Gary Vaynerchuk didn’t come to POSSIBLE 2025 to present a deck. He came to challenge the room. In a raw, unscripted Q&A, he delivered a reality check to brand leaders, agencies, and founders clinging to traditional media models and made his case for why organic social is the most underleveraged growth lever in modern marketing.

Vaynerchuk opened with a clear shift: brands should not spend a dollar of paid media until they’ve validated their creative organically. In his words, the paid–owned–earned model is dead. We’re now in an owned–earned–paid era, where relevance and reach are earned through creative that actually performs, not boardroom assumptions.

The tech platforms already know what audiences care about. Brands that create with that in mind get free distribution. Brands that don't, spend to make up for poor creative, a habit Vaynerchuk called “disguising bad content with working media.”

In a key insight, he reframed the platform landscape entirely: we’re no longer living in a “social media” era, we’re in an “interest media” era. Content now spreads based on its relevance to viewer behavior, not follower count.

He pointed to examples where brand-new accounts outperform legacy ones simply because the content matches user intent. Marketers clinging to old engagement models, he argued, are missing the real opportunity: producing creative that earns views without amplification.

One of the boldest claims of the session was Vaynerchuk’s redefinition of quality. In his view, good creative is no longer determined by polish or internal approval, it’s defined by whether it gets organic views.

That shift means high-volume, high-relevance creative at scale, content tuned to different subcultures, formats, and attention spans. His challenge to agencies was blunt: stop hiding behind aesthetic standards and start producing content that performs.

For brands, that also means rethinking budget allocation. Vaynerchuk argued that Fortune 500 companies are still dramatically underinvesting in social creative, often by 5–10x, compared to emerging brands winning through velocity and relevance.

When asked about community and CRM, Vaynerchuk called out a second opportunity: identifying and nurturing superfans. He highlighted emerging infrastructure from blockchain to community platforms as key to giving brands more control and ownership of their audience data.

The ability to identify and engage with top-value customers will define long-term brand health, especially as traditional loyalty programs and email performance decline.

Vaynerchuk was bullish on live shopping. While popular in China for years, the Western rollout led by TikTok Shop and others is still early. He sees huge potential, especially for creators, solo operators, and bored employees looking for new income streams.

He advised anyone curious about commerce or creator work to explore live shopping as a fast-emerging lane with real monetization power. Platforms are already rolling out the infrastructure now it’s about education and content strategy.

One attendee asked whether Gen Z will accept AI-generated influencers. Vaynerchuk’s response: they already do and most don’t know it. He predicted that within 24 months, it will become nearly impossible for consumers to distinguish real from synthetic creators.

The implication for brands is clear: stay experimental, keep learning, and don’t wait until it's mainstream to act. By the time everyone “gets it,” the opportunity will be gone.

In a heartfelt moment, Vaynerchuk spoke to early-stage agency and startup founders. His biggest lesson? Don’t over-index on chasing short-term clients or revenue.

He built VaynerMedia on a culture-first model, prioritizing internal trust, long-term talent, and consistency. Most agencies, he said, fail because they say yes to things they don’t believe in just to keep the lights on and lose both clients and integrity in the process.

Vaynerchuk ended on a broader cultural note: marketers and humans need to get back to common sense. He criticized the industry's obsession with inflated production budgets, pointless media spend, and vanity awards.

His call to action? Tell the truth. Act with gratitude. And stop defending legacy tactics that no longer serve the customer.

Independently Created. Not affiliated with POSSIBLE.

ClickZ is a ClickZ Media publication in the Events division