Everyone has an opinion (even the robots eek) and the internet has given them all a platform. With AI taking notes, what's being said about your brand behind your back?
From the moment we wake up, ads come at us like adult responsibilities. Left, right, centre, then one whacks you in the back of the head just as you’re thinking, “surely that’s enough for today.”
Linger a little too long on an eye cream promising you can put off that initial botox appointment a litle longer, and suddenly it’s following you around the internet like a man who can’t take a hint. Ads have claimed your work commute, your treat'“scroll downtime” after a hard day and now your girl dinner and series combo. Please, I can’t justify ad-free Netflix when I’m supposed to be saving for a house, a child who doesn’t exist yet and a euro summer all at once.
Honestly, if brands could buy ad space in our dreams, we’d be watching a 30-second unskippable before getting back to find out our partners have been cheating on us since before they even knew us.
Of course, advertising has its place. I work in marketing, so it would be an awkward career choice to suggest otherwise. But there’s a difference between a brand telling you how good it is and someone you trust saying. One is trying to get your attention. The other has it. The brand that gains your trust, gains your purchase and loyalty.
We share recommendations without even thinking about it. When something exceeds our expectations, we want to tell people. When something disappoints us, we’re often just as generous with the details.
“Love your dress,” Susan says.
“Thanks, it’s from Dissh. Got it on sale. It has pockets, AND you can bloat in it.”
Susan asked precisely none of those follow-up questions, but you’ve given her the brand, the value proposition and a product demonstration. At this point, you should be offering her your own discount code.
That’s word of mouth doing its thing. No brief, no invoice. Just someone with strong feelings about an elasticated waist.
Everyone’s a critic. And everyone’s got a platform.
Think about the last thing you bought that wasn’t an impulse purchase. Chances are you didn’t hear about it from one person and headed straight to the checkout. Perhaps you trawled through online reviews, or spent an embarrassing amount of time scrolling until you found someone with roughly your skin tone swatching a foundation. to then stick around for the ten-hour wear-test verdict.
Once, you’d interrogate a friend who’d just returned from Europe. Where did you stay? Where did you eat? And was the €80 beach club entry actually worth it, or did you just pay for the privilege of being ignored by the staff?
Now, you’re saving a stranger’s must-do Sri Lanka itinerary, watching someone inspect their SPF under lighting usually reserved for a police interview, checking Google reviews before committing to dinner or heading to Reddit for an opinion nobody’s been paid to make polite.
You weren’t even looking for a recommendation, but somehow you’ve got three hotels bookmarked and strong opinions about a sunscreen you’ve never tried.
The internet talks. And AI is taking notes.
Word of mouth has evolved into a messy ecosystem of reviews, creators, communities, search engines and now, AI.
What people say about your brand is no longer just the aftermath of your marketing. It’s becoming part of the information AI can draw on when deciding what to recommend.
Now, for the slightly inconvenient truth.
AI doesn’t particularly care about your beautifully polished brand guidelines that went through seventeen rounds of review.
It can find the 3.5-star Google rating. The customer complaining that their order took five business days to arrive instead of the advertised three. The Reddit thread where someone enthusiastically recommends your competitor. And the stranger who loved your product so much they made an entire TikTok that “this isn’t sponsored by the way”.
The good, the bad and the slightly unreasonable. It’s all out there.
Your brand isn’t just what you publish anymore. It’s what people say when you’re not the one holding the microphone.
PR, creators, your creative team and most importantly your customers and communtiy are all helping shape the stories AI can find about your brand. And unlike your carefully curated Instagram feed, you don’t get final approval on everything it says.
The way we discover brands is changing. What makes a brand worth recommending hasn’t.
AI might put your name into the conversation. But only your brand can give people something worth talking about.