How to Go Viral – The Science Behind Content that Spreads
Release Date: 07/11/2025
How to Fix AI Slop: Better Context, Stronger Brands and the Return of Human Judgement with Pacey.ai
The Digital Marketing Podcast
How to Fix AI Slop: Better Context, Stronger Brands and the Return of Human Judgement What happens when AI makes it easier to produce marketing content, but that content all starts to look and sound the same? In this episode of The Digital Marketing Podcast, Ciaran Rogers speaks to Evan Greally, founder and CTO of Pacey AI, about avoiding AI slop and getting back to the work that matters: understanding customers, developing ideas and building a distinctive brand. Introduced by Daniel Rowles, the conversation draws on Evan’s experience as Head of Creative Tech and Innovation at Droga5 Dublin,...
info_outline
How to Create AI Skills: Build Reusable AI Workflows That Save Time
The Digital Marketing Podcast
AI tools are evolving fast. One of the biggest shifts is the move from one-off prompts to reusable AI skills. Instead of rewriting the same instructions every time you use ChatGPT, Claude or Copilot, you can package your best workflows into portable skills that deliver consistent, repeatable results. In this special episode, recorded as the Digital Marketing Podcast celebrates its 16th anniversary, Daniel Rowles and Ciaran Rogers explore why AI skills could fundamentally change the way marketers work. They explain how skills fit alongside projects, agents and prompts, why they are becoming an...
info_outline
Design That Sticks: Applying Neuroscience to Predict Attention
The Digital Marketing Podcast
Why do so many beautifully designed websites, ads and digital experiences still fail to convert? In this episode of The Digital Marketing Podcast, Daniel Rowles is joined by Kramer Reeves, CEO of EyeQuant, alongside neuroscientist Professor Peter König, one of the company’s founders and a leading expert in visual attention and cognitive science. Together, they explore how neuroscience and AI are reshaping the way marketers, designers and brands understand attention. The conversation dives into the hidden mechanics behind how people actually experience digital content. From subconscious...
info_outline
Reddit Marketing Case Study with Dove - Turning Real Reviews into Real Growth
The Digital Marketing Podcast
What happens when a global brand hands over its creative control to unfiltered customer feedback? In this episode of The Digital Marketing Podcast, Daniel Rowles speaks with Emily Barfoot, Head of Dove Beauty at Unilever, about a bold and unconventional campaign built on Reddit conversations. At a time when trust in polished marketing is eroding and AI is reshaping how content is discovered, Dove leaned into one of the internet’s most unpredictable platforms. By amplifying genuine, unedited user reviews, both positive and negative, the brand not only drove awareness but also delivered...
info_outline
The Changing Customer Journey in an AI-First World - Insights from Adobe Enterprise's CMO
The Digital Marketing Podcast
As AI rapidly reshapes how customers discover, evaluate, and engage with brands, marketers are being forced to rethink the fundamentals of the customer journey. In this episode of The Digital Marketing Podcast, Daniel Rowles speaks with Rachel Thornton, CMO of Adobe Enterprise, to explore what this shift really means in practice. Recorded just ahead of Adobe Summit, Rachel shares exclusive insights into Adobe’s latest thinking, product direction, and how enterprise marketers should adapt to an increasingly AI-driven landscape. From evolving user expectations to the rise of AI as the primary...
info_outline
Practical Video Marketing - How to Make Video More Human, More Useful and More Effective
The Digital Marketing Podcast
In this episode of The Digital Marketing Podcast, Daniel Rowles is joined by Kendall Breitman from Riverside for a practical conversation about how marketers can use video without needing a full production team, a huge budget or a complicated workflow. Together, they explore why video has become so central to modern marketing, how brands can use it to strengthen SEO and answer engine optimisation, and why authentic, human-led content is outperforming overly polished corporate production. The discussion also dives into practical ways to build a video strategy from webinars, podcasts,...
info_outline
Eight Psychology Experiments for Marketers
The Digital Marketing Podcast
What happens when you combine practical digital marketing experience with behavioural science? In this episode, Daniel Rowles is joined by Phil Agnew, host of the Nudge podcast and a specialist in behavioural science, to explore eight psychology experiments and principles that can help marketers create more effective campaigns, stronger customer experiences and more persuasive messaging. Phil shares the original studies behind concepts such as social proof, loss aversion, anchoring and the peak-end rule, then shows how they can be applied in real marketing scenarios, from Reddit ads and SaaS...
info_outline
Gamification for Digital Marketing
The Digital Marketing Podcast
What happens when clicks get harder to earn, paid media gets more expensive, and audiences spend less time engaging with static content? In this episode of The Digital Marketing Podcast, Daniel Rowles explores why gamification is moving from a nice-to-have tactic to a serious strategic opportunity for marketers. This episode is split into two parts. First, Daniel sets out the business case for gamification in today’s digital landscape, where AI overviews, rising cost per click and declining organic reach are all putting pressure on traditional marketing performance. Then he is joined by Luke...
info_outline
How to Drive AI Adoption - A Step-by-Step Case Study
The Digital Marketing Podcast
In this episode of The Digital Marketing Podcast, Daniel Rowles is joined by Emma Tronson, Deputy Director of Marketing at Aston University, for a practical, honest and refreshingly structured look at how to move beyond AI experimentation and into real organisational adoption. Many teams are stuck in what Daniel calls “pilot purgatory”. Everyone is testing tools. Everyone is experimenting. But very few organisations have truly embedded AI into day-to-day operations. Workloads have not reduced. If anything, they have increased. This episode explores what it actually takes to embed AI into a...
info_outline
The Hubspot CMO Interview - Kipp Bodnar on AI, Answer Engine Optimisation and the Future of Marketing
The Digital Marketing Podcast
In this episode of The Digital Marketing Podcast, Daniel Rowles sits down with Kipp Bodnar, CMO of HubSpot, to discuss what may be the most disruptive year in marketing history. Kipp believes that 2026 could represent the biggest single wave of change our industry has ever seen. Weeks feel like months. Channels are fragmenting. Discovery is shifting. AI agents are entering workflows. And traditional attribution models are starting to break down. From Answer Engine Optimisation to AI agents, rising ad costs to workflow automation, this conversation explores how marketers can stay ahead when the...
info_outlineIn this episode of The Digital Marketing Podcast, Daniel Rowles is joined by Brendan Kane, viral strategist and author of One Million Followers, for a deep dive into the art and science of making content go viral.
Going viral often feels like marketing mythology,something bosses ask for, but few can explain or deliver. Brendan, however, has built a career proving that virality isn’t luck. It’s repeatable, measurable, and rooted in storytelling structures that have worked for decades.
Brendan shares the behind-the-scenes thinking that led to his experiment growing an audience of 1 million followers in 30 days, starting from scratch, without a team, celebrity status, or advertising budget. More than a vanity metric, the project was a proof-of-concept for a framework that now helps brands, creators, and entrepreneurs reliably generate massive reach and meaningful engagement.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
Why qualitative analysis - not just views and clicks, holds the key to repeatable success
The power of storytelling formats like “Man on the Street” and “Two Characters, One Light Bulb”
How to match your brand’s resources and personality to the right format
Why volume isn’t the answer, and what quality actually means in the age of AI and infinite content
Why originality is overrated, and how proven formats unlock creativity instead of limiting it
How even “boring” industries like tax, insurance, and leather craftsmanship can thrive on social media
The truth about “frequency myths” and how creators burn out chasing quantity over story
Why format mastery trumps trend-chasing—and how sitcoms, Spielberg, and social media are more alike than you think
Brendan also breaks down his format-matching process, built from over 10,000 hours of research and analysis of 300+ viral content structures. His agency works with individuals and brands to identify the storytelling structures that resonate most with their audience, and helps them build repeatable, on-brand content that doesn’t just go viral, but converts.
This conversation flips conventional marketing wisdom on its head, challenging the obsession with originality and encouraging marketers to focus on structure, story, and strategic authenticity.
Key Takeaways:
Virality isn’t random, it’s engineered through proven creative models
Storytelling formats provide containers for creativity, not limitations
Format mastery enables faster growth and deeper audience trust
Business outcomes must be baked into your content strategy from day one
Social media isn't just another channel, it's the ultimate storytelling platform
📥 Access the show notes, tools, and links at: https://targetinternet.com/resources/how-to-go-viral
📩 Join the free newsletter for access to Daniel’s monthly live sessions: https://targetinternet.com/newsletter