Cubs vs. Cardinals. Yankees vs. Red Sox. Dodgers vs. Padres. Blue Jays vs. Mariners. Baseball season is all about rivalries (and hot dogs, of course). Right now, marketing’s got a rivalry of its own: AI vs. human content—although we admit it’s a lot less fun to watch. 

Every week brings a new AI tool promising to write your blogs, script your videos or generate your next viral post in ten seconds flat. But the data keeps telling a different story. Audiences are getting pickier, not looser, about what feels real. Nearly a third of consumers say they’re less likely to choose a brand with AI-generated ads, and sites like Pinterest have started rolling out settings that let users see less AI content altogether. The rivalry isn’t AI replacing humans. It’s brands figuring out how to use AI backstage while keeping a very human voice out front.

That battle is part of why we’re switching things up this month. We know not every business is on TikTok or Reels, and that’s okay. We believe in its value and will keep encouraging you to give it a shot, but we also want this blog to be useful no matter what platforms you’re on. 

Bowe Digital is here to help you hit your marketing out of the ballpark! So this month, you’re getting two trending ideas, plus two bigger marketing trends we think every business owner needs on their radar. If you need help getting started on TikTok, check out our TikTok ebook. We also offer Photo & Video Packages where our team will join yours to capture the people and places behind your brand. 

“Kinda Chic” Video Trend

If your feed has been full of captions that start with “kinda chic to…,” you’ve met this trend. It started back in April with posts about body confidence and self-acceptance, and it exploded by midsummer, even pulling in a Drew Barrymore post, “kinda chic to be in your 50s,” that racked up over 170,000 likes in four days.

The trend began as a way to flip “chic” onto unglamorous, human moments, but it’s since stretched to cover pretty much anything, like “kinda chic to actually use all your PTO” or “Kinda chic to order fries for the table.” That range is what makes it easy for businesses to borrow. A gym could post “kinda chic to sweat through your shirt at 6 a.m.” A contractor could do “kinda chic to still be covered in drywall dust.” Our team might say, “Kinda chic to participate in video trends.” (hint hint!) It takes almost no production, just a photo or video clip and the right caption. 

“Quiet on the Creek” Audio Trend

This one started as a total accident. Rapper Saucy Santana was on a TikTok Live talking about fishing as a kid and dropped the line, “You gotta be real quiet on the creek.” People started using the phrase to mean anything from “keep this between us” to “stay low-key,” and Santana leaned in, turning it into an actual song that’s now driving its own wave of content with this audio clip.

For businesses, you can use the audio to hint at something without fully spilling it: a soft product launch teaser, a “don’t tell everyone yet” sale, a sneak peek at a renovation before the big reveal or even an inside joke or insider info like this example, or this one.

Two Big Picture Trends to Watch

Trending sounds come and go, but these two shifts point to where marketing is headed long-term. Here’s what’s worth paying attention to.

AEO & GEO: Search Isn’t Just Google Anymore

You’ve spent years hearing about SEO. Now there’s AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), which basically means optimizing your content so AI tools like ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews and Perplexity can find it, understand it and use it to answer someone’s question, not just so it ranks on a search results page. Depending who you ask, they’re either two different disciplines or basically the same thing wearing two different name tags. Either way, more people are getting answers directly from AI tools instead of clicking through a list of blue links. As a result, traditional search volume is expected to keep dropping, and traffic that does come from AI tools is converting at a noticeably higher rate than regular Google traffic.

What that means for you: your website content, reviews and Google Business Profile need to be structured so AI tools can actually pull from them. Well-defined headings, direct answers to common questions, FAQ sections and up-to-date, accurate information all help. Backlinks matter less here than they used to. What these tools care about most is whether your content reads as credible, current and easy to extract a clean answer from. 

So, what’s the actual difference between AEO and GEO? AEO is about getting your content pulled into direct answer boxes and voice search results, so it’s still tied to search engines like Google and Bing. It’s just optimizing for the answer instead of a ranked list. GEO is more specifically about popping up in AI chatbot responses like ChatGPT and Perplexity. In practice, the tactics overlap almost entirely.

Trust Is Becoming the Real Differentiator

As online content gets faster and more automated, trust is becoming what actually sets businesses apart. Brands are putting real budget behind community management — engaging with comments and messages instead of just posting and moving on — because that back-and-forth builds the kind of trust an algorithm can’t fake. Real customer reviews, employee spotlights, before-and-afters and behind-the-curtain moments are outperforming polished, obviously produced content, plain and simple.

Here’s what to actually do with that: audit what you’ve got sitting in your inbox and camera roll right now. A five-star review, a customer’s unprompted thank-you text, a photo from a job site or office, a team member who’s been with you for a decade. That’s real marketing material, and it’s more persuasive than almost anything you could produce from scratch. Respond to every comment and DM like a real person is on the other end, because they are. Reply to reviews, good and bad. Show your team, not just your product. The businesses winning right now aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets; they’re the ones that feel the most real.

Take Bowe Digital’s website or social media pages, for example. You’ll see our faces all over them, and hopefully get a sense of who we are before you ever send us an email or make a call. This is no longer a blog written by a random person or bot, but a blog written by Kellie Carmichael (hi!), a Content Director and real person whose name you can put a face to.

Bonus: LinkedIn Is Betting Big on Vertical Video

LinkedIn isn’t only a place for text-heavy posts and job announcements anymore. The platform has rolled out a dedicated “Video” tab, and is actively boosting distribution for videos shot in that 9:16 vertical format, while square and horizontal videos are gradually getting deprioritized. As a result, total video viewership on LinkedIn is already up significantly year over year.

Key takeaways for your business:

• Vertical video (1080×1920) now gets a real reach advantage on LinkedIn, so if you’re repurposing a Reel or TikTok for the platform, don’t crop it down to square or landscape. 
• Quick tips, raw behind-the-scenes moments and talking-head videos tend to perform better here than heavily produced content.
• Because so few businesses are creating vertical content specifically for LinkedIn yet, there’s noticeably less competition here than on TikTok or Instagram right now, which makes it a good time to start.
• Videos still need captions. A large share of LinkedIn is watched on mute while people are scrolling at their desks, so don’t rely on audio alone to make your point.

How Bowe Digital Can Help

Trends move fast, and staying “kinda chic” on social media while also making sure your business shows up in AI search results is a lot to juggle on top of running your business. That’s where we come in. We offer custom social media services, website development and refreshes, content packages and more.

Ready to put a Bowe on it? Let’s talk. Email Raquel Fabian at Raquel@bowedigital.com.