The #1 Way to Win at Marketing in 2026

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The #1 Way to Win at Marketing in 2026

The GaryVee Audio Experience
Host: Gary Vaynerchuk
Guest/Interviewer: David
Date: May 8, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this energizing and information-dense episode, Gary Vaynerchuk explores the future of marketing, focusing on the transformative role of AI and the urgent importance of organic social media. Gary explains how traditional marketing mindsets are outdated and now, more than ever, brands must embrace volume, specificity, and technological advances to remain competitive. He provides pragmatic advice and passionate encouragement for marketers and business owners seeking to “win” in 2026 and beyond.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. AI Is an Opportunity, Not a Threat

• Theme: Marketers should not fear AI but wield it proactively.

  • "Do not be scared of AI. Do not put your head in the sand about AI. In fact, if you want to be successful...is you taking the sword of AI and using it for you." (00:00, 16:34)

• Gary's stance: While stigma exists, AI is becoming essential in marketing, from streamlining processes to generating creative insights.

2. What’s Broken in Marketing: Subjectivity & Outdated Reporting

• Many businesses are hampered by two key problems:
  1. Subjective Decision-Making: Leaders’ personal biases often dictate creative choices.
  2. Bad Reporting: Legacy metrics (impressions, "brand health") and overreliance on math do not capture true marketing impact.
  • "Our audacity, lack of humility, political know how, insecurities are making us think that we know how to do creative right." (02:14)
  • "Measuring brand is like measuring love and measuring God. It's hard, right?" (03:03)

3. Organic Social Media as the #1 Growth Opportunity

• The “starting point of marketing is social media. Organic.”

  • Companies underinvest in strategy, money, and humility for organic social.
  • Social media is where relevance is proven—the creative that works there teaches you what to double down on with paid support.
  • "Most people have organic social media as an afterthought...Most people get wrong not taking advantage that we finally live in an era where you can measure creative." (04:06)

• Tactical advice:

  • Treat each platform (7-10 of them) as a testing ground and insight generator.
  • Use the performance of organic posts to guide further media investment.
  • "If it gets views, it was good, and if it doesn't, it was not good. All the AI algorithms are written on relevance." (04:50)

4. Abandoning Demographic Stereotypes for Hyper-Specific Relevance

• The old model of targeting "18-35 year old females" is obsolete.

  • "As if an 18 year old and a 35 year old have anything in fucking common.... Instead of this whole...I'm thinking about 613, 139, 64 different subgroups..." (07:17)
  • Example: Building VeeFriends involves considering multiple niche groups, backgrounds, and interests—it’s "relevance with as many different people as possible."

• Algorithmic Opportunity:

  • Now, creative finds the audience, not the other way around.
  • "For the first time ever in the history of marketing, the creative creates the reach and finds the audience in social." (09:02)

5. AI in Creative Workflow

• Current uses: note-taking, process optimization, consumer insights, deck-making, idea rendering.

  • "We're everything, all the foreplay, not the main event yet. Like we don't have a three minute video that's all AI yet, but that's where this is all going." (12:28)

• Large brands should be cautious with overt AI usage (public perception), but the stigma will fade—just as it did for online dating.

  • "There is stigma on the creative right now that will go away. Technology is undefeated." (11:43)

6. Day Trading Attention: Platform Agnosticism

• Gary operates with complete agnosticism about platforms—he follows underpriced attention, not what’s trendy.
  • "I could care less about social media. I care about where consumer attention is that is more underpriced than the alternative." (15:00)
  • Surprise picks (as of 2026): "Threads" and “Classic Facebook.”
  • "Supply and demand of attention. Day trading attention is what I realize I do for a living." (14:04)

7. AI and Brand Authenticity

• Authenticity cannot be faked and is critical to leveraging cultural trends effectively.
  • "Authenticity is imperative to winning in culture." (19:59)

8. Volume: The Overlooked Secret to Marketing Success

• The big brands (and top personal brands) are winning by producing a staggering amount of content.
  • "I think you should be posting 40 to 100 pieces of creative a day organic brand...I just don’t think people understand the sheer volume that is needed to compete for relevance and awareness." (21:43)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On outdated marketing mindsets:
  • “Measuring brand is like measuring love and measuring God. It's hard, right?” (03:03)
• On the shift from demographic targeting:
  • “An 18-year-old and a 35-year-old have anything in fucking common?... Instead of this whole 18 to 35 year old females, I’m thinking about 613, 139, 64 different subgroups…” (07:17)
• On AI's inevitability:
  • “Technology is undefeated.” (11:43)
• On where to focus your energy:
  • “You will succeed...A lack of fear of technology. Do not be scared of AI. Do not put your head in the sand about AI.” (16:34)
• On day trading attention:
  • “I am agnostic...If you know me, I don’t care about social media...I care about where consumer attention is that is more underpriced than the alternative.” (15:00)
• Humorous future-gazing:
  • “I have a prediction. Many of you are going to have grandchildren that marry an AI robot.” (19:09)

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Important Timestamps

• 00:00 — Introduction and core message: "Do not be scared of AI."
• 02:14 — What’s broken in marketing: subjectivity and reporting.
• 04:06 — Why organic social is currently the top opportunity.
• 07:17 — Moving beyond basic demos to micro-targeting.
• 09:02 — How creative now finds its own audience.
• 11:43 — The stigma and utility of AI in creative processes.
• 13:12 - 14:04 — Day trading attention explained; surprising social platforms to watch.
• 15:00 — Platform agnosticism and the importance of following underpriced attention.
• 16:34 — Do not fear technological change; adaptability is humanity’s superpower.
• 18:29 — Using AI to scale labor (and the limits today).
• 19:59 — Authenticity in cultural marketing.
• 21:43 — The importance of volume in content creation.

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Final Takeaways

• Embrace AI as a multiplier, not a replacement—learn it, use it, master it.
• Start with organic social: test, measure, and focus on relevance.
• Ditch broad demos: hyper-segment your audiences for true resonance.
• Be authentic: don’t fake cultural participation.
• Produce at scale: you’re competing with brands shipping 40-100+ pieces of content/day.
• Follow underpriced attention: platform agnosticism is key, don’t get romantic about mediums.

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Gary’s advice could be distilled to this:
“Be fearless about AI, embrace organic social, be specific and voluminous in your relevance, and ruthlessly chase where attention is underpriced. The future belongs to the adaptive and prolific.”

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Transcript

[A]

Do not be scared of AI. Do not put your head in the sand about AI. In fact, if you want to be successful and enjoy it the next 5, 10 years is you taking the sword of AI and using it for you.

[B]

My quick intro on Gary is I'm thrilled to do this. I've been waiting years to do this because I think all the questions that we all have and have been a little scared to ask are that things that work before marketing aren't working anymore. Please help us. And so these are the questions we are going to. We are going to be able to ask. As everybody knows, he is one of the big instructors in Masterclass Executive, which I'll talk about more afterwards. But if you think what I want you to pay attention to is not how entertaining he is, because he's going to be entertaining, but it's the density of information you're going to be learning. Odds are to learn something from him every minute or every two minutes. And if you like that, you're gonna love what's his Masterclass Executive. So Gary, honored to have you here.

[A]

Always good to be with you. David. Thank you so much. Hi everyone by the way, everyone, such a pleasure. Keep the chat going. Cause it gives me feedback on where I want to go with this. So good to see you, David.

[B]

Awesome to you. Okay, Gary, most people on this call either are in marketing or run a business that has a market doing function or team what is. And we're all seeing the same thing acts are up at tribution is really hard or organic. If somebody feels it's amazing. Other times feels it's dead. And you got to put it in a couple of sentences. What is, what is what is broken and what is it? The most. The most get wrong.

[A]

Most of us have two things that are hurting us. One is our subjective opinions and two is bad reporting that justifies marketing but not how marketing's actually impacting our business.

[B]

Okay, expand on both those please. Sure.

[A]

Our audacity, lack of humility, political know how insecurities are making us think that we know how to do creative right. We think our ideas are better. We like our video, we like our picture. And we lived in a marketing world where you couldn't measure creative for a long time. And so the opinions in the boardroom or of the boss or of us was we like this video. This is good. And like I'm gonna run media against and sell stuff. Then on the reporting side we have impressions. Brand health awareness metrics. These classic Madison Avenue metrics that were built before the Internet existed that we still trade on. And then on the extreme other side of reporting, we're too math out, right? David, we talk about this, you and I, and this is where I think I'm really good. I respect the shit out of math. I like a good cac in LTV and Roazes anyone, but I know that there is emotion and lifetime value. Right? For example, let's just make this really obvious to everyone here. Even when you and I have talked about doing things, I'm like, hey brother, there's more value in me doing stuff with my nil and my brand than just what the math shows. Which is why the math is gonna show out well. Because there's equity. Cause I've given value and that's not tangible. Measuring brand is like measuring love and measuring God. It's hard, right? And so first, let's make sure Kalina's echo is all set. Everybody good with audio? Yeah, I think most people are good. Dory's good. Let's just make sure. I want to make sure Kalina's good. So anyway, I won't get too distracted, but okay, I think we're good. So what? The biggest opportunity in marketing right now is organic social media, right? It just is. And most people don't commit the amount of money required for it, the amount of strategy required for it, nor the humility to let it do its thing. And what I mean by let it do its thing is when you post organically on social, if it gets views, it was good, and if it doesn't, it was not good. All the AI algorithms are written on relevance. Relevance is what leads to consideration. Consideration is what leads to purchase. And everybody's marketing should start now in the mid funnel organic social. And if it does well, the video, the picture, the long video, the short video, the $5 post, the $50,000 post. If it does well, then media, if it does well, then debate what you want to do with it for more brand. And so the starting point of marketing is social media. Organic. Most people have organic social media as an afterthought and normally as a supporter or if they do social, it's always with paid and their random ideas up front. Most people get wrong not taking advantage that we finally live in an era where you can measure creative and we can measure creative as a byproduct of doing what we should all be doing, which is committed very seriously to to the seven to 10 social media platforms, organic channels as a opportunity to get consumer insights, build relevance, produce volume of creatives so we can win on relevance with different people, you know, in your mba. Like why not just me? Why Mark Cuban? Why other people? Ray Dalio? Because different people resonate with different people. There are people that will sign up because of me, that would never sign up because of Ray Dalio and vice versa. And gender, race, inclusion all matter because you're trying to win on relevance with as many different people as possible when you're a business. Real quick, I want everyone in the webinar to answer this. Who here would like everybody to buy what they're selling? Let me just answer me. Okay, so David, everyone was taught in marketing school to pick one campaign and go after one group of people.

[B]

And one demo. Yeah. And one.

[A]

Because that's how expensive television was when the world was television first. Now we are social first. There are $8 creative posts you can make because you took a photo and you wrote something and it worked. That can change your business. But you have to be in a volume mindset, you have to be in a platform mindset. You have to really know your social media. Cause it's the starting point. I would never run television ads, billboards, run performance without going to organic social creative first. But most people don't commit the amount of money or the strategy for that.

[B]

Got it. Okay. And then so Gary, that's like fascinating on the second part of what you're saying of the, you know, not targeting one consumer. I learned in marketing class. Right. Which is in part why we built this, is that you pick the one consumer. I look at how big of a market there and how much A1 has been. How now do you, do you think about it? Do you actually not even think about it anymore?

[A]

I think about it very heavily. Right. I just wrote in the chat 18 to 35 year old males. As if an 18 year old and a 35 year old have anything in fucking common. I mean this is how marketing was taught. So you know, the thank you for the LOL's everyone. So how do I think about it when I. When Vayner gets a new client, when I work on an investment or one of my companies, like veefriends, like with this for example, Veefriends, my Pokemon marvel that I'm building. Right. With this one. Right. Thank you. With this one I'm thinking about moms with children, dads with children, black moms, black dads, Hispanic, Asian, white, income levels, interests, who's into surfing, who likes Disney to begin with, who likes Pokemon to begin with, who doesn't like them at all, who love Jim Henson, who inspired Me and and love Sesame Street. Then I'm thinking about 15 and 17 year olds, what are they into? They care about streamer. You know, I may care about Big Bird and snuffaluffagus and it hits my emotional heart. And now I want to buy vee friends for my kids because that hit my heart. A 16 year old never heard of snuffalupagus but they know who Rakai or Kaisenet is. So I need to know streaming, I need to social. So basically instead of this whole 18 to 35 year old females, I'm thinking about 613, 139, 64 different subgroups, 29 to 32 year old Asian women in the Pacific Northwest that are into yoga. And now if I want to sell them cereal or coffee or vee friends or a sweater, I'm trying to make a picture or a video that would be relevant to her.

[B]

And then you're allowing the algorithm on organic and then on paid to basically find them.

[A]

Then when you post for the first time ever in the history of marketing, the creative creates the reach and finds the audience in social. So if I post something again about veefriends, I like that JT understands what I'm doing here. I'm bringing awareness right now to veefriends, to this small group of people. Three people might be collectors and they may now go down. I just did it. I organically did it. But this is only a webinar and I can't track it. If I posted a video on social, I can see 80,000 people decided to consume it cause it was relevant and then I could decide to run media against it against the same demo that I was targeting with the creative. And so if I'm targeting Hispanic male skateboarder enthusiasts between 30 and 35 and I make a reference about Nickelodeon cause that was their era versus Saturday morning cartoons, which is my era. So it's all relevance. It's culture. Right? When it hits, I'm like okay, got it. Now I can run a million dollars or a dollar or $10,000 or $1,000 on the demo that is most responding to it. It's most reaching. So you're running the media only after the fact. And you're running media on good creative, not defined by my audacity of what I thought was good, but by the results. Because you can't get results anymore in social. We don't even live in social media anymore, David. We live in interest media. I have fucking 60 million followers that I've worked my ass off for 20 years for and a joker. Miguel here can literally have no accounts, post one video and get more views than me. If Miguel did a good job today and I did a bad job today, that is a level of merit and opportunity that should have everyone intoxicated.

[B]

Miguel wants to be clear that he is not a joker.

[A]

And I want to be clear with Miguel. I'm a Jersey boy from the 80s. When we razz, it means we love. I love you, Miguel, with all my heart.

[B]

Awesome. Okay, so then when you're putting out things on organic, it's not about just everything gets 10 million views, you're looking if it's 80,000, you're like, okay, but that with the audience I want to. Now I can go, yeah.

[A]

And by the way, 80,000 if I normally get 600 is like 7 trillion.

[B]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

You know, it depends on what your base is. If someone here is selling like Concrete B2B, their videos normally get 40 views. So if they get 8,000, it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. You know, you got to be on your baseline. Right.

[B]

What are your thoughts, Gary, on using. Using AI to help on those creative.

[A]

It's inevitable. It's an inevitable outcome. I know there's stigma around it right now. There's educated needed and I know the consumer doesn't. You know, the bigger the company is, the less we recommend using it right now because the world is so worried about AI taking their job, they're taking it out on companies that use it. But this is just like online dating, David. There was stigma on online dating in 2003 and 4. Now it's the norm. There is stigma on the creative right now that will go away. Technology is undefeated.

[B]

What have you and your team found it's most useful for?

[A]

Well, I mean, this is my open claw, so it's most useful for my entire life. Like I'm in harness land, computer land. Like I'm off to the races.

[B]

I have a home Mac Mini that runs.

[A]

All right. I'm off to the races. I think organizationally, you know, we have a lot of clients data. I've got to be a little bit different. Like, you know, process, note taking, information, consumer insights, deck making, rendering ideas, you know, like, you know, we're everything, all the foreplay, not the main event yet. Like we don't have a three minute video. That's all AI yet, but that's where this is all going.

[B]

Can we talk a bit about day trading on the attention side? Sure. You coined that term. I believe it's true. You want to explain what that means and where you think the opportunities are

[A]

now on an everyday basis. Like for example, right now, me and my team are obsessed with two platforms. This is gonna blow everyone's mind. If this blew your mind, just say blew my mind. The two platforms that I'm most excited about for my social media content is. Threads and Facebook Blue. David.

[B]

My mind is blown. My mind's blood. I don't even know what Facebook Blue.

[A]

I'm sorry. It's my terminology for classic Facebook.

[B]

Oh, okay.

[A]

You know that one.

[B]

Okay. Oh, God. Got it.

[A]

Okay, sorry, sorry. Threads and Facebook.

[B]

Classic Facebook.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

Okay. Because people aren't posting on there.

[A]

Supply and demand of attention. Day trading attention is what I realized I do for a living. I don't know if I have. Do I have a day trade? Can you find me a day trading attention out there? It's my last book. It's what I learned I actually do for the last 25 years. I am not romantic about anything, David. I will run television commercials and. And direct mail and newspaper ads and radio right now if they were priced appropriately. If Wall street journal was $18 a full page, this is what this is, everyone. If the Wall street journal was $18 for a full page, I'd be yelling at you for doing masterclass $18 buys all day long. I'm agnostic. In fact, watch this everyone. If you know me, I don't care about social media. Social media just happens to be what Google, AdWords and email marketing were for me in the early 2000s. Today, that's all I could give a shit on the record. So this is never confusing to anyone. I could care less about social media. I care about where consumer attention is that is more underpriced than the alternative. For me to get my message out. Whether I'm selling V brands or day trading attention or empathy with wines or my masterclass class. I am agnostic.

[B]

Yeah. Okay, we got a little bit time left. I want to make sure everybody adds in all their questions. I'm going to go over to questions in, in. In one minute. Gary, talk a little bit about. What is the thing that AI can't replace it in brands. I'm thinking like, is it flattening brands? Because I mean, one of. One of the risks have it deflagit. Another argument is it expands the creativity and personalization it can offer.

[A]

Look, I think there's a lot of people that crusade on like, it'll never replace our creativity. It'll never replace our soul, It'll never replace our heart. Meanwhile, our harnessed Our heart, soul, brain. The answer is, I don't know, brother. I mean, in the short term, it's not at scale enough. Like, people literally told me when I launched this company, Wine Library. This is my family business magazine back in 1996. They said, people told me, literally when I pitched winelibrary.com buy wine on the Internet, people were like, why would I do that? I'll go to the store. You know, you were all, all of you are youngsters in this chat.

[B]

I'm gonna assume I watch your first things on YouTube.

[A]

Yeah, like, people were like, but that was 2006. That was 10 years after I launched winelibrary.com 10. You know, and people like, they don't get it. Like, AI is just started. It's gonna be able to replace a whole lot. Like, I'm not gonna sit here and go on some soapbox and be like, I don't know. What I know right now is no one needs to overtly worry about that to the level they think. Because the number one thing I know, David, more than anything in the world is that the human being is uncomfortably adaptable. It is why we're the great animal of society. Our adaptability is amazing. I am a workaholic because I love it more than life. If AI destroys all my businesses and society has to subsidize the world because the seven big companies made all the money, I will enjoy my two day work week and I will have unbelievable leisure five days a week like some. But I apologize, I'm staying on this. I need everyone to leave this call with one thing. A lack of fear of technology. Do not be scared of AI. Do not put your head in the sand about AI in fact, if you want to be successful and enjoy it, the next five, ten years is you taking the sword of AI and using it for you. Maybe later the sword will get crazy and kill you, but for now, you will kill many others. Kill, you know, it's an aggressive word, but like, you will succeed.

[B]

Okay, I want to jump into questions because everybody has awesome questions. One from Michael. I have a physical trade skill that over 15,000 shops need. The bottleneck issue he's having is not on the market side. It's his hands. Because he's made. He's making this up with his hands. How? How can I use AI to scale something that still requires my hands?

[A]

You can't on that action unless you're a genius and can build an AI robot to do it for you. Right now, you can use AI to make you more Efficient with managing your time. Right. It can answer emails for you. It can schedule your meetings for you. Like, there's a lot of on the fringes that that person could use AI and if he gets an extra hour to use his hands, well, then he's won. But AI, you know, AI is not doing physical labor just yet. But it will. In fact, I have a prediction. Many of you are going to have grandchildren that marry an AI robot.

[B]

Whoa.

[A]

And they will do physical things.

[B]

This is not covered in Gary's class on Masterclass, but maybe, you know, maybe that would. People would.

[A]

I know, I know. Gabby, listen. I mean, like, we. This is profound technology. We already know it. Some of you don't even realize this. Like you have an auntie or a sister that's already in love with her AI chatbot.

[B]

Oh. I mean, the amount I know that have names for their chat bot. Okay, I want to make sure.

[A]

Go ahead.

[B]

From Dory. What is the best way to pull things from culture into marketing while not feeling like it's artificial? Like I'm trying to make a reference that.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, just being like authenticity is kind of like being cool, right? If someone asks you, how do I be cool? The answer is cool. You know, like, it's this real fucked up framework. You know, the reason I do well and others do well and other brands do well, and many brands that work with VaynerMedia do well is we just say don't fake it. Meaning if you're referencing something in culture, a slang term, music, something that's happening, if you're about that life, you're about that life and you should talk about it. But if you're not, you can reference it, but acknowledge that you don't live that culture. Like back in the 90s, everyone had to be hard and people made up that they lived in the hood to seem like they were hard. Faking it will never work, but you can leverage culture and reference it even if you're not a part of it by acknowledging you're not a part of it. Authenticity is imperative to winning in culture.

[B]

What I didn't make so sense. What? There's one question from monsieur. What is one thing that the new gen generation of companies are doing and you're seeing they're doing an amazing job of this, but that people are sleeping on.

[A]

One more time, my friend. I want to make sure. I was just also addressing Jen's comment.

[B]

The companies are doing that you think most other companies are actually sleeping on and actually not seeing. Like, is there like. Yeah. Or maybe no, no, I just wanted that you. That you think other people don't. Yeah, they should.

[A]

I think that every. I think it's volume of content within social organic. It's the biggest opportunity.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Like for masterclass your business. Right. I think you should be posting 40 to 100 pieces of creative a day organic brand. You know, like, and honestly I'm low balling that because I don't want to scare everyone. Like, I just, you know, I think that everyone here has an incredible opportunity to be far more relevant and create much more opportunity from their brand by being present in the platform that everyone on earth is on. And so I think, I don't think people here understand that the brands that are winning ruins gummies. Right. Like, you know, you're talking about extraordinary amounts of content, you know, poppy, the personal brands that are popping off the streamers. You know, I just don't think people understand the sheer volume that is needed to compete for relevance and awareness.

[B]

Last. My last question. Why do you decide yeah Story accept their invitation to master class executive?

[A]

You know, you and I have had a warm relation. I've always admired what you're building and I think you took a space that was spammy when I was growing up in the Internet information and cleaned it up, which I always admired. And then it was just, you know, I'm very intuitive. I go with my heart and my gut. I felt like I had something to contribute. I felt the people that you were bringing into this was elevated and you know, I appreciated the association and I felt like I could really bring tangible value in the class itself. And it was really humbling when your production team was like really like. I could tell they were like blown away by it.

[B]

They were blown away. We should already know. We have filmed 300, 300 folks who are the best in the world. Most of the time. It takes days and days to get it. Gary was amazing that you could like talk about the idea and then just like it was. He would just go and it was amazing. And we did have notes and we kept going. I got texts from our team because I was traveling then. They're like, holy shit. That he might be in the top three people out of the 300.

[A]

I think it's because. And this is something that I hope brings value to everyone. I think it's important to talk about things, you know? You know, and I think to be a true master, like you have to really know your craft. I think the reason I built a 2000 plus global agency from scratch, one of the biggest in the world is because I'm actually a practitioner of marketing. When I talk about marketing, I do it, you know, like, just to show you even, like, how scary deep this goes. This is my WhatsApp with my team, Gary, with my team on it. Like, I literally wrote the copy this morning for my Instagram post. That's me writing the copy copy. You know, I'm so deeply in it. I don't have the audacity to sit in front of all these lovely people that are with you right now and talk from an ivory tower. I need to be in the trenches and actually do it.

[B]

Yes. So, all right, let's please, please put in the chat all your appreciation and love and huge thank you to you, Gary, for doing this. Taking these the time to do it really means a lot, and that was really wise.

[A]

Thank you. Thanks, Ashley. Thanks.

[B]

Also entertaining.

[A]

Thank you. Bye, John. Bye, everyone. Real pleasure.

[B]

Everybody else, please stay on. If you want to learn more about MasterPass Executive, we'll answer your questions. Thank you. That guy's awesome. Okay. I am here to answer any of your questions of Masterclass Examination Executive. That is a snapshot of what.