Rachel Carton

AI Summary

→ WHAT IT COVERS Recorded live in Los Angeles, Odd Lots hosts Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway speak with journalist Taylor Lorenz and social media consultant Rachel Carton about how AI is reshaping the creator economy, brand marketing strategies, platform dynamics, and what it takes to grow a social media audience in 2025. → KEY INSIGHTS - **Boss-Driven AI Adoption:** The primary way AI enters marketing teams is through management pressure, not organic adoption. Carton interviewed roughly 100 marketers who described bosses running memes through Claude to evaluate humor, or only approving ideas that originated inside Copilot's interface — a dynamic one marketer described as "demoralizing as hell," with no structured training or guardrails provided. - **AI Content and Brand Perception:** Consumers interpret AI-generated brand content as a signal of broader operational shortcuts, not just a creative choice. The same consumer who shares AI fruit-animation memes with friends will criticize a fast-food chain for using AI imagery, because brand creative is seen as a proxy for product quality and overall effort invested. - **Content Format Strategy on Instagram:** Instagram's own data, shared with Carton's audience, maps each format to a specific function: carousels and reels reach non-followers and drive algorithmic distribution, single images serve existing audiences, and stories plus DMs are where community actually forms. Non-follower views currently fuel the algorithm most. - **Serialized Content Outperforms Lifestyle Sharing:** Accounts growing fastest in 2025 treat their output as episodic television rather than personal updates. One example — a restaurant cook filming daily cooking sessions through Meta glasses — reached 500,000 followers within two to three months. Lorenz advises against pursuing lifestyle influencer status entirely, noting significant audience hostility toward that format. - **AI Cloning Deals Are Emerging:** Talent agencies, including CIA, are structuring deals where creators appear in person for a single day of filming, then AI is used to generate tailored variations for different audiences and platforms. This model reduces production costs while maintaining a recognizable persona across multiple content streams simultaneously. → NOTABLE MOMENT Lorenz revealed that among Instagram's all-time top 20 most-viewed reels, two or three were recently AI-generated — including one that used a behind-the-scenes filmmaking format to make fabricated footage appear real, effectively monetizing audience confusion about what is genuine. 💼 SPONSORS None detected 🏷️ Creator Economy, AI Marketing Tools, Social Media Strategy, Platform Algorithms, Influencer Industry