✍️ games for stuck marketers

Ever feel like marketing has turned into a never-ending round of Chutes & Ladders?

You finally climb a ladder—messaging that feels clear, grounded, human. And then someone slides in from the C-suite with a, “Hey, can we say ‘AI’ more?” 

Straight down the chute. Back to square one.

After months of digging through data for our hot-off-the-press Trade Secrets: Marketing “AI” in 2026 report, we realized: Marketers don’t need another framework. They need time to think. So we went into the storyarb games closet.

Inside the report, we included three fan favorites—DND, Taboo, and Clue—built for marketers who know what works, but are tired of not being allowed to do it.

Let’s deal the cards and get into it.

We could’ve packaged these tips as an “AI Messaging Optimization Plan™,” but we didn’t.

Because marketers are creatives, and creativity doesn’t thrive under C-suite panic, endless LinkedIn hot takes, or another 47-slide deck.

Playing creates breathing room. It lowers the stakes just enough to get you out of your head. Buyers can feel when something was written under pressure versus with care.

When we analyzed the data from Trade Secrets: Marketing “AI” in 2026, one pattern kept surfacing: Marketers aren’t confused—they’re holding back.

We know outcomes matter. Buyers want proof. And “AI-powered” isn’t magic anymore. And yet… gestures emphatically at everything.

So we built three games you can use to pressure-test your 2026 messaging, without another panic-induced repositioning.

Game on.

Let’s start here: Your ICP is not a list of bullet points. 

She’s not:

• Mid-market decision maker

• Marketing leader at SaaS org

• AI-curious buyer

She’s a person. Her laptop crashed because she has too many tabs open. She reheats her coffee twice and leaves it in the microwave. She wants to get promoted before Q4. She’s trying to prove something to her buyers, her boss, and herself. 

In DND: B2B Edition, we help you build a character sheet instead of a persona.

• What’s the first thought your ICP has in the morning?

• What does she panic-search five minutes before a board call?

• What would make her exhale?

Because when you see the whole person, you stop defaulting to “AI-powered analytics platform” and start saying, “We can help you pull the data to nail that client call and rock your performance review.”

Same product, different posture, and waaay more fun to write.

This one is exactly what it sounds like.

Open your most recent brand messaging doc. CTRL+F “AI.” 

…and then delete everywhere it appears.

Read it out loud. Does the value still make sense? If yes, amazing. If not, that’s a signal that you’re leaning on the tech label instead of articulating the outcome.

If removing one word collapses your value prop, that word was doing more explaining than your messaging. And buyers can feel that.

For our readers with a competitive streak, we suggest playing this in your next team meeting. Every time someone says “AI,” someone else gets to hit the buzzer.

It’s funny for about 30 seconds.

Here’s the mystery: Does talking about AI actually help your sales team close more deals?

The victim: Your sales pipeline. 

The suspects:

• “AI-powered integration”

• “Automated insights engine”

• “Reports ready before your first meeting”

The twist? 9 in 10 marketers haven’t tested whether saying “AI” makes any difference in sales. Which means most of us are making big messaging decisions based on instinct, pressure, and whatever we think our competitors are doing this quarter.

But if most teams aren’t testing yet, that’s your opportunity!

Start small. Pick one page or campaign. Test AI-heavy language against outcome-focused language for two weeks. Let the numbers tell you something useful.

Campaigns that got us talking: AI feature. Super Bowl stage. Internet side-eye. Ring’s pet-finding ad ran headfirst into surveillance concerns, and led to the cancellation of a partnership with Flock Safety. Positioning travels. So do assumptions.

AI Spotlight: AI runs on energy. This breakdown looks at the full system—from power generation to cooling to GPUs—and shows where the real constraints are stacking up.

Stuff that makes us scroll back up: This LinkedIn post drove 83 new followers in a day—not because it celebrated a win, but because it gave people something they could actually use. A good reminder that native value beats vanity metrics every time.

If you notice a sudden surge of storyarb hot takes on your LinkedIn feed … no you didn’t.

Season 2 of “Own the Internet” is officially underway. What started as a slightly chaotic experiment in employee advocacy (but, like, make it fun) is back—eight weeks of posts, mini-games, and a leaderboard that keeps us humble.

The rules are simple: All storyarb employees are eligible. Everyone posts. Everyone juices each other’s content (comments > likes, always). And yes, there’s a cash prize at the end, because we believe in incentives and a little friendly chaos.

Last time we ran it, we saw 100,000 impressions in 24 hours—and one of our teammates with 4,400 followers outperformed our co-founder with 181K+. So it really is anyone’s game. 

(Here’s the full playbook for how we run this thing, btw. Feel free to steal for your own org.)

“Fractional.”

As in “fractional CFO.”

Somewhere along the way, “freelance” got all boardroom-y and put on a puffy vest. 

If you’re part-time, say part-time. If you’re contract, say contract.

Clarity > costume.*

If AI marketing starts feeling like Chutes and Ladders—one step forward, three slides back—change the game.

You don’t need another mandate. You need time to think, test, and write something that actually sounds like you. 

We’ll keep bringing the data. You bring the curiosity. 

See y’all next time. 

— the storyarb writers’ room 🫡

Oh! And another thing... The oldest playable board game on record dates back to 2600–2400 BC: The Royal Game of Ur. Four-sided dice. A race to the end of the board. No way to predict who will win, not even in the final moves. Humans have been trying to out-strategize chance for 4,000 years. The difference now?

We can test before we roll.