Donatas Smailys explains the three marketing tactics that stopped working in 2026 and what is actually driving engagement now.
There is always a lag between when a marketing tactic stops working and when brands stop using it. According to Donatas Smailys, CEO and co-founder of UGC marketplace Billo, that lag is currently costing real money. “There is always a lag between when something stops working and when brands stop doing it,” he says. “Right now, that lag is costing real money.”
The three tactics he identifies are not obscure experiments. They are strategies that have been widely adopted by brands of all sizes over the past two years, appearing in marketing guides, agency briefs, and social media playbooks across the industry. The problem is that audience behaviour and platform algorithms have moved faster than most marketing advice has caught up with.
AI chatbots in your DMs
The latest iteration of the AI chatbot trend is brands deploying conversational AI agents directly into users’ private messages. Snapchat launched sponsored AI chatbots inside users’ direct message inboxes in May 2026, positioning the move as more immediate and personal than traditional advertising. The logic is appealing on paper: reach people in the same space where they have their most personal conversations.
The problem is that audiences have already delivered a clear verdict on this approach. When Snapchat forced its own AI chatbot to the top of all user inboxes in 2023, the app’s US App Store rating dropped to 1.67 stars, with 75% of reviews rated one star, according to data from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower. Meta attempted similar integrations in Messenger and WhatsApp, faced significant backlash both times, and pulled them. Snapchat’s own CEO Evan Spiegel has acknowledged publicly that tech leaders are underestimating the societal pushback coming against AI.
Smailys says brands are being sold a strategy that audiences never asked for. “Brands are being sold a chatbot strategy as if audiences were asking for it,” he says. “They were not. People do not want to have a conversation with a financial services company in the same place they talk to their friends.” For SME owners considering chatbot integrations as part of their customer engagement strategy, the distinction matters: a chatbot on your own website or in a dedicated customer service context is a different proposition to one that intrudes into a private messaging environment.
AI avatars and deepfakes
YouTube is rolling out avatar tools that allow creators to clone themselves on camera, and the broader push toward AI-generated influencer content has been building for several years. For brands and creators attracted by the cost savings of not needing to film new content, the appeal is obvious. The performance data is less encouraging.
According to the Sprout Social Pulse Survey, 46% of social media users say they are not comfortable with brands using AI influencers. Research cited by Smailys has found that AI-generated content, including avatars, is perceived by audiences as dehumanising advertising, lacking the empathy and human touch that drives genuine engagement and brand trust. “AI avatars are mostly getting backlash, and there haven’t been many positive use cases,” he says. “In reality, we see that real content creators, including small UGC creators, are becoming more popular than ever, so the AI avatar trend is already past its time.”
The regulatory environment is also tightening. The EU AI Act and the US Federal Trade Commission are already pushing mandatory disclosure requirements for AI-generated content, with political deepfakes acting as the forcing function for broader legislation. Smailys argues the legal infrastructure being built around fake political content will not stop at politics. “Creators are trading long-term audience trust for a short-term production budget win if they’re deciding to use their own deepfakes,” he says. “That is a bad trade, and the data is starting to show it.”
The hook is dead
The three-second hook has been perhaps the most universally taught formula in social media marketing over the past three years. The logic was straightforward: grab attention in the first three seconds before the viewer skips, and engagement follows. It worked well when platform algorithms prioritised early click-through rates. The problem is that the algorithms have moved on.
TikTok and Instagram have both shifted their heaviest weighting to watch time and completion rate. A video that captures attention with a strong hook but loses the viewer halfway through now scores worse than a slower video that holds attention all the way to the end. The metric that the hook was designed to game is no longer the metric that determines reach. “The hook that worked in 2025 is now the signal that this video is not worth finishing,” Smailys says. “You cannot shortcut your way to watch time.”
Sprout Social’s social media trends report supports the direction Smailys describes, finding that the brands generating genuine engagement are those building recognisable characters and brand worlds that audiences return to, rather than optimising individual pieces of content for immediate attention capture. The shift requires a different kind of creative discipline, one focused on consistency, recognisable identity, and content that earns its viewing time rather than demanding it in the first three seconds.
Donatas Smailys is the CEO and co-founder of Billo.
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