Leadership How Top Agencies Are Evolving To Meet Clients’ Emerging GEO Needs

 Generative engine optimization is quickly changing the rules of visibility for brands that rely on search, content and credibility to compete. AI-generated answers now shape how companies are described, compared and recommended—often before a prospective client ever reaches a website. For agencies, that shift raises the stakes: Strategy, structure and authority matter more than ever, while shortcuts and legacy tactics fade fast.

The agencies leaning in earliest are treating GEO not as a trend but as a strategic reset that affects everything from reputation management to revenue. Here, members of Forbes Agency Council share insights into how their agencies are evolving models and strategies to help clients stay visible, credible and competitive as generative AI becomes the engine driving search.

1. Refocusing Strategy Around Authority And Amplification

GEO is accelerating the shift to answer-driven search, where keywords matter less and brand authority, audience accuracy and omnichannel amplification matter more. That’s why we focus on delivering audience data that enables clients to identify the right decision-makers, understand their buyer journey and reach them through the most effective channels—ultimately driving measurable outcomes. - Paula Chiocchi, Outward Media, Inc.

PROMOTED

2. Treating GEO As A Reputation Architecture

GEO exposes a greater risk of misrepresentation. Brands now appear in AI answers they didn’t write, based on sources they don’t control. Sparkpr treats GEO as a reputation architecture, structuring content, authority and technical clarity so that generative engines accurately represent our clients. - Amy Packard Berry, Sparkpr

3. Optimizing To Win The AI Answer, Not The Click

GEO isn’t “SEO 2.0”—it’s a different game. SEO fights for the click; GEO fights for the answer. The fundamentals still matter—structure, authority, technical hygiene—but now AI summarizes brands before a visit. We build clear, consistent signals and proof points so AI describes, compares and cites clients accurately. Being the default recommendation is the new KPI. - Robert Burko, Elite Digital Inc.

Forbes Agency Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?

4. Building Operationally Consistent Content Systems

We help clients build content systems that stay stable as AI tools change how people find information. The real challenge isn’t optimizing for AI. It’s creating workflows that let teams publish clear, structured content consistently. Strategy shifts from keyword targeting to reliable operations. Brands that can’t publish consistently can’t compete when AI pulls their answers. - Meeky Hwang, Ndevr, Inc

5. Designing Experiences Humans And Machines Trust

We frame it as SXO, or search experience optimization. It blends SEO with how LLMs interpret, rank and recommend information. That impacts thought leadership, content structure, owned channels and measurement. We design experiences that answer real questions clearly, so humans and machines trust them. The biggest shift is upstream. If authority is not built early, distribution cannot save it. - Lars Voedisch, PRecious Communications

6. Expanding Placement Beyond Traditional Channels

There are two aspects to our strategy: Partner and pivot. We have partnered with a great GEO tool provider to get the data for each client, and we are pivoting to ensure we’re placing content where it has the biggest GEO impact. Frequently, GEO is impacted by sources that weren’t previously a priority for our clients (such as Reddit for B2B tech products). - Mike Maynard, Napier Partnership Limited

7. Engineering Content For Machine Readability And Indexing

GEO forces agencies to optimize for bots as much as humans. LLMs ingest structured, chunked, text-first content. Agencies must help clients design campaigns and platforms that are indexed, tagged and machine-readable, not just visually compelling or emotionally resonant. - Andrew Mitchell, Brandmovers Inc.

8. Blending Classic SEO With GEO For The Next Search Era

Old-school traditional SEO is based on blogs, keywords and backlinks. The new SEO is a combination of SEO plus GEO, where you still focus on quality content, Q&A information and expert authority. Understand how AI scans websites for answers and authority signals to select your client’s content to provide the answers it will post, and you will win the new SEO frontier. - Terry Zelen, Zelen Communications

9. Strengthening Structure And Technical Authority Signals

At Digital Silk, we’re evolving client strategies to ensure content is discoverable and trusted within generative AI ecosystems. The biggest shifts are occurring in content structure, technical SEO and authority building. We’re creating clearer, fact-rich content, strengthening site architecture and reinforcing brand expertise so generative engines can confidently surface clients as definitive sources. - Gabriel Shaoolian, Digital Silk

10. Stress-Testing Brand Narratives Found In AI Results

GEO is now the primary battleground for reputation, trust and market acceptance. The content we create and the way we place it directly shapes AI outputs. Stress-testing how AI systems describe, compare and critique a company, especially under hostile or skeptical prompts, is now a baseline smart business communication practice. - Elizabeth Edwards, Volume Public Relations

11. Using Behavioral Insight To Align GEO With Real Needs

We ethnographically observe how patients turn to AI to fill care gaps. This reveals the unmet needs chatbots now serve and informs GEO strategies that ensure credible evidence is visible at the exact moment patients seek answers. - Abigail Stuart, Day One Strategy

12. Leading With ‘Authority-First’ Content To Drive Visibility

We’re shifting clients toward an “authority-first” content strategy that supports GEO. That means strengthening off-site branded mentions, PR, thought leadership and partnerships with high-authority publications. On-site content is also key: Structured, expert-driven content improves how generative engines interpret a brand and meaningfully shapes visibility across the entire funnel. - Anthony Chiaravallo, Vallo Media

13. Clarifying To Win Both Search And AI Recommendations

We’ve built AI visibility into our core offering. The shift from “page one” to “answer one” means clients need to win twice—in search and in AI recommendations. We focus on structural clarity (schema, answer-first formatting) and Web-wide consensus (consistent signals across directories, reviews and trade media). If AI can’t parse you, it won’t cite you. - Dennis Kirwan, Dymic Digital

14. Positioning Brands As Quotable, Trusted AI Sources

To meet clients’ needs in GEO, we’re helping brands become trusted, quotable sources for generative platforms. We prioritize thought leadership, clear positioning and earned media that AI can reference. This includes tightening executive messaging; creating high-signal content like bylines, data-backed insights and FAQs; and securing coverage in outlets generative engines frequently surface. - Marilyn Cowley, PREM - PR & Social

15. Tailoring Content To Turn GEO Into A Sales System

We treat GEO as a sales system, not a content tweak. We map the exact questions AI agents ask before recommending a brand, then build answer-ready assets, spokesperson content and AI-readable proof that adapts by audience. GEO impacts content, sales enablement and conversion because AI now decides who gets shortlisted. - Fernando Beltran, Identika LLC

16. Structuring For Human And Machine Discoverability

We’re helping clients structure content for discoverability by both humans and machines, using clear POVs, authoritative language and consistent expertise signals. GEO most impacts content strategy, thought leadership and brand clarity because generative engines reward trust and coherence over volume. - Jacquelyn LaMar Berney, VI Marketing and Branding

17. Reverse Engineering How Engines Assemble Answers

Our GEO work starts with the questions clients want to own, then reverse engineers how engines stitch answers together. We map each answer to a simple knowledge graph of pages, assets and other spokes like reviews or talks. The biggest shifts are in how we structure sites and briefs so that every new asset reinforces those key answers. Product teams share briefs, so examples match key answers. - Vaibhav Kakkar, Digital Web Solutions

18. Rebuilding Information Architecture For Clarity And Scale

We started improving how content is structured, written and connected across client websites two years ago. Generative engines need clarity, context and authority, so the biggest shifts happen in information architecture and content modeling. At ArtVersion, we ensure source material is clean, consistent and supported with structured data so AI surfaces it more accurately and more often. - Goran Paun, ArtVersion

Why I think it’s time for a new kind of advertising agency.

 Why I think it’s time

for a new kind of advertising agency. By Richard Huntington

1. Advertising isn’t dead but the ad agency as we know it may be

2. Our work may work, but our economics do not

3. We do not earn value in proportion to the value that we create

for our clients

4. Even if our agency is successful, we aren’t paid a fair price for the

value we create

5. The situation is challenging for our owners but it’s tragic for our

people and their mental health

6. Agency consolidation is an admission of defeat not a strategy for

growth

7. Those selling AI agents so they can get rid of their staff are like

the person sawing off the branch of a tree while sitting on the bit

that’s going to fall

8. If we want to save something of this business and our people, we

must get to ‘higher ground’ fast, but this will mean dumping

many of the things we love

9. The high ground only has room for the things that client

organisations really value – transformational strategy and

nosebleed altitude creativity

10. Making endless assets with benchmark performance is for the

machines

11. There is no business left in churning out content – clients can do

that themselves

12. We used to make money from the plumbing, our only future is

to make money from the architecture

13. We need to understand we create solutions, we are not here to

provide a service

14. If we are to have any self-respect and bargaining power, we need

to value our solutions as much as our clients do

15. Solutions are ideas that change clients’ businesses for the better

16. We have spent over a century giving away those solutions, that

stops on 1st January 2026

17. No ifs or buts, pitches must go,

18. Pitches are the lifeblood of agency life, but they have destroyed

our value

19. It is rank idiocy to give away the solutions our clients value most

for free

20. If it takes a year of profit on a client to earn back the cost of

acquiring that client something has gone very wrong

21. For the people at the back, I’ll say it again. We must never again

pitch with solutions that should be paid for

22. Paid for pitches are not the answer – they defray costs rather than

respect our value

23. Giving it all away in a pitch worked when we made money in

production - that approach is as obsolete as a U-matic tape

24. We used to laugh at businesses charging project fees when we had

retainers, now the joke is on us

25. Retainers are only valuable if they retain some value

26. Talented people should never be happy about a negative margin

on their business – they are working for nothing

27. We need to be paid to deliver growth not deliver timesheets

28. Delivering growth is the only thing clients should care about, not

how many FTEs they have running around

29. We have moaned about time-based fees since commission died

but our inability to move on from them is pathetic

30. Time based fees bear no relation to the work the agency does or

the quality of the solution

31. True talent should never be blended on a rate card – clients should

not just get what they pay for but pay for what they get

32. If a client is happy paying an agency according to the number of

FTEs on a spread sheet, they deserve to have mediocre talent on

their business

33. No client ever needed 40% of an account handler, they need real

people who are exceptional making exceptional work

34. If clients don’t want to pay for the value they get, we can always

work pro bono, but they better have a cause we want to work on

35. The day we started calling ourselves ‘creative agencies’ was the day

we signed our own death warrant

36. For one thing creative is an adjective not a noun - how many

‘creative agencies’ are creative?

37. Strategy is now the value unlock for our business, because it’s the

value unlock for our client’s businesses

38. Strategy needs to move from the support act to the headline in

any agency that wants to survive

39. In the agency of the future most people will be strategists

supported by high altitude creative partners

40. Creativity needs to mean wild, wonderful, liberated human

expression not the cowed, tame, paint by numbers product that

dominates our industry

41. Furry mascot anyone?

42. Imagination is a more helpful word than creativity, AI finds it

harder to master

43. There is an infinite demand for people who can imagine a new

future for the organisations we work for – that’s the only business

to be in

44. Our imagination is the reason to hire us because it’s hard to in

house or automate

45. Sadly, the brand word may need to take a turn on the naughty

step too

46. We are here to create growth not build brands – ‘brand’ is a

strategy we use to deliver growth

47. It’s to our eternal shame that no client Exco understands this, but

we are wasting our breath explaining it

48. To be valuable we must liberate ourselves from nostalgia,

orthodoxy, dogma, servility, best practice and cowardice

49. The future belongs to those free and brave enough to experiment

with completely different ways to deliver value to clients and

derive value from them

50. The future belongs to you, if you can get to the high ground

quickly

Steve jobs 6 rules of presentations

 Steve Jobs didn’t just present.

He performed. And people still talk about it decades later.

⇢ FREE RESOURCE: 100 Sales Objections + How to Respond (PDF)
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Here are 6 rules Jobs used to make every keynote unforgettable and how you can steal them:

1. Start with why — Lead with the problem you’re solving before showing the solution. Spend 30% of your time here.

2. The rule of three — Structure your message around 3 core points to make it digestible and memorable.

3. Create holy moments — Plan one “holy sh*t” reveal that leaves the audience speechless.

4. Show, don’t tell — Back every claim with a live demo or real-world proof.

5. Emotional connection — Tie features to human aspirations and outcomes, not just specs.

6. Rehearse until perfect — Jobs practiced transitions, pauses, and every word until it looked effortless.

📌 Small tweaks in delivery can turn your next presentation from “good” to legendary.

—

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Marketers can’t be glued to their desks’: Gousto’s Anna Greene on understanding customers

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By Tim Healey, Founder

February 25, 2025 | 20 min read

Listen to article 14 min 4 sec

The recipe box brand’s VP of customer tells Tim Healey why marketing should be a blend of art and science and says CMOs must get out into the real world if they really want to understand their audiences.

Gousto VP of customer, Anna Greene

You’ve worked for some great businesses including Levi’s, Orange and EE, consulted for brands like Ribena Lucozade Suntory and EA, helped inspire a global volunteering movement with RockCorps and co-founded your own business before joining Gousto in 2018. Take us through your professional journey so far.

I’ve always been fascinated by people – what makes them tick – and how brands shape our behaviors, beliefs and culture. Witnessing companies like The Body Shop and Virgin redefine entire industries in the 90s is what drew me to marketing.

I never planned to go to uni but when Richard Branson politely declined my internship offer (read: never replied to my letter!) I enrolled at Birmingham. In my first year, I was lucky enough to land a job as a student brand manager for Levi’s, along with a summer internship in London. Levi’s had a small but incredibly talented UK marketing team. That year, everyone was sporting Levi’s engineered jeans and the iconic Odyssey advert launched. Being exposed to that level of creativity so early on was incredible.

Levis’s ‘Engineered Jeans’ campaign

After Uni, I joined Orange on their grad scheme. Until then, mobile phones were for men in suits with company paid accounts. Orange pioneered a new industry with the launch of ‘per second billing’ and consumer-friendly tariffs like the ‘Everyday 50 plan’. We up-skilled our retail team as ‘phone trainers’ and rewarded them based on their quality of service rather than their sales. What stood out to me at the time was this inherent belief that doing the right thing for our customers would ultimately lead to success for the business – something that has stuck with me throughout my career.

I worked across propositions, product management and marketing before landing in the entertainment team, managing partnerships with the likes of Sega, BBC, Glastonbury Festival, iTunes and activating our much loved ‘Orange Wednesdays’ partnership – a loyalty program offering customers two-for-one cinema tickets. An exciting time as mobiles became more than ‘talk and text.’

After nearly a decade at Orange, I was brought under NDA as part of the core working group on Project 11 – the launch of EE. With just 11 months to design and launch a new brand in the UK market, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity I couldn’t pass up. The tech landscape was rapidly evolving, and mobile operators were struggling to stay relevant.

My role was to lead EE’s digital marketing strategy. EE was created as a brand for ‘your digital life’ so we decided to launch social media first. We created a social listening “war room” to respond to posts in real time, making us the fastest-growing brand on Twitter and the second fastest on Facebook. Our Fenton 4GEE Remastered video became the most-watched branded viral video on YouTube that year with our YouTube content garnering 11 million views. We built huge momentum, establishing EE as the UK’s leading mobile operator in under six months.

‘Project 11’ or the launch of the EE mobile network.

After EE, I worked with a whole plethora of brands, helping them embrace digital-first strategies and launch new products in market. The highlight for me was working with Rockcorps. I led the Orange Rockcorps partnership back in the day and was excited to get involved with their mission on a larger scale.

RockCorps is built on a simple premise: give four hours of volunteering on a community project, and earn a ticket to the gig of a lifetime. The concerts are unlike any other, featuring artists like Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Pharrell, Drake, Kanye and Nas, all in a room filled with people who have dedicated their time to charity. The program is entirely brand-sponsored and to this day, it remains one of the most powerful social initiatives I’ve ever witnessed. RockCorps harnesses music and culture to inspire action – and it works on a global scale.

Rockcorps partnered with a plethora of music superstars including Lady Gaga

Next came my favorite job of all: being a mum. I loved every moment with my son but as any new mum will tell you – stepping away from a career you’re passionate about is a big change of gears. I felt restless. That’s when my husband and I had the crazy idea to launch our own e-commerce business selling modern nursery interiors. I’d strap my son to my chest and off we’d go to meet manufacturers and clients. It was an amazing crash course in product design, marketing, finance, operations and customer care.

After two years in operation, we made the difficult decision to step away from the business and sell our remaining stock. I set about looking for a direct-to-consumer, tech-led company with a shared purpose, values, and a challenger spirit.

I jotted down five brands, and Gousto was top of that list… and the rest, as they say, is history!

So, tell us about Gousto. How does it work?

Gousto is all about making home cooking easier and more inspiring, especially for busy people. It takes the stress out of meal planning by delivering precisely what you need: high-quality ingredients and simple, step-by-step recipes to create delicious meals from scratch. No more last-minute decisions about dinner; instead, you can enjoy the cooking process and focus on sharing great food with family and friends. With Gousto’s wide variety of recipes we cater to all tastes and dietary needs, there’s always something new to try – some meals even take as little as 10 minutes to prep, making fresh healthy home cooking accessible for all.

How is the business performing and what does that mean for you and Gousto in 2025?

When I joined Gousto six years ago, we were a £30m business with only 11% brand awareness in a new and growing market, and 80% of our sign-ups came from performance marketing.

Fast forward to today, and Gousto is a well-known brand, with 70% awareness driving 80% organic sign-ups, and the business is now generating 10 times the revenue.

As the market has matured, our challenge has shifted. It’s no longer about just getting our name out there or explaining what a recipe box is – it’s about building a brand that has a much deeper connection with its customers.

In 2025, we’re pushing harder into the mainstream dinner market, placing a stronger emphasis on the breadth of choice we offer. With over twice as many recipes available each week compared to any other recipe box brand, Gousto is uniquely positioned to meet diverse customer preferences.

In terms of the future: Gousto sits at the intersection of some of today’s biggest macro trends: convenience, sustainability, and health. This is only the beginning.

Gousto make cooking easier

You’re VP of Customer at Gousto. Can you explain your role and how the team is organized?

My role is to ensure that every aspect of the customer experience – from the product we offer to how we communicate – exceeds our customers’ expectations. I work across insights, propositions, and marketing to make sure we’re building a brand and experience that customers love.

Our marketing team follows a fairly traditional structure. We’ve got dedicated specialisms – brand insights, creative, acquisition, retention and that allows you to get that deep expertise and excellence in each area. However, at an organizational level, we operate within a ‘tribe-based’ model, bringing together cross-functional teams to tackle shared goals that make the customer experience even better.

Whether it’s driving sign-ups and onboarding, enhancing how customers browse the menu, or ensuring the unboxing experience is perfect every time, this collaborative approach helps us break down silos and ensures that every project aligns behind shared goals.

Of what initiative, delivered on your watch, are you the most proud?

I’m so proud of our partnership with Joe Wicks. As a long-time Gousto customer, he’s such an authentic ambassador for the brand. Just ask him about Gousto – he’ll happily share his favorite recipe creations and the “Gousto Gang” WhatsApp channel he has with friends. He’s an amazing advocate for healthy eating; nothing’s off-limits as long as it’s fresh, balanced, and paired with an active lifestyle.

One of my favorite memories was working with Joe during lockdown. One day, he shared his idea for a YouTube channel, and the next, his “PE with Joe” sessions became a cultural phenomenon, helping so many people through a tough time. Joe and his brother Nikki are an absolute powerhouse – visionary, ambitious, and two of the nicest people I’ve had the fortune to work with.

How do you navigate the whitewater rapids of fast moving marketing technology and platforms?

We’re really cautious about chasing trends. We always ensure that any tools we adopt are solving real problems or creating new opportunities.

Scalability is key; we need flexible tools that can grow with us and data integration is crucial. Any new tech must work seamlessly with our existing systems.

Last but not least, as a B Corp, we prioritize the ethical practices of our suppliers, ensuring our partnerships align with our values. If our partners don’t meet that threshold we simply won’t work with them.

Gousto’s partnership with fitness and healthy lifestyle expert Joe Wicks proved to be a huge success.

What is the value of creativity in great brand advertising?

Creativity is the single biggest point of differentiation. It’s what helps a brand stand out. It’s what cuts through the clutter, grabs your attention, and creates a connection. But it's not just about being bold for the sake of it. In our industry, disruptive campaigns often get more recognition than they deserve. What truly matters is creativity grounded in insight; how can creativity solve a genuine customer problem or connect with them in a surprising way?.... That’s the true power of creativity in my mind.

What is your first memory of a marketing success that you were part of?

Running Orange’s partnership with Glastonbury Festival. Orange was the first mobile provider to partner with a festival in the UK, which feels quite wild to think about now!... Before that, the festival had phone booths on site or you had to arrange meeting points to catch up with friends.

I managed the Orange-Glastonbury partnership for several years. We set up the mobile network on-site and ran the Orange ‘Chill and charge,’ tent, offering free mobile phone charging so people can stay connected. But the highlight for me was leading the design and launch of Glastonbury’s first festival app. We wanted to make it easy for people to navigate the festival, plan and share their artist schedules, and stay updated with essential news and alerts throughout the weekend. We even added a GPS tent finder so you didn’t get lost on your way home. It was amazing to see how technology could improve the festival experience.

What myth about marketing would you most like to bust?

AG: We all talk a big game about being customer-centric, but the truth is, most marketers spend way too much time glued to their desks and not enough time out in the real world. We need to dive into customers’ daily habits, get curious, and figure out how we can genuinely add value to their lives.

At Gousto, our vision is to become the most loved way to enjoy dinner. As a team we need to be completely obsessed with how people shop, cook, and eat – whether they’re dining in or out so we make it a priority to stay connected to the food scene. Understanding what people want, how they want it and why is crucial. And let’s be honest: that kind of insight isn’t going to come from sitting in the office.

Gousto takes over a corridor at Kings Cross Station, London

What advice would you give your younger self if you could go back in time, what would you do more of, or what would you avoid?

It's totally OK that your career journey isn’t going to be a straight line. Embrace the twists and turns – they often lead to the most rewarding experiences. Know that progression will come at the right moments if you keep your eyes open. Build connections, because relationships can open doors you didn’t even know existed.

Think about the kinds of experiences you want to have and the impact you want to make. If you focus on what you want to learn and the value you bring, it keeps you connected to what truly matters.

But most of all, take care of yourself. A fulfilling career is about balance, and it's not worth a thing if you're not happy.

I always ask an interviewee what question they might have for the next senior marketer. And your question comes from Ben Newbury of Taylors/Yorkshire Tea. He wants to know: how do you make a cup of tea - milk in first or tea?

Tea first, of course! Steep it right, then add the milk – that's the way to honor the brew.

What might your question for a senior marketer be?

I love to hear other people’s stories, so I’d probably ask ‘When did you realize that marketing was the right career for you?...’

If there’s one thing you know about marketing, it is…

Marketing is a brilliant blend of art and science, and you need to know how to harness both.

On one side, there’s the creative part of marketing — the storytelling, the emotional connections, and crafting messages that really resonate with people. This is where imagination and intuition take the lead.

Then there’s the science. It’s about understanding data, knowing how customers behave, and using that information to make smart decisions. You’ve got to experiment, and keep refining.

The real magic happens when creativity and data come together.

Steve Jobs wisdom on Leadership

 My job is to not be easy on people. My job is to make them better.

https://www.inc.com/marcel-schwantes/steve-jobs-pointed-out-1-sign-to-quickly-spot-someone-with-bad-leadership-skills/91149392?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=topic/business

07-01-2024DESIGN

Welcome to the brand new rules of advertising

The recent Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity embodied the dawn of a new era for marketing. Here are the four new rules of brand-building and business growth.

[Source Photo: Getty Images]

BY REI INAMOTO5 MINUTE READ

Change happens slowly—until it doesn’t. 

In 2011, the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival changed its name to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity due to, according to organizers, the evolution of the industry. The traditional definition of advertising didn’t apply anymore—justifiably so at the time.

This year marks the 13th year since then. That happens to be one full, 12-year Zodiac cycle. Long enough for changes to take place and settle in, before new ones slowly take over.

At Cannes this year, the signs of the new era were everywhere, especially outside the Palais. The old ecosystem of creativity that was contained there has spread to a slew of universes across the beach, hotel suites and rooftops, or private villas up in the hills.

What everyone was looking for this year wasn’t the next Big Idea that would disrupt the industry, but the next Scalable Model that marketers can rinse and repeat for their next respective phases of growth.

Twelve years ago, I happened to have written a piece for Fast Company called “The End of Advertising As We Know It—And What to Do Now,” directly after Cannes Lions that year, predicting the change we were about to go through. A full 12 years later, I again see multiple shifts happening before us. It’s the beginning of a new era and that requires a new set of rules.

Based on what I observed at the festival, across award-winning work and elsewhere, here are the four Brand New Rules for the next cycle.

RULE 1: FROM PEOPLE STORY TO PRODUCT STORY

In the Old World, brands used to tell Brand Stories to connect with their audience emotionally. A dozen years ago, as mobile and social media took a strong foothold across the Internet, “brand stories” shifted to “people stories.” Instead of talking about themselves, brands used their power and reach to reflect real people and their stories. That helped them be more authentic and purpose-led.

Brand storytelling is shifting again but this time towards product stories. 

A common trait underneath some of the strongest work, such as “Ketchup Fraud” for Heinz, “Meet Marina Prieto” for JCDecaux, and “Transition Body Lotion” for Vaseline, is that they are not brand or people stories. They are reflections of the brands’ products.

Outside of Cannes, we’ve seen multiple product stories become internet sensations, especially on TikTok. Videos about how much stuff Uniqlo’s shoulder bag can carry, or how a Stanley mug cup survived a car fire are all product stories that reflect the truth about their products and, therefore, brands.

RULE 2: FROM EMOTIONAL CONNECTION TO TRUSTED DIFFERENTIATION

What is one commerce service we can’t live without? For most of us, the answer is Amazon. Would any of us think of Amazon as a brand? The answer is likely a no.

As we all know, Amazon has an enormous reach, awareness, and affinity. That doesn’t come from an emotional connection because of brand or people stories, but from the unparalleled convenience that Amazon affords us. We trust Amazon and have now become dependent on it.

Unlike many consumer brands that tap influencers and creators with millions of followers to act as media, Yeti is a brand that has built its Trusted Differentiation by embracing regular people with specific outdoor domain expertise. Their social following is modest at best but their knowledge of a given interest, say, fly fishing, is deep, unquestionable, and most importantly, trusted. What Yeti is aiming for isn’t rapid growth. Over the last seven years, it has tripled its revenue from $500M to over $1.5BN. Steady and sustained growth takes time and patience but is more meaningful.  

Emotional connection used to be the golden ticket to brand-building. While emotion plays a powerful role in storytelling, brands and businesses must strive for trusted differentiation of their products to stand out and not just capture but retain their customers.

RULE 3: FROM BRAND ECOSYSTEM TO BRAND UNIVERSE

One of the reasons Cannes Lions dropped the word “advertising” was because of work like Nike Fuelband. The brand worked with agencies to build a brand ecosystem of connected services. Putting the customer at the center, Nike and others tried to surround their customers and audiences with multiple touchpoints and let them live in their ecosystem. 

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However, it proved to be labor-intensive and expensive to create and maintain a brand ecosystem. 

Tech companies started to offer similar better services that consumers could rely on or even prefer.

On top of that, the landscape became infinitely fragmented. Each fragmentation was its own universe, i.e. YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, Twitch, etc. They are further segmented by age range or interest area and with their idiosyncrasies.

Case in point, Nike stopped trying to build its brand ecosystem and is now partnering with Strava, expanding its reach to another universe. This allows Nike to break into and grow a new audience without having to constantly attract more users to its ecosystem.

Brand universes don’t always need to be technology-driven. Loewe’s recent collaborations with Japanese artists such as Hayao Miyazaki of Studio Ghibli and ceramic studio Suna Fujita show how a brand can enhance itself by collaborating with and expanding into unlikely new universes.

In the new era, we don’t need to build everything ourselves. Look for a new universe where your brand can step into and grow in imaginative ways.

RULE 4: FROM SCALABLE MODEL TO REPEATABLE SYSTEM

This brings me back to the first question all marketers are asking: What is the next scalable model?

Bad news: Stop looking for it. It doesn’t exist.

Just like the event of Cannes Lions itself, the market has become so fragmented, that there is no one model that fits everyone, or one epicenter of gravity.

At the same time, it’s impossible to be everywhere. In the marketing world, the constraint comes from time, resources, and working capital. We need to be selective. If we were to show up every day—and many brands need to do so these days—LinkedIn may be a better place for your brand than TikTok. 

It is so easy to overestimate the importance of one Scalable Model and underestimate the value of connecting and communicating with your audience in small doses on a daily basis. In other words, a repeatable system.

It’s similar to how we, as humans, grow and transform ourselves by forming a habit. 

Create a repeatable system that you and your organization can start today and sustain over time. You might need to try a few different systems until you find the one that fits your brand’s needs and equally importantly, abilities to execute and sustain.

Many of these shifts were happening slowly over time. A twelve-year, Zodiac cycle later, we are suddenly in a new era. These four principles can help us decode the new world order and show us a way forward. 

Your brands and organizations need to relentlessly focus on your products, features, and stories. Be clear about what differentiates them and build a system that allows your team to grow and expand your brand universe.