Potato milk was supposed to be the next big thing in 2022. Oat won. Oatly, Chobani, Califia, and Silk emerged as the durable independents. The alt-milk wars and what the AI engines now actually cite.
The 2022 metaverse playbook collapsed. Meta lost $58B. But the four PR principles every brand was chasing — interactive content, AI customer support, emotional bonds, real-time analytics — migrated into AI Communications. Where each bet actually landed.
The product launch PR playbook — launches that defined the discipline (iPhone 2007, Tesla Model 3 2016, ChatGPT 2022, Threads 2023) and failures that anchor the warnings (New Coke, Apple Newton, Microsoft Zune, Google Glass, Amazon Fire Phone). Operating principles, 2026 sequencing, and the AI engine citation layer.
Bill Gates ran the most-studied executive PR rebuild of the last thirty years — antitrust villain to philanthropic operator, software monopolist to global health authority. Five lessons every founder facing reputational compounding interest should run now.
These days, however, SEO efforts have become a lot more complex, involving things from user experience to content marketing and distribution.
In January 2022, 80+ fact-checkers from 40+ countries called YouTube "one of the major conduits of online disinformation." Neal Mohan's response, the four-R framework, and the platform-fact-checker gap that structures the current debate.
Beauty brand awareness in 2026 is a nine-layer playbook: citation visibility, affiliate-driven editorial, mass-and-prestige distribution, Poosh/Goop activation, brand-ambassador architecture, SMS-as-editorial, community ownership, earned media, and the TikTok/Xiaohongshu international layer. Brands operating all nine take share from brands still running the 2022 playbook.
Personalized advertising efforts aren't a very new concept.
Many people believe that marketing analytics only involves measuring the effectiveness of an email marketing campaign.