Vibe Marketing: How AI-Driven Storytelling Is Shaping Perception
PLUS: Blackpearl Group hits $12.5M ARR, targets $50M, Airwallex and Caffeine Daily are partnering up to champion startup finance.
Welcome to mid week!
Good afternoon everyone. Apologies for the surprise late newsletter today but had a few things shuffled this morning and we’ve been wanting to try out whether an afternoon newsletter might work better for our audience so thank you for being part of our impromptu experiment! Promise we’ll give you more warning next time.
To make up for the delay we have a cracking new column from our resident columnist Heather Gadonniex releasing free for all subscribers on the very contemporary topic of how AI-driven storytelling is shaping perception.
Also, very excited to announce that we are partnering with Airwallex to champion startups!
Read on to hear more about their Global Growth Grant, which could bring you $5,000 closer to rubbing shoulders with some of your industry’s brightest minds and most influential founders.
Here’s what’s in your Daily Shot of news you don’t want to miss
Vibe Marketing: How AI-Driven Storytelling Is Shaping Perception
Airwallex and Caffeine Daily partner to champion all things startup finance
Blackpearl Group hits $12.5M ARR, targets $50M
Business is Boring: The compostable cling wrap winning big in the US
Uber relaunches Business Booster with $50K in grants across ANZ
Got a tip, press release or just a comment? Drop us a note: hello@caffeinedaily.co - we love to hear from you.
Finn & the Caffeine team
Vibe Marketing: How AI-Driven Storytelling Is Shaping Perception
By Heather Gadonniex
If you’ve spent any time in marketing circles lately, you’ve likely heard the term vibe marketing thrown around. It’s not just another buzzword—it’s a signal of how rapidly AI is reshaping the $250 billion marketing industry. And we’re not talking about incremental change. We’re in the midst of a full-scale reinvention.
At its core, vibe marketing is about using AI to create content and campaigns that don’t just reach people—they resonate. To rise above today’s noise, brands need more than reach and frequency. They need emotional depth, cultural fluency, and authenticity. Yes, these have always been the cornerstones of effective brand building—but in an AI-first world, they’re non-negotiable.
From Weeks to Minutes: The Acceleration of Creativity
Let’s face it. Traditional marketing workflows are slow and resource-heavy. Campaign planning, cross-functional alignment, content production, editing cycles … it can be a grind. And layering in the need to connect all of it to marketing making, pipeline and revenue? That’s where burnout begins.
AI changes the tempo. The best platforms now plan, draft, test, and optimize content in a fraction of the time it used to take. Even better, some are tying outputs directly to business impact. This isn’t just about speed. It’s about relevance at scale.
The Power of Personalized Vibes
One-size-fits-all is officially obsolete. AI makes it possible to deliver hyper-relevant messaging to micro-segments based not just on buying behavior, but on sentiment, interests, and even the current cultural moment.
But here’s the real kicker: consumers are no longer tolerating disconnected or transactional messaging. They’re tuning into brands that feel human, intuitive, and aligned with their vibe.
Ready for a pro tip? Use AI-powered sentiment analysis tools (like Brandwatch or Sprinklr) to decode how your audience is actually feeling about your brand or industry. Then build campaigns that reflect that emotional landscape, not just the business value prop. We need to make sure we don’t lose what makes us human and connects us at a deeper level as we adopt AI.
The Democratization of Marketing
This isn’t just a win for big brands. AI is lowering the barrier to entry for startups and scaling teams, allowing smaller players to punch above their weight with high-quality, on-brand and on message content at a fraction of the cost.
The future of marketing is flatter, faster, and more emotional. Vibe marketing isn’t about chasing virality; it’s about delivering meaningful experiences that stick—at scale.
To get started, build a lightweight “vibe strategy” doc for your brand. Include tone anchors, visual language, emotional keywords, and brand non-negotiables. Then feed that into your AI tools to keep content aligned and distinctive.
Bottom line?
AI is not replacing marketers. It’s enhancing our ability to connect in real, resonant ways. The brands that lean into this shift balancing the speed of AI with the soul of storytelling are the ones that will win attention, loyalty, and relevance. In a world of AI, connecting to what makes us human becomes more meaningful and impactful than ever.
Vibe isn’t just the future of marketing. It’s already here. Let’s not just catch up. Let’s lead it.
Airwallex and Caffeine Daily partner to champion startups
Caffeine Daily has been providing a daily dose of inspiration to the startup community for two years now, and we’re proud to partner with one of APAC’s leading tech success stories - Airwallex.
Founded across the ditch in Melbourne in 2015, Airwallex has grown from humble beginnings. It all started when the founders opened a cafe and quickly realised how difficult and costly it was to pay overseas suppliers. From there, Airwallex was born – and how have they grown. Airwallex is now a global B2B finance powerhouse, with over 150,000 businesses using their global payments infrastructure – to get paid, make payments, manage spend and even earn a return on their money – all over the world.
“Caffeine's mission is to empower founders with the knowledge and tools they need to succeed to expand their companies. This partnership was a no-brainer. Airwallex is levelling the playing field and helping ambitious startups reach global scale faster with transparent and dynamic financial services catered to the specific needs of growing companies,” Georgia Dive, Caffeine Partnerships Lead.
To celebrate their launch in New Zealand, Airwallex has created the Global Growth Grant. A programme aimed at enabling Kiwi businesses to travel to key conferences across the globe. With two grants of $5,000 available, the Global Growth Grant could be your pass to attending SasStr in the States or Cannes Lions in France.
Apply for the Global Growth Grant by 30 June 2025 and you could be $5,000 closer to rubbing shoulders with some of your industry’s brightest minds and most influential founders.
With endorsements coming from startups of all sizes; including Tracksuit, Auror and Partly, we’re excited to bring Airwallex into the Caffeine community – lookout for your shot of global financial innovation over the coming months.
Sign up for Global Growth Grant.
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Blackpearl Group hits $12.5M ARR, targets $50M: Let’s start with celebrating a success story shall we? Blackpearl Group has announced its results for the year ended 31 March 2025, recording an astounding 70% increase in Annual Recurring Revenue and sharp rise in average revenue per user, underpinned by a multi-product innovation strategy. With $12.5m in ARR, Blackpearl is positioning not just for $20m ARR but to build toward $50m and beyond.
Highlights:
• $12.5m ARR, up 70% from $7.4m as at 31 March 2024
• $7.7m subscription revenue, up 91% from $4.1m in FY24
• $17.5k ARPU, up 53% over the last 6 months
• 68% gross margin, reflecting continued platform efficiency
• 17% of revenue from top 10 customers, up from 10% as at 31 March 2024
• Pearl Diver reached ~$10m ARR, only eight quarters after its full launch
• Raised $12.5m in growth capital
• Officially launched Bebop, following the most successful beta in the company’s history
Business is Boring: The compostable cling wrap winning big in the US - Back with another one of those podcast bangers, Simon Pound talks to Jon Reed, CEO of Compostic, about the ongoing battle against single-use plastic, forging partnerships with major overseas retailers and the brutal impact of trade tariffs on business. It’s one of those chats which which will hopefully both enlighten and inspire you. Listen to the full pod here.
Uber relaunches Business Booster with $50K in grants across ANZ: We all know founders who will work multiple jobs to either bootstrap the start of their business or to keep the lights on and I am betting at least a few will have done some Uber driving in that mix. If that means you, you might be able to get some free access to expert business education and grant funding if you have completed at least one trip since January 2023. The initiative includes a pitch competition opening in November, where participants can submit a five-minute video for the chance to win a share of AUD $50,000 in business grant funding. Prizes include $25,000 for first place, $15,000 for second, and $10,000 for third. Learn more here.
OpenAI drama getting the Hollywood treatment: Well, this felt inevitable in some ways but it’s still happening faster than anticipated. Much like AI progress overall, ironically. The wild saga of Sam Altman’s brief firing and then rehiring will form the core of a new Hollywood treatment tentatively titled ‘Artificial’. Andrew Garfield is reportedly being eyed to play Altman, which feels like a safe choice, with Luca Guadagnino of “Call Me by Your Name” fame in talks to direct.
That’s it for today, thanks for reading. Want to get in touch with a news tip, bit of feedback or just to chat? Email hello@caffeinedaily.co
