The Content Dump, Vol 2: Doing It For The Plot
Lessons in how to get activations and stunt marketing right.
Welcome to The Content Dump, our weekly round-up of the brands, campaigns and content weāve been loving this week. Every Sunday, weāll be curating the content moments you need to know about ā ready to inspire you to create some magic in the week ahead.
This week, The Content Dump is coming to you from London. Iām wrapping up an epic four-week trip across Europe and the UK (would highly recommend visiting in spring!), so expect a few reccos inspired by my travels across London and beyond.
Side note: Iām editing this after 24 hours on a plane (what day is it again?), so apologies in advance for any sneaky typos that slip through, too.
Okay, letās dive in. āØ
šļø From The Headlines
ā Will AI lead to more āproof of realityā posts? According to social media consultant Rachel Karten, the answer is a resounding āyesā
More brands are using AI to generate content than ever before, especially on insatiable social media platforms. Some AI-generated posts are easier to spot than others. Take this post from SET Active, one of the most liked Instagram posts in March 2025.
Itās made entirely using AI, and many followers didnāt notice. Itās an example of high-quality AI content production. The post feels curated, considered and on-brand ā no missing fingers or stray pixels here.
In a recent edition of her Substack, Link In Bio, Rachel Karten argues that the use of AI wonāt be the biggest trend on social media, but the reaction to it will be.
āWith this, weāll see a rise in what I am calling āproof of realityā postsāvideos, images, and captions that clarify how specific creative was made.ā
Thereās no right or wrong when it comes to using AI-generated content. But this newsletter makes an important point: transparency is key to trust. Customers donāt want to be fooled or set up for unrealistic expectations. And if youāre going to use AI, itās worth thinking about how you can use it as a tool to improve or evolve your creative ideas, not replace them altogether.
š Founder Spotlight
ā Anna Mackenzie sets the bar for strategically repurposing content (and carving out a niche as a thought leader)
Weāve all heard that we should be āØ repurposing content āØacross platforms. But what does that actually mean in practice?
Weāve been loving the example startup advisor, mentor, and writer Anna Mackenzie has been setting ā and hereās why.
Annaās Substack is the home of her content efforts. Each week, she ships a thoughtful newsletter for āthose who have exited (or want to exit) the 9-5 and build a portfolio career at the intersection of freedom, creativity, meaning and moneyā.
Everything she writes is centred on this topic. In fact, sheās coined a name for it: A Portfolio Career.
Now, every aspect of her online presence harmoniously sings from the same hymn sheet. Her daily LinkedIn posts slice and dice up her latest Substack newsletter, and her TikTok videos break down the best bits of her writing and turn it into share-worthy, bite-sized soundbites.
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Anna doesnāt need to come up with seven new ideas to show up daily on LinkedIn or TikTok. She just needs to write one great piece of content per week (her Substack newsletter) and strategically repurpose this each and every week.
Itās all about squeezing the most juice from the content youāre already creating. š§
š P.S. If youāre looking for a newsletter that will inspire you to show up online as a multi-passionate and how to build a portfolio career, subscribe to Anna Mackās Stack.
š Ideas To Swipe
ā London Underground is taken over by Australian sushi animals ā and why stunt marketing still works
ICYMI: Rolled is āthe UKās first Aussie-style sushi brandā. While itās the go-to mid-week lunch for many Aussies, itās hard to find these handrolls abroad. Until now.
The brand in itself is worth talking about. But what weāve really been loving is a stunt theyāve been pulling recently across the London Underground.
To celebrate the launch of Rolledās first Central London store in St. Paul's, a tribe of Aussies dressed in Aussie animal masks took to the tube to create a viral moment.
As JJ Miller, Rolledās Marketing Manager, shared on LinkedIn:
āMy goal for this announcement video was simply ācreate something impossible to look away fromā. Keeping it tasteful and on-brand, I landed on a marsupial takeover of the Underground.ā
What we love about stunts like this is that any brand (no matter how big or small) can pull this off. The key to getting this right is to ensure all offline IRL activity is easily captured, shared and amplified online ā giving your brand a bank of content you can repurpose and leverage for weeks to come.
ā Speaking of activations and insight-led partnerships, Blank Street Coffee launches Blank Studio TATTOO! Studio
Can you tell our founder has just been to London? š¬š§š
In a similar vein, we loved this IRL activation from the team at Blank Street (a coffee-house chain with stores across the US and UK) who recently teamed up with The London Social to launch a walk-in-only tattoo studio in Kings Cross, offering free (real or temporary) line tattoos and iced coffee or matcha.
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It might look like a random alignment, but this activation is rooted in strategy and customer insights. As the UK heads into summer, Blank Street are leaning into the ādo it for the plotā mindset that their Gen Z customers would be very familiar with.
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From the aesthetic, mint green store to facilitating a highly shareable moment (getting an impulsive tattoo), the Blank Street team continue to make their brand relevant to a chronically online audience.
The takeaway? Ensure activations and partnerships are designed with your ideal customer in mind and create opportunities for your audience to talk about your brand online (without pushing sales or discounts codes down their throats).
š«¶š» Who To Follow
ā Process The Podcast teaches us the art of slowing down and creating a sustainable content schedule
Thereās no shortage of business-related podcasts out there. But weāre low-key obsessed with Process The Podcast, where founder Arielle Thomas speaks with guests from all creative disciplines and bridges the gap between art and commerce.
While we adore her recent interviews with Bree Johnson (Frank Body and Willow and Blake) and Sara Crampton (The Undone), weāre obsessed with Arielleās latest Petite episode: One step back, two steps forward.
Essentially, Arielle jumps on the mic for a very candid conversation about why sheās changing from weekly to fortnightly episode releases for Process and how sheās intentionally scaling back in order to strategically scale up ā backed by the right resourcing, team and partners.
In the world of content creation, publishing more isnāt necessarily the answer to growth. Instead, itās about putting the right support structures in place to ensure you can show up consistently, be strategic with what youāre posting and ensure youāre repurposing effectively to get the most out of every piece of content youāre creating.
And thatās a wrap! See you next Sunday for another dose of all things content. āØ