Creative Process Archives - Post Control Marketing

It’s been a month since my last post. I was looking for a topic. It found me listening to the Marketing AI podcast on my morning run Thursday. There were big model drops with Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro and OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4o image generation. That’s big news, but my interest sparked when Paul and Mike mentioned “vibe marketing.” Huh? My first thought was how younger Survivor players talk about “vibing” with their tribe.

Can You Feel The Vibes?

Vibe marketing sounds like winging it. Trying new products and strategies based on feeling is not not something I’d embrace. I’ve taught for years the value of data based decision making in marketing. There’s an art to marketing but there’s also a science to it.

Mike and Paul explain how AI leader Andrej Karpathy posted on X about vibe coding – giving into vibes talking to AI over and over while it coded to complete projects. Others applied it to marketing. Marketers go from individual executors to orchestrators of AI systems. Mike Kaput explained, “So basically, marketers will start operating on vibes … while AI handles all the messy execution.”

To get a better handle on this concept I turned to the new Gemini 2.5 Pro which AI expert Christopher Penn says is the best AI model right now. It has surpassed other models on key benchmarks by significant margins (click for benchmarks table). Gemini 2.5 reasons through “thoughts” before responding improving performance and accuracy.

Nailing Down A Definition?

Gemini first defined vibe marketing as an established approach to creating content with a feeling to connect with consumers emotionally. Emotions are key, but rational appeals play a role. I’ve found story is a great way to deliver both as evidenced by my research and explained in my Brand Storytelling book. That’s not this new trend.

I prompted Gemini to focus on the emerging trend of AI in vibe marketing. It’s new description was “using AI tools to generate marketing ideas, content (text, images), and campaign elements that align with a specific vibe or aesthetic … for speed and automation in creating assets that embody a chosen vibe.” It is closer but still mixing the established term with the new trend.

With my background in cross-discipline creativity, innovation, and problem-solving, I thought it might be more about ideas that can go back to product design, business plans, and marketing concepts. Vibe is more about getting an idea and using AI to run with it, researching, illustrating, and iterating as it quickly gains steam combining design thinking with marketing and innovation.

Vibe Marketing In Action.

I was still fuzzy on the concept until my Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) class later that day. Student teams complete an IMC campaign for a business. They gather market and consumer research, set objectives, budget, media mix, creative strategy, and execute digital and traditional creative with a storytelling approach.

During an in-class exercise, I asked students to apply what we learned about using PR for marketing objectives. They brainstormed a PR event based on a creative brief for Hush Puppies water-resistant leather dress shoes. While students worked, I came up with my own ideas sketching them on the board.

As evidence of the creative process I teach, I took random general information (a book I read to my kids when younger I Wish I Had Duck Feet) and combined it with specific information about the project (PR event for Hush Puppies water-resistant shoes). I sketched a person dressed for work walking in a city on a rainy day in rubber duck feet near a Hush Puppies pop-up store.

IMC focuses on marcom for problems and opportunities. But, I teach other classes that identify opportunities and come up with product ideas. Towards the end of class, we talked about duck being an actual product – a fun way to protect dress shoes.

Vibe Becomes A Product And Business.

Fun rubber shoe protector was in my mind back in my office. I let the marketing vibes roll using new AI tools to rapidly advance this idea from concept to product design, prototypes, with an outline and some basic research for business plan and a marketing plan for my entrepreneurial startup.

My product idea went from sketch to photo-realistic product image, product shot with feature call outs, brand logo and tagline using Google AI Studio with Gemini 2.5 Pro, Gemini 2.0 Flash Image and OpenAI ChatGPT 4.o Image https://aistudio.google.com https://openai.com/

In no time, I had a photo-realistic product sketch, product name, logo, target market, positioning, price, and place (distribution) strategy. I also had a basic promotions strategy with marketing channels, marketing ideas, content with text and images, and campaign elements. I even had ideas on how to create a working prototype for investors by creating by hand, using a 3D printer, or a rubber molding prototype.

With tariffs in the news, I also wanted to consider manufacturing. Working with Gemini 2.5 Pro, I had a beginning outline of materials, fasteners, and packaging I would need and options for rubber injection or compression molding. I had Gemini look into supply chain and manufacturing partners from overseas, in North America, and in the U.S. It gave me ideas to find those partners through online platforms, industry directories, trade shows, and networking.

Gemini helped with my marketing plan, but I turned to Open AI for my product illustrations, logo, and examples of social media ads. I was inspired by Ethan Mollick’s Substack and wanted to try the new image capabilities of GPT-4o.

Gemini came up with the idea for an influencer marketing post, wrote the caption, and suggested the hashtags. I had the idea for the brand promotional post headline, subhead, and image but it wrote the promotion copy. Gemini gave me tagline suggestions, but I didn’t them so I wrote “Being Safe Has Never Been So Fun.”

GPT-4o created all images. The bottom left below was Gemini 2.0 Flash image. I couldn’t get it to do what I wanted especially with type. The top right is ChatGPT’s first attempt from my prompt on the top left. Gemini 2.5 Pro may be best all around, but ChatGPT-4o image is superior, but Google may be planning a Gemini 2.5 image model release.

My product idea went from sketch to photo-realistic Instagram influencer ad and brand product ad using Google AI Studio with Gemini 2.5 Pro, Gemini 2.0 Flash Image and OpenAI ChatGPT 4.o Image https://aistudio.google.com https://openai.com/

Can Anyone Can Be A Vibe Marketer?

Yesterday was fun, but I agree with AI expert Christopher Penn that vibe marketing isn’t a magic bullet of entering a couple of prompts, walking away and it does everything. As with any trend you need to see beneath the hype. He says, the more you hand-off the more that can go wrong. Fun and vibes alone don’t make successful marketing.

Penn explains using AI well is like managing employees. I had to know how to get good work out of Gemini. I had to figure out ChatGPT was better at images. You also need discipline expertise, good data, discernment, and skills in prompting.

I got good results quickly because I worked in marketing over 15 years in product design, launches, communications campaigns, and pitches. I’ve researched and taught marketing, judged and mentored student business competitions the past decade. I’ve researched and experimented with AI for two years including AI Use Frameworks and AI Prompt Frameworks. I also ask Gemini if anyone can do vibe marketing.

Gemini indicates “You Definitely STILL Need Core Marketing Fundamentals:”

Strategic Thinking
Audience Understanding
Brand Knowledge
Critical Evaluation
Marketing Channel Knowledge

Gemini suggests “NEW Skills or Competencies for AI-Driven Marketing:”

Prompt Engineering
AI Tool Literacy
Editing and Refinement
Ethical Awareness
Data Interpretation

I asked how this impacts teaching. Gemini suggested ways to teach the foundational and new skills. But emphasized a mindset shift, “Teach them to view AI not as a threat or a magic bullet, but as a powerful collaborator. The marketers who succeed will learn to leverage AI effectively to enhance strategic thinking, creativity, and efficiency, while always maintaining critical oversight and ethical responsibility. You’re preparing them to be the pilots, not the passengers.”

I don’t see new AI tools as a replacement for marketing experts or an easy way for students to get As. There’s a lot to learn in the fundamentals and new skills to use AI tools and practice vibe marketing properly. As I’ve posted, you can’t use AI to shortchange the learning process. But I can see my students feeling the vibes of using AI to help them learn and practice concepts and projects.

Wish You Had Duck Feet?

Duck feet shoe savers may not be the best idea, but it helped me learn the concept of vibe marketing and experienced it all in one day. To advance it, I would use my expertise and involve other discipline experts to fact-check and fill in gaps with more specific data.

I also change the name. I’m not happy with Gemini’s “Quackers.” I’d write my own like “Duckies” and do a trademark search. I’d also have human designers and photographers complete final designs and images for copyright and ethical consideration.

I really enjoy teaching, but if any of the Shark Tank investors are out there and see promise in my idea, I’ll entertain investment offers.

This Post Was 100% Human Written. I did use AI in research and execution which enabled me to learn, apply, test, and refine thoughts quickly. I used Gemini to optimize my headline for engagement and SEO. Thanks to AI tools this post went from idea to research and published in record time.

There is a lot of content created on the internet each day. Jeff Schultz from Micro Focus estimated that everyday 656 million tweets are sent, 4 million hours of video are uploaded to YouTube, 67.3 million Instagram posts are created, and 4.3 billion Facebook messages are posted. How do you stand out so that your one in a billion piece of content gets noticed, liked, and shared?

What does research say about engagement?

Abigail Posner, head of Google’s Agency Strategic Planning team, began the Engagement Project with a team of anthropologists, psychologists and digital content creators to investigate this question. They were curious about memes and wondered what makes one idea more likely to be shared on a mass scale over the internet versus other pieces of content.

Posner’s research found that people are attracted to the fascinating familiar that sets off our imagination. The most compelling content is usually everyday moments framed in a different way or juxtaposed for a new perspective. That’s because our brains love synaptic play – when random components in our mind form a synapse. The ideas that engage bring unrelated facts or images together in a childlike way send us on a voyage of discovery.

For example, seeing a cat riding a surfboard produces creative joy. It is a remarkable story we want tell others. For Robert Dollwet it is also a relevant marketing message. His cat Didga’s surfing and skateboarding tricks have attracted nearly 14 million YouTube views advertising his pet training business. Now only do we enjoy Didga, but we want to share that feeling with others. The content becomes a little gift forming a bond between the sender and receiver.

Why create engaging ideas?

When a company sends compelling content built around relevant brand messages a bond is formed with consumers that could lead to further action. This is valuable considering social media professionals spend most of their time (60%) on content development and most marketers consider engagement to be their top measurement of social media ROI. Constantly producing engaging content for the always-on social media consumer requires a lot of creativity. Can you regularly produce the fascinatingly familiar? Yes, follow the creative process.

I didn’t know there was a creative process for most of my career. But once I discovered it my ideas became more creative and more consistent. I first read about the creative process in the book A Technique for Producing Ideas, published in 1940 by James Young Webb. Webb was an advertising hall of fame copywriter who famously wrote an ad for women’s deodorant that was credited with increasing sales 112%.

Because of Webb’s creative and business success people kept asking him where his ideas came from. He didn’t know, but he was curious enough to find out. Through self-reflection he uncovered a five-step process for creating ideas. Remarkably, aspects of this same process have been described by other creative people in vastly different fields of interest from fine artists and writers to researchers and engineers.

To produce fascinating ideas follow these steps:

Gather Raw Material: Gather specific knowledge or data about the product or service and consumer. Go deep. Any relationship between the two could lead to an idea. Also gather continuous general knowledge about the world around you from art to zombies. The more raw material the increased chance for novel ideas.
Play Matchmaker: Take different bits of this raw information and view it from different angles. Then try to bring two facts together to see how they fit looking for a relationship. There is no wrong combination. Don’t ask “why?” Ask “why not?” Write every possibility down. When you get tired keep going. This is when you can move past expected ideas.
Forget About It: Make no direct effort to work on the problem. This may be difficult, but you must build in time to drop the entire subject and work on something else or play a game. Go for a run, to the movies or a concert. Listen to music or cook. Put the problem out of your conscious mind so that your unconscious mind can get to work.
Birth of the Idea: This stage happens when suddenly an unexpected realization of the solution comes to your conscious mind. Out of seemingly nowhere (your subconscious) the idea will appear. It could be in the middle of the night or in the shower. Be sure to write it down.
Optimize the Idea: Now it is time to compare the idea to the facts of the problem or the conditions of the question. The idea will not be perfect. It takes an open mind and patience to refine it. Get feedback from others and adjust. Shape and develop the idea into practical usefulness.

This process applies across all disciplines from art and new product development to business generation and content creation. The process itself is simple, but it is hard to follow. That is why more people aren’t producing more creative ideas. Most adults have lost touch with their creative mindset. A lifetime of experiences from school to work have set up barriers to creativity. Unfortunately most of us have spent our lives learning how to be uncreative.

Research says most people were their most creative as kids.

To understand creative potential Dr. George Land and Beth Jarman devised a test to measure creativity in NASA scientists. Wondering why some adults are creative and others are not, they gave the same test to 1,600 five-year-old children. The test challenged the kids to come up with different and innovative ideas to solve problems.

Amazingly, 98% were in the genius category of creative imagination. They retested the same children later and by the time they were 15, only 12% were at the same level. The same test given to adults results in only 2% scoring at the creative genius level. Reflecting on the results Land wrote, “What we have concluded is that non-creative behavior is learned.”

Innovation author and speaker Paul Stone explains that to a kid every problem can be solved. We grow up by learning what cannot be done through rules, laws, regulations and bosses who don’t want ideas, but only want us to get the job done on time. As adults we learn not to ask questions and only give the “right” answers. Yet when we tell our children they can’t do something they say, “Why not?”

Evian Roller Babies as an example.

I wasn’t involved in creating this example, but I imagine they followed the creative process I followed hundreds of times in my career. (1) They gathered specific knowledge of Evian water, their target audience’s generation, how drinking water keeps you young and general knowledge of the world from music and movies to trends and news. (2) They worked really hard trying different elements together and came up with a lot of “okay” ideas. (3) They got tired and stopped working on the project. They played pool, went to a movie or their kid’s soccer game. Perhaps they went to a park and saw people rolling skating. (4) It didn’t look like they were working on the important Evian project, but their subconscious mind was hard at work.

Then, a day or two later the idea popped into their head of rolling skating babies. It was written down with other ideas and (5) a fascinatingly familiar idea was born and refined to deliver the right product benefit message with a nostalgic spin for the target audience and developed into one of the most viral ad videos of all time. Putting babies in adult situations under the tagline #LiveYoung sparked a 10 year campaign for Evian that only ended recently in favor of a new influencer campaign in the U.S.

The creative process is about unlearning everything that is not possible and exploring every possibility from every angle. It is about asking the “naïve” questions seemingly only kids are able to ask like why couldn’t a cat surf or why can’t babies roller skate? Thus, the secret to creating engaging one in a billion content is following the creative process. It forces you to be your creative genius five-year-old self again, if only for a while.

Once you have the big idea follow these Best Practices For Social Media Content That’ll Improve Your Writing And Design.