The future is now: strategies & tactics for 2026 to leverage AI successfully
AI has had an undeniable impact on digital marketing and Justin Thomas, Managing Director at CRKLR has strategies to overcome this. AI has caused organic traffic to drop with an average of 20%, but the game has changed, LLMs are growing like Chatgpt, causing the user tipping point to be reached. The solution is to build topical expertise and create conversational content that answers questions with AI giving more personalised results. Another problem that arises from AI is that paid ads are becoming more expensive. Google CPCs have inflated to 34% over the last 2 years, thus ad spend needs to be diversified with for example tiktok’s lower funnel performance improving, causing the top of the funnel to become more accessible. Furthermore, marketing needs authenticity in the age of AI with creating unified data now essential. Lately, brands need to think in terms of altering as much useful data to guide platform targeting rather than finite audiences. These strategies can thus help you to leverage AI successfully.
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Relationship-led creativity: Building creator partnerships beyond transactions
Sarah Hay, Account Director, Social & Influencer at Team Eleven states that by 2027 the creator economy is predicted to be worth $430 billion, creators are now at the centre of serious business strategies. Influencers work at the top funnel enabling the business to access a new group. The brief should be for brands to collaborate with the talent by not telling them what to say, they know their audience best and what marketing they would respond the best to. In order to utilise this to the fullest potential the brand needs a great team to back this in order to foster long term partnerships and avoid complacency and creative fatigue, this is the key for long term success.
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Dragon Rouge – The future of Brands
There has been a paradigm shift in branding, with brands now needing to shift from being static to live in order to survive in the everchanging digital marketing space. In order for brands to do this James Byrne, Global Marketing & Reputation, Executive Director at Dragon Rouge has set out some aims. AI has led to hyper-targitisation, with LLMs brands now having hyperpersonalisation with more targeted marketing towards individual consumers and brands being able to have conversations with buyers. There has been a digital burnout with 70% of US consumers wanting to restore agency. This has also led to mediocrity in the marketing space where brands should aim to invest in human creativity. Another way for brands to become live is to invest in sensory inversion, creating an experience for all the senses. For example 96% of consumers are more likely to recall brands that used music aligning with their brand identity. Therefore, these are ways for brands to shift from static to live in the future digital marketing space.
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From keywords to conversations: Content in the age of AI answers
The growth of LLMs has led to search shifting from keywords to conversations with personalised responses. LLMs use a knowledge base when the answer is evergreen but LLMS use live search when the answer changes over time. SEO is now a game of influence, not traffic. Wesley Van der Hoop, Head of Search at Unique Vacations says because of this, brands now need to consider what the LLM is recommending and the LLM training data to make sure the LLM is recommending your brand and the right information about your brand. LLMs simply predict the next word in the sentence thus the brand name needs to be in the same sentence as what you offer. Lastly brands need to optimise their search for conversation rather than keywords to optimize for the AI age.
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Opening the inbox: How AI is changing Email engagement
Email is more valuable than ever as AI plays a central role in how inbox decides what gets seen, says Kristain Tucker, Product Evangelist at Spotler. However you need to be aware of pitfalls as AI makes mistakes such as the tone of voice, bias and less humanity. All these things can put off potential buyers. AI needs to be used as a campaign manager, helping decide what to keep in the subject line to attract customers. The question that needs to be asked is how am I being perceived? This can make use of AI as a way to keep email engaging.
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Depth: a human centric approach to CRM
CRM has been pigeon-holed as automation that the email team needs to look after. However, according to Gianfranco Cuzziol, Founder of CR(M)BA, CRM is the link between brand promise and customer, especially in this data driven world. Firstly, data should not just be collected but also interpreted with curiosity and creativity, asking the question what is the intent? The environment also needs to be considered, with context of where the customer is coming from and where the context is placing them. The internal engagement is just as critical as external engagement and firms shouldn’t use the latest tools but the ones best suited to them. Finally, CRM is at its best just about automation but also about human understanding. CRM isn’t just about sending emails but also building relationships with depth.
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AI-focused PR – How visible is your brand in the age of AI?
Anna Fishlock, Head of Data & Digital at H/Advisors Maitland reports 24% of people report using AI for info seeking each week. We can use this to get our PR out there as LLMs get their information from news with licensing agreements with AI, websites etc. AI is transforming the news ecosystem as PR feeds news, news feeds wikipedia and wikepedia feeds LLM. Through this PR can appear in LLMs. LLMs also prioritise recency, thus there needs to be a steady input of PR. AI tools have created a new ‘visibility hierarchy’, of those who have a license agreement with AI and those who don’t. For example, you should get a PR placement in the guardian rather than BBC as they have a license agreement. Moreover, the aim should be to get a feature rather than just a passing mention and AI needs simple language and specific data. This will allow your brand to be visible in the age of AI.
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