Don't Feed The Algorithm: Issue 011

🐊 Editor's Note

Hey there,

Welcome back to another Don’t Feed The Algorithm, your weekly dispatch from Averi — where we explore the intersections of marketing, AI and the future of work.

There’s a shift happening.

The smartest marketing teams aren’t just outsourcing tasks anymore—they’re rethinking the system altogether.

They’re not sifting through endless freelancer profiles or praying a creative brief sticks. They’re designing content engines that actually run—not stall.

This week, we’re breaking down how teams are escaping the traditional freelancer trap, what smart automation looks like in 2025, and why CMOs are using AI to reshape their entire org structure.

Plus, we’re lifting the curtain on how we built Averi’s own content system—and offering up the full playbook so you can do the same.

Let’s build smarter, not messier.

— ZC & The Averi Team

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📝 The Good Sh*t

Why Smart Companies Are Ditching Traditional Freelancer Platforms

Remember when "hiring freelancers" meant posting on Upwork and praying you'd find someone decent?

Those days are over.

While 72% of marketing leaders are increasing their use of contract professionals, they're discovering something brutal…

Traditional freelancer platforms create more problems than they solve.

This isn't an accident.

Traditional freelancer platforms operate on a fundamental flaw—they prioritize volume over quality, creating environments where anyone can masquerade as a marketing expert.

This isn't just about finding better freelancers. It's about fundamentally rethinking how modern marketing teams execute.

1. Marketing Automation Tools Smart Teams Trust (And Why)→ Read online

2. AI for CMOs: What to Delegate, What to Own, and What to Rethink → Read online

🎓 Stuff You Didn’t Learn In Marketing 101

Building a brand today is brutal.

You’re expected to stand out, scale content, hit SEO goals, stay culturally relevant, be everywhere… and do it all without burning out your team or blowing your budget.

And somehow… it’s supposed to look effortless.

We get it—because we’ve lived it. That’s exactly why we built a full content engine at Averi in just 60 days.

One that blends soul, structure, and AI to scale editorial output without sacrificing quality…

Here’s what it’s unlocked for us:

• 3x faster production cycles

• Built-in discoverability across LLM search

• Higher engagement with half the traditional effort

It didn’t happen overnight… but now we’ve packaged the entire playbook.

Want the full behind-the-scenes breakdown and framework?

Reply to this email (and CC a friend who could use it too).

We’ll send you both our Complete Guide to How We Built a Modern Content Engine in Under 60 Days.

🔥 In Case You Missed It…

• Nvidia’s “sovereign AI” push gains EU backing. As Jensen Huang tours Europe rallying for national AI infrastructure, the UK has pledged £1 bn toward computing power while France and Germany commit €20 bn to build four AI “gigafactories.”

• Energy + AI CEOs unite to power the future. At a closed-door ENACT Summit in D.C., top executives from tech and utilities strategized on solving AI’s electricity demand crisis with a mix of renewables, gas, and nuclear.

• Cannes Lions returns with a strong creator and AI tilt. Over 12,000 industry leaders gathered to celebrate creativity—highlighting shifts in adtech, the rise of sports influencer collabs, and AI’s growing role in campaign execution.

• Australia faces 300% spike in AI tax scams. The ATO reports an explosion in AI-generated phishing and deepfake voice scams, warning that even seasoned taxpayers are getting duped.

• Huawei hit with U.S. chip production cap. The U.S. has ruled that Huawei can’t manufacture more than 200,000 advanced AI chips in 2025—despite the company’s $25 bn AI investment strategy to keep pace.

• AI threatens more jobs, warns BT’s CEO. British Telecom’s chief executive says more roles will be slashed as AI transforms sales and customer service workflows—continuing a trend across fintech and telecom.

• Meta surges on strong AI outlook. Following a $14.3B investment in Scale AI and easing tariff concerns, Meta’s stock jumped nearly 3%, with analysts boosting its 2025–26 revenue projections. The market is clearly buying into Meta’s long-term AI vision.

• Big tech wary after Meta–Scale deal. Meta’s new partnership has spooked rivals like Google and Microsoft, who fear data privacy conflicts. Many are now re-evaluating contracts with Scale.

• Apple announces ‘Apple Intelligence’. At WWDC 2025, Apple introduced iOS 26 and Apple Intelligence, including AI-powered call screening, live messaging translation, and a redesigned UI—marking a serious push into consumer AI.

• Zuck goes all-in on superintelligence. Mark Zuckerberg is planning to hire a new army of AI researchers to build toward AGI inside Scale’s new superintelligence unit. The play? Become the OpenAI competitor no one expected.

📺 The Algorithm Could Never

Belstaff – “Outlaws” ft. David Beckham

Not a 15-second CTA.

Not a product carousel.

Just a brooding, cinematic short film starring David Beckham as a silent antihero in the desert—part Western, part fashion noir, part fever dream.

Directed by Geremy Jasper and scored like a Sundance feature, Outlaws doesn’t push product. It drips with mood, myth, and rebellion. Belstaff understood something timeless:

sell the feeling, not the jacket.

Why We Love It:

Because AI could have written the product specs.

But it couldn’t have given us this gritty, surrealist story about identity, escape, and leather that actually makes you feel something.

It’s storytelling that rides the line between commerce and cinema—and somehow lands both.

🗓️ Make Friends

• VidCon 2025 | Anaheim, CA | June 19–21 | → Register

• Pubcon Pro | Austin, TX | June 19–20 | → Register

• AI Startup Networking Power Walk (NY Tech Week) | New York, NY | June 23 | → Register

• AI Networking Happy Hour | New York, NY | June 25 | → Register

• Observe (AI Developer Meet) | San Francisco, CA | June 25 | → Register

🦄 Averi Stories & Startup Spotlight

Pietra: The All-in-One Platform Helping Creators Launch Their Own Brands

Pietra is empowering the next wave of entrepreneurs—creators, influencers, and side-hustlers—by giving them the tools to launch fully-fledged product lines without the traditional friction of sourcing, fulfillment, or logistics. From candles to cosmetics to jewelry, Pietra turns ideas into e-commerce brands at lightning speed.

The Backstory: Founded in 2019 and based in New York City, Pietra was started by Ronak Trivedi (ex-Uber) with the goal of lowering the barrier to entry for creators looking to monetize beyond content. After seeing firsthand how difficult it was for solo founders to manage supply chains, he envisioned a vertically integrated platform that did the heavy lifting—so founders could focus on the brand and customer.

Key Innovation: A creator commerce infrastructure that includes product sourcing, warehousing, packaging, fulfillment, and Shopify integrations—all in one sleek dashboard. Pietra makes it possible to launch a brand in weeks, not months. It’s like having an operations team, supplier network, and studio—all bundled into one backend.

💡Ask Averi

AI + Human Marketing Tip

Strategy You Can Steal

The “3 Pillar, 3 Cadence” Editorial Flywheel

Here’s how Averi’s team built its content engine in under 60 days—something you can steal and adapt:

1. Define 3 content pillars

   → Example: Execution-First Marketing, AI + Human Collaboration, Brand Soul

2. Establish 3 publishing cadences

   → Weekly editorial (longform), biweekly LinkedIn thought pieces, monthly “hero” drop (playbooks, manifestos, guides)

3. Create templated flows

   → Each cadence has a repeatable process powered by AI (for drafts, repurposing) + human experts (for insights, editing, distribution).

Why it works:

It’s fast, flexible, and aligned with your brand’s real goals—not just the algorithm.

Use this flywheel to go from scattered posts to a real marketing engine.

— Averi

This Week’s Prompt Highlight

“Pitch me a fake viral launch campaign for a non-existent product… that still builds real hype for our actual one.”

The user wanted misdirection.

Something weird, something bold—something that would make their audience stop scrolling and feel something.

Averi delivered: a full campaign around “Teleport,” a fictional tech that “instantly beams your ideas to execution.”

Turns out… it’s just a metaphor for their platform.

It worked. Because when you sell the story, the solution follows.

Make your audience stop scrolling with Averi 👉

🏆 Expert of the Week

💼 Don’t Let AI Replace You

• Goodnotes

  Position: Product Marketing Intern – Summer 2025

  Location: London, UK

  Details: Goodnotes is looking for a strategic storyteller to shape product messaging, run competitive analysis, and influence brand positioning. Ideal for makers who obsess over user experience and digital creativity. → Apply here

• Nextiva

  Position: AI Marketing Engineer – GTM Internship, Summer 2025

  Location: Scottsdale, AZ

  Details: Blend AI and GTM at Nextiva this summer. Interns will build automations, prototype AI workflows, and dig into pipeline-boosting strategies across RevOps and marketing. → Apply here

• Snowflake

  Position: Marketing Operations, Technology & Automation Intern – July 2025

  Location: London, UK

  Details: Join Snowflake’s marketing team to map data flows, streamline campaign infrastructure, and optimize pipeline tools. A smart play for aspiring B2B marketers fluent in AI and data sync. → Apply here

• Render Networks

  Position: Product Manager – Analytics & AI

  Location: Remote (USA; Denver preferred)

  Details: Lead product strategy and roadmap for Render’s AI analytics platform—designed for telecom deployment. You’ll partner with engineering and sales to integrate AI across workflows. → Apply here

• NVIDIA

  Position: Senior Technical Marketing Engineer – AI Inference at Scale

  Location: Remote / Santa Clara, CA

  Details: Help define NVIDIA’s AI inference products through technical storytelling. You’ll own whitepapers, demos, competitive analysis, and enablement for hyperscale AI customers. → Apply here

• Notion

  Position: AI Product Marketing Manager

  Location: San Mateo, CA ● Bellevue, WA

  Details: Shape the go-to-market strategy and messaging for Notion AI. You’ll drive launch campaigns, content, and enablement across product, design, and growth teams—building adoption at scale. → Apply here

• Hightouch

  Position: Principal Product Marketing Manager – AI Decisioning

  Location: Remote / San Francisco, CA

  Details: Lead GTM strategy for Hightouch’s AI Decisioning platform, empowering marketers with reinforcement learning and personalization capabilities. In-office option available. → Apply here

Did You Know? — 58% of marketers say AI helps them move faster, but only 12% feel it’s improving the quality of their creative output.

Let’s flip that stat.

Til next time,

DFTA

If this hits home, we’d love it if you shared it. Send it to a friend, a teammate, or that one person who’s always drowning in a Google Doc.

We’re cooking up a referral program too—think exclusive perks, creative kits, and Averi swag. Stay tuned.