Your Video Isn’t Bad, It’s Just Forgettable. How Do Brands Break Through?

Artificial intelligence has made video faster, cheaper, and a whole lot more forgettable. So how do you stand out? Justin Liszanckie, Head of Accounts at The Break, and Jonathan English, CEO of Venture Videos, addressed this question at Ideas on Tap, a recent event at Open Canopy in Redwood City, California. Here were the key takeaways:

1. We’re Living in a Storm of Slop

The conversation opened with a blunt diagnosis: the vast majority of video content today is forgettable, and AI is a major reason why. Jonathan described it as a “storm of slop.” The term slop was selected as Merriam-Webster’s 2025 Word of the Year, meaning “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.”

The data they shared backed it up: mentions of “AI slop” increased 9x in 2025, reaching 2.4 million references. More significantly, 62% of consumers report being less likely to engage with or trust content they know was AI-generated. Case in point, in Germany, a McDonald’s Christmas ad was quickly pulled after significant backlash because it felt overly fake when viewers expected warmth and authenticity.

Jonathan argued that the root cause of AI slop is the removal of the content bottleneck. AI has created pressure that pushes brands toward volume over quality, eroding trust in the process. “You’re trading brand equity for speed and efficiency,” Jonathan put it bluntly.

2. Slow Down and Start with the Basics

The antidote isn’t a new tool or a bigger budget. It’s returning to fundamentals that the race to produce has caused many teams to skip. The 5 Cs framework — Company, Customers, Competitors, Collaborators, and Context — is a strong foundation for video marketing strategy. Where does your brand sit in the competitive landscape? Who are you actually talking to? What emotional territory is unclaimed? These aspects should come before a single frame is shot.

3. A Rational Process Produces Emotional Results

Great emotional storytelling comes from a disciplined, rational process — not a whimsical, creative one. To quote organizational psychologist Adam Grant, “You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you sink to the level of your systems and processes.”

In practice, this means starting every project with a creative brief, not just a vague request for “a video.” Both Venture Videos and The Break use a brief to go deep on audience understanding, establish emotional triggers, and streamline messaging. “No human is going to remember 15 different messaging points,” Jonathan said. “And it just erodes the video.”

From there, it’s important to map the narrative arc — planning the emotional journey from tension to resolution before scripting begins. The goal is always to take a viewer from Point A to Point B , and to feel that journey rather than just understand it intellectually; that’s ultimately what drives buyer behavior.

4. Pushing Creativity with Video Brand Guidelines

Good video brand guidelines create a “safe place to play.” Done well, and they establish consistency across a brand’s content while accelerating the creative process by clarifying where the boundaries are. But the sweet spot is a framework that enables experimentation while maintaining coherence; guidelines that become overly prescriptive can ultimately shackle creativity.

Marketers should build them from the ground up, not impose them top-down. You can start by doing the work, seeing what resonates, and then codify what’s performing. Guidelines must also evolve as new techniques are discovered and the brand grows.

5. Human Stories Are the Hardest Thing to Fake

Jonathan has predicted there will be an increasing demand for authentic, human-centric content. It’s the one thing AI can’t replicate convincingly. Customer success stories, documentary-style content, and videos built around real people being vulnerable are outperforming everything else.

One example was an internal communications video for BDO, featuring real employees speaking openly about their experiences with racism — it ended up becoming their best-performing content on LinkedIn. The second was a film for Experian, shot in the favelas of São Paulo, documenting how the company’s product helped people escape crippling debt. These are genuine stories that customers can relate to.

6. AI Does Have a Role in Video Marketing

If you have a well-defined process, AI can safely accelerate the production of memorable videos. Practically speaking, marketers can use LLMs to research audience sentiment and pain points, leverage AI voiceover tools like ElevenLabs to time scripts and test pacing before committing to a full recording session, and utilize AI storyboard generators to iterate on visual concepts quickly.

7. The One Thing AI Can’t Replace

It’s taste: the nuanced, human judgment developed via experience, observation, and feedback. For Venture Videos, “clients get in touch because they look at our portfolio and they see good taste — and that’s a human ability.” 

Taste is the antidote to AI slop; having it, maintaining it, and being decisive when yielding it is what ultimately builds genuine trust with audiences.

Meet the Speakers

Justin Liszanckie leads business development, project operations, and client management as Head of Accounts at The Break. Deeply committed to ensuring seamless collaboration between clients and The Break’s creative team, he’s helped a diverse range of organizations solve complex marketing challenges and stand out with bold, creative-forward solutions.

Thriving at the intersection of strategy and creativity, Justin guides projects from concept to execution, driving impactful results that make waves — all while firmly focused on fostering strong, long-lasting relationships that keep happy clients coming back.

Jonathan English is the CEO and Founder of Venture Videos, a strategy-led agency dedicated to helping tech brands escape the “sea of sameness.” UK-based but operating on a global scale, Jonathan has spent over 20 years partnering with companies across the growth spectrum, from fast-scaling Series A startups to global enterprises including Amazon, Microsoft, TSMC, and Workday.

Leading a team that excels in both film and animation, Jonathan specializes in video strategies that transform complex technical products into high-impact visual narratives. He is a vocal advocate for human-centric storytelling in the age of AI. Jonathan frequently warns that while speed and pace are now paramount, the rush to deliver fast often leads to a dilution of outcomes. He works with brands to ensure their content isn’t just another generic asset.