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This article first appeared in our sister publication Shop Eat Surf Outdoor<\/em><\/p>\n Earlier this year at the NRF Big Show,\u00a0VaynerMedia\u00a0CEO Gary Vaynerchuk \u2014 a best-selling author, early investor in companies like Facebook<\/strong>, Twitter<\/strong>, Tumblr<\/strong>, Venmo<\/strong>, Snapchat<\/strong> and Uber<\/strong>, and social media star with over 50 million<\/strong> followers across multiple platforms \u2014 stood before the packed room of retail professionals and asked a simple question: \u201cHow many people in this room are aware of what\u00a0Whatnot<\/strong>\u00a0is?\u201d<\/p>\n When asked to stand, barely 3%<\/strong> of the audience rose. The punchline? Whatnot, a live-streaming shopping app, generated between $7 billion and $10 billion<\/strong> in gross merchandise value last year.<\/p>\n This disconnect illustrates Vaynerchuk\u2019s central thesis: huge opportunities exist right now, but many businesses are too slow to see them. <\/strong>Whether it\u2019s the explosion of live shopping or the democratization of viral content, the landscape of attention is shifting rapidly.<\/p>\n Here is how Vaynerchuk suggests brands and creators navigate this new era of digital revolution.<\/p>\n For decades, advertising relied on a Mad Men<\/em>-style model. Executives would sit in a room, debate the subjective quality of a creative asset and then spend millions of dollars to force people to see it.<\/p>\n Vaynerchuk argues that this era is over.<\/p>\n \u201cThe smartest marketers are obsessed with context, volume, relevance at all cost, humility around creative<\/strong>, not leaning on your subjective opinion like you\u2019re Don Draper in 1965, but understanding that we are in a distribution model now where we can create creative at scale and get consumer insights and data affirmation that then allow us to deploy paid media,\u201d he told the audience at NRF.<\/p>\n \u201cFor another framework on this, friends, I think we\u2019ve lived in advertising for 70 to 80<\/strong> years in a model that used working media dollars to hide bad creative,\u201d Vaynerchuk added. \u201cI think we\u2019re now clearly in the era of let\u2019s use working media dollars only to amplify and scale good creative<\/strong>, and good is judged by did it actually achieve views, not four executives in a room saying, \u2018That\u2019s on brand.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n While the U.S. market has been slower to adopt live social shopping compared to China, Vaynerchuk believes it is inevitable. He points to the success of apps like Whatnot and the massive scale of TikTok Shop<\/strong> as proof that the tide is turning.<\/p>\n \u201cI think this is social media all over again,\u201d he said. \u201cA bunch of people in this room and a bunch of people in this industry 10<\/strong> years ago said, \u2018Social\u2019s not for us. We\u2019re a high-end brand. We\u2019re expensive. We have a higher AOV (average order value).\u2019 This is all I heard in 2010, \u201917, \u201913, \u201912. Everything sells on social now, and everybody knows that.\u201d<\/p>\n Every brand now needs to also devise a live shopping strategy as well, Vaynerchuk said.<\/p>\n \u201cLive shopping is not built for (tchotchkes) like Labubus,\u201d he said. \u201cIn China, they sell cars at scale through live shopping. Live shopping\u00a0is\u00a0attention. Consumers see something, and they act on it.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a frictionless environment.<\/strong>\u00a0You\u2019re\u00a0in your feed. It just shows up. You like purses. You buy a purse.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0easier than any other ecommerce.\u201d<\/p>\n He warned that companies need to get on board quickly or risk getting left behind: \u201cAnyone here at a Fortune 5,000 level that isn\u2019t spending an enormous amount of time trying to figure out their live shopping strategy and figuring out their GEO and AEO strategy \u2014 if they\u2019re not doing that, they are setting themselves up for very challenging 2027, 2028 realities,\u201d Vaynerchuk said.<\/p>\n Artificial intelligence is undoubtedly shaking up the creative world, specifically the influencer economy. Vaynerchuk acknowledges that AI-generated influencers will likely take market share from lower-tier human influencers. However, he remains optimistic about the human spirit and its ability to navigate big changes.<\/p>\n \u201cNobody felt bad for the A-list celebrities that the influencers have come along and taken money out of their pockets,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd so I don\u2019t feel bad (about) the people that create AI influencers and bring value to the consumer. And if they start getting brand deals and they come out of the [human] influencers\u2019 [piece of the business], I think this is an evolution. I think this is just what happens. Many inventions through the history of time are demonized up front, electricity being my favorite historical story of how we tried to not accept it. We were big on candles back in the day.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, am I concerned? I\u2019m not concerned in the macro,\u201d he added. \u201cI believe in the human spirit. We\u2019ve navigated atomic bomb invention. I think we\u2019ll navigate the AI invention. <\/strong>But do I think a lot of B, C, D- list influencers\u2026 do I think that they have a vulnerability on losing brand deals to AI influencers? I know they will.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I would also argue, when I look at this crowd, I get so happy knowing that so many people\u2019s parents, children, spouses and [they] themselves will live 10 to 15 years longer because AI in medicine will detect a disease earlier than [before]. There\u2019s so much remarkable joy that\u2019s coming [with AI], I think some business commerce reshaping is frivolous in comparison to the upside.\u201d<\/p>\n A common complaint among new creators is that platforms like YouTube<\/strong> are \u201ctoo mature\u201d and that it\u2019s too late to get started. Vaynerchuk completely rejects this idea. While early adopters who bought \u201cbeachfront property\u201d on YouTube in the early days certainly had an advantage, the algorithms have changed in a way that favors newcomers.<\/p>\n In the past, you had to spend three or four<\/strong> years building a following before anyone saw your content. Today, interest-based algorithms on platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels<\/strong> and YouTube Shorts allow you to go viral on Day One, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cSomebody here can literally make their first TikTok ever and it could be the start of the whole game,\u201d Vaynerchuk said. \u201cThe level of merit and opportunity for the individual human because of where the algos are in social right now and for every business is profound<\/strong>, profound, and I want more people to take advantage of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n![\"RTP](\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/23836458\/interactive-207998848949.png\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\nStop Acting Like Don Draper<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The Live Shopping Revolution is Coming<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The Impact of AI on the Creator Economy<\/strong><\/h2>\n
It Is Easier to Break out Today Than Ever Before<\/strong><\/h2>\n