News and Insights
No…This – October 2025
October 21, 2025
Welcome to the latest edition of No…This, our news digest unpacking the need-to-know shifts in communications and marketing.
This month, we dive into why the trade-off between ‘good’ and ‘fast’ creative is officially dead and how the rules of influence have shifted, making authentic relevance more powerful than raw reach. This evolution also changes who we talk to: learn why the algorithm is your most important new audience and how to prepare for the imminent rise of synthetic social feeds. Plus, how in the eye of the storm, sustainability is still the story that sticks.
Ready to dive in?
The Algorithm Is Your New Audience: Are You Speaking Its Language?
What’s New
Audience targeting is no longer enough in a digital landscape shaped by algorithmic gatekeepers. A new wave of AI platforms is helping communicators align messages with both human audiences and the systems that determine what content is seen and shared. FINN Partners’ AIristotle, for example, uses LLMs and audience data to predict which narratives will perform best across platforms. As algorithms increasingly shape public discourse, mastering this dual alignment is essential for both message amplification and combating misinformation.
In The News
- PRWeek, The Next Frontier of PR: Using AI to Decode the Media Algorithm
- Search Engine Land, It’s Not Just SEO Anymore: How Narrative Optimization for AI is Changing Comms
Influence with Intention: The Five New Rules of Creator Marketing
What’s New
With influencer marketing poised to reach nearly $33 billion by 2025, the industry is entering a more mature phase—where authenticity and strategic alignment matter more than scale alone. High returns are still possible, but recent stumbles reveal the reputational and brand risks of partnerships that prioritize reach over relevance. As brands face greater scrutiny from consumers and platforms alike, the shift toward intentional, trust-based engagement—through smaller creators, product seeding, and performance models—signals a broader evolution in how influence is built and sustained in the digital age.
In The News
- Ad Age, Beyond Likes: Why ‘Return on Influence’ Is the Only Metric That Matters Now
- Forbes, The Rise Of The Nano-Influencer: Why Smaller Is Becoming More Powerful In The Creator Economy
Good, Fast, and Smart: Why the Old Creative Triangle Is Broken
What’s New
The traditional trade-off between speed, quality, and cost no longer holds in today’s accelerated media environment. AI, automation, and algorithm-driven expectations have made speed a baseline requirement, not a luxury. Leading agencies are reengineering their models to deliver rapid execution without compromising strategic depth, collapsing the gap between insight and action. In this new landscape, time isn’t just a constraint; it’s a competitive cost, and brands that can move decisively will set the pace.
In The News
- Fast Company, How Gen AI Is Forcing Creatives to Work at the Speed of Culture
- Harvard Business Review, The Case for Marketing Agility: How to Move Faster Without Breaking Things
In the Eye of the Storm, Sustainability is the Story That Sticks
What’s New
In a polarized world, communication is a lifeline for credibility. A recent FINN Partners panel at Climate Week NYC emphasized that organizations are moving past lofty claims to focus on data, case studies, and human-centered stories. The key takeaway: effective sustainability communication must use adaptive language—framing the narrative around resilience, value, and competitiveness—to earn trust and connect purpose to performance.
In The News
- Trellis, Why the business case debate for sustainability is over
- Fast Company, The ‘business case’ for climate action
AI-Only Social Is Here: What Sora’s Invite-Only App Signals for Brands
What’s New
OpenAI’s testing of Sora marks a pivotal shift toward AI-native content ecosystems. Built on the new Sora 2 model, the app blends user-submitted likenesses with synthetic video, pushing social media beyond filters into fully fabricated experiences. With no brand accounts or verification in place, it also exposes new risks around identity, IP, and content authenticity. As generative platforms mature, the industry must prepare for a future where every post could be synthetic—and every brand, remixable.
In The News
- WIRED, The Boundaries of Synthetic Reality Are About to Get a Lot More Blurry
- The Verge, This is the new social network where everyone is an AI influencer
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