THE VINYL EFFECT: IS AUTHENTICITY MAKING A COMEBACK IN MARKETING?

12.08.2025
News Study Program

Jo Schuttwolf in an interview with Bert Neumeister about the coexistence of real and AI-generated content in marketing.

Between AI perfection and human authenticity: Copywriter and author Jo Schuttwolf talks to Prof. Dr. Bert Neumeister about the vinyl effect—the growing need for authenticity and imperfection—and why this is becoming increasingly important in digital marketing.

In a world that is rapidly becoming digitalized, there is a growing longing for immediacy, authenticity, and imperfection—the vinyl effect. In conversation with Prof. Dr. Bert Neumeister from the Digital Marketing degree program, Jo Schuttwolf – copywriter, film director, and science fiction author – talks about precisely this tension: between AI-generated perfection and human intuition. Between visions for the future and the desire for real experiences. An interview about creativity in marketing – and the question of what is still truly real in a digital world.

PLEASE TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF AND YOUR WORK.

Jo Schuttwolf: I worked at the GREY and OGILVY agencies in Düsseldorf, where I helped build brands as a copywriter: Ford, Warner Brothers Movie World, and Dove, to name three examples. When a higher education institution approached me and asked if I could teach copywriting and audiovisual media, it took me back to my roots, so to speak—I had always wanted to be a teacher. Since then, I have been teaching at various higher education institutions for many years, including one year at the FH Kufstein Tirol in the full-time Digital Marketing program. Writing has emerged as a wonderful, free counterbalance to strategically focused copywriting.

What is the vinyl effect and what does it have to do with digital marketing?

Schuttwolf: The vinyl effect could be described as a longing for the immediate, the unique, the sensually perceptible – for what we call authenticity. The vinyl records I buy may scratch and crackle a little when I play them, especially if they are older. They are like the pages of a book, which yellow slightly over time and become an authentic memory with emotional added value for their owner. An e-book cannot do that. The increasing digitalization in all areas certainly has its great advantages and fascination, but it also brings other approaches to the fore. In marketing, for example, there are AI-generated influencers on the one hand and authentic, user-generated content on the other: maximum artificiality vs. maximum authenticity.

A COUNTERTREND TO INCREASING Digitalization?

Schuttwolf: Yes, exactly. Analog photography, cooking together, board games, DIY projects, outdoor activities—things like that are becoming increasingly popular. People are sensual beings who want to smell, taste, and touch. That said, this countertrend is still a niche market compared to the range of digital media available. The world, and marketing with it, is becoming increasingly digitized. And at some point, digital media may even be able to simulate sensory impressions completely. VR technology, suits with skin contact sensors, neuronally implanted chips... we will have to redefine what constitutes an authentic experience. Humans and machines are merging more and more. In the not too distant future, cyborg technology will become a major market. Experiments with neurochips are already underway. And people—albeit very few—who open their car doors with a microchip implant are a reality. It remains to be seen how quickly and in which areas artificial intelligence will develop.

AI IS TAKING OVER MORE AND MORE TASKS. EVEN CREATIVE ONES? IS THERE STILL ROOM FOR HUMANS?

Schuttwolf: Yes, definitely. Humans will retain their sovereign position. At least in the foreseeable future. Supporting tasks, for example in marketing and audiovisual media, are already being performed very effectively by AI. More and more jobs, such as copywriters, concept developers, and illustrators, are also being eliminated through the use of artificial intelligence. That's true. But humans, with their deeper emotional understanding, which reflects many different connections, associative cross-links, and contextual levels, are superior to machines. At least for now! When we observe the rapid development of AI tools and their amazing performance, I could imagine that in the distant future, AI will be able to take over the tasks of a brilliant top creative mind. This means that even if a machine always remains a machine, at some point it will be almost impossible to distinguish its creative output from the work of a creative human being. What good will it do to say, But a machine is not a human being? Yes, that's true, but it won't matter! I don't mean to sound gloomy or pessimistic, but this is something we have to deal with. The genie is out of the bottle. We are entering completely uncharted territory.

HOW DO YOU SEE THE FUTURE OF MARKETING? INCREASINGLY DIGITAL OR A RETURN TO THE REAL THING?

Schuttwolf: Both! It will be a mix with a focus on digital technology. But – and here I repeat my thesis – the so-called real will also be partially simulated artificially. Ultimately, we have to ask ourselves what we mean by real. For example, if I create a complex, artificial stimulus through VR, skin sensors, etc., the perception and feeling I have remains real. So in the future, an analog feeling could be perfectly recreated digitally. In marketing, it would be conceivable to perfectly simulate exotic experiences such as sitting around a campfire on a plateau in the Grand Canyon, feeling the wind and smelling the corresponding scent of burning wood, and marketing this in a theme park. There are no limits to the imagination. Science fiction books and films have been doing this for a long time. Okay, enough speculation about the future. In summary, it is safe to say that human life, and therefore marketing, will continue to be increasingly digitized, but that this will always be accompanied by a counter-movement, a longing for the so-called real. The only question that remains is what the real will be in the distant future. Will the perception that someone subjectively experiences something as real be enough? It remains exciting. We will see.