Our 2026 Predictions: Here's What You Should Bet Money On

Summary

Brain Driven Brands

Episode: “Our 2026 Predictions: Here’s What You Should Bet Money On”

Host: Sarah Levinger
Date: December 23, 2025

---

Episode Overview

In this festive “Ugly Sweater” Christmas episode, Sarah Levinger and her co-host dive deep into their boldest predictions for the e-commerce and direct-to-consumer (D2C) landscape in 2026. Drawing on psychological tactics and hard-won neuromarketing insights from 9-figure brands, they forecast shifts in community building, tech, pricing, creative strategies, and the evolving role of AI, all with actionable commentary for e-commerce operators looking to gain an edge.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. A Positive Outlook for 2026 E-commerce Brands

Timestamp: [02:12]

• Co-host Prediction: 2026 will be a “fantastic year” for D2C and e-commerce brands, especially those that have endured recent turbulence and adapted quickly to changes in tariffs, market uncertainty, and technology.
• Sarah’s Observation: Brands surviving 2025’s challenges are now “poised...waiting for that window to open," ready for explosive growth in a more stable environment.
  • “We took our punches the last couple of years. This year, especially with tariffs and market uncertainty...it has forced everyone to get better.” [02:32]

---

2. Brands Bringing Social Media In-House

Timestamp: [03:38–05:18]

• Sarah’s Prediction: Brands will increasingly host their own social platforms directly on their websites to build engaged communities, boost retention, and gain ownership over their audience.
  • Draws on the example of Redeem, where customers interact via forums, share photos, join sweepstakes, and even get creative with brand tattoos.
  • “My prediction—2026, I think social media is going to move into some interesting spots.” [05:18]

---

3. Deep Community Building: “Hang Out with Your Customers”

Timestamp: [05:25–09:15]

• Co-host’s Rule: Brands excelling at hanging out—not just surveying or analyzing customers, but genuinely connecting—will see outsized returns.
• Actionable Advice: Instead of another day’s ad spend, host an in-person or virtual event.
  • “Take one day’s worth of ad budget for next year and throw an event for your customers.” [08:11]
• Visibility Effect: Event-generated content leads to invaluable organic reach and virality.
  • “So many brands have gone viral because they did like, come meet with us and do yoga in the park type of a thing...Now you got free publicity.” [08:46]

---

4. Brands That Succeed: Focus Over Frenzy

Timestamp: [09:28–11:20]

• Co-host’s Warning: Brands that fail in 2026 will do so not from lack of effort but from lack of focus—drowning in data, chasing too many tactics, and neglecting their core strengths.
  • “They will get too distracted...and will not focus on the one or two or maybe three core tactics that they need to be executing excellently and consistently in order to grow next year.” [09:29]
• AI’s Role: Do not use AI to overwhelm staff with endless suggestions; instead, leverage AI for focus and admin to give humans clarity.

---

5. Dynamic Pricing Goes Mainstream

Timestamp: [11:41–13:10]

• Sarah’s Prediction: Dynamic pricing—adjusting prices in real-time using customer sentiment and other data—will become standard, not a one-off experiment.
• Co-host’s Take: Brands should let their wealthiest buyers spend more, whether by raising prices, bundling, or offering luxe editions.
  • “Give rich customers a chance to give you more money.” [12:14]
• Psychological Angle: Top-tier buyers often want premium pricing for exclusivity.
  • “Those top tier customers...kind of want to pay more prices because...that’s part of a specific group that can afford it.” [12:51]

---

6. Messaging and Copywriting as Unmatched Multipliers

Timestamp: [14:38–16:26]

• Co-host’s Prediction: Weak copy will mean leaving “millions of dollars on the table.” Brands must actively write and test copy, not just automate or set-and-forget.
  • “I’ve changed headlines that have resulted in seven figures in additional revenue over the course of a year.” [14:52]
• Sarah’s Note: AI is fine for rough concepts, but human nuance in copy is a non-negotiable advantage.

---

7. Micro-Movies & The Rise of Video in E-commerce

Timestamp: [16:35–18:00]

• Sarah’s Forecast: E-commerce sites will start using short “micro-movie” trailers and viral video content directly on product pages, mirroring what customers saw in ads or TikToks for seamless storytelling and persuasion.
  • “I think we’re going to start to see the rise of these micro movies...inject mini trailers of the product itself into...product pages.” [16:37]

---

8. AI is a Copilot, Not the Creative Engine

Timestamp: [18:05–19:46]

• Co-host’s Warning: Brands relying solely on AI to create campaign assets will fall behind. AI can draft, but only humans can deliver compelling, converting creative.
  • “If any part of your strategy consists of copying and pasting something from ChatGPT...you are going to lose.” [18:18]
• Sarah’s Caution: The last 20% of creative magic must be human.
  • “That last 20% is the difference between, like, an ad that spends a couple thousand and an ad that you can scale to, like, into the millions.” [19:18]

---

9. The Next Wave: ‘UGC Plus’—Creator Lore and Character Backstories

Timestamp: [19:46–20:35]

• Sarah’s Discovery: User-Generated Content (UGC) is evolving; brands are now giving creators “character sheets” or backstories to deepen authenticity, narrative, and resonance.
  • “They're creating lore for their creators...I was shocked it took us this long for people to recognize that that's important.” [19:48]
• Distinctive Twist: This trend is creator-driven, not just brand-imposed.

---

10. A Hope for 2026: More Industry Transparency and Collaboration

Timestamp: [20:35–21:54]

• Co-host’s Hope: More brand-side marketers directly share their learnings, wins, and failures openly—making the e-commerce community “tighter and more trustworthy.”
  • “Our conversations on Twitter are dominated by like seven of us...the most valuable conversations...are with people in the weeds at a brand sharing what’s working, what’s not.” [20:35]
• Call for Culture Shift: Less sales-centric chatter, more genuine, mutual support.

---

Notable Quotes & Moments

“We took our punches the last couple of years...It has forced everyone to get better.”
[Co-host, 02:32]

“Brands who hang out with their customers are going to do insanely well.”
[Co-host, 05:25]

“Take one day's worth of ad budget...and throw an event for your customers.”
[Co-host, 08:11]

"Give rich customers a chance to give you more money."
[Co-host, 12:14]

"Brands who do not take messaging and copywriting seriously next year are going to leave millions of dollars on the table."
[Co-host, 14:38]

"AI can be super helpful. I use it every day. But it's not the copywriter.”
[Co-host, 18:18]

"I think UGC is going to become...UGC plus."
[Sarah, 19:46]

"Our community is tighter and shares more information and is more trustworthy and is less fighty than we've ever been. That's my hope and hopefully prediction for next year.”
[Co-host, 20:35]

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [02:12] – 2026 optimism for e-commerce brands
• [03:38] – Social media moves onto brand sites
• [05:25] – Community: Hanging out, not just selling
• [08:11] – Tactical tip: Skip a day’s ad budget for events
• [09:28] – The focus/frenzy divide
• [11:41] – Dynamic pricing and consumer psychology
• [14:38] – The irreplaceable power of copy
• [16:35] – “Micro-movie” trailers on e-commerce sites
• [18:05] – Why AI can’t be your sole creative
• [19:46] – UGC Plus: The rise of lore-driven creators
• [20:35] – Industry hope: Transparency & helping each other

---

Memorable Moments in the Original Tone

• Sarah and her co-host poking fun at AIs failing content tests, capturing the playful, self-deprecating spirit.
• Holiday banter about ugly sweaters (“...a shirt of a polar bear wearing a Christmas sweater...that’s the one?” [01:14])
• An off-topic detour about ribeye steak that reveals their relatable dynamic
• Genuine hope for more honest, transparent sharing in the e-com community (“Can we split test that for one year...Split test not being an arrogant brick on ecom Twitter...” [21:31])

---

Summary Takeaways

• 2026 will reward e-commerce brands that get close to customers, build real communities, and double down on true psychological understanding.
• Dynamic pricing, next-level UGC, and owned social ecosystems will separate the leaders from the laggards.
• AI will augment, but not replace, creative and strategy—brands betting everything on automation will lose ground.
• A hopeful call is made for a more collaborative, authentic industry culture.

For operators:

Stick to your focus, invest in your community, demand world-class creative, and don’t forget—the future belongs to those who build with both data and heart.

---

Summary by Brain Driven Brands Podcast Summarizer. For more insights, check out @sarahlevinger and the Brain Driven Brands feed.

Transcript

[A]

Okay, I'm ready.

[B]

Welcome back to Drain. Brain Drain.

[A]

Brain Drain. Welcome back to the Brain Drain.

[B]

Welcome back to Brain Driven Brands. We are laughing because we just found another AI tool that promised the world and then couldn't deliver anywhere near the quality of work that it promised. Go figure. And if that's not the theme for 2025, then I don't know.

[A]

Poor AI. They're trying so hard, those AIs. Yeah. I tested a lot of AI throughout my entire business this year, and the one place that I can't get it to consistently work is content, which.

[B]

Yeah. It doesn't have an attention span.

[A]

No.

[B]

Well, it doesn't know how to capture yours.

[A]

Like, it's not very interesting.

[B]

No, it's not.

[A]

You know, it's trying its best. It's living its best life on its own. Over the corner. It's fine. In other news, we are at Ugly Sweaters today because it is Christmas episode and I forced you to do this because we did it last year, which was your idea, by the way.

[B]

Yeah. Guys, quick, in the comments, whose do you like better?

[A]

Mine is way better.

[B]

Sarah was giving me because this, like, isn't a sweater, but it's a shirt of a polar bear wearing a Christmas sweater.

[A]

So I think it's like, I just was like, okay, out of all the sweaters you could have chosen, that's the one. Anyways, I love our ugly sweaters. It is the holiday season. Yeah. Happy. What is it? Merry Christmas. Happy Christmas.

[B]

We are a Happy Christmas podcast.

[A]

I think we are. Happy Christmas, Happy Holidays, whatever you celebrate. We're just excited that you're here with us. So thank you for listening to us. Yap. Again today though, I do have a very interesting topic. I cannot wait to hear your take on this because I'm just like. I have heard a lot of rumblings in D2C about what people think is going to happen. Typically it's attached to some sort of brand, which I kind of find funny that we're always like, well, I. I think. I think motion's gonna do this. I think Vermont's got to do this. I think, like triple's got to do this. Nobody really knows. I want to hear your high level 2026 prediction, though. What's going to happen in D2C? Something that you'd be willing to freaking put money on.

[B]

Yeah. Got one that I think surprise you off.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

I think 2026 is going to be a fantastic year for a lot of the ecom brands we know.

[A]

Oh, that's the opposite. Take of what I thought you were.

[B]

Gonna say no, I think why? And maybe this is like a little bit survivorship bias based on like who my inner circle of ecom peers are.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

But everyone just seems dialed in on the right things. We took our punches the last couple of years. This year, especially with tariffs and market uncertainty and all that, like, I think it has forced everyone to get better and a lot of the brands kind of in my circle are like one had good years this year and I think our poised to like put up crazy growth numbers because we now know how to work like in the current climate.

[A]

So true. 2025 was that year where it was like we were back on trading wheels where it was like we're trying to figure out how to ride this bike. And the brands that figured it out quick. Yeah, I think they're just poised over here like waiting for that window to open. Especially in 2026 because that's. Thank God. Tariffs are sort of evening leveling out. We kind of understand how to use AI in some capacity. Yeah, there's a lot that changed this year.

[B]

But I think if you did decent this year, you are poised for a fantastic 26.

[A]

Okay. I love this. Do you want to hear one of my predictions that probably won't happen, but it'd be interesting to think about.

[B]

Yeah. Is it the opposite? You think everyone's going to crumble?

[A]

No, this is much more specific. So I personally believe that brands are going to start hosting their own social media on their websites.

[B]

Whoa, that's super interesting.

[A]

It's already happening. That's how I know it's going to happen in 2026. I have chatted with a female founder friend of mine, lovely person, Reagan over at Redeem. She is lovely. And they are building basically an ecosystem that houses social media on your specific site for your brand. Your category, like very, very focused on generating community on your website, which I would like. As soon as I heard it, I was like, oh, I love this. It's retention builder. But it goes way beyond that. As soon as she showed me, I was like blown away by this. And this is not an ad for them. I'm not sponsored.

[B]

I was gonna say I haven't gotten a check for this. You're sneaking an ad, right?

[A]

I just love these people. I hope to God that they would love to partners with us because I love what they're doing. So they have a like a pop up basically, right. That will come up on the left hand side of the site that people can submit photos of their experience of the Products. They can chat about, like, problems that they're having. They can. They have like, forum, like, it's big forum in there that they can just like, talk about all the different things that they're. They're struggling with or things that they really like, those type of stuff. And they also have, like. What would you call it, like, giveaways? Sweepstakes.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

For just. We're running this cool thing right now. Show us your pictures. Or like, they have people who. They said, get a tattoo of our brand.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And we will get you something. So people were just taking permanent marker, like drawing the logo on their hands. I'm like, the engagement level on this. So anyways, my prediction, 2026. I think social media is going to move into some interesting spots.

[B]

So this ties in nicely to my number six.

[A]

Okay. Number six. All right.

[B]

I. I phrased it as brands who hang out with their customers are going to do insanely well. And I think both of these things are around the idea of, like, building real community and making more meaningful connections. Because we know, like, really hard to do that on an Instagram feed these days.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So I think whether it's on your. Your, Your. Your site or the Facebook group or it's IRL events, like, you need to get closer to your customers than you've ever been if you want to crush next year.

[A]

I love that you use the term hang out and not to. Or. Yeah. Or study more, because that has a very specific connotation. I like this idea of, like, just go hang out with them and, like, sit next to them and be like, what are you doing today? Which again, I feel like I try to do this with anybody that comes to the door. I'm like, how's your life? What's. What are you doing right now?

[B]

Well, and, and let me get tactical on this, because I think people, like, freak out when I say, like, run events.

[A]

Let's pause for just a minute. Quick breather. While your brain digests whatever tangent we were just on. We need to talk about something that BFCM made painfully obvious this year, and that's the fact that Andromeda isn't just a cute little algorithm. Tweak. If two ads feel exactly the same, and I'm talking, like, same Persona, same pacing, same emotional arc. Meta's just gonna toss them into the same bucket and let them fight to the death. That means that creative diversity isn't just a nice to have anymore. It's kind of the entire game. And this is exactly why I've been leaning so hard on Motion to help me make good creative decisions this year. A few of the brands that I run creative strategy for ran their entire Black Friday account through Motion's AI tagging system this year. And what came out was kind of brutal. Ads we thought were distinct got grouped together. Angles that we swore were entirely different were basically identical. In Meta's eyes tagging system picked up on those blind spots that most teams would have never caught in the kind of chaos. Things like recycled Personas, fatigue loops, 2018 hooks that were just dressed up as new ideas. Motion caught all of it. The Analyze this report agent became our eyes and ears this year. And it took all the chaos of Black Friday. Tens of thousands of spend, 40 plus AD variations. 5 Competing hypothesis. It took all of that and distilled it down into a clean. Do more of this. Stop doing that report heading into 2026. This is going to be the new creative reality. I'm talking depth, variety, distinctiveness. All of those things need to be inside your ad account. And Motion helps keep up with all of that instead of like just steamrolling you with it. If you want to see how Meta is actually reading you're creative, then go try the AI tagging feature or run the Analyze this report task in your own Motion account. It's a two minute test that will either confirm your instincts or expose them. So go start your 14 day free trial at motion app. Com. That's motionapp.com and now back to the show. Like, they have to be big.

[B]

Yeah. Take the average amount of money you will spend on ads next year. What's the daily amount? Is it 8 grand? Is it 3 grand? Is it 27 grand? Take one day's worth of ad budget for next year and throw an event for your customers.

[A]

That would be so interesting because even.

[B]

For a couple days you can do something and you will see how meaningful it is to actually connect with them and hang out with them and not only get their feedback by asking like.

[A]

Market research questions, it's good reciprocity, but it's also just good visibility. I can't tell you how many brands.

[B]

Don'T create content of the whole thing.

[A]

Yeah, I'm like, so many brands have gone viral because they did like come meet with us and do yoga in the park type of a thing. That wasn't even to sell any of their products. It was just like we just want people to come on down. And then somebody had a, everybody in that arena had a phone and they all like went and took shots of it, made content of it and now you got free publicity. Like it doesn't. It's not going to cost you nearly as much as you think it is. And it's going to bring back tenfold what you think it will.

[B]

So, all right, so so far we think next year is going to be overall good and we think especially good for brands who are building community. My third one is about the brands who are going to struggle next year.

[A]

Oh, okay.

[B]

I think the brands who will struggle next year won't be struggling from like a lack of effort or lack of output. They will struggle from a lack of focus. They will get too distracted, they will get spread too thin. They will not focus on the one or two or maybe three core tactics that they need to be executing excellently and consistently in order to grow next year.

[A]

I feel this in my freaky soul because I get on the call with, I mean, founders, D2C, people, operators, media buyers, whoever it is, everybody's saying the same thing, which is, I don't know what to do. I don't know where to look to know what to do. I'm drowning in data. I'm just, I don't even know how to like come up for air anymore because there's just so much in here. Yeah. Everybody's running through the same exact thing. If you can't focus or if you can't get a system around something, you're. You're gonna drown. You're gonna absolutely drown. Yeah. And AI is making that leverage incredibly easy. Like, I hate to break it to people, what AI is actually good at is going and doing all of the admin tasks.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

That you should really do anymore. You don't need to have somebody like go do research. AI can do that for you. You don't really need somebody to go distill all this down for you. You can have AI do that for you. You gotta be careful with how you set up your parameters. But that's what I think we should be using AI for is focus.

[B]

Yeah. Well, and like, I've seen people ask AI, like, hey, like here's what we're seeing in the business, like, how should we grow next year? And Chat will spit out 17 pages of what you should do. And it's like, wait, hold on. Did you tell Chat that you have a three person marketing team made up of humans who have a life and need to sleep and eat and don't think about work for much more than 45 hours a week, and when you ask them to do too much, they won't do anything. Well, if you didn't tell chat that.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Then you can't take the plan it gave you and run it as is.

[A]

Yep, yep, yep. Oh, this will be a really interesting one. I have a follow up to this that's not necessarily content focused or systems focused, but this is something that you might actually align with pretty well because you work with Intellijobs. Shout out to Intelligence. They're amazing. I'm not sponsored.

[B]

But also not sponsored. They do sponsor tactical and practical. I don't know if you've heard that podcast, but it's pretty good.

[A]

I think dynamic pricing is going to become more of a thing in 2026.

[B]

Oh, do tell.

[A]

Dynamic pricing. And I think this is because I've seen a couple of brands that were testing it this year to try and figure out how. How their customers responded when they changed prices depending on the month or the quarter, depending on like sentiment that was coming out in their post purchase surveys. I see a lot of brands that are starting to like adopt this more as a system instead of as just like a let's test it once or twice a year type of thing. Like I think dynamic pricing, man.

[B]

Yeah, I think, yeah, I think you're 100% right. And like something I've been super hot on is like, listen, the only people really who have money to spend right now are their top 10% of earners. Give rich customers a chance to give you more money. Yeah, that's it. And that can either be just testing your current prices higher, that can be through bundling, that can be through developing nicer versions of your existing product line, but like they're this year and next year and forever will be a top percentage of Americans who have money to blow. Yeah, give them a chance. Like.

[A]

Yeah, absolutely.

[B]

Give them the chance to do it.

[A]

Yes. And those top tier customers, I'm not going to lie, actually kind of want to pay more prices because yeah, they do. Part of a specific group that can afford it.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

And that's why you have kind of part of their personality is like, I want it to be high quality and I want it to be something that not everybody else can get. Now that's not for every product, every customer. But a lot of those segments are pretty sensitive to that.

[B]

Do you know what I just got delivered? Uber eats for lunch? I got a dry aged ribeye, rare with shrimp.

[A]

Oh my God.

[B]

Like some truffle mashed potato things from like the nicest steakhouse in town. And if they thought they were too good to be on Ubereats, like I would have gone Up Taco Bell, you know, but they were here, so they got a chunk of their customers to spend way too much money on lunch on Thursday.

[A]

I mean, if you're in that segment, you're in that segment. But plus, and also, if you work hard, right? And like, you. You put in the work, you put in the hours, like, sometimes I really think it's important that everybody treat themselves, even if it's a dry aged. What did you say?

[B]

You don't even know what it is.

[A]

Dry something dry. Dry Age something, something. I've never asked you this before. This is a tangent, and we're going off track. What kind of steak do you eat? Are you, like, a New York strip kind of a guy?

[B]

No, I'm a ribeye guy. I just only ever. Ribeye a minute ago.

[A]

Yeah, I know you said ribeye, but. Okay, so I've never seen you say anything other than ribeye, so I was like, maybe he eats other.

[B]

Yeah, pretty much exclusively rib eyes. Dry aged. When it's available. Unless a tomahawk is available, which is just a giant ribeye. So kind of all one in the same.

[A]

We're gonna have to do a full episode on why Nate only gets ribeye.

[B]

Okay, great.

[A]

There's some psychology down in there. Okay. All right. All right. So mine was pricing. What are we up to, like, five?

[B]

Sure.

[A]

I can't even tell.

[B]

All right. Brands who do not take messaging and copywriting seriously next year are going to leave millions of dollars on the table.

[A]

Yeah, I would agree with this one.

[B]

Like, I can't stress to you guys, and I hope you believe me, because I'm not trying to sell anyone copywriting services. In fact, I turned down three copywriting projects this week. But, like, I've changed headlines that have resulted in seven figures in additional revenue over the course of a year.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And, like, to be honest, I don't even think I'm that great at it. So you guys need to be writing and testing copy every single week for every single product that you are trying to advertise, because you are going to find winners. That'll teach you something about who your customers are and what they value. And you're going to be able to use that to scale way more than you ever thought possible.

[A]

Copy has always been big. We just forgot about it for a little bit. We thought AI could do it for us.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Which, you know, it's fine. You got to test this stuff when it comes up, because who knows what's going to happen? But at the same time, I think we finally Figured it out that AI could create concepts pretty well. It cannot do copy very well. So yeah, this is also going to become more and more important for the people who either have that skill set to continue building it. And if you don't have that skill set, figure out how to get that skillset pretty fast.

[B]

If you guys need a shortcut, the last episode that we did or maybe two episodes ago was we took an ad from Chiso's Boots.

[A]

That's right.

[B]

And we ran it through some prompts that Sarah has that is so good at spitting out concepts. Not finished copy, but concepts that then you can use to craft ads. And like those prompts make it super easy.

[A]

Oh, go. Yes. Go listen to 16 prompts to rule them all. Because that's like one of my favorite episodes we've ever done. Yeah, that one's freaking amazing. Okay, I have two more.

[B]

Great. I've got one more. So.

[A]

Okay, I think we're going to start to see the rise of these micro movies and this is something I've been talking about for the last couple of weeks, where they're going to start becoming so prevalent that we're going to see them on product pages where we're going to start to see people inject mini trailers of the product itself into the ecosystems that people just came off of. So if you see it on TikTok, it will be on the landing page that you currently went on to. I've seen people do this with statics where they'll run a static in the ad account and then just inject it into the product photo like role on their landing pages. Okay. Yes. Okay, you do it. I love this because I, I haven't seen anybody do it with like tick tocks.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Or video yet. So I'm like, I think this might start to become a thing also because I don't know why you wouldn't try.

[B]

Yeah, no. And like I think the PDP content grid is like the most under optimized piece of everyone's site right now. And yeah, go test new images, videos. The only trouble with videos, it's hard to do without slowing down the site. It's like, figure that out. But yeah, I think it is like some of the most valuable real estate on your site. And most of us are just like, here's what the product looks like from the side. And it's like, yeah, you're not doing anything to persuade someone to click the buy button and that's what those grids should be doing. Yeah, love that, love that.

[A]

Okay, do you want to go first. Do you want me to get my second one?

[B]

Yeah, I'll do my last one here and then you can.

[A]

Okay. I was gonna say, do you have, like, a good one we can end on? Because my next one is not great. It's literally just something funny that I think.

[B]

All right, I'll think of a good one while you're giving your next one. Here's my decent one that I was gonna end on.

[A]

I'm ready.

[B]

Brands, we kind of touched on this, actually. But brands who rely too heavily on AI to craft marketing campaigns are gonna get left in the dust. Like, if you think or if any part of your strategy consists of copying and pasting something from ChatGPT to a creative brief or to an ad or to an email, you are going to lose. Yeah, there is, like, whatever you want to call it, an extra 5%, an extra 20% of work that needs to get done from what chat tells you is a good ad headline, one that actually speaks to humans, is good at grabbing their attention and hits them in the field enough to persuade them to buy whatever you're trying to sell them. So AI can be super helpful. I use it every day. But it's not the copywriter. It is not the thing that's going to craft all your campaigns for you. It needs a human touch still.

[A]

Yeah, it can get you basically all the way up to, like, the line. It can't get you all the way across is the problem. So, yeah, I think this is going to become very interesting to see how people are going to continue to use this, especially for copy and content. Because in my experience, exactly what you're saying here, that last 20% is the difference between, like, an ad that spends a couple thousand and an ad that you can scale to, like, into the millions. So, okay, I have something that kind of goes along with this. This is not a very good ending, though.

[B]

So I've had the best ending.

[A]

Okay, here's my last one. I think UGC is going to become. What would you call, like, UGC plus kind of a thing. I personally am starting to see brands do this already. They're creating lore for their creators, so they have a backstory written for the creator before they actually give them the brief, where it's like, you're this type of person. Here's the history behind you, here's the reason why you hate everything, like, that's going on in your life. Here's how your personality might react to conflict, to positive progress, to, like, other characters around you. They're giving people Basically like character sheets. And I was shocked it took us this long for people to recognize that that's important. So I. Yeah, I think UGC is going to start to evolve a little bit. Mostly because the creators are asking for it, not the brands. Which I thought really interesting.

[B]

Love it. All right, my last prediction for 26 and I'll be honest, it's a prediction, but it's also a hope of mine. I hope 2026 is finally the year that more brand side marketers and individual contributors speak up. Our conversations on Twitter are dominated by like seven of us and half of those people are trying to shill you. Agency services speak up. The most valuable conversations I have every single day are with people in the weeds at a brand sharing what's working, what's not. So prediction a year from now is our community is tighter and shares more information and is more trustworthy and is less fighty than we've ever been. That's my hope and hopefully prediction for next year.

[A]

Oh my gosh, that'd be awesome.

[B]

We try that.

[A]

It would be lovely.

[B]

Guys, can we split test that for one year? For one year.

[A]

Split test it.

[B]

Split test. Not being an arrogant brick on ecom Twitter and actually just trying to help people instead of trying to sell your Love it. Thanks for listening to Brain Driven Brands. We're going to run this episode back a year from now and judge us on how we did.

[A]

Okay, I'm here for it.

[B]

Let's do it.

[A]

Thank you so much for joining us on the show today. Appreciate you guys listening. If you want to follow me, I'm arahlevinger. Anywhere you consume content, he is aytelegos. If you like this show and if you like this episode, go ahead and like subscribe. Share with a friend. Drop us a review when you have a minute. We would appreciate it. Otherwise, have a great week. We'll see you next time.