Hey Spooky Strategists,
Happy Halloween! And more importantly, happy (almost) Election Day!
If you're in Brooklyn tonight and you see a tiny voting booth walking around Brooklyn, that's my son James. Last Saturday he was a Grateful Dead bear. Tonight he's democracy in action. This is called "range."
Between these two costumes, James spent Tuesday through Thursday home sick with a double ear infection and a fever. Which means Maddie and I spent three days tag-teaming calls while passing a feverish toddler back and forth like the world's most stressful relay race.
You haven't lived until you've muted yourself on a client call to whisper "it's your turn, he wants you" across the apartment.
To maintain what remains of our collective sanity, Linus (the dog) became our excuse to leave the house. I took him for a run in what can only be described as a monsoon. Then James felt well enough for a walk, so the four of us trudged through the park in another torrential downpour because apparently fresh air cures everything?
Maddie also braved the deluge for Linus's evening constitutional because we're nothing if not committed to our dog's bathroom schedule.
By last night, my brain felt like one of those toy monkeys with the cymbals: just clapping away mindlessly in my skull. Clang clang clang.
But hey, James is back at daycare today (praise be), Maddie and I can take calls without strategic handoffs, and I'm writing this newsletter like a semi-functional adult human.
Oh, and remember last week when I promised you Session 2 of my riveting 5-part consulting series?
Yeah, about that...
Google just dropped Pomelli and honestly, I need to talk about it because it's either the future of marketing or my personal unemployment notice. (Spoiler: probably both.🙊)
What The Hell (spooky) Is Pomelli?
Picture this: You give it your website URL. That's it. Just the URL.
And then this AI psychoanalyzes your brand like it's trying to write your origin story.
It extracts your:
Logo (obviously)
Fonts (down to the kerning, probably)
Colors (including that weird teal you regret)
Brand values (yes, even the aspirational ones you don't live up to)
Tone of voice (hopefully not "desperate startup energy")
Then it spits out complete ad campaigns. Not just ideas. Full campaigns. With headlines, imagery, CTAs the whole shebang.
And here's the kicker: the UI is actually really intuitive. Like, suspiciously intuitive. You can edit headlines, adjust fonts, change colors, tweak descriptions, all without breaking the design. Everything's right there where you'd expect it to be. No 47-page tutorial required.
And people are BUZZING.
The Part Where I Should Be Worried
I watched this thing create Olipop ads that looked... good? Like, actually good? Not "oh that's impressive for AI" good. Just good.
It understands aspect ratios for different platforms (feed posts vs. stories). It lets you edit things without breaking the entire design. It maintains brand consistency while you tweak.
You know what that sounds like? My job description. 😅
But Here's The Catch (There's Always a Catch)
After playing with it myself (between strategic toddler handoffs and administering children's Tylenol), here's what I found:
The Good:
Brand DNA extraction is genuinely impressive
The UI is shockingly intuitive: no learning curve
Perfect for small businesses who can't afford a design team (yet)
Great for rapid ideation and testing
Editing features are surprisingly robust
The campaigns actually look... professional?
The "Meh":
Still pretty template-y if we're being honest
Limited editing features (for now)
One ad template (though they'll probably fix this by next Tuesday)
For regulated industries like pharma? Not quite there yet (no ISI, compliance features, etc.)
It would also occasionally make up products (see below):
How To Actually Get The Best Out Of This Thing
Okay, real talk: This isn't a "set it and forget it" miracle tool. You still need to do the work.
The prompting matters. A lot. You'll need to guide it toward the right messaging, the right tone, the right campaign angle. It's not going to magically know your Q4 strategy or understand why you're pivoting away from that messaging you used last quarter.
BUT—and this is a big but—all the small, tedious stuff?
The stuff that typically requires a brief, a handoff to designers, three rounds of revisions, and a Slack thread that somehow spans 47 messages?
That's getting automated.
Here's what I'm realizing: A creative strategist could potentially go from concept to final static without ever writing a creative brief or handing anything off to an editor. You prompt, you iterate, you refine, you're done.
Which means more time for the actual cool creative thinking. More time for strategy. More time for the stuff that actually matters and can't be automated (yet).
Think of it like this: Pomelli handles the "make it look good and on-brand" part. You handle the "what should we say and why should anyone care" part.
That's actually... kind of the perfect division of labor?
What You're Missing By Ignoring This
Let's be blunt: While you're still doing things the old way, someone else is:
Testing 10 campaign variants in the time it used to take you to brief one
Iterating on creative in real-time based on what's working
Spending their time on strategy instead of chasing down designers for revision #4
Actually shipping campaigns instead of waiting in production queues
And they're learning. They're figuring out what works with these tools. They're building that muscle memory.
Meanwhile, you're... what? Waiting for it to get better? Waiting for someone to write the definitive guide? Waiting for it to be "ready"?
It's ready enough. And every day you wait is a day you're not learning how to use it effectively.
How To Start Using This Today (Like, Actually Today)
Here's your homework (and I'm being serious):
Go to http://labs.google/pomelli right now - Not tomorrow. Not "when you have time." Now. It takes 5 minutes.
Start with your own website - See what it pulls. Is the brand DNA accurate? What did it miss? What did it nail? This tells you what to review and refine for any brand.
Generate one campaign - Pick something simple. A holiday promotion. A product launch. Whatever. Just make one thing start to finish.
Try to break it - Push the boundaries. See where it fails. See where it excels. This is how you learn the edges of what's possible.
Do this weekly - Seriously. Pick one thing per week to make with Pomelli. Build the habit. Build the intuition.
The goal isn't to become a Pomelli expert. The goal is to understand what AI-assisted creative production feels like so you can adapt as these tools evolve (and they will evolve, fast).
My Actual Take
Here's the thing: Pomelli isn't going to replace strategy. It's not going to replace creativity. It's not going to replace understanding your customer so well you can predict their next Google search.
But derivative assets? Templated social content? The fourteenth variation of an ad for A/B testing?
Yeah, that's toast.
And honestly? Good.
Because if you hired me to make "campaign variant #47 but make the button blue," I was already dead inside.
What This Actually Means
The value is shifting (fast) from "I can make things" to "I know what to make and why."
Tools like Pomelli are basically saying: "Great! You know what to make! Now let ME make it while you go do the actual thinking part."
And I'm... kind of here for it?
Maybe that's the fever talking. (Wait, that was James, not me.)
The Bottom Line
If you're a small business owner doing your own marketing, Pomelli is probably about to become your new best friend.
If you're a designer or marketer who specializes in templated derivative work... maybe start learning about strategy?
And if you're me, writing this newsletter while my brain still sounds like a cymbal-clapping monkey... well, at least I'll have time to finally start that pottery hobby.
Till next time,
Will
P.S. Yes, we'll get back to the consulting series next week. Unless another AI tool drops and ruins my life. Which, let's be honest, is entirely possible.
P.P.S. If you're in NYC, please vote! My son is literally dressed as a polling booth in solidarity. Do it for James!