Likely Marketing

Exploring possibilities in Marketing.

Likely Marketing is a business podcast hosted by Shivendra Lal, with 154 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Shivendra Lal hosts Likely Marketing, a business show with 154 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #156

  #156: AI comedy is revealing what audiences really want from marketing

  Sep 28, 202619 minS4

  AI comedy is revealing something marketers may be missing about how audiences really feel about AI. As comedians mock overconfident chatbots, use AI to create material, or bring it into live performances, AI has become a shared cultural reference point. But the audience response isn't simply pro-AI or anti-AI. People are curious, skeptical, entertained and increasingly comfortable with AI, while still valuing human judgment, personality and authenticity. This episode explores the emerging world of AI comedy marketing through three roles AI plays in comedy: the target of the joke, a creative assistant and a performance partner. Across all three, the human remains central. For marketers, AI-aware comedy offers a way to listen to cultural sentiment, understand where audiences welcome automation and where they still expect a human hand. The opportunity isn't to chase AI comedy as a trend, but to understand what it reveals: AI can generate the material, but human judgment decides what is worth saying. (00:00) Intro (01:10) The audience as a position on AI (04:27) AI plays three roles in comedy (10:00) What this pattern reveals about the audience (12:37) Where does opportunity sit for brands and marketers? What strategies can they adopt? (16:24) The actual product being sold in AI-aware comedy is judgment

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  Episode #155

  #155: Why collectibles are changing the way brands think about marketing

  Sep 21, 202615 minS4

  A Starbucks bear-shaped cup sells out in hours. A Labubu blind box turns opening a package into a ritual. LEGO brings adults back to childhood. What looks like a toy or Gen Z trend reveals something deeper: people collect to express identity, find belonging, reconnect with nostalgia and participate in a story. This episode explores collectible marketing and how brands turn ordinary products into objects of identity, community and social currency. From Starbucks and Pop Mart to LEGO and trading cards, we look at how story, scarcity, technology, channels and communities come together to create a collectible ecosystem. But the lesson isn't to make products scarce. Technology doesn't create the desire to collect. It simply makes participation faster and more visible. The real question is whether a brand is serving a genuine human need or manufacturing hype. (00:00) Intro (01:05) The behaviour shift behind collectibles (03:52) How brands have built a strategy around them? (06:49) The tech layer needed to execute the collectibles strategy (10:46) Choosing the right channel and community strategy is important (12:27) Recollecting it all

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  Episode #153

  #153: AI watermarking: The trust shift marketers can’t ignore

  Sep 7, 202616 minS4

  AI is making content faster than ever. But as the internet fills with AI-generated images, videos, audio and text, a bigger question is emerging: what can we trust? That’s where AI watermarking for marketers enters the picture. In this episode of Likely Marketing, we explore how AI watermarking works, from C2PA’s digital provenance to invisible markers such as SynthID, and why AI companies, search engines and social platforms are moving toward greater transparency. But will watermarking affect SEO, AEO, GEO or social reach? And should marketers see it as a threat? We look at AI slop, deepfakes, model collapse, disclosure rules and the future of content discovery, before asking the bigger question: can marketers use AI for speed while preserving human judgment, experience and original perspectives? AI watermarking may not determine content quality, but it could make transparency a critical part of how brands build trust. (00:00) Intro (00:44) What is AI watermarking? (05:08) Why is AI watermarking suddenly important? (07:37) Does AI watermarking impact AEO, SEO and social media marketing? (10:26) Get ahead of AI watermarking, not caught out by it (12:42) Finding the right mix of human-AI strategy

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  Episode #152

  #152: AI anthropomorphism: From mascots to human-AI relationships

  Aug 31, 202616 minS4

  What happens when technology stops merely looking human and starts feeling like someone we know? AI anthropomorphism has evolved from ELIZA and friendly mascots to AI that can speak with warmth, remember us, personalize interactions, apologize, collaborate and even act on our behalf. Advances in language models, voice synthesis, memory, avatars and AI agents are moving anthropomorphism from branding into the product experience. And as a result, they’re changing how people relate to technology. But the more human AI feels, the greater the expectations and risks. A warm voice can build trust. Memory can create continuity. An AI “companion” can suggest a relationship. Yet behind these experiences is still a machine generating responses. This episode explores what AI anthropomorphism means for marketers, and why the future of human-AI relationships will depend on balancing relatability and authenticity with transparency, responsibility and human judgment. (00:00) Intro (00:57) Early AI that tried to look human (02:34) The tech that built up on previous knowledge (04:52) AI is taking anthropomorphism from mascots to relationships, in layers (12:51) Striking the fine balance between anthropomorphism and human judgment

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  Episode #151

  #151: How anthropomorphism in branding makes brands human

  Aug 24, 202612 minS4

  Why do we talk to our cars, thank machines, or feel guilty interrupting a robot vacuum? We know they aren't human. Yet, for a moment, we treat them as if they are. That instinct is called anthropomorphism. It is our tendency to give human traits, emotions and intentions to things that aren't human. And long before AI, brands had already learned how powerful it could be. From the Michelin Man and Mr. Peanut to Tony the Tiger, Hello Kitty and GEICO's gecko, brands turned ordinary products and abstract categories into characters people could recognize, relate to and remember. Technology brands followed, using smiling computer faces, friendly voices and characters like Clippy to make intimidating machines feel more approachable. But here's the fascinating part: these brands didn't need AI to make machines and products feel human. They only needed the right human cues. We supplied the rest. Explore the psychology, history and power of anthropomorphism in branding, and how brands learned to make the inhuman feel human. (00:00) Intro (01:13) What is anthropomorphism? (02:38) The psychology behind anthropomorphism (04:57) A few 20th century examples of anthropomorphism (07:42) How early tech brands adopted this playbook (10:06) Faces without minds…

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