There’s plenty of chatter in the marketing world about artificial intelligence making humans redundant. The reality is a little more nuanced, and here’s why: machine learning is looking backwards at what’s already out in the world—not determining what’s going to resonate in the future.
Generative AI can be a solid exploration partner and efficiency tool in the creative craft, but depending solely on AI makes creative derivative. Everything is starting to look the same.
So how do you stay ahead of the curve?
One, you have a clear vision for your brand—you’ve found the gap in the market and defined the space you’ll own to answer it.
Two, that vision is actually connected to culture. I’m not just talking about trends—connecting to culture takes a deeper understanding of the values and behaviors that shape those trends in the first place.
Brand relevance starts with connection. And while AI can summarize what we liked, it’s up to actual humans to invent what we’ll love next.
Here’s how to stay original and future-proof your brand:
1. Start with your own sense of taste
Let’s be clear: “good taste” is subjective, and that’s the beauty of it. Creatives have a unique ability to impact culture by staying curious about subtle shifts and challenging what’s popular.
Focus on understanding what you like and what you don’t, and most importantly, learn how to articulate why you feel that way. In my own process, I stumbled across an artist slash professor slash cyberethnologist (which then led me down a deep-dive into digital ethnology), and they sum it up perfectly:
“Act in ways opposite to your instinct. If you hate something, find out more about it. Again ask. ‘What is this?,’ ‘Who made this?,’ ‘Who is this for?’ Genuinely. Never stop doing this.”
—Ruby Justice Thelot
To grow a brand that has cultural relevance, you have to constantly develop your own sense of taste.
See a band you’ve never heard of. Read a good magazine or a coffee table book cover-to-cover—because print is where you find the stuff not everybody has access to. Lean into lo-fi and give yourself permission to make work that’s messy and human and honest.
That friction prevents everything from turning into AI munge.
2. Make purpose your playbook
Cultural relevance comes from more than one source. Every member of your team should be empowered to bring their own perspective to the table. Give them clear guardrails, and they’ll have more freedom to do just that.
Monday will always advocate for getting to the heart of your brand’s “what, how and why.” It’s the framework that guides your entire brand architecture, including the positioning that tells your audience what you stand for (and what you don’t), the shared language you use to talk about it—even visual cues like the wordmark and color palette that ladder back to your purpose.
Having structure gives your team creative license to play outside the lines. They can jump into a niche aesthetic or viral audio without damaging your reputation because they’ve internalized the playbook—and can spot a trend that aligns your values with the zeitgeist.
Case in point: the social team behind kids’ cartoon Max & Ruby hit TikTok with congratulations “from one Bad Bunny to another” after Benito’s big Grammy wins.
That play on words created comedic friction, but it also makes sense when you consider the audience; the kids who watched Max & Ruby growing up are probably listening to Bad Bunny today.
Another great example: Merriam Webster’s 12th edition Collegiate Dictionary announcement.
The brand has spent years cultivating a voice that’s clever, timely and full of personality—so when they framed the release as their “new Large Language Model,” it landed like a perfectly-timed inside joke. They found their way into the LLM conversation while staying consistent with their character and reinforcing Merriam Webster as the original authority on language.
For a masterclass in being (as the youth would say) extremely online, look no further than Little Spoon. On My Best Campaign, their Chief Brand Officer breaks down some of the brand’s big swings and the resulting viral content.
3. Stay connected to community
A clear worldview gives your audience something to believe in beyond product. Making people feel seen or inspired goes a lot further than a sale—when you connect on a personal level, you transform customers into a like-minded community.
But truly great brands know that just having a big following isn’t enough—genuine relationships are what actually move the needle. Followers are spectators. Communities are participants.
I watched this play out when Olipop called out competing soda brand Poppi for an exorbitant influencer vending machine stunt. Olipop read the room, and the room was majorly fatigued with influencer marketing—so they doubled down with PR boxes aimed at average consumers.
It was a strategic move, but it didn’t feel like one—because the brand prioritized people over paid engagement.
Taste is knowing what you care about. Cultural relevance comes from listening to what your audience cares about (ideally before it becomes a PR crisis), so get just as curious about their likes and dislikes as you are about your own.
Remember that “cyberethnology” rabbit hole I ended up in? In simple terms, cyber or digital ethnology means studying human behavior in online environments. Social listening, UX research, journey mapping—there are a ton of technical tools you can use to gather those insights, but they all share a deeply human goal: emotional connection.
You can’t automate that quite yet.
Looking for new ways to make your brand stick? Connect with some creative humans.