In a world of deepfakes, the glitch is the proof you are real.
High-production marketing is dropping in engagement while raw, slightly broken live streams are seeing record growth.
The more artificial the internet becomes, the more we crave the unpolished. In 2026, high-production-value marketing is experiencing a measurable drop in engagement, while low-fi, unscripted, and slightly broken live streams are seeing record growth.
If a video looks too perfect, the 2026 viewer assumes it was generated by a prompt. This follows the same pattern as Kizik's CMO crediting unpolished content for 1,000% revenue growth, the Peloton instructor's unscripted moment going viral years later, and the Twenty One Pilots track that resonated more in its rough, fan-circulated version than its official release. Conviction cannot be scripted. Truth usually looks a little messy.
In a world of deepfakes, the glitch is the proof.
Strip the high-production gloss out of your next major campaign. If your content looks like a commercial, your audience will tune it out as synthetic — invest in raw, unedited moments that prove there is a real, fallible human being behind the brand.
Source: Social Media Today / Axios