Thursday, February 19

🌟 Today’s Highlights:

• Perplexity is abandoning ads

• Google Search Console’s AI-powered configuration is here

• Let me help you find your next marketing agency

• 📊 Stat of the Day: 44% of ChatGPT citations come from the first third of content. (Source: Growth Advisor)

• 💡 Today’s Insight: New study: Maintaining brand relevancy

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⚡️ Today’s Headlines ⚡️

🛑 Perplexity stopped testing ads. The AI search company, which began testing sponsored placements in 2024, is abandoning ads for now as it believes labeled ads can erode credibility.

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⚙️ Google Search Console is rolling out a new AI-powered configuration. The tool, which has been in testing for over two months, allows users to ask AI questions about Search Console performance reports in natural language and receive answers.

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🧰 TikTok Shop added a range of new tools. The updates include expanded access to its Seller Assistant AI chatbot, an easier way to send out samples, and auto-clipping from live streams.

💡 Today’s Insight 💡

New study: Maintaining brand relevancy

🗞 TL;DR - Finding and maintaining brand relevancy requires a unique skill set. You don’t want to be too edgy and risk pushing consumers away, but playing it safe to instill consumer trust might not grab eyeballs. The Harris Poll’s company QuestBrand published a new Brand Leader’s Playbook evaluating data for “brand momentum” and how it correlates to key performance indicators.

💡 Insight - To preface the study’s findings, “momentum” was measured by changes in consumer beliefs about the trajectory of a brand in relation to its competitors. Scores of 20% or more means consumers view the brand as “rising” while scores closer to zero reflect the opposite.

Shein and Temu are two major examples of how some brands can survive controversy better than others. Both brands have gone viral on social media and both have met scrutiny over topics like labor practices and regulatory risks for its products. Shein has a brand momentum score of 23%, while Temu’s score is 27%. Temu’s safe plays have led to a loss of consumer trust and led the brand to regularly go on the defensive. Whereas Shein has ridden its viral wave toward strategic influencer partnerships on “haul” content.

Gaining brand momentum is one thing, but keeping it going is another. One example of this is fitness company Peloton, which saw massive growth during the pandemic with a major crash after gyms opened back up. The brand didn’t have the depth of trust, quality, or equity to survive the major change. Clothing brand Carhartt, on the other hand, has been able to leverage its legacy of quality to expand its consumer base into streetwear.

As QuestBrand’s managing director notes, “What cultural relevance means is, how much is a brand shaping trends and conversation today? What’s the value of having high trust if nobody knows who you are, nobody talks about you?”

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