Twas ever thus
In an age of seemingly constant change, marketing fundamentals remain as true as ever.
Read on to learn why:
① AI is a powerful tool but it shouldn’t have us questioning everything.
② You should still have a compelling point of view.
③ Traditional wealth management remains an attractive business.
④ Traditional lending and payment cards remain attractive products.
⑤ Traditional public relations and positive word of mouth remain critical.
⑥ Traditional job titles should stay, but indicate purpose not power.
⑦ Clients continue to care what you do for them, not how it’s done.
What's new
Breaking news! A study has found that AI email summaries can alter message emphasis, reports Martech Series.
In short:
“A new study by the strategic communications consultancy North Coast Communications examines how Apple’s Mail App Summarise tool responds to controlled variations in email content. The findings offer insights for organisations whose messages communicate public policy, influence markets, and affect communities.”
“The study found that Apple’s AI summariser does not simply compress text, it interprets it. When paragraphs or sentences were reordered, the summaries consistently shifted to foreground the new information, altering the perceived priority of the message. In ten out of twelve tests, changing the order of information changed what the AI chose to display.”
“Key findings
Hierarchy matters: Information placed at the top of an email is most likely to appear in the AI summary.
Shortening reduces nuance: Condensed emails produced briefer summaries that omitted supporting context or detail.
Headers can shape meaning: In some cases, Apple’s AI incorporated header text directly into the summary, reframing emphasis.”
Why it matters
I normally recommend you click through and read all the articles in IMTW. Not this week. “File this under ‘No shit, Sherlock’,” I quipped as I shared this story with my three Bluesky followers. Let’s recap shall we? Apparently changing the order of information impacts how the importance of that information is perceived by AI. Being brief lessens the chances that AI will pick up on nuance. Headers in copy are interpreted by AI as being pointers to key messages that follow. You know who else treats writing in exactly this way? Humans.
① This story does’t matter - it’s utter rubbish - but it’s an excuse for us to discuss something that matters very much: the internet is awash with advice about how we all have to rethink almost everything we do in light of AI. We don’t. And we need to get better at pushing back on this narrative out of fear of appearing like a luddite. AI is a hugely powerful tool - just two weeks ago, I was extolling its virtues as a thought-partner - and we should all be leveraging it. But that doesn’t mean that we have to question everything we’ve always done. The fundamentals - in marketing as in business as a whole - haven’t changed.
In the case of content marketing, this story serves only to validate the advice I shared with you back in June:
The machines are more human than humans. That’s because they look for EEAC: experiences (case studies, process explainers), expertise (specialist knowledge), authority (proof that others trust what you say - such as mentions in the earned press), and trust (well-sources, fact-checked, topical content - white papers create a 35% uplift in visibility to LLMs apparently.) In short, it seems the machines operate like humans used to before smartphones sapped them of their attention spans. They seek out authoritative, long-form content with substance. Music to this marketer’s ears. The 2010s called, they want their content marketing best-practice back. So, of course continue to produce 7 second TikTok videos - those zombie scrolling humans love them - but remember to publish substance and transcripts too so the machines can digest them.
② The SEO vs GEO posts you keep fretting about? Don’t. Remember the fundamentals: deliver a product/service people love; share content that’s useful, compelling, and worth recommending; build authentic relationships with clients; articulate meaningful differentiation; and - most importantly in the age of AI - have a compelling point of view.
What to do about it
Take action
You need of course to be found and referenced by AI - so-called generative engine optimisation - but GEO is a side effect of a strong brand presence. In other words, the same things that mattered before still matter with AI.
Get your positioning right: What do you want people to say about your brand? What unique value do you deliver? What’s your unique point of view? Instead of pushing short-lived content optimised for AI responses, build content around the story you actually want to tell. AI mirrors the market’s perception, so if your positioning is strong, GEO will follow naturally.
Double down on your current strategies: Focus on getting mentions, strengthening PR efforts, continuing to push a wide variety of content on the topics that matter to your clients, and catching the eye of authoritative publications. Newsworthiness will lead to you being mentioned in conversations which translate into citations - that’s what AI picks up on. Little has really changed: it’s SEO for the age of AI.
Remain open-minded: Don’t slavishly follow every new AI trend. Hold your strategies lightly, iterate fast – and if the evidence tells you something isn’t adding value, drop it.
Get help
Two ways I can help you:
Tackle a specific challenge by retaining me in an advisory capacity or on a part-time basis.
Elevate all your marketing and communications by hiring me as a full-time member of your team.
Top stories
The other articles that are worthy of your time.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
Why UK banks are returning to the wealth market
③ Traditional wealth management remains an attractive business.
“After more than a decade of withdrawing from the wealth and advice market, the UK’s largest banks are set on making a comeback. The opportunity is clear. Up to £7tn is set to pass between generations in the coming decades, meaning more people will want help making decisions on what to do with a windfall.”
“At the same time the FCA is looking to make it easier for banks to recommend investments with its work on targeted support and the advice and guidance boundary. And new technology is in theory making it cheaper to service clients.”
“Here’s how they’re doing it:
HSBC: HSBC has been the most vocal in driving forward its plans for the mass-affluent segment, laying out plans last year to double its assets under management to £100bn in the next five years. In November 2024, the bank relaunched its ‘Premier’ brand in the UK.”
Barclays: Barclays positions the ‘affluent’ segment at around £250,000 up to £3m of investable assets, while its private arm facilitates clients with more than that. It seems to be taking a more technological route in targeting the segment, with its affluent proposition set to be embedded within its banking app for clients with less than £1m to invest.
NatWest: NatWest facilitates clients across the full wealth spectrum, from its digital retail NatWest Invest platform up to full private banking via Coutts. In the middle of this spectrum is its tiered Premier Banking service. Said clients can access financial planning and investment advice services through the bank’s wealth arm, which is delivered under agreement with Coutts & Co.
Lloyds: Lloyds is currently rebranding its affluent proposition. In October, the bank announced it would be taking full ownership of Schroders Personal Wealth, the joint venture launched with Schroders in 2019 to capitalise on the mass affluent market. SPW will be rebranded as Lloyds Wealth. Elsewhere, Lloyds launched its own Premier proposition in May, defining the ‘mass-affluent’ segment as those with an income of £100,000 or the equivalent in assets. Like other UK banks, clients benefit from various lifestyle perks via the mobile app, including personalised financial coaching sessions.”
TECHNOLOGY
Fintech Klarna records loss as it expands into conventional lending
④ Traditional lending and payment cards remain attractive products.
“Buy now, pay later fintech Klarna reported a loss in its first quarterly earnings since going public in September, as a push into conventional lending weighed on profits.”
“The company has been diversifying away from its bread-and-butter model of deferred payment loans as its interest-free instalment loans have come under pressure from higher interest rates and criticism from consumer advocates.”
“The fintech launched a payment card in July and said on Tuesday it had amassed 4mn users and that the new product accounted for 15 per cent of its transactions. The lender is seeking to become a full-fledged neobank competing with the likes of Revolut.”
MEDIA & MARKETING
How to build B2B brand authority that AI and search engines trust
⑤ Traditional public relations and positive word of mouth remain critical.
“Today’s search engines and AI models generate answers drawn from sources they’ve already decided to trust. Authority has become a function of visibility within credible ecosystems, not volume within keyword maps. In this environment, the brands that surface most often are the ones consistently referenced, cited, and reinforced across reliable networks. Those networks tend to revolve around three powerful signals:
Reviews that reflect authentic human experience.
PR and earned media that validate expertise through independent coverage.
Wikipedia and knowledge graphs that establish factual consistency over time.”
“AI prioritises reviews in its evaluation of businesses. Muck Rack found that over 95% of links cited by AI come from non-paid, independent sources. Earned and user-generated content (such as reviews) drive most of that. Platforms like G2, Capterra, and even Reddit have evolved into ecosystems where real customers describe your product in their own words. For B2B companies, these are powerful buying signals for prospects and equally powerful semantic signals for AI models. When hundreds of users describe your platform as ‘intuitive,’ ‘secure,’ or ‘easy to integrate,’ AI models learn to associate those terms with your brand.”
“Public relations, once viewed as a brand-awareness play, is quietly becoming a key AI visibility strategy. Just as Wikipedia mentions, or quotations in reputable publications signal to AI that they are verified facts. Editorial content comes with built-in credibility markers: author names, publication timestamps, backlinks, and journalistic oversight. Together, these form a trail of structured, verifiable data that large language models use to determine what’s true.”
WILDCARD
Is it time to remove job titles?
⑥ Job titles should stay but indicate purpose not power, function not status.
“In today’s workplace, titles have multiplied into an alphabet soup of managers, directors, leads, officers, co-ordinators and specialists – creating more confusion than clarity. A recent study of US workers revealed that most (92%) believe companies use inflated titles to create the illusion of career progress without offering corresponding increases in pay or responsibility. A further 34% felt ‘title trapped’, stuck with a flashy title but no real path forward.”
“Several trends are accelerating the move from traditional job titles to more capability-based talent structures. Only 6% of generation-Z workers say their primary goal is to reach a leadership position, according to Deloitte’s 2025 Gen Z and Millennial Survey. Rather than chasing titles, the younger workforce are focused on skill acquisition, personal growth and purpose, the report findings show.”
“Removing job titles can be a transformative shift that signals a genuinely progressive mindset. But it requires strategic planning, thoughtful implementation and transparent communication to help employees understand the new structure and their place within it. Without these, chaos and confusion are likely to arise.”
Off cuts
The stories that almost made this week’s newsletter.
FINANCIAL SERVICES
📈 British banks have bounced back, but are they now a tax target?
🪑 HSBC board at odds over candidates to succeed Mark Tucker as chair
🏴 Scottish Mortgage adjusts global marketing approach
🎯 Edmond de Rothschild AM hones in on private markets
🐠 JP Jenkins secures Pisces licence as ‘discussions ongoing’ with rivals
TECHNOLOGY
🤑 Crypto got everything it wanted. Now it’s sinking
🐎 Lloyds to acquire London fintech in bid to grow digital offerings
📲 Revolut launches global payments partnership with Booking.com
🦾 How Citi, Citizens, TD deploy AI agents without upsetting humans
👩🏻⚖️ FNZ: Names ex-NatWest chief Alison Rose as UK chair and faces $4.6 billion employee class action lawsuit
MEDIA & MARKETING
🔚 Interactive Investor abandons retail campaign in fresh blow to Rachel Reeves
🤖 Bloomberg uses ‘synthetic characters’ to test out products and marketing
🗞️ FT Alphaville is finally getting a Substack
🍪 The EU is fixing the most annoying thing on the web
📊 Adobe to acquire digital marketing platform Semrush for $1.9 billion
The last word
⑦ Jane Fraser, Chair and CEO Citi, on the benefits of tokenised deposits:
“A client wants to move money around the world instantaneously 24/7/365, safely and without hassle or complexity. That’s what tokenisation does.”
Don’t settle for marketing.
Aspire to InMarketing.
Wishing you an influential week,
P.S. Wondering what to do today? I thoroughly recommend Wes Anderson: The Archives at the Design Museum. It’s wonderful, idiosyncratic whimsy.
