Holiday shoppers started early, AI bots are comparing products, and Cyber Monday leaves marketers with barely five traditional sales weeks. Fear not, fellow marketers! Matthew and Chris focus on the practical fixes brands should make now, from machine-readable product data and creator content to exclusive bundles that avoid a race to the bottom.

We also prune the walled garden of Target’s incrementality metric, conversational AI media buying, and OpenAI’s push to make ChatGPT advertising a permanent part of agency media plans. Alas, the focus shifted to agentic commerce and the growing need to market to bots as well as humans.

How about trying geo holdout test? This little puppy can reveal whether retail media is actually driving sales more reliably than platform dashboards. The episode also identifies the fastest holiday move for a small team: create distinctive bundles or exclusive assortments that can’t be compared line for line with competitors.

Come chill with us, grab your Holiday wish lists and enter the 37th Chamber in these podcast streets of Shaolin.

📖 Grab the new Book “How To Succeed In Marketing, Advertising and Artificial Intelligence Without Really Lying” on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3OJDXzU

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Marketing, Machines & Mischief is produced by Chris Stone at https://CastAhead.net

On this “Kathy Bates Approved” episode of Marketing, Machines & Mischief, Matthew and Chris invite you to the private club of the verification economy, where proof of humanity may matter more than raw digital reach. They discuss private communities, AI slop, deepfake crisis planning, and why brands are trading public feeds for gated Discord servers, DMs, and invite-only spaces. They also unpack Omaha Steaks’ 46% conversion jump after pairing creator content with direct mail, before asking what authenticity is worth when brands can no longer trust clicks, bots, or automated engagement.

📖 Grab the new Book “How To Succeed In Marketing, Advertising and Artificial Intelligence Without Really Lying” on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3OJDXzU

🔗 **Join The Marketing, Machines & Mischief Community**

✅ Official: https://MarketingMachinesMischief.com

✅ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarketingMachinesMischief

✅ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewnewell/

✅ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarketingMachinesMischief

✅ instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marketingmachinesmischief

Marketing, Machines & Mischief is produced by Chris Stone at https://CastAhead.net

Matthew & Chris things off with Taco Bell and Duolingo making people learn a language before earning food rewards. Then they get into the backlash around fossil-fuel advertising, AI-generated green imagery, and whether marketers can really separate technology from the systems powering it.

The main event is the rise of AI agents, which could drive $100 billion in online sales. Matthew and Chris explore what happens when search stops serving up ten blue links and starts handing people one definitive answer. That means marketers need accurate information and strong reputations, but they can’t abandon storytelling. As Matthew Newell says, “No one falls in love with pristine numbers.”

📖 Grab the new Book “How To Succeed In Marketing, Advertising and Artificial Intelligence Without Really Lying” on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3OJDXzU

🔗 **Join The Marketing, Machines & Mischief Community**

✅ Official: https://MarketingMachinesMischief.com

✅ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarketingMachinesMischief

✅ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewnewell/

✅ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MarketingMachinesMischief

✅ instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marketingmachinesmischief

Marketing, Machines & Mischief is produced by Chris Stone at https://CastAhead.net