(Free trial) The Buckle Up Briefing #1 - Bring your brand to life.

This is what paid subscribers get — but you’re getting the first one for free. 10 tactical links to help you build brands that move and provoke — plus the behind-the-scenes of how I'm building Marcel.

Hey brand-builders

Last weekend, I teased the launch of the paid version of this newsletter — a bi-weekly drop of curated links, tools, and behind-the-scenes insights on how to build brands that stand out in the generative era called ‘The buckle up briefing’.

Today, I’m doing something different: I’m sending you the first full paid edition for free.

Why? Because I want you to see exactly what you’d get if you joined. If you like this and find it valuable, I’d love to have you on board for the next one.

Let’s get into it.

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🧠 10 Links to Build Better Brands in an AI-Driven World

Looking for the behind-the-scenes tutorial on Marcel? Skip this part.

1 - Popeyes vs. McDonald’s fan battle

Link — Gen-AI is enabling audience-led brand wars. Popeyes made an AI-generated ad, but a McDonald’s fan clapped back with his own. The real insight? Your fans can be your frontline.
Provocation: Could your fans co-create content that builds or defends your brand? What tools or formats would you give them? Can you let them co-create?

➕ Bonus example: Liquid Death fan-made ad
Link — This spot was made entirely by a fan.
Provocation: If a fan made your next ad, would it still feel like you? What clarity have you given them to do that? What brand codes do you have that they could put in the ad (even if you don’t have a physical product) in a natural way?

2 - Live AI Character Demo (Simli)

Link — This tool shows how mascots/avatars can interact in real-time. It’s not just branding — it’s relationship-building.
Provocation: What would your brand's avatar say if it could speak? What tone, voice, or emotional range would make it memorable?

3 - House of David VFX project

Link — AI-enhanced VFX elevates real footage, blending story, emotion, and magic. It’s not “just AI,” it’s human + machine.
Provocation: What if you acted out a moment from your brand’s story and then elevated it with VFX? What would that fusion look like? Grab some office gear and start acting now. Don’t know how? Here’s a quick tutorial using Luma’s Modify video.

4 - Jake Paul national ad

Link — AI-enhanced performance ads are here. Jake Paul leans into character, voice, and visual elevation — and so can you.
Provocation: Would you feel comfortable acting? Try recording a short scene with your voice or face, then use tools like Runway Act 1, Moonvalley’s new model, or Higgsfield Speak to animate it. The future isn’t about hiding behind your brand — it’s about stepping onto the stage.

5 - Groq's Grok 4 teaser

Link — Don’t just think in prompts. Think in trailers. This is your brand’s cinematic moment.
Provocation: What’s your brand’s most epic trailer version? Even internally, trailers help clarify the universe you're building — fast and emotionally, yet short enough to avoid layering. It’s your brand strategy viscerally brought to life.

6 - Slapping a logo at the start of a social ad is the worst idea

Link — Instead, use Sonic assets, characters, or your logo in context. And guess what? AI is great at doing exactly that! Test it for yourself: use Flux Kontext (in tools like Freepik, Scenario or Krea) and add your logo into a scene in a natural way in stead of just ‘slapping’ it on an ad.

7 - Interactive Google Ads via Rive

Link — Ads are no longer passive. Think of your brand as a game.
Provocation: What genre would your brand be? A puzzle? A first-person shooter? An arena battle? What’s the core mechanic your audience interacts with, and how does that make sense for your brand? Test it using Runway’s new game generator.

8 - Mascots vs Celebs

Link — Celebs are rented. Mascots are owned.
Provocation: If you had a mascot, what truth or personality of your brand would it exaggerate? Could it be your permanent ambassador?

9 - Ingi Erlingsson on Generative Video

Link — A great example of creative use of video-to-video AI.
Provocation: What raw footage or brand moment could you remix visually? Could you “dreamify” it, rework it, or animate it for emotion? Use Luma’s ‘Modify video’ or other video-to-video tools to reskin existing footage.

10 - AI x Brand Building = Systems

Link — According to Pletor founder Ferdinand, you don’t need more brand guidelines. You need a content system.
Provocation: If you had to publish daily for 30 days, what system would help you do it without burning out or going off-brand?

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🐶 Behind the scenes: Designing Marcel

One of the most exciting brand experiments I’ve started is creating my mascot, Marcel. He’s a blue dog with edge, mystery, and a surprising amount of personality.

🎨 Part 1: Design & Concept

Before opening any AI tools, I started by thinking about feeling. I didn’t want a perfect mascot. I wanted something cool, a little fluffy, but also weird enough to intrigue (remember the ‘Fuck! What? Cool. framework?) Something that could be cute and unsettling at the same time. I also had ‘boundary conditions’ in mind:

• It should be able to speak, so a mouth, teeth are important (otherwise AI models won’t recognize the face)

• I also had a specific artistic direction in mind, based on this style reference I found online, it’s as easy as copy-pasting that into your prompt. I love how you can build on other people’s work with AI.

I even entertained the idea of ‘just a mouth’

So I began not by sketching ideas in my head, but by prompting Midjourney with loose explorations: "funky mascot," "weird fluffy brand character," and letting the results surprise me. The amazing thing about Midjourney is that you can put it in ‘conversation’ mode and just let thoughts flow and take you in different directions based on what you see, it’s a lot more natural than complex prompt structures.

Put Midjourney in conversation mode and start talking to it

Eventually, I stumbled onto a dog-like figure that had potential. That moment is key — I didn’t have the finished idea and used AI to execute. I let AI help me discover the idea. That’s the creative shift we’re in: a back-and-forth process where tools become collaborators, not just generators of our final idea.

Lots of variations on body style, mouth, ears, eyes, fur, feet, etc

Finally, when I had locked in a direction, I started working on some details by editing my prompt

• A Make Mascots Great Again cap — ironic, memorable, memeable (spoiler alert, not the big 🍑 man)

• A skull necklace — hinting at backstory and lore

I wasn’t chasing perfection. I was chasing personality.

And here he was, Marcel was born.

🗣 Letting Him Speak

Next, I used Higgsfield’s "Speak" to give Marcel a voice. There’s something incredibly powerful about watching your creation come to life in motion and voice — it forces you to think about tone, pacing, vibe. Is he sarcastic? Friendly? Offbeat? For this character specifically, I wanted to use my own voice to add even more personality and intrigue, so I did a quick recording.

I also used Flux Kontext inside of Scenario’s ‘edit with prompts’ to generate some first variations of Marcel, it’s a great way to stress test him before training a full model.

The next step is training a LORA model in Scenario to be able to put Marcel in any situation and start expanding his universe. That’ll be part of the next paid edition, where I’ll share the lore-building process and how I’m turning him into a full-fleshed character.

For now — I hope this gives you a sense of what’s possible when you approach AI with curiosity, not just control. Marcelel wasn’t a one-shot prompt. He was a dialogue — and that’s the future of brand creativity.

🧰 Tools I Used

• Midjourney – For creating beautiful, unique imagery in a natural way

• Higgsfield (speak) – To generate speech and expression

• Scenario – All-in-one solution for creating models, generating images and video’s (and even 3D, but we will get into that later)

💡 Tips If You Want to Try It

• Don’t overdefine your mascot upfront. Let AI suggest weirdness. Be open to accidents. It will make your character more distinctive. The last thing you want is a walking bread if you are a baker (avoid category cliches).

• Design for personality, not perfection.

• Set boundary conditions for things you absolutely want to do with it.

• Think in terms of how your mascot will perform, not just how it looks.

• Add iconic accessories/features early — they will help you build brand lore later on.

In the next drop of the buckle-up briefing, I’ll go deeper into how I’m building Marcel’s world — and how he’ll evolve into a character that drives brand stunts, surprise moments, and long-form content. Buckle up.

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