Evidence of effort

Why brands should make effort a character in their social story.

I’ve probably studied over 10,000 social media posts since starting this newsletter. I’ve interviewed 150 social media marketers. I’ve published 350 articles. My brain is like an accordion folder, stretched to its limits, filled with formats and themes and strategies. This week I flipped through the documents. What’s the larger story here?

There are a few things that I know to be true right now.

The consumer reaction to AI-generated imagery and video isn’t consistent. Audiences might like an AI-generated meme of Victoria Beckham but hate their favorite brand—like Gucci or Equinox—using the same technology in a campaign. Brands are held to a different standard and it’s important for marketers to understand this.

At the same time, consumers have never been more aware of how marketing works. Campaigns are dissected on TikTok. Announcement posts are littered with comments like “Best campaign of 2025” and “Now THIS is marketing”, as Emily Sundberg has pointed out before. We’re increasingly seeing consumers conflate the quality of the creative with the quality of the product.

The pendulum swing of glossy content into one-take iPhone video has reached it’s maximum amplitude. Trends have homogenized feeds. Standing out on social is often about a tension of doing something that feels different.

Finally, as a society, we’re being sold ease. Optimize this, save time with that. The people posting AI-generated movie clips with “we’re so cooked” forget that so much of what makes something interesting is implied effort. The plot of Mission: Impossible is almost as important as the subtext that Tom Cruise does his own stunts.

This all leads me to that larger story.

The best content on the internet right now heroes effort. Telling the story of people actually trying. The effort heuristic is a studied cognitive shortcut that assumes that tasks requiring significant investment—whether it’s time, energy, or skill—will result in a better quality compared to those achieved without that investment. On social media, audiences are often making snap decisions on whether they want to stick around to watch a piece of content. Perceived effort is a strong way to create that cognitive buy in.

In today’s newsletter I am breaking down exactly what I mean and how to do it.

• The three categories of effort

• 24 examples of how brands are bringing this to life

• An interview with the filmmaker working with brands like Notion, Spotify, Patreon, and more

• The brand that’s hiring someone to build “scalable storytelling franchises”