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87% of agency pros say the traditional agency model is broken

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By Luis Rijo

Basis survey of 213 professionals finds 87% believe the traditional agency model is broken, as AI adoption, layoffs, and in-housing reshape advertising in 2026.

Basis today published its 2026 Advertising Agency Report, a survey of more than 200 advertising professionals that delivers one of the most sobering assessments of the industry’s structural health in years. The findings, released April 20, 2026, show that 87.3% of agency professionals believe the traditional agency model is either broken today or will be within three to five years. Among senior leaders at the VP level or above, that figure climbs to 91.5%.

The Chicago-based company, which operates a software platform connecting media planning, operations, reporting, and financial reconciliation across programmatic, publisher-direct, search, social, and connected TV channels, conducted the annual study across 213 respondents at leading agencies. The sample is larger than prior waves – 113 respondents in 2024 and 171 in 2025 – giving the 2026 data more statistical weight and making the year-over-year declines in confidence more significant.

The traditional agency model under pressure

The headline finding breaks down further when examined by response category. According to the report, 29.1% of all respondents said the traditional agency model is already broken outright. Another 35.7% described it as “somewhat” broken. A further 22.5% said the model is not broken yet but will be within three to five years. Just 12.7% believed the model remains intact. Among senior leaders specifically, more than 70% believe the model is already broken in some form.

The traditional model in question was built on billable hours, bundled services, and human-driven execution. As the report explains, that structure is proving increasingly difficult to sustain as AI compresses timelines and clients expect more output for less cost. When a task that once required 20 hours of labor now takes two, the arithmetic of the billable-hour model breaks down.

Ryan Manchee, SVP of Brand Marketing at Basis, described the dynamic in the press release accompanying the report: “Basis’ 2026 Advertising Agency Report illustrates an industry in flux, where operational complexity, economic pressure, and AI-driven disruption are forcing agencies to rethink how they work, how they deliver value, and how they are compensated. As the agency model transforms, the question now is what tools, technologies and practices these businesses will use to refit and remodel. While AI can be a business accelerator and force multiplier for agencies, it is only effective if it operates on advertising systems that are structured and connected.”

Work is getting harder, client relationships more strained

Seventy percent of agency professionals said their jobs are more difficult today than they were two years ago. That figure represents a sharp deterioration in working conditions at a time when the industry is simultaneously expected to do more with less. Two-thirds of respondents – 66.2% – also said that digital advertising itself has become harder over the same period, up from 58.4% in 2025 and 58.4% in 2024, a consistent upward trend across three consecutive survey waves.

Client relationships are deteriorating in parallel. Fifty-four percent of agency professionals reported that their agency’s client relationships are more strained today than two years ago, up from 50.9% in 2025 and 43.4% in 2024. The progression across three years reflects clients arriving with higher expectations and less patience, compressing timelines while increasing scrutiny over results.

Transparency remains a persistent concern. A decisive 88.3% of respondents said there should be more transparency across digital advertising, reflecting frustration with accountability gaps around ad fraud, made-for-advertising websites, incomplete performance data, and supply chain opacity. The figure has remained stubbornly high across survey years.

Operational dysfunction: processes and siloed systems

Despite years of technology investment, the top challenges facing agencies remain the same ones identified in prior waves of this research. Inefficient processes topped the list, cited by 44.1% of respondents. Siloed or disconnected systems came second at 40.4%. These two challenges are not independent – disconnected systems are a primary driver of process inefficiency, creating a reinforcing cycle that proves difficult to break.

Shrinking profits ranked third at 39.0%, followed by rising costs at 36.6%. The pairing illustrates a margin squeeze: costs rising on one side while clients push back against fee structures on the other. For senior leaders specifically, the picture is slightly more acute: inefficient processes were cited by 48.9% of VPs and above, siloed systems by 41.5%, and shrinking profits by 36.2%.

Tech stack sprawl has doubled in two years

One of the more striking technical findings in the report concerns the expansion of agency adtech stacks. Among full-service and media agencies, 36.8% now manage ten or more tools as part of their adtech and martech infrastructure. Two years ago, that figure was just 17.3% – meaning the proportion of agencies running ten-plus tools has more than doubled in that timeframe. Nearly half of all respondents – 46.7% – reported managing eight or more tools. The growth in stack complexity explains in part why inefficiency and silos remain so persistent: the more fragmented the tooling, the harder it becomes to achieve coordinated workflows.

This pattern fits a broader industry picture. IAB forecasts for 2026 show that two-thirds of advertisers now concentrate on agentic AI for campaign execution, yet most organizations lack the unified infrastructure to deploy those systems effectively. The Basis data reinforces that gap at the agency level.

AI adoption surpasses 99% – but anxiety is rising alongside it

AI is now used at over 99% of agencies surveyed, according to the report. That figure marks near-universal penetration across the sample. Daily use has reached 59.2% of agency professionals in 2026, up sharply from 15.9% in 2024 and 38.6% in 2025. An additional 27.2% use AI tools three to four times per week, meaning 86.4% of agency professionals use AI at least several times weekly.

The tasks where AI has taken hold are concentrated in the earlier, less consequential stages of workflow. Ideation and brainstorming lead at 86.9%, followed by research at 84.0%, drafting content or creative at 72.3%, and producing images or videos at 56.3%. Streamlining processes reached 52.1% and repurposing existing content 43.7%. But at the stages where AI could deliver the most operational leverage – media planning, which was recorded at 29.1%, and media buying strategy at 22.1% – adoption remains comparatively low.

Agentic AI, which allows systems to move from insight to action autonomously, has reached 46% of surveyed agencies, with 54% yet to adopt. Among those that have, the leading use cases are reporting and analytics at 61.2%, campaign brief creation at 58.2%, and content creation at 57.1%. Creative optimization reached 43.9% and personalization 36.7%. Media planning agents are used by 20.4% and media buying agents by just 9.2%.

Agentic advertising infrastructure has been expanding rapidly across the industry, with multiple platforms introducing autonomous campaign execution capabilities. Yet the Basis data shows most agencies are still deploying these tools in reporting and content functions rather than the media buying and planning tasks where the efficiency gains would be most financially significant.

For the second consecutive year, agency leaders named AI as their top investment priority. Among VPs and above, 77.7% said they plan to increase AI spending over the next 12 months. Automation tools and reporting and analytics capabilities each drew 44.7% of leaders planning increased investment, tying for second. Talent acquisition was cited by 38.3% and data management tools by 34.0%. Across all respondents, 73.7% said their organization has plans to invest in new technology to automate or streamline processes within the next year.

AI poses a revenue threat – and most agencies know it

The same technology agencies are counting on to reduce costs is also the technology most likely to compress their own revenue. Ninety percent of all agency professionals said they believe AI poses a threat to their agency’s primary revenue streams. Among senior leaders, that figure reaches 95%. More than half of all respondents – 57.3% – characterized AI as a moderate-to-significant threat, with 42.7% describing it as a moderate threat and 14.6% a significant one.

The mechanism is clear. AI reduces the labour hours required to execute tasks across the full campaign lifecycle, from strategy and planning through creative, buying, and reporting. As the report notes, when a 20-hour task becomes a 2-hour task, billing models built on time and headcount begin to lose their structural rationale. Clients, increasingly aware of this compression, apply downward pressure on fees.

The number of AI pessimists – those who believe AI will have a negative impact on agencies over the next three to five years – has grown sharply. The share stood at 19.9% in 2025. In 2026, it has risen to 32.0%. Even among those who remain positive about AI’s impact, the character of that optimism has shifted: only 26.8% now believe the impact will be “mostly positive,” compared to 36.3% who held that view the year before. Among senior leaders, more than 25% now expect AI to have a net negative impact on agencies, roughly double the number who held that view in 2025.

The ad industry’s relationship with AI across 2025 and early 2026 has been characterized by exactly this ambivalence, with platforms racing to launch agentic capabilities while practitioners reported operational chaos distinguishing actionable automation from vendor hype.

In-housing accelerates as AI lowers the barriers

The primary structural barriers to brand in-housing have historically been talent and infrastructure – two things that AI has begun to erode. A lean internal team equipped with the right tools can now execute what once required a full-service agency relationship. That shift is measurable in the Basis data: 65.3% of agencies said that in the past 12 months, at least some clients moved work that the agency previously handled in-house. The figure adds to the client tension data, reflecting pressure that compounds year on year.

In-housing was also cited as a challenge by 23.9% of all respondents and by 29.8% of senior leaders – a notably higher proportion at leadership level, suggesting that agency executives are watching the trend with more concern than their teams below.

Layoffs, workforce confidence, and the talent pipeline

Nearly 40% of agencies – specifically 39.9% – reported conducting layoffs within the past 12 months. The workforce reductions reflect agencies adjusting headcount in response to AI-driven efficiency gains and the resulting downward pressure on margins. Layoffs driven by AI adoption have been documented across multiple data and advertising technology companies throughout 2025 and into 2026.

For the first time in the survey’s history, fewer than half of all agency professionals feel optimistic about the future of digital advertising. Specifically, 48.8% described themselves as feeling good, optimistic, or confident about digital advertising’s future. The figure was 56.1% in 2025 and 62.8% in 2024. The decline of nearly 14 percentage points over two years marks the first time confidence has fallen below the 50% threshold.

Industry confidence among leaders has fallen even faster. Senior leaders who felt optimistic about digital advertising’s future stood at 72.5% in 2024, dropped to 64.6% in 2025, and now sit at 51.1% in 2026 – a cumulative decline of 21.4 percentage points in two years.

A confidence gap is emerging between leadership and junior staff that carries long-term implications. Senior leaders remain relatively confident about the futures of their own agencies at 73.4%, while entry-to-mid level employees report confidence in their agency’s future at just 57.1%. The 16-point gap reflects an uneven distribution of anxiety across organizational levels. Junior roles are the ones most exposed to AI-driven displacement, and 80.7% of entry-to-mid level employees said they are likely to search for a new job within the next 12 months. Only 27.7% of respondents overall said they were somewhat or very likely to job-hunt – suggesting most workers are holding their positions rather than actively seeking moves, but that the pressure is concentrated among those with the least tenure.

Why this matters for the marketing community

Global advertising spend is projected to cross $1 trillion for the first time in 2026, according to industry forecasts cited in the Basis report. That growth creates real opportunity. But as programmatic advertising crossed $162.4 billion in 2025 in the US alone and agentic AI begins reshaping how campaigns are bought and sold, the question of which agency structures can survive is pressing. An industry in which nearly nine in ten professionals doubt the long-term viability of the foundational business model cannot continue in its current form indefinitely.

The data points to a set of structural adaptations that the most durable agencies will need to pursue: consolidating fragmented tech stacks, eliminating siloes that drive inefficiency, investing in AI infrastructure that connects rather than fragments workflows, and rethinking revenue models that no longer work when AI compresses time dramatically. The report frames these not as optional improvements but as conditions for survival.

For professionals in paid search, programmatic, and broader digital media, the Basis findings reinforce a pattern visible across multiple 2026 industry outlooks: the organizations that treat AI adoption as a technology checkbox rather than a structural transformation are the ones most likely to find themselves on the wrong side of the confidence gap.

Timeline

  • 2023: Basis begins tracking AI usage in its annual agency survey; 32.7% of respondents reported not using AI at all, with daily AI use at just 9.9%
  • 2024: Basis surveys 113 agency professionals; daily AI use was 15.9%; 62.8% of respondents felt optimistic about digital advertising; agencies managing 8 or more adtech tools stood at 22.1%
  • 2025: Basis surveys 171 agency professionals; daily AI use reaches 38.6%; industry optimism falls to 56.1%; 50.9% of agencies reported more strained client relationships
  • December 2025: WPP Media projects global ad spending to surpass $1 trillion; programmatic advertising reaches $162.4 billion in the US with 20.5% year-over-year growth
  • January 2026: IAB releases 2026 Outlook Study forecasting 9.5% US ad spend growth, with five of six top advertiser priorities linked to AI
  • January 2026: Mediaocean survey shows 54% of marketers increasing AI media spend while 42% struggle with data quality issues limiting broader implementation
  • January 5, 2026: PubMatic launches AgenticOS with live campaigns running through agent-led workflows, partnering with WPP Media, Butler/Till, and MiQ
  • February 26, 2026: IAB Tech Lab formally names its agentic initiative AAMP, consolidating the Agentic Advertising Management Protocols under a single architecture
  • April 16, 2026: IAB releases 2025 Internet Advertising Revenue Report, showing US digital ad revenue reaching $294.6 billion with programmatic crossing $162.4 billion
  • April 20, 2026: Basis releases the 2026 Advertising Agency Report, based on 213 respondents; 87.3% believe the traditional agency model is broken or will be; daily AI use reaches 59.2%; fewer than half of agency professionals feel optimistic about the industry’s future for the first time in the survey’s history

Summary

Who: Basis, a Chicago-based advertising software company operating since 2001, surveyed 213 advertising professionals at leading agencies for its annual industry study. Ryan Manchee, SVP of Brand Marketing at Basis, commented on the findings.

What: The 2026 Advertising Agency Report found that 87.3% of agency professionals believe the traditional agency model is either already broken or will be within three to five years. The report documents accelerating AI adoption, rising layoffs, client in-housing, tech stack sprawl, and a historic drop in industry confidence below the 50% threshold for the first time.

When: The report was released on April 20, 2026. The survey covered the current state of advertising agencies as of early 2026, with comparative data going back to 2023 and 2024.

Where: The findings apply to the US advertising agency industry, with Basis headquartered at 11 E Madison St, 6th Floor, Chicago, IL 60602. The full report is available at basis.com/reports/2026-advertising-agency-report.

Why: The report matters because it documents structural cracks in the agency model at a moment when global advertising spend is projected to cross $1 trillion for the first time. As AI compresses the labour-intensive work on which billable-hour models depend, and as brands increasingly bring work in-house, agencies face simultaneous pressure on revenue, workforce, and operational efficiency. The findings signal that the industry has moved past theoretical disruption into measurable decline of confidence in the existing model.

By Luis Rijo

Sourced from PPC Land

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From Symbols to Systems: Designing brands that hold under pressure

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Sourced from CREATIVE BOOM

Creative Director Daniel Irizarry of Athletics argues that the most resilient brand systems aren’t built on exhaustive rules – they’re anchored by a few essential elements, and designed to move.

Most brand systems don’t fail because they’re poorly designed. They fail because they’re overdesigned — too many rules, too much rigidity, too little room for the people using them to actually think. In a world where culture moves faster than any guidelines document can keep up with, the brands that hold together won’t be the ones with the most elaborate systems. They’ll be the ones who got a few essential things right and gave themselves the freedom to move.

That idea has sharpened for me over the past few years as AI has started reshaping how quickly creative work can move. If the flexible layer of brand identity — photography, video, illustration, 3D — is being asked to respond to culture faster than ever, then the question of what stays fixed isn’t just a design question anymore. It’s an existential one. The core elements of a brand have never mattered more, precisely because the pace of everything around them is accelerating.

Start with the why

Before we design anything, we need to understand what we’re building for and who we’re building for. That means market analysis, brand audits, and — critically — culture and audience. Not culture as a trend report, but culture as the living context in which a brand has to earn attention. And not audience as a demographic spreadsheet, but as real people with preferences, values, and ways of moving through the world. The goal is to connect business objectives with cultural relevance. When those align, you can tell stories that are emotionally resonant and strategically sharp — a genuine connection between what a brand stands for and what people care about.

We also need to understand how an organisation currently delivers its branding. What’s already in place? Where are the friction points? A beautiful identity that an internal team can’t execute is a failed identity. And every category has its visual codes — shorthands rooted in culture that help audiences place a brand’s purpose and position. Which do we reinforce to make a brand legible, and which do we subvert to make it distinctive? The craft is in reading the landscape clearly enough to know where to play within conventions and where to break them.

The anchor matters more than ever

From this foundation, we build the core identity — the symbols that become a brand’s essential markers. Logo, colour, typography, graphic language, sound, motion. These are the elements that do the heaviest lifting for recognition and consistency. In a moment of accelerating change, they need to be more polished, more singular, more resilient than ever. They’re the anchor. If the anchor doesn’t hold, nothing else matters.

This is the part where the industry’s instinct to systematise everything gets backwards. As the world speeds up, the natural impulse is to add more rules — more guardrails, more specifications, more pages to the toolkit. But the brands that will thrive aren’t the ones with the thickest guidelines. They’re the ones who planted a few stakes in the ground so firmly that everything else can move around them.

Volume control

I think about this as volume control. A brand, like a person, can’t always be at eleven. Depending on the situation, context, and audience, you need to modulate—and the ability to do so well is becoming the defining capability of a resilient brand system.

Working across multiple Google product brands has made this vivid for me. Google understands the difference between fixed and flexible at scale. The core ingredients are remarkably lean: name, logo, colour, shape, form, product experience, UI. That last part matters — for many brands today, especially in tech, the product itself is the primary brand surface, where the brand lives at its quietest and most constant volume. But what holds everything together isn’t just the ingredients — it’s personality. There’s a consistent tone and emotional register that make something feel Google, whether you’re looking at a Circle to Search campaign or a Chrome Browser onboarding screen. The individual products modulate depending on the audience and context, but the personality and a few key signals remain constant. That coherence comes from a team that deeply understands its brand and partners willing to push each other toward the best work.

That’s volume control in practice. Not a rigid system applied uniformly, but a clear core expressed at different intensities — meeting people where they are without losing the thread.

Pressure-test everything

Here’s the thing about core elements and volume control: you can’t know if they work until you’ve stretched them. As the media landscape evolves, brands have to show up on more surfaces, in more formats, in ways that didn’t exist two years ago. A logo that looks great on a website might fall apart in a spatial computing environment. A type system that sings in editorial might go flat in motion.

This is why R&D isn’t a nice-to-have — it’s essential. Experimentation with code, 3D, motion, AI — these aren’t finishing touches applied after the system is locked. They’re how you pressure-test whether the brand can live in the real world and discover the edges of what your identity can do, which is exactly where differentiation lives. The brands that feel truly unique aren’t the ones that stayed safe within their own guidelines. They’re the ones that pushed their core elements into unfamiliar territory and found out what held.

Systems that empower, not constrain

If you’ve been in this industry long enough, you’ve lived the other version. A client asks for comprehensive guidelines, the team delivers an exhaustive system, and somewhere along the way, you realise that even you — the person who helped build it — are second-guessing every move against a two-hundred-page document. The rules intended to create consistency end up creating paralysis.

The most important thing a system can do is answer two questions: what are the non-negotiable elements that must retain their integrity, and where is the creative freedom?

Our work with Okta has been the strongest proof of this. We’ve partnered with their brand team for over four years — genuine collaboration built on honest feedback and mutual trust. The system we developed together has real depth and range, and it thrives because Okta has an exceptional internal team with the skill and ambition to take it further. They’ve extended the work far beyond what we initially created, and our partnership continues to evolve as the brand grows. Define the core, establish the volume control, and then trust talented teams to bring their own ingenuity and creativity to the work.

Holding under pressure

The brands that endure won’t be the ones that try to control every pixel. They’ll be the ones who understand what to hold onto, what to let breathe, and what to push into new territory.

That’s what it means to design a brand that holds under pressure. Not rigidity — resilience. Not more rules — sharper instincts. The symbols give you recognition. The volume control gives you range. The collaboration gives you longevity. And the judgment to know when to turn it up and when to pull it back? That’s the part no system can automate.

Sourced from CREATIVE BOOM

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AI translator turns English into LinkedIn speak

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By Chris Taylor

Excited to announce participatory parody by premium search service! #GrowthMindset

If you’ve spent more than a day on LinkedIn in your life, you may have noticed that the networking service has developed a language all of its own. If you were a tad unkind, you might say LinkedIn users self-promote every tiny career moment in such a cliched way, it’s a wonder that their words aren’t written by AI.

Or, if you wanted to turn that last sentence into more, uh, proactively positive LinkedIn speak: “We’re seeing so many thought leaders lean into the hustle, celebrating every micro-win with such a growth-oriented narrative that you’d swear it was automated. It’s all about that personal branding and staying humble while scaling your impact! #GrowthMindset #PersonalBranding #HustleCulture.”

And in a smart marketing move worthy of a LinkedIn update, Kagi has introduced more humorous internet subculture “languages” among its translation options. LinkedIn, launched Wednesday, is only the latest: there’s Reddit speak (lots of “weird-ass,” “cringe” and “banana for scale”), Pirate Speak (“tis a wonder their words aren’t written by some mechanical ghost”), and complete fictional languages like Klingon (you’ll be glad to know Klingons hunt for work on “LinkedInDaq.”)

But it’s the LinkedIn lingo making waves on social media this week. I can see why, because this is more than a novelty — it’s a hilarious and actually useful translation service. When it comes to human-style AI speak taking over our digital lives, the LinkedIn translator is touching the same nerve as Your AI Slop Bores Me — not to mention George Orwell’s Newspeak.

There’s a game-like aspect to the translations, and the game is: is there any human activity that couldn’t be made to sound doubleplusgood in a LinkedIn post? If there is, I haven’t found it yet.

Wasted the afternoon in bed? No, you “decided to prioritize a strategic recharge to optimize cognitive performance and long-term productivity.” Started injecting heroin? Call it “a high-intensity, daily commitment to a specialized chemical routine” that taught you about “supply chain consistency” and “a relentless focus on personal objectives, no matter the cost.” Murdered a co-worker? Nonsense, my friend, you “successfully offboarded a team member … to optimize long-term headcount.”

The translation works the other way around, too: LinkedIn speak into plain English. That’s right — the next time your boss writes a 10,000-word LinkedIn epic that could have been a three-line email, there’s no need to Google all the obscure marketing or management jargon. Just Kagi the whole thing.

And if you need to write a comment in response, know that “I hated this and I am dumber for reading it” can also be rendered as “’While I’m always looking for ways to challenge my current mindset, this particular content reminded me of the importance of being intentional with the information we consume. Grateful for the learning opportunity!”

Hey, maybe AI will save white collar workers’ jobs after all.

Feature image credit: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

By Chris Taylor

Chris is a veteran tech, entertainment and culture journalist, author of ‘How Star Wars Conquered the Universe,’ and co-host of the Doctor Who podcast ‘Pull to Open.’ Hailing from the U.K., Chris got his start as a sub editor on national newspapers. He moved to the U.S. in 1996, and became senior news writer for Time.com a year later. In 2000, he was named San Francisco bureau chief for Time magazine. He has served as senior editor for Business 2.0, and West Coast editor for Fortune Small Business and Fast Company. Chris is a graduate of Merton College, Oxford and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is also a long-time volunteer at 826 Valencia, the nationwide after-school program co-founded by author Dave Eggers. His book on the history of Star Wars is an international bestseller and has been translated into 11 languages.

Sourced from Mashable

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Brand Before Marketing: The Strategic Sequence too Many CMOs Ignore

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Performance campaigns can drive quick wins, but without a clear brand foundation they rarely build lasting customer loyalty.

The Gist

  • Brand defines the strategy; marketing executes it. Organizations that clarify their purpose, values and narrative first give every marketing channel a clear direction, reducing fragmentation and inconsistent messaging.
  • Performance marketing alone cannot sustain growth. Companies that focus primarily on acquisition tactics often compete on price or features, weakening loyalty and long-term customer retention.
  • Strong brands multiply marketing ROI. Clear brand identity aligns teams, simplifies campaign decisions and strengthens customer trust, turning each marketing investment into a longer-term relationship builder.

The pressure on CMOs to deliver immediate, measurable results has never been higher. With real-time dashboards and attribution models at their fingertips, the temptation to lead with high-performance marketing tactics is significant.

However, a critical question remains at the center of the C-suite table: Does the brand build the marketing, or does the marketing build the brand?

This article examines the fundamental sequence of growth and why establishing a robust brand identity is the necessary precursor to any successful marketing deployment.

Table of Contents

Defining the Corporate DNA

For a CMO, the distinction between branding and marketing is the difference between a company’s soul and its voice. Branding is the internal realization of a company’s “why”—its values, its mission and the emotional resonance it aims to strike with its global audience.

Marketing, by contrast, is the strategic execution of that identity across various channels to drive specific actions. Some say organizations fall into the trap of “tactical sprawl,” where marketing activities are launched in a vacuum.

Without a brand anchor, these activities often lack cohesion, leading to fragmented customer experiences and diminished ROI.

The Cost of a ‘Marketing-First’ Approach

When marketing precedes branding, the result is often a high volume of lead generation with a low rate of long-term retention. This “performance paradox” was a recurring theme in recent leadership summits.

Marcus Thorne, a veteran CMO in the technology sector, described the dangers of neglecting the brand foundation.

“We observed companies in hyper-growth phases pouring millions into customer acquisition,” he said. “Because they hadn’t defined their brand narrative, they were forced to compete solely on price or features. As soon as a cheaper competitor emerged, their ‘loyal’ customers evaporated.”

A study by McKinsey & Company highlighted that companies with strong, consistent brands consistently outperform their peers in terms of total return to shareholders.

This suggests that the “brand equity” built early on serves as a multiplier for every marketing dollar spent later.

Related Article: The Top Challenges Facing CMOs in 2026

Bridging the Gap From Identity to Execution

The consensus among global marketing leaders is that branding must act as the “North Star” for all departmental activities.

This is not merely an aesthetic choice; it is a strategic necessity that simplifies decision-making.

When a top executive advisor emphasizes the efficiency of a brand-led strategy and narrates that when the brand is clearly defined, the marketing team doesn’t have to guess. The tone of voice, the visual language and the target personas are already set. It allows for faster execution and more authentic communication.

The logical progression for a CMO-led transformation typically followes this framework:

  • Audit and Alignment: Ensuring the internal culture matches the external promise.
  • Narrative Development: Crafting a story that transcends the product or service.
  • Omnichannel Deployment: Using marketing tools to amplify that story to a segmented audience.

Practical Steps for CMOs Building a Brand-Led Marketing Strategy

Marketing leaders increasingly recognize that sustainable growth starts with brand clarity. The following practices help ensure branding guides marketing execution rather than reacting to it.

Practice What It Means Why It Matters
Establish brand guidelines as governance Treat the brand book as a strategic filter for every campaign, not simply a design reference. When campaigns align with clearly defined brand values, marketing remains consistent and avoids fragmented messaging.
Measure brand health, not just leads Track indicators such as brand sentiment, recall and Net Promoter Score (NPS) alongside conversion metrics. These indicators reveal how the market perceives the brand and whether marketing efforts are strengthening long-term loyalty.
Unify the customer journey Ensure the promise made in marketing is fulfilled across product experience, support and service interactions. Breakdowns between brand messaging and real customer experience are where trust erodes and loyalty declines.
Invest in emotional differentiation Focus on creating emotional resonance and brand affinity rather than only building awareness through campaigns. In an environment saturated with automated content and AI-generated ads, human-centered brand identity becomes the key competitive advantage.

Conclusion: Marketing Without Branding Is Noise

The debate over what comes first is settled by the reality of the marketplace.

Marketing without branding is noise; branding without marketing is a secret. However, for every CMO seeking sustainable, long-term growth, the blueprint must always be drawn before the ground is broken.

By prioritizing the brand foundation, marketing efforts become more than just transactions. And they become milestones in a long-term relationship with the consumer through enhanced customer loyalty.

Feature image credit: MelissaMN | Adobe Stock

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Umesh Panchal, a seasoned sales and marketing professional with over 24 years of dynamic experience, emerges as a visionary leader propelling organizations toward unprecedented success. His robust career spans various industries, including SaaS, IT hardware, education, security, manufacturing and retail, consistently delivering exceptional results.

Sourced from CMSWIRE

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Small publishers hit hardest by search traffic declines

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By Sara Fischer

Smaller web publishers, with 1,000–10,000 daily page views, are experiencing the most precipitous traffic declines in the AI era, according to new Chartbeat data provided exclusively to Axios.

Why it matters: The data suggests larger publishers with better brand recognition and stronger direct-to-consumer products are more insulated from declines in traditional search traffic.

Zoom in: Over the past two years, referral traffic from traditional search engines has declined by 60% for small publishers, compared with 47% for medium-sized publishers and 22% for large publishers, per Chartbeat.

  • Medium-sized publishers are outlets with 10,000–100,000 daily page views, on average. Large publishers are those with more than 100,000 daily page views on average.
  • Chartbeat aggregates that data from thousands of client websites that use its revenue and analytics tools globally. It’s been tracking internet traffic trends across its network for nearly two decades.

Reality check: Traffic from AI-driven search experiences and chatbots isn’t close to offsetting declines from traditional search, per Chartbeat.

  • Page views from Google Search and Google Discover — the two biggest referrers of traditional search traffic globally — fell 34% and 15%, respectively, from December 2024 to December 2025.
  • While page views from ChatGPT referrals have increased by more than 200% during that period, chatbots still account for less than 1% of all publisher page view referrals.

Yes, but: Overall web traffic isn’t plummeting, even though search referrals are declining.

  • The average number of weekly page views across all global publishers measured by Chartbeat dropped 6% between 2024 and 2025, which is normal and can be attributed to factors outside of shifting search trends, such as an off year for elections and a shifting news cycle.

The big picture: The data suggests bigger and more sophisticated publishers are finding new ways to mitigate search traffic declines, which has helped temper the overall rate of page view declines on the internet.

  • Search traffic for news and media sites, in particular, is being partially offset by new referral channels, such as direct traffic and internal traffic, or traffic that comes from a different page on the same website.
  • Referrals from email, apps and instant messages are also growing as a share of overall traffic among news and media publishers.

What to watch: As AI chatbots continue to grow in search traffic, news and media publishers will need to find ways to offer value to readers outside of breaking stories and incremental updates.

  • The Chartbeat data finds that news and media websites receive the highest overall number of page views from AI platforms, but the lowest engagement per individual article, suggesting readers rely on those sites to offer fact-checks or context within chatbots, but not deeper analysis.
  • Utilitarian sites, or ones that offer things like health advice or gardening tips, tend to see more page views per article on average from chatbots.

The bottom line: The Chartbeat data suggests smaller publishers can no longer rely on search engine optimization to deepen and expand their audience relationships.

  • They must focus on building stronger direct relationships and brand recognition with audiences by investing more in their owned and operated channels.
  • It also suggests news and media publishers must find ways to solve problems and serve as a utility for readers if they want to drive deeper engagement from AI chatbot referrals.

By Sara Fischer

Sourced from AXIOS

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Why Social Capital And Human Networks Are Important In The Age Of AI

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By Cathy Hackl

In an era where artificial intelligence is reshaping industries at an unprecedented pace, the value of human connections and social capital has never been more critical. Take the story of retired Army Sergeant Major, Michael Quinn, a former senior military leader who transitioned into a successful entrepreneurial and executive career. Leveraging LinkedIn, Quinn built a robust network that not only facilitated his remarkable transition from the military to the private sector but also skyrocketed his success and positioned him as one of the world’s leading experts on leadership and social capital. His story is a testament to the transformative power of social capital and human networks in today’s fast changing digital landscape.

The Essence Of Social Capital And Why it Matters

Social capital refers to the networks of relationships among people who live and work in a particular society, enabling that society to function effectively. In the professional realm, social capital is the currency of influence, built through trust, mutual respect, and shared experiences. It’s what turns a simple introduction into a long-term professional relationship and a casual conversation into a lucrative business opportunity.

The Relevance Of LinkedIn

In this digital age, platforms like LinkedIn have become indispensable tools for building and maintaining social capital. LinkedIn offers a dynamic space where professionals can showcase their expertise, connect with peers, and discover new opportunities. It’s a platform that has proven its worth time and again, not just for job seekers but also for thought leaders and executives looking to expand their influence and impact.

“LinkedIn is no longer just a networking tool. It is the most powerful personal branding platform in the professional world,” highlighted Maha Abouelenein, Founder & CEO of Digital and Savvy and personal branding expert . “ We’re entering a world where job titles matter less, AI can mimic expertise, and a single moment can define or destroy a reputation.”

For Abouelenein, the real currency isn’t visibility. It’s credibility, and the leaders winning on it aren’t necessarily the most experienced in the room. They are the clearest, the most consistent and the most intentional.

With more than 1.2 billion members across over 200 countries and territories, LinkedIn remains the world’s largest professional network and one of the most dynamic platforms for building modern social capital at scale. It has evolved far beyond a digital résumé repository into a global arena for ideas, leadership, and opportunity. Within that ecosystem, LinkedIn Top Voices, an exclusive group of professionals recognized for consistent thought leadership and meaningful contributions, represent a small but powerful cohort shaping conversations across industries. Their presence highlights something important: in a network of this magnitude, credibility, insight, and authentic engagement rise to the top. In the age of AI, platforms like LinkedIn don’t just connect people, they amplify trusted voices and accelerate influence.

According to Quinn, Chief Growth Officer of Tenova LLC, HireMilitary and a 3x Linked Top Voice, there are three things that make LinkedIn incredibly valuable.

“First, LinkedIn is the social media platform where industry decision makers spend their time,” added Quinn. “Second, LinkedIn focuses on trust & safety, removing hostile comments from your post before you see them and third you can choose your desired audience by connecting strategically with the people you want to reach and then sharing information that would interest them.”

Building Success Through Networking

Sandy Carter is another shining example of the power of social capital in action. Recently recognized as a LinkedIn Top Voice in AI Tech, Carter, who happens to be a Forbes Digital Assets contributor, leveraged her network to amplify her influence further and drive her career forward even more. Despite already having global recognition as a tech leader, with leadership roles at IBM, AWS and now at Unstoppable Domains, Sandy has used LinkedIn strategically.

Her approach to LinkedIn goes beyond simply posting content. Sandy treats the platform as a two-way conversation, consistently engaging with her community, elevating other voices, and sharing lessons from her decades of building multi-billion dollar businesses. It is this intentional, relationship-first mindset that has set her apart.

“Your network is your net worth, but only if you invest in it authentically. I have always believed that social capital is built by giving first: sharing knowledge, opening doors for others, and showing up consistently. LinkedIn gave me a platform to do that at scale, and the returns have been extraordinary, from partnerships and speaking invitations to a global community of women I am proud to champion,” said Sandy Carter, Chief Business Officer and Founder.

Her journey underscores the importance of actively engaging with and contributing to professional communities. By doing so, she not only expanded her reach but also created a platform to share her insights, thereby strengthening her social capital.

Today, Sandy’s influence extends well beyond corporate boardrooms. As the founder of Unstoppable Women of AI and Blockchain, she has trained over 55,000 women across 92 countries in emerging technologies. She also hosts Marketing Companion by Sandy Carter, a top 1% podcast and winner of two marketing awards, where she shares actionable insights on AI and marketing leadership. Her LinkedIn presence has become a launchpad for all of these efforts, proving that when social capital is invested with purpose, it can create impact on a global scale.

Social Influence: A Top Skill for the Future

According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report, leadership and social influence are among the fastest-rising skills in the global economy, signalling a structural shift in what organizations now value. As AI systems take on analytical, operational, and even creative tasks, competitive advantage is moving away from pure technical execution and toward distinctly human capabilities. The leaders who stand out are not simply those who understand technology, but those who can guide people through transformation, build alignment in moments of uncertainty, and translate complexity into clarity.

Social influence, in this context, is not about popularity or personal branding. It is about trust at scale. It is the ability to convene the right people, shape strategic conversations, foster collaboration across industries, and mobilize networks toward action. Social capital provides the network foundation, while social influence is the ability to activate and direct that network with credibility and purpose. In an AI-accelerated world where change is constant, influence becomes infrastructure. Those who can cultivate meaningful relationships and activate their networks thoughtfully will not just adapt to disruption, they will help define what comes next.

Leadership and social influence are some of the most crucial skills for the future, emphasizing its importance in navigating the complexities of the modern professional landscape. As automation takes over routine tasks, the ability to influence, lead, and connect on a human level becomes a defining factor for success.

The Human Moat In An AI World

As we navigate the complexities of AI acceleration, the role of social capital cannot be overstated. It’s an essential component of thriving in the modern professional landscape. The stories of Michael Quinn, Maha Abouelenein and Sandy Carter are powerful reminders that, even in a world increasingly dominated by technology, the human element of connection remains irreplaceable. Investing in social capital is not just a strategy, it’s an essential component of thriving in the modern professional landscape.

As the age of AI continues to unfold, those who master the art of building and nurturing social capital will find themselves at the forefront of innovation and leadership. Embracing the power of human connection is not just about staying relevant—it’s about leading the charge in a future where technology and humanity converge.

As the age of AI continues to unfold, those who master the art of building and nurturing social capital will find themselves at the forefront of innovation and leadership. Embracing the power of human connection is not just about staying relevant—it’s about leading the charge in a future where technology and humanity converge.

Feature image credit: Michael Quinn

By Cathy Hackl

Find Cathy Hackl on LinkedIn. Visit Cathy’s website.

Sourced from Forbes

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Understanding people’s ‘New World’ brand expectations

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By Richard Barrett

If you work in marketing, you might want to look away now. The brutal truth is… the vast majority of people don’t care about your brand. In fact, 81% of the brands sold across Europe could disappear overnight and consumers wouldn’t be concerned… They probably wouldn’t even notice.

Various dynamics are at play here. Firstly, abundance. With up to 30,000 new products being launched every year, we’re all spoilt for choice. With so much variety on offer, very few brands feel truly indispensable. Secondly, unbrands. We’re increasingly exposed to no name brands from the likes of Amazon, Aldi and Lidl. When these perform well, it undercuts the perceived value of traditional brands. Finally, loss of trust. It doesn’t take many rotten apples to spoil the brand barrel and there have been lots of examples recently of world-famous brands apparently acting in bad faith.

These are all significant, but there’s one factor that’s even more important. People’s expectations of brands have risen faster than brands’ ability to meet those expectations. It’s an important issue, one we first touched on in our previous MarTech focused article on why marketing technology needs to be brand-led and how to achieve it.

This expectation gap can’t be ignored. And the first step towards tackling it is understanding what people want from ‘new world’ brands.

  • CLARITY OF PURPOSE. This isn’t necessarily about ‘doing good’ for society. It’s more about any brand being crystal clear on the role it wants to play in people’s lives.
  • TRANSPARENCY. People demand that brands be authentic and consistent in their behaviour. When they ask questions, they want the brand to respond quickly and honestly.
  • ACTIVE CONTRIBUTION. Increasingly, people want brands to help them do or experience more. They expect brands to go beyond providing mere product utility.
  • PERMANENCE. Thanks to social media, people are ‘always on’ and they want the same from brands. They’re looking for brands to be working 365 days a year, constantly feeding their social and cultural passions.
  • DEMONSTRABLY NATIVE. People are highly attuned to the codes and customs of individual media channels. For brands to be welcomed in these spaces, they must act in a way that is perfectly tailored to the environment.
  • EXCEPTIONAL EXPERIENCES. It’s never been truer that the customer is always right. Consumers drive the agenda and they expect brands to deliver excellence however and whenever they engage.
  • CONTEXTUAL RELEVANCE. ‘Good enough’ isn’t good enough. People want brands to provide solutions that specifically resolve their needs in the moment.
  • APPROPRIATE PERSONALISATION. People don’t see themselves as part of the crowd and they don’t want to be treated as such, especially if they’re current customers. If it’s dangerous for brands to be overly familiar, it’s even more dangerous when they appear blind to existing relationships.

Meeting these expectations consistently is an extraordinarily high bar, one that will require technology to reach it. Not tech just for the sake of it, but solutions specifically designed to meet one or more of the expectations outlined above. One single imperative should drive every decision: will this help me provide better answers to my customers’ needs?

By Richard Barrett

Sourced from The Drum

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Designers. There’s no excuse for accessibility as an afterthought

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Something Familiar’s creative director discusses the importance of challenging industry assumptions.

Feature image credit: Onvero/Something Familiar

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Natalie Fear is Creative Bloq’s staff writer. With an eye for trending topics and a passion for internet culture, she brings you the latest in art and design news. Natalie also runs Creative Bloq’s 5 Questions series, spotlighting diverse talent across the creative industries. Outside of work, she loves all things literature and music (although she’s partial to a spot of TikTok brain rot).

Sourced from CREATIVE BLOQ

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5 Influencer Marketing Tips For Success In Social Commerce

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By Ismael El Qudsi

Social commerce is big today, and it’s set to get even bigger. According to EMarketer, U.S. social commerce sales will surpass $100 billion this year.

What’s the key to brands building a social commerce strategy that works? Influencer marketing.

My agency has worked with hundreds of brands and influencers, and I’ve seen how the latter fuels success in the social commerce space by helping brands get the right messages to the right audiences and spurring them to buy. Here are five tips to fuel your influencer marketing success.

1. Pick The Right Influencers

When you’re seeking to build an influencer partnership, you have plenty of options. You don’t need to work with the biggest influencers to get the best results. Instead, experiment with what works for your brand. Often, smaller influencers have much higher engagement levels than celebrity endorsements. The higher engagement levels often come from the extreme specificity of nano-influencer content and from their ability to engage personally with followers.

When you’re evaluating an influencer, follower size isn’t the only thing that matters. Ensure the influencer you partner with aligns with your brand’s voice, values and personality so their content will resonate with the people you want to reach. Choose influencers who are thought leaders and who are innovating in your space or with the audiences you wish to connect with.

2. Help Influencers Tell Rather Than Sell

Anyone can create a list of your product’s top features. The value in partnering with influencers is making it possible for people to see the product and to visualize how it might fit into their own lifestyle. There’s a big difference between seeing a shirt or dress on a plain white background in an Amazon ad versus seeing an influencer trying it on, telling you how flatteringly it fits and highlighting how soft and silky the fabric is. The second approach makes the shopping experience much more personal.

When you work with an influencer, make sure they understand what your product is—all the nuts and bolts of it—but also give them the ability to showcase the product in context and tell their audiences why the product makes a difference. Brief the influencers on how it works, and then brainstorm with them about why it matters. Make sure they understand the secret sauce that makes your product stand out.

3. Give Your Influencers Freedom

Influencers are experts at their craft, and they’ve developed strategies that work. They know their audiences, and they know what appeals to them. They are more than just social media talking heads. They are savvy business professionals who spend time analysing social media content and then figuring out how to make it applicable to their own accounts and audiences.

Once you’ve found an influencer and vetted their audience, trust them. When you know you have a strong influencer supporting your brand, it’s to your benefit to let their strategic thinking and creativity shine. Instead of asking them to share your talking points and having them sound like an extension of your corporate marketing—which Gen Z can spot (and will skip) a mile away—they’ll sound authentic and true to the voice and aesthetic they’ve cultivated.

4. Repurpose And Reuse Content

When developing partnerships with influencers, ensure that you discuss whether you have rights to continue using the content after the initial partnership ends. Then, you can continue to leverage content that you know has performed well. For example, if an influencer creates a great piece of content for your brand, you can get more than one use out of it and increase its visibility by using it for paid social.

This is a great potential win because you already know that the content is engaging to the people you want to attract to your brand, so you can get a second chance at reaching new audiences. As platforms increasingly deprioritize organic content and serve up paid posts, this also allows you to maximize the potential of being seen and heard, and ensure you have high-quality content to do so.

5. Make The Purchase Process Seamless

You can have all the best tools enabled, but if your purchase process is complicated and buggy, you may see people drop out before finishing the process. Watch your metrics to see where people fall out of your marketing funnel. If they’re engaging and making it near the end of the process, but then not closing the deal, spend time investigating how to make your process better.

You can also automate emails or messages to send to potential buyers about abandoned cart items or offer win-back discounts. Consider implementing post-purchase surveys as well to find and fix pain points and increase potential purchase success for future buyers.

Social commerce is strong and growing stronger. With U.S. sales on TikTok Shop growing by 120% from 2024 to 2025, and global social commerce revenue expected to reach over $1 trillion by 2029, now is the time to design your influencer marketing strategy so you can be successful during the social shopping revolution.

Feature image credit: Getty

By Ismael El Qudsi

Find Ismael El Qudsi on LinkedIn and X. Visit Ismael’s website.

COUNCIL POST | Membership (fee-based). Ismael El Qudsi is Co-founder and CEO of SocialPubli, an award-winning influencer marketing platform with 500,000+ opt-in influencers. Read Ismael El Qudsi’s full executive profile here.

Sourced from Forbes

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The other side of ads in ChatGPT: Advertiser perspective

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By Allison Steffens Herrera

Since OpenAI announced it would start testing ads in ChatGPT, and the guidelines for it, they did not discuss in depth how it is gonna work for businesses interested in advertising with them.

What we know is that users’ data remains private and that the advertisements will not come as a suggestion, as managed by Google, but rather as a solution to the inquiry being discussed in the chat thread. This way, ChatGPT explores another way of advertising: a natural, organic conclusion for the conversation flow.

And while we already discussed how it is gonna work and its implications for the audience, now it is time to take another approach: advertisers. Because, on the other side of the coin, are the people who will pay and benefit from it: the moneymakers.

The who, the how, the afterwards

OpenAI has not released an official statement on who can advertise with them. Whatsoever, the company talked with ADWEEK, explaining how for the trial, they have asked selected advertisers to commit to at least $200,000.

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Some of the first known companies are Adobe, Target, or Albertson, as well as the group WPP media, and others.

As for the testing process, some answers are absolute: the trial was invite only. Whatsoever, overtime and with the expansion of the advertising model in ChatGPT, it will be open for companies to subscribe through the OpenAI ‘Advertise with ChatGPT ‘ website, as long as they comply with the guidelines and pay the threshold.

But whether this strategy will be successful, we need to see beyond the surface. The group Adthena has released the first study of the trial.

First of all, how does it even work? Well, the platform is not self-serving and does not have a login interface.

Advertisers are managed manually: companies introduce specific words that have to be prompted by the user for the business to be advertised. In other words, a flower shop may type “flowers”, “anniversary gift”, “surprise for my girlfriend”, to be recommended within the conversation.

And the initial feedback companies received to improve their strategies does not tell much: core metrics limited to campaign name, impressions and clicks.

This logic encourages story telling more than click bait, while creating an equal opportunity and challenge for companies: Now there is a direct bid on the playground.

Small companies and startups can capture possible customers by finding a way to outshine their competitors, especially since many users use ChatGPT to compare.

Will this be another Google Ads?

The introduction of ads in ChatGPT led to the inevitable question if it will slowly transform into another Google Ads, or similar search engines. And to answer this question we can go through memory lane and compare it with the launch of Google Adwords.

Google Adwords built its strategy by monetizing explicit intent: keyword-auction where the advertisers bid over the typed demands. It implemented the PPC (pay-per-click) model which is still prevailing, and provided complete control and visibility to the advertisers, giving them the possibility to build the campaigns and bids manually, and constantly monitor performance to improve their indicators.

This is completely the opposite to what OpenAI is doing nowadays compared to Google Ads.

The most significant shift is the flip in the model of how intent is now captured and capitalized. Google keeps the keyword-expressed demand original model, where users declare intent by search queries, and advertisements are offered to audiences targeted on interest and habits, demographics, and browsing behaviour.

ChatGPT captures intent differently. Instead of monetizing keywords, it interprets context. Intent unfolds through constraints, preferences and goals, rather than just a search query.

This makes conversational ads structurally different from search ads. The shift now is not technical: it is structural. The AI acts as a curator and gatekeeper of commercial relevance, moving from user-driven comparison of ranked results to AI mediated recommendation.

Implications for companies

Another shift implemented by OpenAI is the cost structure, since they will adopt a premium $60 CPM (cost-per-mille), which means that the advertiser will pay $60 per every 1000 times their ad is shown.

This adds pressure to the companies, since an inadequate management of the chosen keywords will be translated directly to their expenses, without the expected results.

If this model is maintained by OpenAI, advertisers will be forced to not only understand the context, but the whole conversational ecosystem where the advertisement would be relevant.

In the same way, ChatGPT’s performance measurements drastically differ from the detailed analytics and automatic campaign optimization that Google offers. The limited feedback that OpenAI offers to their advertisers also plays an important role in how companies have to think about their campaigns.

Now they are competing for algorithmic selection.

This new framework alongside limited targeting control, suggests that advertisers must learn how the AI’s curation logic works. Success will depend less on bid strategy and more on understanding conversational intent.

To design effective AI Ads campaigns, brands will need to anticipate how users articulate needs across dialogue (prompt behaviour), and not rely on direct input or requests.

Advertisement has always been about solving problems and positioning solutions. Now companies must go further and understand how their audience thinks, and frame specific problems inside a conversation with ChatGPT.

Platform and model limitations

OpenAI introduced a game changer model for the advertisement industry by launching contextual-based ads. However, alongside the benefits come the disadvantages, and the platform and current model introduce important questions for brands to be aware of.

If the algorithm determines which advertisement is more relevant and only suggests one curated suggestion, it could represent the beginning of AI-controlled demand allocation and reduce advertiser competition visibility, unless the user specifically asks for it.

If ChatGPT continues with its current curated model without an interface where advertisers can manage their inputs, the model could create power concentration in the AI platform.

Because the platform takes all the decisions and advertisers cannot directly manipulate visibility. In the same way, if advertisers are unable to  analyse the performance measurements, it could create a black box monetization problem, where brands are paying but do not have straight data that enables campaign optimization.

From auction to algorithm

ChatGPT ads mark a new era for advertisement. The real test is how brands adapt to this new format while navigating platform limitations, and preserving the trust that characterizes ChatGPT interactions.

The beta is still trial and changes are likely. For now, the system favours large corporations with the experience and resources to optimize their campaigns without access to detailed OpenAI performance data.

As for the industry, it is safe to conclude that the limitations and specifications that conversational AI requires will lead to new ways of advertising. Advertisers must focus on creating a message that adds value to the conversation, respecting users’ needs and their relationship with the platform.

Prioritizing credibility, and aligning brand presence and product differentiation while addressing the specific problems users are exploring in their chats, will be the key to success when advertising with ChatGPT.

By Allison Steffens Herrera 

Sourced from TNW

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