Edition 101.

AI gets love from small businesses, Heinz makes a stretch for game day, and HubSpot gives us a new marketing “loop” to think through.

5 brand bytes to inform and inspire you this week:

1. 81% are excited about AI, but...

New survey data, in partnership with PayPal and Google, shows that 81% of small business owners are “excited about AI,” but only 47% use it daily. Translation: we’re AI-curious, but not fully AI-committed. Small businesses are using it where the payoff is immediate: marketing content, research, operations, and day-to-day efficiency. For example, 70% say it helps them work more efficiently. But despite the efficiency, there’s hesitation. Cost sensitivity, data privacy, tool trust, and the learning curve are among the top reasons keeping many owners from going all in.

The takeaway: Main Street doesn’t just need more AI tools. It needs AI that feels usable, affordable, and trustworthy.

2. Useful for brands, unproven for taste

AI can write the caption. But can it read the room? While AI helps small businesses move faster, industry context matters. In fashion and beauty, where the sale depends on taste and trust, Vogue Business finds that consumers are still side-eyeing the machine. Only 2% of respondents “always” use AI chatbots while shopping. And in these taste-driven categories, only 8% trust AI chatbots over influencer recommendations, while 49% trust neither.

The takeaway: AI can help the beauty or fashion founder draft the email, brainstorm the launch, and tighten the product page. But taste, identity, fit, and feeling still need a human filter. Paging Miranda.

3. Heinz plays the proximity game

The price of proximity is high. And this legacy ketchup brand is willing to pay. Kraft Heinz saw fourth quarter revenue dip 3.38% year over year, and executives say they plan to “better implement marketing initiatives.” So, Heinz became the NFL’s “first-ever global condiment partner” and, during this past week’s NFL Draft, played up the bottle’s most famous number: 57, by teaming up with Devin Hester, the 57th pick from the 2006 NFL Draft. Yes, a draft from 20 years ago. Quite the leap. But that’s also the bet: turn their packaging number into football lore, and make sure Heinz is somewhere (anywhere) near America’s biggest sports moments.

The takeaway: Nobody’s chugging ketchup during the fourth quarter (unless you have the actual keg). The tomato-rich condiment shows up with the burger, the fries, the hot dog, the watch-party spread. But attention is premium, and the NFL commands it. Heinz isn’t trying to be the main event. It’s buying a seat close enough to the table.

4. The brand exhale

After my latest brand shoot, I entered what I can only call a creative fog. The adrenaline of producing it, plus the anxiety of waiting for edits, made it hard to see clearly for a few weeks. But then I stepped away. Came back to my files. And realized: “whoa, this is exactly what I wanted.” Vision, captured. (Thank you, shot lists.) Mission accomplished.

The lesson? Sometimes, the smartest brand move is the *pause* after the push. Don’t move so fast that you forget to recognize the work actually worked.

Tap to see some creative receipts from the Spoken Flames brand shoot 😉 (heads up: this opens in TikTok)

5. New (marketing) term in town

HubSpot is calling it “Loop Marketing,” a new four-phase framework built for customer journeys in an AI world. But why “loop marketing?” Because brand discovery is no longer happening through traditional, predictable channels. Modern marketing is fast and fluid. And, during my research, the stat that made me worry most? Only 51% of marketers say their brand has a clear, documented unique value proposition. That’s barely *half* of brands knowing why they exist, while hopping into AI with prompts asking the bots for brand direction 😱 So, I’m gathering the stats and dissecting this “loop” framework. Because even with all the prompts in your back pocket, AI should *supplement* your brand vision, not steer it. I’ll explain.

More brand bytes next Sunday at 5!