This post was created in partnership with Moloco
Key takeaways
- Brand discovery is increasingly happening through direct chats with AI agents, and marketers are trying to work around it.
- Strong customer relationships protect brands from AI’s disruption of the customer journey.
- The changing world of AI could provide marketers with a renewed opportunity to tap into the human and community aspects of marketing.
Marketing leaders are grappling with how AI is reshaping traditional funnels, whether it’s through generative AI summaries usurping consumer clicks, or being at the mercy of what AI agents say (or don’t say) about their brands.
During an ADWEEK House Cannes Lions group chat co-hosted with Moloco, industry executives shared how they are trying to reclaim discovery, strengthen direct customer relationships, and bolster their owned digital surfaces.
Shifting from SEO to GEO
Paul D’Arcy, CMO of Moloco, kicked off the conversation by sharing a key finding from Boston Consulting Group and Moloco’s research about AI’s impact on the customer journey.
“It showed that the best protection against disruption is longer-term, stickier customer relationships,” D’Arcy said. That includes finding ways to bring people onto your own digital surfaces, apps, and experiences so that your brand becomes the destination, he added.
With AI mediating so many consumer decisions, Jane Hendrick, managing VP of global integrated marketing at Marriott International, said it’s important that brands ask this question: “How do you make sure you’re part of the consideration set before someone even goes into the platform?”
For Marriott Bonvoy, it means tapping into cultural moments and driving more relevance so that the brand is a natural part of the conversation. “You have to make sure you are leaning into the algorithm and the machine and all of that, but you also have to be top of mind for the consumer,” Hendrick said.
In fact, being part of the cultural conversation can pull double duty since it can also help brands from a generative engine optimization (GEO) perspective, shared Julie Foster, SVP and managing director of EA Experiences.
