When Andrew Wheeler first got into the SEO business, he fought old-school keyword stuffing: Hiding keywords that are the same color as the website\u2019s background (invisible to the human eye, but enshrined in code), as well as in every unrelated code field\u2014many times not even relevant to the legitimate purpose of the website. <\/p>\n
Today\u2019s equivalent is using AI to create fake articles and blog posts that serve no legitimate purpose, but might answer a common query. And Google is catching on to it, recently updating its spam policy<\/a> to disallow tactics that confuse AI overviews or Gemini searches. Wheeler, now the CEO of enterprise content marketing agency Skyword, works with CMOs on utilizing better SEO tactics for AI search. I talked to him about the best ways to legitimately get picked up by AI search, and an excerpt from our conversation is later in this newsletter.<\/p>\n We\u2019re taking a summer break, and Forbes CMO will not publish next week, July 15. We\u2019ll be back in your inbox on Wednesday, July 22. <\/p>\n Until next time.<\/p>\n This is the published version of Forbes\u2019 CMO newsletter, which offers the latest news for chief marketing officers and other messaging-focused leaders. Click here<\/a> to get it delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. Technology<\/p>\n A Sony employee puts a disc into a PlayStation 5.<\/p>\n RICHARD A. BROOKS\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n Last week, Sony made a decision<\/a> that could change the future of gaming as a whole: Starting in 2028, the company will no longer release new games for its PlayStation systems on physical discs. A company blog post announcing the change said it would \u201calign more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today.\u201d The decision won\u2019t impact games that have already been released, or those planned for release in the next year and a half, Sony said. But physical games have been waning in popularity in recent years. According to Sony\u2019s 2025 corporate report, they made up just 3% of the company\u2019s revenue in 2024.<\/p>\n Some members of the gaming community have made it known that they prefer physical discs. Forbes senior contributor Paul Tassi is following<\/a> the reactions online, noting Sony has previously reversed unpopular decisions about PlayStation games and pricing. However, he writes, this change is likely to stay<\/a>. Sony is expected to release its next console in 2028 or later, and the new system may not have a disc drive at all, Tassi writes. The company has also begun reassigning some of its disc factories to make other components for the game consoles. <\/p>\n However, Tassi writes, Sony knew its decision would be unpopular. PlayStation\u2019s social media accounts stayed dark<\/a> for a week after the announcement, fearing backlash from gamers.<\/p>\n A big component of the pushback<\/a> is a digital-only model eliminates physical ownership of games. While the gamer of 20 years ago had shelves of discs and cartridges to play, tomorrow\u2019s gamer will only \u201cown\u201d licenses and subscriptions, with the latter providing recurring revenue for the developer. <\/p>\n As Gen Zers feel nostalgia for the \u201890s<\/a>\u2014an era with technology, but all in physical formats and not constantly connected to social media or corporations\u2014this decision might be seen as especially ill-timed. But it\u2019s likely just the beginning of all video game console makers starting a digital transition\u2014similar to the ones that have taken place over the years with music, movies, photography, software and the news media. <\/p>\n Brands + Messaging<\/p>\n Nike\u2019s been trying to \u201crip the script\u201d\u2014both figuratively, as it works to forge a comeback as the dominant athletic shoe brand, and literally, with its six-minute cinematic, star-studded FIFA World Cup video<\/a> by the same name. Nike\u2019s most recent earnings report shows how long the road will be to that comeback, writes<\/a> Forbes senior contributor Pamela Danziger. While the company beat Wall Street expectations, full-year revenues for the fiscal year remained flat. And although sales were up 3% in North America, Nike saw a 17% decline in China and a 6% drop in Europe.<\/p>\n The company is continuing to work toward its growth goals. It\u2019s renovating its stores for a \u201csports-led experience,\u201d and plans for half of its physical locations to complete that makeover by the end of 2027. Nike is also continuing its \u201csport offense\u201d strategy\u2014sport-centric company teams uniting all innovation, product and sales. Running is the first sport to get this treatment, and the company had its fifth-consecutive quarter of double-digit growth in the sector, representing about $1 billion in sales.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the company continues to build buzz around the World Cup. Nike is sponsoring 12 teams, and is leaning into the larger global soccer culture, partnering around the U.S. with a number of major and independent retailers, Danziger writes<\/a>. The \u201cRip the Script\u201d video crossed 1.5 billion views last week, and Nike said in its earnings the company is seeing promising sales figures for national team uniforms and its new Mercurial soccer cleats line. <\/p>\n On MessageHow To Build AI Search Authority\u2014Without Spam<\/p>\n Skyword CEO Andrew Wheeler.<\/p>\n Skyword<\/p>\n This summer, Google updated its spam policies<\/a> to include ways that unscrupulous site builders might try to manipulate AI searches\u2014like using AI to create useless pages that anticipate queries, or writing fake FAQs using potentially common queries in hopes of appearing in a search when users ask those questions. I talked to Andrew Wheeler, CEO of enterprise content marketing agency Skyword, about what these updated policies mean, and how brands looking to build real authority in AI can get started.<\/p>\n This conversation has been edited for length, clarity and continuity.<\/p>\n In the last 12 months, how has AI changed online brand-building strategy?<\/p>\n Wheeler: Brands have been approaching it with experimentation. Lots of agencies getting fired, technologies being swapped out, and challenges to try AI not knowing what you don\u2019t know. <\/p>\n That\u2019s resulted in [some people using] prompt manipulation, AI-generated content or synthetic FAQs\u2014chasing insertion into answers instead of actually building authority. Showing up once or twice does not equate authority. That\u2019s what\u2019s been happening in pockets. <\/p>\n It\u2019s getting better. Some of that confusion\u2014or delusion, if you will\u2014of \u2018showing up is the same as trust\u2019 couldn\u2019t be further from the truth.<\/p>\n Now, what brands are starting to do is really focus on building authority. Thinking about: How do you get mentioned? How do you influence prompts? How do you appear in summaries? It\u2019s focusing on what\u2019s going to get the brand cited. How can you bring in thought leadership? How can you become an authority on a topic? What\u2019s going to be referenced by third parties? Where can you demonstrate consistent expertise across channels? <\/p>\n This is where you start to establish that credibility, which will build up to the trust, which will build up to repeated surfacing of your brand in the LLMs. We\u2019re encouraging CMOs, in an effort to win in AI search and be more prominent, to build category authority early, to extract expertise either through third parties or the SMEs within their own organization, focus on differentiated content. Audit how the brand appears across AI systems. Any brand doing that now and establishing authority, it\u2019s only compounding over time.<\/p>\n What should a brand\u2019s goal be in AI search? Overview citations, website traffic or something else?<\/p>\n I would say with almost 100% confidence they have to care about showing up in AI answers. It shouldn\u2019t be a question, because that\u2019s the behavior we are seeing. That traditional model of discovery\u2014you search, you click, you\u2019re on the website, ultimately you\u2019re taking an action\u2014AI discovery does not look like that. The way that we are all starting to behave does not look like that. <\/p>\n We are in these LLMs. We are prompting\u2014some better than others. There\u2019s a brand impression. Somebody is getting exposure to your brand and then, needing to validate, they\u2019re directly navigating to your site. If you\u2019re not in the AI answer to begin with, you\u2019re not relevant. You\u2019re not going to get that direct navigation. People aren\u2019t searching the way they used to. <\/p>\n I\u2019m not saying the referrals coming from search are nonexistent. They\u2019re still there. For how long? I don\u2019t know. <\/p>\n People are using AI systems like never before: narrowing decisions, comparing options, summarizing research, validating expertise. You\u2019re starting to see commerce play a bigger role\u2014 folks actually using it to do the booking, the buying. But by the time a user clicks, a lot of that persuasion and convincing has already happened. It fundamentally changes discoverability. They have to be there. <\/p>\n They have to be thinking about narrative consistency and expertise, third-party validation and anything they can do to capture presence of subject matter expertise or citation. It\u2019s no longer: Do I show up when somebody searches?<\/p>\n What advice would you give a CMO trying to build their brand for AI search the right way, avoiding spam?<\/p>\n I would warn them not to repeat the SEO mistakes of two decades ago. Don\u2019t prioritize scale over substance. AI helps you scale faster. It doesn\u2019t necessarily help you create better, or higher quality. We will continue to see AI search and the LLMs evolve toward highly rewarding trust and credibility, just like SEO eventually did.It\u2019s really important to build category authority. You know the audience you\u2019re going after, you know the message you\u2019re trying to convey. How do you convey it with credibility? What expertise are you bringing into it? How is your content? How is your brand differentiated from the other brands talking about the same thing? Audit how it\u2019s coming across in the various LLMs. There are some wonderful tools out there helping brands monitor where they are.Establishing that authority now will be a compounding strategy that will ultimately help them win. Continue to experiment, but make sure you experiment tactically, not strategically. You\u2019ve got to anchor on the strategy. You can\u2019t use AI to create credibility. You can use it to scale once you\u2019ve built up that strategy, proven that it works.Strategies + Advice<\/p>\n If Cannes Lions wasn\u2019t in your budget this year (and even if it was), here are some of the most important insights, conversations and lessons from nine industry leaders<\/a> who were there.<\/p>\n Brand it like Beckham: The British soccer star seems to be in almost every FIFA World Cup-related ad, for companies as diverse as Adidas and Home Depot. Even though he\u2019s one of the few soccer celebrities the American audience recognizes, is this a good strategy?<\/a><\/p>\n Quiz<\/p>\n Which country recently suspended state TV news broadcasts as part of a planned overhaul to make them independent and more credible?<\/p>\n A. Belarus<\/p>\n B. Hungary<\/p>\n C. Vietnam<\/p>\n D. Honduras <\/p>\n