How to Build Hype with Chaos, Claude’s Growth Engine, and Gen Alpha Trends

Edition 79

Author

Luru Labs
July 28, 2025

Hello there,

This week’s picks include an unexpectedly brilliant social strategy from Amtrak, new data on how Gen Alpha behaves online, evolving PR trends, and a deep dive into Claude’s unique go-to-market model. Each story reveals a different angle on how audience expectations, channel choices, and product strategy are shifting fast.

Amtrak’s chaotic ‘brain rot’ strategy is working

What looks like unhinged internet behavior is actually a calculated move by Amtrak to win over a younger crowd. Their meme-heavy, self-aware tone is designed to feel native to platforms like TikTok—embracing chaos to drive reach and reliability.

Behind Amtrak’s ‘chaotic brain rot’ social strategy

The passenger railroad balances humor with informative posts to cater to a wide range of potential customers, an exec told us.

www.marketingbrew.com/stories/2025/07/17/inside-amtrak-s-chaotic-brain-rot-social-strategy

What Gen Alpha wants from brands

GWI’s latest report unpacks how the first truly digital-native generation is shaping brand expectations. Highlights include their high trust in influencers, love of short-form video, and unique preferences for identity expression.

Gen Alpha unfiltered

Explore Gen Alpha’s values, behaviors, and mindset in GWI’s latest report packed with fresh insights into the world’s youngest and most connected generation.

www.gwi.com/reports/gen-alpha/explore

The new rules of PR in 2025

From AI-generated pitches to building relationships with creators, PR isn’t what it used to be. Buzzstream outlines six emerging trends that modern marketers can’t afford to ignore.

PR Trends: The Shifts You Can’t Ignore in 2025

Understand the major PR trends in 2025 and how you can use them to earn coverage and build relationships with journalists.

www.buzzstream.com/blog/pr-trends

Claude’s Ingenious Growth Loop

Brian Balfour breaks down how Claude is using a smart, self-sustaining growth strategy: users build lightweight AI-powered apps inside Claude, and every app shared requires the end user to have Claude to use it. That creates a loop where app builders become advocates, and every new user is a potential creator—driving viral growth without infrastructure costs.

How Claude Is Building A Unique Growth Engine Out of User-Created Apps

Anthropic recently launched Claude AI-powered apps. It's unique constraints creates a potentially new powerful growth model. Here is a full breakdown.

blog.brianbalfour.com/p/how-claude-is-building-a-unique-growth


That’s it for this week.
From memes to messaging strategies, brands are experimenting with tone, targeting, and timing in fascinating ways. Whether you’re launching an AI tool or trying to win over Gen Alpha, there’s something useful in each of these picks.

See you next week 👋

Signing off,

Team ‘Luru