caught up yet because I'm thinking about this in real time, right? I think there's still a lot of opportunity to kind of catch up in that mindset because this is so new-ish, right, like within really the last year, I think, on the niche side. So that's, that is fascinating. But I like thinking about it in clusters. Like that was, I feel like that descriptor and particularly visualizing it. in that way is really helpful.

Yeah. Absolutely. So you got to hear the NatGeo team talk, which is amazing. They are such talented people and they have such a legacy brand that we love. They talked about moving from reverence to relevance. What does that evolution look like for a legacy brand like Nat Geo? Yeah, I mean, we all know about Nat Geo. Like it is like you said, it's such an iconic brand.

We kind of just get it as soon as we hear the brand name. But there's a lot of this, you know, push to how do we stay relevant, even though we have been around for a long time. We, you know, create a certain type of content. So how do we make it fresh and exciting for the audience? They also have 36 different social media channels across all of their brands. Wow. So they kind of talked about the culture as well and how are they staying on top of things in creative. and so because again they have they have not geo history they have not geo travel they have all

of these different sub brands as well and so the creativity expands in different ways depending on what channel that they're posting on but i think the biggest takeaway from this conversation is how can you align with your values and align with that foundational culture while also staying fresh and different and they talked a lot about their uh parent company, the Walt Disney company, which obviously Walt Disney has a number of different other brands at its fingertips. And so they talked a lot about the importance of collaboration. So depending on what they're promoting or pushing, if it's a new documentary or a new streaming series, et cetera, how can they tap into talent within the Walt Disney company, but also the different

brands as well? So they showed examples of where, you know, the cast of Thunderbolts, marble studios talked about animal facts and they showed a video example of that and then they talked about using the Disney parks channels as well to talk about something else and kind of weaving in film and television on the Walt Disney side to then talk about some of these different conservation efforts and other things there and so their biggest thing was just really getting creative with the way that you're working with partners and then the other thing too is influencer marketing also. So they do have agency partners that they're working with, but they are looking for people who already know and love the Nat Geo brand first and foremost. And it's funny,

like one of the team members said that a lot of their influencers are team designated. Yes, they're using the agent, but it's their team who's kind of in that same culture that the brand would be in and following those people who would be interested in not geo, and they're finding people just based off of their daily scrolling. And so I think it's just a reminder to marketers as well, to be in the platform, to be kind of keeping tabs on what's going on, do that social listening, which is a very traditional tactic, but it helps and see who's talking about you organically, how are they talking about you, what questions are they asking, et cetera.

and the last thing that they discussed in that that matter too is don't be afraid to ask your audience like what what do you want to see from us what do you want to learn about and so they did this i think in a i want to say in an instagram channel they posed this question and came up with really interesting and unique content ideas off of that and it is their top performing content they've ever posted and so i think again just a reminder that as you are evolving and growing and getting older as a brand, not being afraid to invite your audience into those conversations too. So I think who not geo is is still the same today as it was when it was first established, but the way that they're engaging audience members and creating content is just a little bit different

in modern. So it was a good reminder. Yeah, that's incredible. I noticed a lot of overlap in terms of our conversation with Alana from a past, a friend and also a past marketing happy hour guest in terms of understanding. the influencer community so deeply that they're actually on your own feed and you're the one sourcing them as part of that team. You know, Alana at Disney, particularly on the social strategy side for style. And I think there's some nice crossover there in terms of the way that they're approaching influencer marketing in general and across these giant legacy brands and organizations. That's amazing to hear. So as we near the end of our conversation, if you

had to sum up one major shift that you noticed across all the sessions, what's really changing most in marketing right now? What should we know? Yeah, I think this is going to sound pretty direct and like a duh moment, but I just think the importance of humanization. Like, we have so much technology at our fingertips now, but I think that the way that we create content needs to be human. The way that we're engaging with audiences still needs to be human because people do still crave connection, even though a lot of the engagements and interactions we have with people nowadays is very technologically focused. People still want that human touch. They want personalization. They want connection. And so how can you infuse that in what you're developing no matter what

while also using these technology tools to enhance all of that? But I think that humanization is, in my opinion, and I will stand on this hill until my last day, humanization is going to stand the test of time. I do not think it will go away because people will kind of almost snap back to that desire, even if technology does get to a place where it is just too big and grand and it's obvious and it's everywhere. People will still want to connect with people. That is an innate root desire. And so how can you still prioritize that as a brand in the way that you are offering customer service and engaging in DMs and engaging in comments, like make it feel very personal, I think.

And so that's a big thing that stood out here. And I think just standing out in all the conferences and things and conversations that we've been having lately. And I, yeah, I think it's very important. It is. It is. I think we continue to hear the sort of same trends and thoughts about marketing in the later half of this year. And as we end 2025, I'm so curious to know kind of how these are going to shift

in 2026 and how we can kind of plus up on that and continue to share these insights with the audience. But so grateful to you for sharing and debriefing with me so that I could hear about your time as well and us as the audience and excited to hear more as we dive into more conferences and next year. And yeah, looking forward to it. Thanks for interviewing me, Ali. And definitely we'll have all the digital summit details below. I believe they have Dallas left this year. And then next year there's a bunch of dates, including Tampa, which I'm sure you and I will end up. We will be there. In March or wherever it is. Yes. Thanks, Cass. I appreciate it as always. Thank you so much for tuning in to this week's episode. If you enjoyed this conversation,

I would love your feedback. And if you're ready to take things to the next level, sign up for my weekly news in the show notes. You'll get weekly career and marketing insights straight to your inbox. And if you have an idea for a future marketing happy hour episode, shoot me an email. Hello at marketing happyhachr.com. Thank you again and I'll see you next Thursday.