Recently, our marketing team shared a new campaign idea targeting university students. On the surface, it made perfect sense – combine cash-like reward points with a challenge-style event. It’s the kind of mechanic that tends to work. Students participate, engagement goes up, numbers look good.
But something about it didn’t sit right with me. It felt… familiar. Maybe too familiar. From where I stand – thinking constantly about AI-driven services – it was hard to see what had actually changed. We were still essentially paying users to show up. Buying traffic. A model that has been around for years.
Sure, it works. It will bring users in. Some of them will stay. But then what? If our product is built around AI, shouldn’t that show up in how we design the experience – even in how we acquire users? If there’s no AI-driven thinking in the journey, no learning loop, no personalization – then what are we really left with after the campaign ends?
Are we just moving from one segment to another? University students today, office workers tomorrow? Challenge-based rewards now, participation-based incentives next? That kind of thinking feels like running in place. To me, every initiative should connect to the next. Each action should be part of a trajectory, not just a one-off spike. If we’re only creating isolated moments – points that don’t connect – we’re not building momentum. We’re just repeating similar approaches in slightly different forms.
What matters is the linkage. What does this action unlock? What becomes possible because we did this? Without that, even a successful campaign feels… incomplete. And honestly, this isn’t just about marketing anymore. Marketing is no longer separate from the product. It’s becoming part of the product experience itself – a hybrid layer that shapes how users enter, engage, and stay. That trend is only going to get stronger.
Which means we need to rethink marketing not as “promotion,” but as “experience design.” Not as something we do before the product, but something that lives within it. And that requires trying new things. Testing ideas that might not immediately maximize short-term metrics, but help us learn something deeper.
Another example came up recently. Someone proposed introducing rewarded ads into our service – watch an ad, get a reward. A classic model. Again, it made sense. Low effort, clear revenue upside. Hard to argue against it. But I found myself asking the same question.
What happens next?
If we start generating revenue this way, do we just keep adding more ad placements? Keep stacking monetization layers on top of the experience? Or is there a more thoughtful way to approach this? The reality is, monetization in the current B2C AI space isn’t straightforward. We don’t yet have a clear killer use case that users are willing to consistently pay for.
At the same time, running these services isn’t cheap. So in that gap, rewarded ads can play a role. Not as a long-term answer, but as a bridge. But only if we position them correctly. Not as “ads,” but as part of the experience. Not as something that interrupts, but something that enables.
If users feel like they’re engaging with the service – unlocking value, extending their experience – rather than being pulled into an ad, then the perception shifts entirely. That’s where the real design challenge is. Because in the end, it’s not about whether something generates revenue or drives traffic. It’s about whether it moves us forward.