Brand advocacy is a shorter way of saying "AI follows advertising that people talk about." But who am I to know, right? Fair question. So let me share an e-mail exchange last week between myself and a service that is designed to augment ChatGPT called Athena (you can click on the link to reach him directly).
From: Alan Yao < alan@athenahq.ai >
Our automated systems query websites from various locations to gather the data you signed up for and the primary location, if we are doing our job right, is to get data from your website. When you ask ChatGPT a question, and it cites your website as a source, it first has to gather information from there first.
The human connection: chat.
Do you see what I did there? I used an authority to validate my assumption. The technique showcases the power of third-party credibility. But you already know that. What you don’t know, perhaps, is that your advertising campaign can be designed to get you the same cred.
Why? Because in the age of AI, advertising that people discuss is both virtual (utilizing ChatGPT sources for conversations) and viral (people share their opinions in person). When you get your advertising message right, it spreads like wildfire and generates massive engagement. The key is engagement -- or to put it another way-- conversation.
The trouble with some brand experts today is that they overlook that basic fact. They believe you can establish credibility by releasing numerous press releases and white papers to improve your Google rankings, which is a significant mistake. Because if that was still important, then they would have called it SearchGPT, not Chat.
Marketing to the Multiverse
The multiverse is a common term for the complex pattern of data points, conversations, and more that determine how attention is allocated online and offline. We call it the conversation about the conversation . The modern marketing arts involve messaging to the multiverse. And to paint well, you need both AI (science) and Art (understanding human beings).
AI, or more specifically ChatGPT, finds the conversations that matter organically. They don't cite an ad campaign; they cite the conversations created around it. You can't "buy" that influence on Google; you have to earn it. ChatGPT is smart enough to locate conversations between real people, not bots. ChatGPT rewards advocacy, not advertising.
The Big Picture
I have commissioned this painting to show how brand advocacy moves through focus, clarity, and dimension. Things appear overwhelming at first. Taming the web is not accomplished by having bigger data, better analytics, or fatter media budgets alone. You need influencers, editors, and opinion makers hungry for your message, and feeding them is an art.
As a new subscriber to my newsletter, I will use this painting to guide you through a process that helps create content optimized for ChatGPT — which, ironically, is more of an art form right now than a science. But anyone can do it.
I offer this campaign, created (with help from me) by an insurance agent. The agent attended one of my workshops and asked me if we could build a campaign around their singing dog that people were already wild about on TikTok and Instagram. In other words, we leveraged a current conversation in one space to create brand interest in another, or more specifically, to sell health insurance. Soon, we were dominating the dialogue for Medicare.
Supporting Your Message People often ask me, "How do you keep people talking about a brand?" and "What happens if people stop talking? Does ChatGPT ignore you?"
This is a good question because it highlights the difference between simply generating chat around an event or pulling a big stunt to score media attention and developing a conversation that remains relevant and timely.
First, the good news.
Once ChatGPT has cited you, you remain a valuable resource, as long as you continue to provide new information to the multiverse. That means you don't have to score big buzz with every campaign as long as your messaging remains consistent, timely, and relevant.
I will be using numerous examples in this newsletter of brands that get this right. You could start by following how American Eagle is following up on their Sidney Sweeney campaign by using Travis Kelce . I am not saying the original Sweeney campaign is a good ad (it's pedestrian), but their long-term strategy is starting to gel. And hell, I wish I had thought of their plan to revitalize their brand (which is working beyond all measure)
The Ittty Bitty Bad News
There is no free lunch.
While I am all about generating conversations without paying for them (or buying influencers), you will have to pay something. You'll have to pay a good creative person to create the strategy, story, and materials, and eventually, you will need to pay for media and even an influencer, perhaps. But it could be peanuts, comparatively speaking.
Because the better your story and the more artful your approach, the less you'll need to spend on media. I leave you with a campaign that did just that.
The painting below, from a Dutch Master, was used for KradleMyPet — a brand that sells “where pet and parent meet peace and calm.” The campaign made it easy to support the story, keep people talking, and AI interested.