The job of ‘cultural translator’ doesn’t belong to Gen Z. It belongs to everyone.
My recap of Mixing Board Live, powered by Axios. Plus the best explainer video on the meaning of 67 I've seen to-date.
This issue of Social Signals was written to Lil Jon’s new Remix Meditation album, featuring remixes of some of Lil Jon’s biggest hits as meditations (Yeah!, Get Low, Turn Down for What).
I did the math. I have 30 working days left in the office this year, and that number is even smaller if you factor in client travel and attending the Applied AI conference next month. This time of year goes QUICKLY, and the pace of the business, the industry, and the technology seems to be accelerating, right?
Last week I used Sora to create this State of TikTok video for Social Media Breakfast’s 150-person TikTok Trends panel, and I’ve been getting lots of feedback. I promise you it’s 100% created in A.I., and yes, if you know me you can tell. But if you don’t know me super well, you can’t always tell. This is our future. You can read my recap of the TikTok panel on LinkedIn here.
This week I was in Austin, Texas attending Mixing Board Live (more below) and nodding approvingly while my wife stocked up more than 200 full size candy bars so we can shower our neighborhood kids with good vibes and love tonight — no matter how old they are, if they have a costume, or what time they ring the doorbell. And no, we’re not handing out potatoes. Not this year.
Anyway, lots of signals to share this week. Let’s get into it! -Greg
🎃 Google’s Halloween Frightgeist
Google’s annual Frightgeist is live, using Google Trends search data to show the popular Halloween costumes both nationally and you can search by your location, too.
I didn’t have to check Google to know my entire neighborhood is going to be full of KPop Demon Hunters wearing winter coats, but this is always fun data!
🎃 Don’t Forget About the 1991 Halloween Blizzard
Do you remember the 1991 Halloween Blizzard? A few years ago I was lying in bed thinking about snow and how Minnesotans are obsessed with a big snowstorm back in 1991 and trick-or-treating in a blizzard. So I created a joke Facebook event and seeded it across the internet to reach a bunch of people - and it did…. and I didn’t even live here then!
Ultimately nearly 2,000 people RSVP’d to remind their friends about the famous Halloween Blizzard of 1991. It resulted in the above TV news clip from Jana Shortal at KARE-NBC above, and I did an interview with
on WCCO that I can’t seem to find the link for now. There were so many fun stories about wearing your winter coat under Halloween costumes that year, and what’s funny is I remember doing that a lot of years myself. Bundle up tonight - maybe it will snow!🙋♂️ The job of ‘cultural translator’ doesn’t belong to Gen Z. It belongs to everyone.
Just back from MB (Live) in Austin, where an incredible group of comms leaders, strategists, and operators came together to talk about where the function is headed. I’ve been part of Mixing Board, powered by Axios, for nearly five years now, and it’s always a highlight to gather with this group IRL each year to share knowledge, make connections, and challenge each other.
Axios wrote about it here, but here’s my recap of what stood out from the sessions in Austin, TX this week.
How They Built This: The Space Comms Playbook
We heard from Sara Blask (BlueOrigin) and Christine Choi (Virgin Galactic) about building communications strategies for the space race (just don’t call it that!!) and why breaking silos and building bridges between policy, product, and marketing creates more strategic impact.
By the Numbers: Data from Grammarly, The Harris Poll, and Axios HQ
We heard from Emily Inverso (Axios HQ), Abbey Lunney (The Harris Poll), and Stefanie Tignor (Grammarly) on new data shaping the future of communications. A key takeaway: comms teams that embed AI now are not only more efficient but also more influential. They described this moment as the “press release era” of AI, urging us to get in early.
Kerry Flynn x Lauryn and Michael Bosstick
We heard how creators are rewriting the rules of content, influence, and audience connection. Lauryn and Michael Bosstick unpacked the evolution of Dear Media, The Skinny Confidential, and why owning your voice, channel, and message matters more than ever.
The New Playbook for Comms Talent
We heard from Jen Byrne (Merit), Brook Kruger (KC Partners), and Gab Ferree (Off the Record) on the state of talent in our industry, the disappearing entry-level comms role and what that means for learning, mentorship, and diversity of thought. Key takeaway: Cultural translation is no longer a job for the youngest person in the room. It’s everyone’s responsibility now.
Eleanor Hawkins x Allison Ellsworth from Poppi
We heard about the power of founder-led storytelling from Allison of Poppi and the role of authenticity in brand building. In a fragmented media world, being the face of your brand can be a true differentiator.
AI-Powered Comms Teams
We did a workshop with in-house and agency leads on how they’re structuring AI ops inside comms, building custom workflows, and shifting from prompt engineering to product thinking.
Dan Bartlett from Walmart
We heard Dan Bartlett, EVP of Corporate Affairs at Walmart, describe how the company has restructured corporate affairs to ensure that public trust is considered at the strategy stage, not just in response. His bottom line: if you’re not showing up where the conversation is, you’re not in the conversation.
What’s Next: Communications in 2026
And the program ended with a panel discussion about the future of communications.
We heard Cristin Culver (Common Thread Communications) warn that as AI replaces foundational comms work, teams risk losing vital cultural perspective unless they invest in developing talent and staying connected to what’s happening outside the org.
We heard Hani Durzy (Red Dog Strategies) reframe crisis communications as opportunity communications, suggesting that controversy can sometimes be a useful tool to activate your base. We heard Taylor Griffin (Block) from Block highlight the importance of aligning message and messenger by mapping trusted voices across traditional, trade, and new media.
We heard Ryan Heath (Weber Shandwick) challenge teams to shift from using AI to building with it, encouraging comms leaders to rethink workflows, org design, and their own AI fluency. And we heard Lindsay McCallum from OpenAI share how AI is helping small teams scale messaging, test narratives, and better prepare for tough conversations.
Overall Takeaways from MB (Live) 2026:
AI isn’t replacing jobs. It’s replacing the ladder: Several speakers worried about what happens when early-career tasks disappear. If we don’t rethink training and mentoring, we lose future leaders and fresh cultural perspective. The AI era doesn’t just disrupt how we work, it disrupts how people enter the work.
Controversy is no longer a crisis. It’s a strategy (if you plan for it): What used to trigger PR damage control is now being used to energize a base. But it only works if it’s intentional. One speaker said getting the right people mad at you can be the most effective brand signal of all.
The new media map isn’t just about reach. It’s about resonance: Smart teams are building custom media maps that go beyond the “usual suspects” and prioritize credibility with niche audiences. Trust is now a function of context, not scale.
Founders are the face, but strategy is the signal: Founder-led storytelling works not just because it’s personal, but because it can embody the brand’s entire operating philosophy. It’s not about charisma; it’s about coherence.
AI is moving from experimentation to infrastructure: The shift isn’t about using tools. It’s about building workflows, assigning ownership, and even hiring for it. Teams that treat AI like a short-term hack will be left behind by those treating it like a long-term asset.
The job of ‘cultural translator’ doesn’t belong to Gen Z. It belongs to everyone: The function moves too fast for hierarchy. Translation needs to be real-time, organization-wide, and multidirectional. It’s no longer about top-down messaging; it’s about cultural pattern recognition.
Upon reflection, here are some terms that I didn’t hear that I expected to: TikTok, B2B influencers, Reddit, Roblox, employee-generated content, generative engine optimization, personal AI agents, smart glasses, or Generation Alpha. Hmmm…
Huge thanks to Sean Garrett, Eleanor Hawkins, Roy Schwartz, Alex Milevya, Maggie Shapiro, and the team who helped pull together such a great conference again this year! Proud to be part of this conversation, and even more excited about what comes next. -Greg
🚨 We’re Hiring!
We’re looking for a forward-thinking Head of Integrated Media to lead the next evolution of our media practice at FINN Partners. 👀
📢 See Greg Speak
University of Minnesota: Mastering Communications Leadership class lecture, Minneapolis, MN - December 9
Client Case Study Event - To be announced for December!
2026 Trends Keynote - To be announced for January!
Interested in me speaking at your event? Hit me up.
⚡️Social Signals
Snapchat shared gifting trends, with research showing shows that gifting is no longer reserved for holidays or birthdays. Gen Z and Millennials are embracing everyday moments, friendship, and self-love as reasons to celebrate year-round. Important signal here = self gifting!
Threads is now up to 150 million daily active users, rising from the 100 million DAU that Meta announced back in December, while Threads users are also spending more time in the app. I’m enjoying Threads more and more.
Meta’s Q3 Earnings Statement can be found here (PDF). Meta added 60 million more users this quarter and pulled in over $51 billion in revenue, proving it’s still a growth machine even as its core apps near saturation. But behind the numbers is a high-stakes AI and AR signal, with billions pouring into data centers and smart glasses that might someday replace your phone. The stock market didn’t like it, with Meta stock having its worst day in 3 years, dropping 11%. My Ray-Ban Displays will ship on 12/31.
Adobe came to MAX swinging with AI updates across the board including custom model training in Firefly to text-to-speech, soundtrack generation, and even early ChatGPT integration. Watch this TikTok to see some of the new features (h/t
).Meta promised AI would revolutionize ad creation, but marketers are seeing their sleek campaigns swapped for AI-generated weirdness like grinning grandmas and twisted limbs. Read more here: Meta’s AI tools are going rogue and churning out some very strange ads. Turns out when you give your budget to a black box, you might get back a fever dream instead of a conversion funnel. This is just an in-between phase signal.
These kids are trying to bring back jackass, and it’s both horrifying and wonderfully nostalgic to surf through their videos.
More Meta signals!? Meta is officially raising the bar on creative testing: if your ads look too similar, the algorithm will group and score them as one, meaning one weak link can tank the whole batch. This shift makes creative diversity a performance lever. Big signal here.
AI-generated music from Suno v5 is now nearly indistinguishable from human-made songs. In blind tests, listeners guessed wrong as often as they guessed right. See the data here.
There are no rap songs on Billboard’s Top 40 for the first time in 35 years. The last time that happened was the week of Feb. 2, 1990, when Biz Markie’s “Just A Friend” was sitting at #41. That was the early crossover era, seven months before Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” became the first rap song ever to top the singles chart.
Thread of the Week:
WTF is 67 of the Week: The LA Public Library has perhaps the best explainer in the world on the meaning of the 67 viral trend.
Insta of the Week: Things On My Nan, featuring a guy putting things on his grandma.
Tweet of the Week:
Halloween Stream of the Week: I have long maintained that Garfield’s Halloween Adventure is five times better than It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. For starters, it’s actually scary. Also, Charlie Brown bums me out. But there’s good news: you can stream the entire episode on YouTube!
Halloween Soundtrack of the Week: Dead Air curated by creative director Rachael Kemp.
Halloween Ambient Stream of the Week: For your big screen tonight, here is a three hour YouTube video of cozy fall jazz inspired by It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown with the clips from the animated special playing. Despite what I said about Charlie Brown above, this is perfect to put on in the background during your trick or treat festivities.
Keep going! ✨ See you on the internet!
Greg