The ’90s saw many landmark events: the OJ Simpson trial, the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton, and perhaps much less seriously, the rise of frosted tips.

One slightly less earth-shattering event was the development of search-engine optimization, or SEO, which has come to define search-engine rankings—and in turn, what content internet users encounter—since not long after the first search engines did.

But SEO is now, in turn, being affected by another landmark event: the debut of generative AI. Since ChatGPT exploded last year, marketers are finding new ways to assist their clients’ sites’ search rankings using generative AI, whether that’s through content creation or internal linking protocols.

“There has been, for the past 15, 20, [or] more years, the ongoing, never-ending arms race between SEO optimizers and search engines,” George Strakhov, EMEA chief strategy officer at DDB and the founder of the company’s “hybrid creativity lab,” RANDDDB, said. “In content production, AI is just a very powerful weapon that was added to this arms race on the side of the SEO people.”

With that said, there’s a real possibility for things to get messy: “It does have the potential to be the final weapon that makes traditional search completely unusable,” Strakov told us.

Continue reading here.—JS

Customer expectations and operational costs are rising, and organizations are looking to generative AI for a solution. So what if generative AI could help you make customer relationships stronger?

Leveraging their technology and depth of expertise, IBM has been helping businesses accelerate AI impact with transparency and explainability. Their AI-powered IBM watsonx Assistant coupled with end-to-end IBM Consulting transformation services help you deploy and scale generative AI that can improve your operations and promote consumer loyalty.

It’s time to rethink customer service. Learn how with IBM.

What brand wouldn’t want to advertise against the Ryan Gosling concert Oscars?

SiriusXM, which is four months into a major rebrand, certainly did. As part of its new brand platform, Closer, the audio giant debuted an ad in the form of a three-minute short film on March 8, followed by a 60-second cut that aired during the Oscars on March 10.

The ad is part of SiriusXM’s play to position itself as “part of culture” for current subscribers and potential new listeners alike, Chief Growth Officer Suzi Watford said. The brand is showing up alongside culturally relevant programming that attracts big audiences, like the Oscars and ad-supported viewing of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour on Disney+.

And the Oscar goes to: The creative, which depicts a woman dancing to different songs throughout the stages of her life—starting with Doja Cat’s “Paint the Town Red”—was designed to appeal across age groups, and was inspired by feedback from Sirius XM customers, Watford said.

“The stories that we hear from people are about the emotional connection that they have to Sirius XM, and how it’s been a companion with them, how they’ve grown up with it,” she said.

Three minutes is a long time to ask someone to tune into an ad, but Watford said the length is meant to be “a reflection of our ambition for the brand.” Plus, the creative team cut that short film, called A Life in Sound, into a variety of 15-, 30-, and 60-second spots that are running across digital, over-the-top, and owned-and-operated platforms, she said.

The Oscars felt like “an important place for us to show up,” Watford said. Her team had already decided on a narrative, short-film approach to the creative, so airing the ad during one of the country’s most prestigious celebrations of storytelling in film, she said, “just makes sense.”

Keep reading here.—AM

Each week, we spotlight Marketing Brew readers in our Coworking series. If you’d like to be featured, introduce yourself here.

Jess Santini is vice president of global marketing at the agency Assembly. Prior to that, she served as marketing director at Codeword, and previously, she worked in marketing and communications roles at Havas.

Favorite project you’ve worked on? Years ago, I was pitching my first panel for the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity. I had this idea for our chief strategy officer to take the stage with one of our clients and a celebrity that the brand had worked with. At first, our CSO sort of laughed it off. He said he didn’t think the client would go for it. Fast-forward, and we were able to secure recording artist Big Sean to join them on stage. That project taught me a huge lesson: that the sky is the limit. If you can visualize it and work hard, you can make it happen.

What’s your favorite ad campaign? I’ve always loved the Frida Mom campaigns. I love a brand that pushes the envelope and takes risks. Frida shows the good, the bad, and the ugly of what it’s like postpartum. It’s not always pretty, which is exactly why their products exist. As a woman and as a mom, I appreciate their candor. They are serious when they need to be, but also have a playful tone where they can, especially on social media.

One thing we can’t guess from your LinkedIn profile: I’m a child of immigrants. Or rather, I am an immigrant myself. My family and I moved to America when I was about 3 years old from England. I’m completely Americanized now, but growing up, I definitely struggled with feeling different due to use of British jargon, the “unusual” cuisine in my school lunch boxes, and the bright red hair.

Continue reading here.

Summer’s just around the corner . Are your marketing strategies ready to make it one for the record books? If you need a primer, turn to the Ibotta Performance Network’s Summer Kickoff 2024 guide. You’ll find everything you need to know about the seasonal trends set to shape the warmer months. Make this summer count.

Mergers and acquisitions, company partnerships, and more.

• The&Partnership and MSix&Partners have merged to become T&Pm, a single, AI-focused agency.
• CBS signed a five-year deal to broadcast the Golden Globes.
• Comcast is testing data from iSpot as part of its audience measurement solution for syndicated TV.