The Greatest Shift in Marketing: From Traditional Ads to Authentic Influencer Connections

Tyson Mutrux 00:00:01 Get ready because he is your host, Tyson Matrix.

Tyson Mutrux 00:00:08 Don't. Stay on your couch.

Tyson Mutrux 00:00:14 Welcome back to another episode of the Guild live show. I've got a I've got a really awesome thing that I'm going to show today. it was only a matter of time before this feature came out, from perplexity. So we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about a little bit about Mr. Beast, which. Oh, it's some interesting numbers coming out of Mr. Beast. And we're not going to get into, I think, super specifics with this article, but it's, it's it's not what you think over with, Mr. Beast, but I mean, Mr. Beast is amazing. So this isn't going to be throwing any shade on him. But it's really interesting when it comes to the finances. we're going to talk a little bit about I found this nice little infographic on customer journeys I thought was kind of interesting. we're going to talk about the creator economy a little bit, and then, influencer marketing versus traditional marketing.

Tyson Mutrux 00:01:09 So that's, that's a little bit of a teaser for the show. It's going to be definitely going to be an interesting one. So let's get into our first topic, which is the AI email assistant. And that's from perplexity. It's I did actually sign up for it. I have it. I've started to come play around with it. I got an email last night after I set it up, so there's some things I've got to do, but it's, It's pretty cool. So this is the the article here. perplexity launches AI email assistant that can manage your outlook or Gmail inbox for you, but it will cost $200 a month. I'm already I'm already on that plan. The pro plan, or whatever they call it. So it's to me, it's okay. It's just an added feature because, I do think perplexity is pretty awesome. So I spend the extra money. Perplexity a $200 subscription, is getting a new feature that lets it manage your inbox by drafting replies to threads, scheduling meetings, and labeling emails using a new AI email assistant.

Tyson Mutrux 00:02:16 What's really interesting about this is we already built an AI agent to do this. When it comes to the drafting replies, scheduling meetings is something I don't know if you will remember years ago, we're talking at the beginning of the podcast. I was using an assistant and I don't remember the name of it. Actually, it was an AI assistant that helped schedule meetings, and that was really cool. That was back I mean, 2016 ish right around there. It was pretty cool. But it was it had bugs. It had definitely had some bugs. I'm very curious to see how this one does. I'm guessing it's going to do a lot better than than that one. What was funny about that back then is the is that, you would have people with the same AI assistant and they'd be going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. That was kind of an interesting thing. but then it's also funny because we, we created an agent to label email emails as well. So that is gonna it's one of those things where I pray the shut my agent down to play with this one, just just to see how it does.

Tyson Mutrux 00:03:24 But perplexity has announced a new feature, dubbed Email Assistant that lets you bring and bring by. Bring an AI agent into your inbox and let it manage your emails, schedule meetings, and even draft replies to threads that need responding to. The AI agent works in outlook Enigma, but it's part of perplexity is expensive Mac subscription, which costs $200 a month. Turn your inbox into scheduled meeting schedule, draft replies and clear priorities, says perplexity website. The AI agent can automatically categorize your emails into different buckets and utilize labels so that you can see what needs addressing as priority. Perplexity will also be able to jump into email threads and draft up replies using your usual writing, writing, tone, and style. That part's what's cool about it your usual writing tone and style. It's going to be able to analyze your your typical emails, and then it's going to it's going to mimic your writing style. That's pretty incredible. And then it'll wait for you to sign off on the message before sending it. You can even address the AI agent and ask it to find time in your schedule to fit meetings.

Tyson Mutrux 00:04:35 Very. I think it's pretty dang cool. so here's a rundown of all the features. No one, know what needs a reply? And what's FYI, AI drafted responses appear in replies automatically. Email assistant handles the back and forth and puts meetings on the calendar for you. Get summaries of meetings, key emails, and daily priorities from perplexity. I don't know. Let me know what you think about this. I think it's a pretty cool. If you all have played around with it, let me know. I would love to to hear about that as well, because, sometimes people do, I will mention things and the people love it sometimes. Sometimes people say, yeah, no, I don't think so. But, I'm going to show you for people that are listening, I'll, I'll, I'll talk this through too. But, for those of you watching, this is the, the main account. And I guess I thought it was called a pro account, I think used to be called a pro account because you used to say pro down here.

Tyson Mutrux 00:05:31 This does say Max. and so to get into it you click over here and then it is, pretty sure it was right here. And I thought it was an assistant over here, but maybe I am wrong. Maybe we'll go to account. Interesting. So where I am now. This is interesting because last night assistant was over here. on the left side. It is no longer there. And I don't know why that would be. It's an interesting thing. So, when you do get the. Because you can see I do have the max plan. It's interesting because I'm on a different computer, too. When you when you get into here, you'll see over here on the left side it says assistant and you'll click assistant and then you'll, that's how you'll, you'll start to set it up. It's an interesting thing that it's not showing it right now. And I don't know why that is, but it's, something worth looking into. So, I was going to show this to you all, but I guess I'm not going to be able to now, but, that's that is the assistant, though.

Tyson Mutrux 00:06:45 That's very cool. I know I set it up on my laptop, so it's it, I'll report back once I've played around with a little bit more to to to see where the how the features are doing for me. So let's get into our next story, which is this is one, I called Mo Views, Mo Losses. This is a mister beast article that is I found and it is from Bloomberg, Bloomberg Businessweek. I'll try to pull this one up for you so you can see it. because. Mr. beat Mr. Beast on his quest to turn YouTube fame into an entertainment empire. And there is a very specific quote in this that I want to read to you, because there's a part of it. He did hire a CEO. I thought that was interesting, too, that he's he's hired a CEO. if you compare that to like, a law firm, like, to me, that's like the equivalent of hiring, A. If you want to just practice law and do the legal side of things like hiring a practice manager, that's that's the way I looked at it.

Tyson Mutrux 00:08:04 something I learned from this article, by the way, that he's 65. I did not realize that Mr. Beast is so. Jimmy is six five. I did, he just didn't look that tall to me. That's. He's tall. That is that is interesting. But. So here is where the part of the article that I want to show it to you right now, however, Mr. Beast Industries is hemorrhaging money, right? And I I've heard him talk about before the amount of money that they spend each month, but I didn't think it was I. I figured, okay, maybe he was just exaggerating a little bit or, you know, they're they're making way more money from the videos. This is interesting though. So, it's a had three years of losses, including more than $110 million dollars in 2024. So $110 million in losses in 2024. The viral videos account for all of it, overwhelming the profits from festivals. So festivals. And I don't know why. They just wouldn't roll that into a separate company.

Tyson Mutrux 00:09:09 But maybe festivals is helping finance, the the rest of the stuff. Donaldson has been spending between 3 million and 4 million on every video he produces for the main YouTube channel, most of which lose money. In 2023, Miss Beast spent $10 million to $15 million shooting videos it never released to the public because they weren't up to its standards. He also lost tens of millions of dollars producing Beast Games, a popular show for Amazon Prime Video in which 1000 people competed for $10 million by, among other things, moving a £10,000 boulder. That was a really good show. The production value. Phenomenal. Really really good. Last year he brought on CEO on a on a CEO to help person professionalize his operation and reduce cost. Jeff Howson bold, 55, spent three decades in Silicon Valley working at eBay Inc. and photo printing company Shutterfly Inc. before joining Beast Industries. He's worked at 22 companies, sat on 44 board boards, and invested in more than 100 businesses. And he's not shy about saying he hit pause on a comfortable existence in Northern California with three kids who grew up on MrBeast.

Tyson Mutrux 00:10:24 In the beast office, he talks about targeting more than $100 million in savings to turn the company from a high growth startup into a profitable enterprise that can live for decades. He compares Beast to Uber Technologies Inc. and DoorDash Inc, two companies he invested in and advised housing. Bold actually built, scaled and ran companies that have done billions in revenue. Donald Donaldson says, I've never had a leader like that. I think that's a really interesting thing. I think it's cool that he's he's recognized that he needs someone else to run the business that he's not. he doesn't have the skill set to do that. And that takes a lot whenever you're at that level. Well, that takes a lot to say. All right. We're we're generating hundreds of millions of dollars, but it's still not working. And I need to find someone else. that's that's takes. It's one of those things where if there if he can do that, I think we can do so. If you're at the point where you think you you need to, step aside from running the the daily operations and letting and letting someone else do it.

Tyson Mutrux 00:11:30 This is a this is a nice little lesson for us here is, you know, maybe it's the best thing for the company, for the firm, for you to step aside and let someone else run things. so I think that's especially true whenever you have it. You're generating lots of revenues, but maybe your costs are super high or you feel like you're having problems managing the people or managing the business. It might be time for you to to sort of step aside and find that practice manager. You don't have to go the full CEO route, but practice manager route could be the way to go. The next thing I want to show you, it's I thought this was pretty cool. It is something that is, the it's a, nice little, infographic that I found that I thought, I figured I would share with people that I think that, you might be interested in. And let me go ahead and pull this up here for you. So here's this infographic. and it is from, an email marketing person named Chase diamond.

Tyson Mutrux 00:12:45 And it is it gives you this. These customer journey stages. And it gives you the channels, the tactics and the content types for each one of them and so on the stage, the stages. It has awareness, consideration, decision and then advocacy. And then you've got the different channels that you would use for that. You have the different tactics you, you, you would use and then you have the content types. I found this to be really interesting and a really helpful way to maybe organize your more your marketing activities. For example. Awareness. Awareness is usually the part where people get stuck in where, you know, they're just it think of it as like the billboard, like so the, the, the billboard, that's what this is, is, is the awareness stage. but then you have to start a side, you have to find a way to collect their information. So let's say you have a billboard with, a QR code or a website for them to go to, and they go to the website and then they put in their email address.

Tyson Mutrux 00:13:50 So now you've got this part of it where you're starting to to do the emails, webinars, part of podcast and then the next part of the funnel. Remember this is all funnel funnel, funnel funnel. And then the decision phase phase maybe okay you're going to set up some sort of call like the intake call. And then you get to the advocacy. And this is where you this is like the nurture stage where you're you're not just nurturing the lead. Now. You're you've got a client that you're now nurturing that relationship. And this they put community forms. But that could be, you know, you know, newsletters. It could be, you know, emails that you send on a regular basis, calendars that you mail out to them, birthday cards, all that kind of thing. But I found this to be really interesting. I'm not I'm not going to go into each, each part of these, but I did find it to be a really cool thing that, well, I'll try to find a way to put this in the show notes.

Tyson Mutrux 00:14:44 I don't know how we will. Maybe we'll have to do a link to it or something, but, we'll put this in the show notes so that you all can access it, because I do think it's pretty helpful for people. so make sure you, you check that one out. This next article we're going to get into, this is, you know, let's get personal. It's a this is an article from, a website I'd never heard of martech outlook technology solutions that drive marketing. so it's a bit of a, you know, it's a it's an article from, probably someone trying to sell us some services, but, AI driven personalization and the creator con economy. And the reality is, is that a lot of us are we are creators. That's just what we are when it comes to our marketing activities. And we have to that's that's just how we have to market our businesses. the creator economy reshapes digital marketing, emphasizing genuine engagement with micro influencers while AI enhances precision, personalization and campaign effectiveness through data driven insights.

Tyson Mutrux 00:15:51 And that's why I like this one, is because of there's these data driven insights which then it it's how you can personalize things. And that's why I wanted to bring up this article. I think it's an interesting thing. So kind of goes down through here. it's it's not a super long article, but you've got the shift from manual processes to AI driven solutions, AI personalization and content creation and distribution. And then you have enhancing campaign performance through real time analytics. And this is the part I want I want to read. And we can we can go back up to the top in a second. But the role of AI extends into the critical domain of campaign optimization and performance analysis. Real time data analytics, powered by machine learning, provide brands with a granular understanding of how their campaigns are performing across a network of micro influencers. These systems can track key metrics, engagement rates, click through rates, and conversions with unparalleled accuracy. This constant stream of data allows for dynamic campaign adjustments. If a particular type of content is performing exceptionally well with a specific audience segment, the AI can recommend allocating more resources to similar content or creators.

Tyson Mutrux 00:16:59 So I'm going to read that part again. Okay, so the AI can recommend allocating more resources to similar content or creators. Okay. This is where the magic is I think in this is where you you train your agents to recognize what's working, what's not working. And some of these are built in automatically. I'm pretty sure Facebook ads has a feature where it will adjust based on what's working, what's not working. I'm pretty sure all of the major ones do. So some of this is also kind of built in, but you can build in you can actually create your own marketing agents that can assess these and adjust things. I think that that that's where there might be a lot more value other than just the built of things. The built in ones are going to do the thing. The reason why, you might need something extra is because if it's if it's a built in feature, that means everyone has access to it, right? And, sometimes the humans can tweak things to make it work even better.

Tyson Mutrux 00:18:02 That's what these agents agents are going to do. AI is going to be able to assess it and be like, okay, let's do this instead. This this seems to be the right audience for this. This is leading to more conversions. Let's let's shift our ad dollars over into this area to make more money. That's where I think this is, where the value is. This iterative process of optimization ensures that marketing budgets are utilized with maximum efficiency, driving a higher return on investment. This intelligent approach to advertising is fostering a more symbiotic relationship between brands and micro influencers. By automating many of the logistical and analytical aspects of campaign management. Creators are free to focus on what they do best creating authentic and engaging content. So, the, the I'll just, end with this part of it. The data driven insights provided by AI also empower them with a clear understanding of their audience's preferences, enabling them to refine their content strategy and grow their community. For brands, this translates into more effective and predictable outcomes from their influencer marketing efforts.

Tyson Mutrux 00:19:08 This is something you want to check out. We can put it in the show notes, but so and this is just this part of the article just talks about, you know, the shift from manual to AI driven. That's why I, I want to I didn't cover that part of it. And then you've got the personalization and content creation distribution. So beyond the initial discovery phase, AI is revolutionizing the very fabric of content creation and distribution with micro influencer networks. So this is what I didn't cover. I think this part's kind of obvious. The important part of this, the meat of this article is really comes down to you, just the idea of using AI to adjust what you're doing almost on the fly when it comes to like you're advertising and then but also this same thing, same thing is when it comes to your actual content that you create to it can it can analyze it for you to determine what you should be doing and which audiences you should be focusing on. So so I want to cover that.

Tyson Mutrux 00:20:01 But the last article that I do want to get into, and that is, this influencer versus or as I said, the influencer is greater than traditional marketing. So influencer marketing is replacing traditional advertising, but only if it's honest. And this is just if we're kind of analyzing this, this website for a second, like all of these ads, unless I stopped to point these things out, you all wouldn't have never noticed them. Right. I, I just don't understand why people use this marketing anymore. This this. I know this is kind of a side note for you listening. You can't see what I'm looking at, but you've got all these ads around this website and it's just like no one's paying attention to it. The only one that maybe I'm paying attention to is this one. That's really annoying in the way. And I wouldn't I would never, if this were like someone selling me a product, I would never use that product because I just don't like whatever. There's an advertisement blocking my article.

Tyson Mutrux 00:21:01 But anyways, back back to the point. This is from adult. Com by the way, influencer marketing is replacing traditional advertising, but only if it's honest. I thought that was kind of an interesting thing. when influencer marketing first emerged, it was shiny, unstructured and brimming with potential. Brands were just beginning to consider creators as viable brand ambassadors, and early campaigns were often experimental. Now, let me say for a second, influencer marketing has been around forever. It really has. it's just in a different way. I mean, think about I mean, Judge Joe Brown does advertisements for Brown, Brown and crouppen in Saint Louis like they so that's a type of influencer marketing. Influencer marketing has been around forever. This is not something new. The term influencer might be new. and the way we're using influencers is a little bit different because you can you can now become an influencer. If you have really good content, you don't necessarily have to be like a famous actor or musician. That part of it's changed.

Tyson Mutrux 00:22:05 But let's just be real. It's been around forever. But, the landscape was still talking, taking shape, with teams managing PR efforts, creating content ideas, yada yada yada. so authenticity, this is the the part where, this is about a lot of this has to do with Gen Z, by the way. And they talk about authenticity, transparency. and, and seeing the full picture. that was a big part of this to this big is they want to see everything. I found that part to be really interesting because, many of us are not comfortable, including myself, not super comfortable with that. Part of it is kind of showing all aspects of our lives. And they say in this article, earlier campaign success was measured by sheer reach. Bigger meant better, but today relevance outweighs reach. Gen Z audiences are quick to dismiss creators with large followings. If their messaging feels inauthentic, they have an acute sense for what's real and what's purely transactional. There have been instances where campaigns were rejected by Gen Z simply because the creator appeared too polished, or the product felt disconnected from their visual content in in contrast now.

Tyson Mutrux 00:23:18 So this is interesting, and I and I think that this is spot on. their ability ratio did a video yesterday. it was either yesterday or the day before that. It was a, it was about it had to do with the, their city's police department, I. Can't remember where she lives around Scottsdale. I can't remember the actual name of the town, but she was walking around with her cell phone and had just, like, sat down somewhere and it wasn't super polished. I'm guessing the video did really, really well because it caught my attention. This was one on Facebook that I caught, and I. I don't typically watch videos on Facebook. unless Amy sends them to me, it's usually the only time to watch them, but this one caught my attention. She's like walking around. There she goes, sits down and like it wasn't polished. It was like her moving and stuff. It seemed very it was very, very authentic. She was talking about what was going on in her town, and I felt it to be very engaging, and I and that is what seems to to work.

Tyson Mutrux 00:24:19 It was it was like almost like she was kind of pulling the curtain back to show like what's going on in her world. I know, and it just wasn't super polished. I do find that to be very, I think that that is spot on. See brands that overlook this reality do so at their own risk. Let's see. Oh, the let's see. Or to polish the product felt disconnected from their usual content. In contrast, smaller creators have gone viral simply by offering honest, unfiltered reviews. I want to make sure I mentioned that part two and they talk about transparency equals trust for Gen Z transparency. Transparency is non-negotiable. It's not enough to present Polish content. Audiences want to know the intent behind it. They expect clear disclosure of paid partnerships. Well, that's also legally, you have to do that too. So make sure if you've got some sort of paid partnership that that is mentioned because you don't want to get popped for that. but they seek genuine alignment between creators and the brands that they promote.

Tyson Mutrux 00:25:22 What was once seen as a risk labeling a post as an ad has now become a trust building tool. In fact, some of the most successful campaigns are those that bring audiences behind the scenes. so that's they talk about collaboration. whenever, you know, they're aligning with the values of another someone else. or even include bloopers or raw moments. That's something that's helps as well. They don't want perfection. They want the full picture. Perhaps the most meaningful shift is the evolution from influencer to community leader. Gen Z follows individuals for their perspective, not just their aesthetics. Their loyalty stems from shared values. Be it mental health, advocacy, gaming, body positivity, sustainability, or cultural representation. real influence today stems in connection not broadcast. That is a great line. Best line of the entire entire article. Real influence today stems from connection, not broadcast. And that is where in any marketing, it's, you know, it's like kind of like talk about push marketing. It's just push, push, push, push, push.

Tyson Mutrux 00:26:29 And there is no none of that engagement. There's none of that back and forth. There's none of that connection. It's just the I'm my firm's amazing hire us, which people don't. People just kind of tune that stuff out. nano and micro influencers often outperform celebrities in terms of engagement because they foster genuine relationships with their followers. I saw people putting, spoons, on X yesterday because they wanted to get more views than, than someone, and I just thought it was kind of interesting. It was a funny thing because they were getting millions of views on a spoon versus what that person gets on their, on their, on their show. That's kind of a funny little thing. so they talk about purpose driven influence and then what this means for brands today. So just to kind of to wrap it up, transparency, creative freedom. Values of vanity, cultural consistency and then behind the scenes access. So, I thought it was kind of an interesting article, especially if Gen Z is in your target market.

Tyson Mutrux 00:27:31 So if not, I still think it's applicable. most of it is. At least I think that even though Gen Z is kind of led, this push. It's I think most of this is still applicable to, to the vast majority of, of our potential clientele. So, that's all I have for everybody this week. Have a wonderful week and we will see you later. See you buddy.

Tyson Mutrux 00:27:53 Our next mastermind in New York City is sold out. But don't worry, there's still time to get your tickets to the mastermind and Max Lorcan in Nashville in October. Max Lorcan is three days of immersive learning, powerful insight, and meaningful connections, all designed to provide actionable strategies you'll take back to your firm and implement right away. No fluff, just real talk and tangible takeaways you can implement immediately. Go to. Com for more details.

Tyson Mutrux 00:28:28 When or for my style and identity?

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Tyson Mutrux
Host
Tyson Mutrux
Tyson is the founder of Mutrux Firm Injury Lawyers and the co-founder of Maximum Lawyer.
The Greatest Shift in Marketing: From Traditional Ads to Authentic Influencer Connections
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