Brand Strategies: Authenticity, AI, and Gen Z Engagement

Brands like Dove, Aerie, and Coach are navigating marketing in the AI era by prioritizing authenticity, creator partnerships, and Gen Z engagement. Campaigns leverage user-generated content, acknowledge imperfections, and aim for genuine connection.

Embracing Authenticity and Rejecting AI

Along with a spot that sees Anderson challenge the capacity of AI to capture real human appeal, the project includes collaborations with designers who are devoting to the very same no-AI assurance. Not long after the campaign’s debut, the brand name introduced a developer program, the Aerie Realmakers Community, that blew past its six-month target within weeks, Foyle stated on the telephone call.

Together with web content including worldwide ambassadors including star Elle Fanning and basketball star Paige Bueckers, the project was sustained by partnerships and experiences developed to bring together Gen Z around storytelling and self-expression. In kind, the brand last month introduced a narration system secured around Gen Z, makers and celebrities called & Coach.

Dove’s “Real Reviews” Campaign on Reddit

While Unilever’s Dove has usually focused on what’s genuine in customers’ mirrors and viewfinders, this year’s “Dove r/eal reviews” looked for the fact of an on the internet platform recognized for its unfiltered point of views. Created with David London, AKQA Paris and WPP Media, the project transformed the first 50 Reddit testimonials of its Intensive Fixing 10-in-1 Product Mask into advertisement innovative– regardless of what they claimed. The campaign won 6 awards at Cannes Lions.

Coach and Aerie: Creator-Led Strategies

The spring campaign, co-created with Gen Z voices and firm Forsman & Bodenfors, focused on the brand name’s Tabby bag and presented a collection of readable publication beauties. The charms and a pair of project video clips tap into Gen Z’s passion in publications as an antidote to short-form digital content.

“Dove, to me, is among those terrific brands and a wonderful instance of a campaign that’s so clear and has such a sharp point of view, however has adequate stretch to iterate over and over and speak with various cultural moments, to speak with people in different contexts and environments,” Arling-Giorgi claimed.

The World Mug and America’s 250th birthday have drawn customer and marketing professional interest, with the former working as the most recent battleground in the Nike-Adidas competition. But both summertime tentpoles have been marked by sociopolitical uneasiness: The entire Iranian team was compelled to leave the nation in between suits and a UFC occasion on the White House lawn culminated with an offensive remark tossed at former first lady Michelle Obama.

“He has a significant influence on all of the economic situations that he mosts likely to,” Natalie Wills, senior vice president of incorporated advertising and marketing and creative at Expedia Group, formerly told Marketing Dive. “It just shows you how makers are a network in their very own right.”.

We’re not going to please everybody, yet we will hopefully please a majority of individuals,” Emily Barfoot, head of Dove U.S., previously told Advertising Dive. They’re simply straightforward … It pushed us to reveal up in the means that Redditors want to be talked to within that setting.”.

Expedia’s Collaboration with Streamer IShowSpeed

“The pratfall result essentially enables you to admit an imperfection, and by not attempting to hide it, play down it or claim it doesn’t exist, yet possessing it and reacting to it, you can actually truly significantly boost people wanting to choose you,” she stated.

Dove is not the only brand name to materialize elegance a focal point of its marketing. Comparable to the means that the Unilever brand has vowed not to make use of AI to stand for women in ads, American Eagle Outfitters brand Aerie has continued to put inclusivity and authenticity.

The Pratfall Effect and Brand Vulnerability

In the hero place, the brand reimagined the “I want to Get the Globe a Coke” song from its famous 1971 “Hill” advertisement as “I want to Acquire America a Coke.” While Coke has actually nodded to this essential part of advertising and marketing background previously, the latest revamping carefully strolls the line of nostalgia-washing by talking to larger customer problems.

Brands including Train and Aerie are making use of creators to get to varied target markets with genuine messages. Expedia is taking a comparable strategy, yet to get to a mass target market of Gen Z consumers, it has partnered with one significant designer: streaming celebrity IShowSpeed.

“As a very patriotic American who doesn’t love the existing political environment, however quite loves my country … I assumed it did the excellent work of blending the values of the American desire with the core tenet concepts of what it means to be American, and mixing it with a larger vision,” Palmer stated of the project. “It’s primarily like, ‘Hey, America, you’re so varied, and if you men can all get your s– with each other, you will be a sign for the rest of the globe.'”.

Coca-Cola’s Nostalgic Yet Relevant Campaigns

The first fifty percent of 2026 has continued the chaotic tone of the last a number of years, where each situation is replaced by a new one and consumers are pestered with everything-everywhere-all-at-once developments. The trade war started at the start of Head of state Trump’s second term has proceeded, helping bring customer sentiment to tape-record lows this year amidst a recurring Iran war that has actually triggered gas rates and rising cost of living to rise.

That technique is evocative the one utilized by Domino’s with its 2010 “Pizza Turnaround” campaign that ran when Burger King Head Of State Tom Curtis and RBI Executive Chairman J. Patrick Doyle were execs at the pizza chain. Like the Domino’s project, Burger King’s latest effort is a good example of the pratfall result, Method1’s Arling-Giorgi described.

In the initial half of 2026, brands have actually increased down on honesty, whether copping to previous mistakes, possessing their public assumption or pressing back against the rise of AI. Advertising Dive has united 7 of the best campaigns, which present lessons for marketing professionals of all red stripes as they navigate what will certainly be a lot more agitation in advance.

“The strong psychological link we have actually developed with our consumer neighborhood is driving much deeper vibration, significance, loyalty,” Jennifer Foyle, president and executive creative director at Aerie and American Eagle, claimed of the business’s advertising on an incomes phone call.

Burger King’s “The King is Dead” Relaunch

Expedia in April started a multiphase global collaboration with IShowSpeed, a designer with 150 million followers who called the brand name his main traveling partner. The initial phase of the campaign included a 12-hour livestream, a well-known center– skillfully called “Exspeedia”– and a drawing. The brand in June extended the project with a shoppable travel experience that attached content with business.

The livestream, which followed IShowSpeed as he took a trip throughout 5 countries in a solitary day, got to more than 400 million people throughout social and assisted spur sharp surges in search need for the island locations he visited– demonstrating the creator’s capability to drive engagement and sales with Gen Z.

The king is dead, long live the king: a royal announcement that doubles as a summary of Burger King’s current project, which saw the convenience food chain move on from its veteran– and frequently regarded weird– mascot to re-center customers in its advertising. Created with firm of document OKRP, “There’s A New King And It’s You” introduced in March with an ad during the Oscars, utilizing the cultural minute to keep in mind how “junk food simply diminished” and what the brand was doing to return on track.

“They’re not using nostalgia to look backward and to make sure that you need to know what ‘Hilltop’ is– they’re using it as a means to make individuals feel connected once more, and to put it in a place where they’ve constantly shown the globe as it must be, nearly as an idealized method of checking out the world,” Arling-Giorgi stated.

AI’s Rise and Brand Responses

— and various other ads in the exact same campaign from agency Mommy– make use of AI the way most individuals utilize it, and the place beams thanks to a biting feeling of wit that deals with the exceptional valley head-on and an affordable angle that positioned Claude versus its ad-curious rivals. “Ads are coming to AI,” reviews a tagline.

“[Aerie] in general does actually great maker job that isn’t simply with the highest-level macro designers and huge developers: They do things that’s actually different, reaching various target markets and various levels,” said John Mathieu, vice head of state and innovative director at Pearpop. “Having Pam Anderson be the lead is only mosting likely to assist them prolong that message into the maker room, which I believe the most effective brand names are doing.”.

The Claude chatbot programmer racked up a very early goal at the Super Bowl this year, where it outmaneuvered other marketers on an evening when most brands played it risk-free, helping the business score the Super Clio award for the most imaginative commercial during the large game.

Coach’s Success with Gen Z and Creator Co-Creation

As AI stays the largest tale throughout marketing and the world, probably no tech firm has had a far better year so far than Anthropic, the five-year-old firm with an assessment coming close to $1 trillion– one that goes beyond that of competitor OpenAI.

Coca-Cola manages to remain over the fray with its America250 project. At the facility of the initiative– which is being strengthened with an ambitious neighborhood effect objective– is a three-minute hero video, “Consume It In America,” that pairs a gospel choir with a healthy and balanced dosage of Americana.

“They’re not concealing the equipment,” stated Allison Arling-Giorgi, head of brand at company Method1. “This really feels friendly, it feels funny, it seems like something that’s thrilling me and removes the mistrust and the uncertainty and puts it on the exact same degree.”

Navigating Turbulence and Building Real Connections

In maybe the year’s most brand-friendly movie, “The Devil Puts On Prada 2,” Train is used as a punchline contrasted to the haute couture of Dior. That’s Hollywood. In the real world, Coach is giggling all the way to the financial institution: The brand saw 31% profits development in its recent monetary 3rd quarter and is coming close to $1 billion yearly spend in marketing.

Early outcomes of the Restaurant Brands International brand’s advertising and marketing initiatives as part of its recurring Reclaim The Fire turn-around strategy have actually been encouraging. Burger King U.S. equivalent sales increased 5.8% in Q1 2026, surpassing RBI sales development of 3.2%, while 97% of franchisees voted to keep an elevated advertisement fund payment degree.

“Everybody’s trying to figure out exactly how to be truthful, yet the struggle is that, for sure brand names, that’s been a root in their core and in their DNA, and some are needing to determine how to do it when sometimes their output hasn’t been overtly that,” said David Palmer, an exec imaginative supervisor at company Thinkingbox. “Everyone desires this actual link, and they’re realizing at what the honesty is around their brand name and just how it attaches right into it.”

Amid this landscape, brands have actually leaned on what they’ve discovered over the previous few years concerning browsing turbulence. In the real world, Coach is giggling all the means to the bank: The brand saw 31% profits growth in its current fiscal third quarter and is coming close to $1 billion yearly spend in marketing.

Together with the Globe Mug, the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States has actually provided brand names a chance to involve customers of different demographics around a monocultural minute. In spite of the involvement of official sponsors that include major marketing professionals throughout groups– Anheuser-Busch, General Mills, Kraft Heinz, Starbucks and Target, among them– America’s 250th has verified to be yet an additional battleground in a politically polarized country.

“They could have done a montage spot with seven different people coming across different versions of AI, however they were limited in the method they approached it, which at Super Bowl time looks like the reverse of the means a lot of other people are approaching it,” stated Web cam Boyd, an executive creative director at agency Thinkingbox.

“A vital highlight this quarter was our straight interaction with visitors and the launch of our brand name elevation project,” RBI CEO Joshua Kobza said on a revenues phone call. “In general, this was an amazing quarter for Burger King, and it works as a strong proof factor that our technique is working.”.

“We think in the chance to cocreate our brand name, hand in hand with our consumers,” Coach CMO Joon Silverstein claimed throughout an Advertising Dive occasion in February. It’s so a lot a lot more powerful when our consumers see themselves in the brand and feel like they are assisting to construct that brand name with each other with us.

“In a world where you have these short-form content children, they’re hungering for a long-format tale, and I think that’s a truly fascinating pivot that [Train] made that feels authentic to them,” stated Thinkingbox’s Boyd. “They’re trying to leave enough area for individuals to add also, so it’s not just an one-sided discussion.”.

“It doesn’t feel like he’s advertising Expedia as high as it is enabling him to do his point,” Thinkingbox’s Boyd claimed. “I assume what they’ve done with their ecosystem is really solid right here, in that there is a great deal of engagement from his fans and there is an acquisition mechanic involved.”.

In an advertising globe marked by brand name revitalizes, relaunches and repositionings, Dove stands apart with its uniformity. Along the means, “Genuine Elegance” aided expand the Unilever tag right into a brand name worth regarding $8 billion which has actually supplied even more than 6% development for 14 consecutive quarters.

The effort accompanied a growth for the brand name as Aerie notched record first quarter revenue this year and surpassed $2 billion in revenue on a routing one year basis, with execs calling advertising and marketing as a key bar of growth.

In the middle of this landscape, brands have actually leaned on what they have actually learned over the previous few years regarding browsing disturbance. They are still attempting to stand out and prevent society battle challenges while the twin pressures of expert system and M&An improve the advertising surface below their feet. As phony news, fake feeds and fake AI multiply, marketers are working to leave an actual mark on customers’ lives.

“We believe in the opportunity to cocreate our brand, hand in hand with our customers,” Coach CMO Joon Silverstein said during an Advertising Dive event in February. It’s so much extra effective when our consumers see themselves in the brand and really feel like they are helping to build that brand name together with us. The brand name in June prolonged the project with a shoppable travel experience that attached web content with business.

Central to Coach’s efforts in the quarter was “Discover Your Story,” a project that aided the brand name win its target Gen Z customer “on all metrics,” stated Joanne Crevoiserat, chief executive officer at Train moms and dad Tapestry, on a profits phone call.