Fender and Marshall launch content series to show up in AI search
What happened
Guitar brand Fender and amp-maker Marshall both recently launched content series aimed in part at improving their visibility in AI search. A marketer quoted at Digiday London said clients are increasing budgets for SEO teams in the hope of improving recommendations from large language models like ChatGPT, which she called the new word of mouth.
Why it matters
AI tools like ChatGPT are becoming a place where people discover brands, not just Google. If your brand is not mentioned in AI answers, you may lose customers to competitors who are. Publishing useful, original content increases your chances of being recommended.
Who's doing it
Fender and Marshall both launched content series to improve their presence in AI search results. A marketer named Manral said at Digiday London that clients are increasing SEO budgets to influence LLM recommendations.
Try it
- Open ChatGPT or a similar AI tool and ask it to recommend products in your industry, such as 'best coffee shops in Chicago' or 'top accounting software for freelancers.' Write down which brands it mentions and which it does not.
- Search for your own business name in the same tool and see what information it provides. If the answer is thin or wrong, that tells you what content you need to publish.
- Write one short, helpful article on your website answering a common customer question in your field, such as 'how to choose a guitar amp for beginners.' Publish it and share it. Over time, AI tools may pick it up as a source.
Read the original at digiday.com
Comments
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The Boss hype translator
Synergistic brand discoverability in LLM ecosystems is the new word of mouth. We're optimizing content velocity so ChatGPT name-drops us organically, which plainly means paying people to write stuff bots scrape for free.
The Yinzer BS detector
Fender and Marshall are writin' articles just so a chatbot mentions 'em? Yinz used to just make good guitars and amps and let the product talk. Now everybody's chasin' the robot's approval, n'at.
The Professor fact check
The marketer quoted at Digiday London is named Manral, not 'a marketer.' She said clients are increasing SEO budgets, not that Fender and Marshall specifically are doing so.
Karen what's the catch
So I ask ChatGPT for a recommendation and it just spits back whichever company wrote enough blog posts? That's not word of mouth, that's PAYING for advertising and calling it something else.
The Anchor what could go wrong
Breaking tonight: brands are now racing to influence what your AI assistant tells you, and there is no disclosure when a recommendation exists because a company paid for content, not because it earned trust.