Why Investing in social proof is your winning ticket in the age of AI
As AI agents take over more of the shopping journey, social proof becomes key trust signals for humans and machines alike. The old, messy “search” journey is being compressed by AI agents doing that legwork for consumers. Justin Thomas, Managing Director at CRKLR says brands need 2 things, legibility to be considered and social proof to actually be chosen. The top 20 domains get 66% of AI citations. Recency and consistency of reviews matter more than sheer volume. This applies to B2B too, younger buyers are influenced by short form video with linkedin a key channel. The bottom line should be to build both technical foundation and “proof engine”, miss one and you’re invisible, miss the other and you’re forgettable.
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Trust in Digital Marketing: Why building brand trust is key to successful search, AI and social discovery
AI referred traffic converts up to 2 times better than email and organic search, the users arrive more purchase ready. AI is able to pull traffic from pierce comparison sites straight to brands. In this new AI age, digital first brands like monzo outperform banks in AI visibility thanks to social presence and reviews. Furthermore, backlinks and brand mentions like reddit are the top AI ranking factors. This shows that earned and third party media matters more than owned content. “Good SEO is good GEO” states Gareth Morgan, Founder at Liberty. The bottom line is trust is everything, major brands were tested and they failed key trust signals, showing big opportunity for those who build on credibility.
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Congratulations! Your email was delivered. Nobody saw it… Email Marketing in 2026
Emails are getting delivered but no one actually sees or acts on them, this is the real problem says Simon Moss, Senior Marketing Strategist at Bottomline. Simons says some myths need to be busted such as delivered does not equal seen. Open rates are unreliable, don’t purge inactive contacts and 25% of clicks are bots. Some quick wins for email marketing in 2026 are to personalise key and first name, ditch big header images, follow up within 48 hours, avoid word ‘webinar’, and don’t send on the hour. The bottom line is to measure real outcomes like replies and bookings and not opens and clicks, this is how to win at email marketing in 2026.
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The Transformation Playbook: Lessons learned from building global brands across entertainment, travel & sport
Brands compete for attention against everyone, not just direct rivals, brand is the differentiator. Matt Suetland says brands should build on what’s working, let data guide decisions and seize big moments. Brands need to be made genuinely distinctive, partner with credible voices and stay flexible. To be commercial brands need to create evergreen and reusable content, tie it to revenue and package it for sales. The bottom line is that commercials should work as one connected system to transform the brand.
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Back2Basics
Fundamentals don’t trend, most marketing failures come from too many disconnected tactics, not lack of AI or new channels. The strategy should be clear choices, who you target and why would they choose you. Another tactic is to know your audience, keep messaging clear about the campaigns.The customer journey is many touchpoints, not a single session funnel, thus every touchpoint needs to answer a key question such as is this for me? Internal ownership or process matters as much as external marketing thus brands should fix their system before chasing trends concludes Dino Oreški, Digital Marketing Consultant at Upping Zone.
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