How marketing a vibe creates passionate consumers

Vibe marketing is the savvy alignment of storytelling, brand identity, and automation.

Think of Duolingo’s chaotic owl on TikTok: unhinged, hilarious, deeply on-brand—and powered by real-time content strategy and AI-backed testing. 

Vibe marketing is where brands move beyond product features and speak directly to feeling, while using AI to do it at scale. 

It’s very different from another hot topic you may have encountered—vibe coding—although both are, at heart, about translating human intuition into machine-executable action.

How vibe marketing works in practice

This isn’t just about borrowing of-the-moment aesthetics or awkwardly dropping in some Gen Z slang to seem relevant. Vibe marketing is fast becoming a core strategy for teams looking to make brand presence more felt, and less fabricated.

And even though “vibes” can seem fairly squishy and hard to define, there’s actually a pretty clear plan to follow for any marketer looking to make waves in this space.

The two core pieces of vibe marketing

When things are running smoothly, vibe marketing is a synthesis of two modes of operation.

1. Emotional precision

Call it storytelling, cultural attunement, or just excellent and subtle taste—this is the side of vibe marketing that makes audiences feel something. It’s where marketing gets personal, intuitive, and real.

What this looks like in practice:

• Distinct tone-of-voice that mirrors audience vernacular (preferably without feeling forced, a la “how do you do, fellow kids?”)
• Campaigns that show off real cultural fluency, not just trend-chasing (think of a campaign that leans into a deep knowledge of contemporary pop music VS one that just borrowed the ‘brat’ meme to look in-the-know).
• Visual systems and messaging that subtly say “this is us”—without needing to shout it (think of Aesop, whose minimalist packaging, store design, and everything else conveys a very specific mood)

When done well, this kind of work breeds advocacy, not just awareness. That means inspired fans of the brand will inevitably help do some of your marketing for you.

2. Operational velocity

Remember: Vibes alone don’t build pipeline. Automation is what makes this emotional architecture scale. That’s where AI and martech come in.

In other words, your core team of creative humans has spent a lot of time crafting the vibe that defines your brand. Now you need a little assist when it comes to generating (sometimes daunting amounts of) content that fit those specs.

This means:

• AI-generated content that actually looks and sounds like your brand
• Predictive targeting that pairs messages to moods, not just segments
• Real-time testing and optimization that lets you swap messaging on the fly

It’s not just about creating great content piece-by-piece. It’s about building a system to generate and deliver that content faster, and smarter, over time.

Why is vibe marketing important now?

The rise of vibe marketing is a response to two intersecting truths:

• Audiences are more emotionally literate than ever. They can smell a phoned-in campaign from a mile away (think of Pepsi’s cursed 2017 spot with Kendall Jenner). Brands have to earn relevance through realness.
• Teams are stretched thin. Efficiency matters. Tools that streamline content creation, testing, and optimization are no longer “nice to haves”—they’re table stakes. (Ever heard of Stagwell Marketing Cloud?)

So expectations from consumers are higher, and workforces are slimmer. That would be a recipe for a disaster, if not for the existence of canny martech tools that can accelerate your vibe marketing initiatives.

Tools for vibe marketing

Take Propellers, Stagwell Marketing Cloud’s AI-driven platform for generating great briefs, workshopping campaign visuals, and more. Here’s how Propellers supports both sides of the equation we discussed earlier:

The emotional stuff:

• Quickly surfaces brand-specific insights (voice, values, visual direction)
• Supports ideation that reflects a brand’s unique cultural positioning
• Generates draft visuals and copy that actually match your brand’s emotional tone

The executional stuff:

• Automates content production for multi-channel use
• Allows for rapid A/B testing with generative variants
• Connects to media buying tools to push campaigns live, fast

Let’s say you’re launching a campaign for a bold, youth-facing beverage brand. You want Gen Z to feel seen. You also want to A/B test ten headlines, five visual treatments, and deploy them across TikTok, Instagram, and CTV. 

With Propellers, you can go from moodboard to multichannel activation in a matter of days, not weeks. And with complementary tools like SmartAssets, you can even predict asset performance pre-flight, cutting down on the need for trial-and-error A/B testing.

4 steps to follow

If you’re looking to make your brand more felt, not just seen, vibe marketing is the way in. While not everyone can be Glossier or Liquid Death, there are still concrete steps your brand can take.

At the risk of oversimplification, here’s how to begin:

1. Audit your emotional footprint. What does your brand feel like today? Do your visuals, voice, and social presence align—or clash?
2. Codify your vibe. Define tone, archetypes, and cultural references. This isn’t fluff—it’s the foundation of emotional coherence. Get your team together for a brainstorm and create a mood board that sums up the sentiments your brand is currently conveying (or aspires to convey).
3. Automate with intention. Choose AI tools that elevate your brand’s unique signature, not overwrite it. There’s plenty of options out there, though we’re understandably biased toward offerings like Propellers and SmartAssets.
4. Test fast, adapt faster. Vibe is ephemeral, always due for a shift. Be ready to pivot when the cultural moment does—but without revamping your entire brand identity every time a new meme takes TikTok by storm.

In short, vibe marketing isn’t just another LinkedIn buzzword . It’s a strategic framework for how brands can make emotional resonance scalable.

In 2025, that’s how modern marketers win.