Marketing in a Mosh Pit: How to Stay Standing When Everything’s Caotically Shifting
Welcome to the Pit. Marketing isn’t a vibe right now. It’s a mosh pit out there and if you’ve never been in one, think sweaty, chaotic, loud and half the time you’re just trying not to get elbowed in the face (except currently at the marketing show it’s by another LinkedIn post about how AI will “revolutionize your workflow.”)
Imagine you’re at a high-energy, punk rock show. You’ve got one foot planted, the other dodging elbows and someone just crowd-surfed over your Gantt chart. That’s marketing right now.
The tempo’s off. The lights are blinding. And yet, somehow, you’re expected to dance, direct the show, and sell T-shirts at the merch table all while someone in the back’s yelling, “Can’t AI just do all this now?”
This isn't a strategy. This is a mosh pit, and if you’re exhausted, disoriented, or just trying not to get trampled, you’re not the only one. But you are still standing and that’s massive.
TL;DR
The big idea: Marketing teams are stuck in chaos with all the AI hype, budget cuts, shrinking teams and tech decisions made without them. It’s not strategy. It’s survival.
The AI trap: Everyone’s pushing AI tools like magic bullets. But most are built on generic data and if you’re not feeding them your brand voice and guidelines, you’re just generating noise.
What’s broken:
Tools that don’t reflect your culture
Stacks that prioritize speed over soul
Marketers left out of product and vendor decisions
What to do now:
Reclaim your seat in the stack conversation
Train AI with your brand, not the internet’s leftovers
Pilot with purpose. Co-create or walk away.
Bottom line: Your brand isn’t plug-and-play. Don’t let your tech stack be.
Chaos: Sponsored by AI, Budget Cuts and Confusion
Let’s take inventory:
You’re being told to “embrace AI” but the media sensationalism across pretty much every publication out there is also saying “watch your back.”
Budgets have been slashed so hard you’re basically bartering for collabs.
Your martech stack? Built by a procurement team that thinks Mailchimp and Miro are interchangeable.
Your headcount has vanished faster than a cookie without consent.
Meanwhile, the pressure to deliver flawless personalization, compelling storytelling and ROI is…I’m gonna say it, “ludicrous.”
And the kicker? The folks building the tools are often the ones telling you how you should be doing your job, when they’re still looking for a product-market fit on their path to category creation and disruption.
The AI Gold Rush: New Tools, Same Old Problems
I know you know this, many of the startups flooding your inbox are still trying to prove their own relevance. Jasper. Copy.ai. Durable. Agentic CRM this, intelligent copilot that.
Most are still in validation mode, throwing spaghetti at the wall (or at you, hoping you’ll call it innovation). They want marketers to run their pilots, evangelize their features and forgive their bugs, all while promising “unprecedented results.”
And sure, some tools are useful. But most haven’t figured out what brand marketers actually need, because they haven’t built with you, they’ve built around you and for the status quo, seeking out to capture their serviceable obtainable market (SOM) while trying to keep up with investor expectations.
Meanwhile, incumbents like Salesforce and Adobe are slapping “AI” on every button while quietly shifting complexity and risk onto your already-underwater team. You’re being squeezed between innovation theater and operational reality, with no guidebook in sight.
One-Size-Fits-All Is a Lie (And Deep Down, You Know It)
Let me say it louder for the folks in the procurement department: Your brand is not generic. Your customer journey isn’t plug-and-play. Your tech stack shouldn’t be either. And yet, agentic platforms are showing up with “universal workflows” and pre-scripted customer journeys that pretend all brands operate the same.
Here’s the problem: tools built to scale broadly often fail to adapt deeply. They prioritize engineering elegance over brand nuance. That’s great if you’re selling socks on Shopify. Not so much if you’re managing brand equity across 15 regions with conflicting regulations, legacy data and a stakeholder matrix that reads like a war map.
You don’t need a silver bullet. You need a resource who asks the right questions and adapts to your terrain.
Co-Creation or Bust: Take Back the Stack
If we want better outcomes, we need better conversations. Marketers can’t just be handed tech and told to “make it work.” We need to co-create.
That means:
Being part of the vendor selection process, not after the deal’s done.
Running real pilots with aligned metrics, not proof-of-concept purgatory.
Speaking the language of the business: outcomes, not impressions. Loyalty and advocacy, not just stopping at the conversion.
This also means saying no to the tools that don’t respect your context too. Yes to those that let your culture and creativity lead, no to one-size-fits-all copy cat solutions. Some startups creating products for marketing teams get this. I’ve seen early-stage founders who want marketers in the room shaping the roadmap. These are the companies you want to co-create with at this time. Grab those moments. Shape the future before it’s shrink-wrapped.
Still Standing? Epic. Here's How to Keep Going
You don’t need a 12-step program (although personal growth and positive quotient work will help you to better cope with all this change). You need a starting point. Here’s where to begin:
Audit your tools and your truth. What’s adding value? What’s just noise?
Pilot one new solution that fits your needs, not someone else’s roadmap. Push for customization. Push back on assumptions.
Create a “why this matters” narrative that ties brand work to business outcomes. Make it CFO-proof. Marketing is always faced with the MROI challenge - moving from a cost center to a revenue driving force.
Build a hype squad. Internally or externally. Just don’t go it alone. Marketing’s hard. Marketing now is harder.
Final Word: You’re Not Obsolete. You’re the Pulse and Your Tech Stack Shouldn’t Be Either
Here’s the truth they won’t say in the tech demos:
AI can help you work faster, but let’s be clear: it can’t feel. And I can’t say it loud enough, AI is not sentient. It can summarize your content, sure. But it can’t summon conviction. It can optimize a headline, but it can’t build a soul. And most importantly? It doesn’t know your brand unless you teach it.
The truth is, most of these models are trained on generic internet data. That means if you’re not injecting your own brand voice, values and context into the stack, you’re basically outsourcing your differentiation to a digital average. Congratulations, you just joined the sea of sameness.
But here’s the opportunity: the best marketers aren’t just using AI, they’re training it. They're feeding it brand guidelines, tone of voice libraries, customer insights, campaign history, product positioning, all the gold that makes your brand your brand.
Don’t just “prompt” it. Program it. Partner with it. Personalize it. Work with vendors who let you shape the output, not ones who force you into their prebuilt templates. Agentic flows should reflect your culture, not erase it.
Because the future of marketing isn’t generic. It’s yours, amplified. That’s your job. And it’s more valuable than ever.
So plant your feet. Catch your breath. And when the mosh pit surges again, move with it, have some fun in there. Not because you're told to, but because you know how to lead the rhythm forward.
Need help figuring out where to start, how to co-create with vendors, or how to make AI actually work for you? Let’s talk. I work with bold teams ready to lead, not just follow the algorithm. Let’s make marketing human again alongside all the machines.