Author: Kyle Yeats

Over the last decade, I’ve built websites in Dreamweaver, created GIFs that generated billions of views, learned Meta’s AR software and now use AI tools to help shape wireframes and content structures. 

Some of those skills are still useful, while others have all but disappeared. 

It’s taught me an important lesson: the most valuable skill in design isn’t mastering a particular tool, it’s being willing to adapt when the industry inevitably changes around you.

The tools never stop changing 

When I started my career, Dreamweaver was still a legitimate part of many designers’ workflows – it was considered cutting edge. 

Back then, building a website often meant designing and developing it yourself. Responsive design was still finding its feet; social media looked very different and nobody was talking about AI as a creative tool. 

Fast forward a decade and my workflow has changed completely. Most projects now start in Figma, collaboration happens in real time and tools like Claude and Relume are helping speed up everything from content structures to early-stage wireframing. 

The fundamentals of design haven’t changed much but the tools we use to get there certainly have. 

One of the biggest challenges for any designer is deciding what deserves your time. 

Throughout my working life, I’ve invested hours learning platforms and technologies that felt like the future. 

At one point, GIF creation became a major part of my work. Brands were embracing the format, audiences were sharing them everywhere and the opportunities felt endless. It was an exciting time, creating content that generated billions of views across social platforms. 

Fast forward a few years and GIFs feel increasingly tied to a specific era of internet culture. 

The same thing happened with Meta Spark Studio. I spent time learning how to create augmented reality experiences because it genuinely looked like a pivotal direction for social media. Then the platform was retired and much of that ecosystem disappeared. 

Looking purely at the software, that time might seem wasted but I don’t see it that way. 

The value wasn’t really in the tools themselves. Every new platform forced me to learn new ways of thinking, solve unfamiliar problems and become comfortable operating outside my comfort zone. Those skills transfer. 

The software may disappear, but the ability to pick up something new, understand it quickly and find creative ways to use it remains incredibly valuable. 

In many ways, learning how to learn has become one of the most important skills in modern design. 

AI is just the latest chapter 

Right now, AI dominates almost every conversation in the creative industry. Some people see it as a threat while others see it as the solution to everything. The reality is probably somewhere in the middle. 

I use AI tools regularly, not because they replace design thinking, but because they help remove friction, speed up certain tasks and make it easier to move ideas forward. 

Five years from now, the tools we’re all talking about today might be gone. That’s not a criticism, it’s just the nature of technology. 

The challenge isn’t trying to learn everything, it’s figuring out what’s worth exploring, what’s worth ignoring and what genuinely makes you better at your job. 

Why this matters for brands 

The same principle applies beyond design. Businesses are navigating many of the same challenges. New platforms emerge, customer behaviours shift and technologies evolve at an increasingly rapid pace. Knowing which opportunities are worth pursuing and which are simply distractions has become more important than ever. 

That’s where experience matters. At BIG, we’re constantly exploring new tools, technologies and ways of working. Not because every trend deserves attention, but because understanding what’s changing helps us identify what will genuinely create value for our clients. 

The goal isn’t to chase every new platform or shiny new technology. It’s to combine proven creative thinking with an understanding of what’s next, helping brands adapt confidently without losing sight of what makes them effective in the first place. 

The tools will continue to change, they always do. For designers and brands alike, the challenge is knowing how to evolve with them. 

The Scotland men’s national football team are at their first World Cup in 28 years. To cheer the team on and celebrate their qualification, more than 30,000 party ready Scots have descended on Boston, watching John McGinn help secure a 1-0 win over Haiti with his goal in the country’s opening match of the tournament.  

While that victory may have been Scotland’s first in the tournament since 1990, another resounding success has unfolded elsewhere in the city. Ahead of the tournament, Travis Pollio, the Red Sox director of ticket strategy and promotions, noticed that Scotland’s opening match fell the day before a home game at Fenway Park, the baseball side’s historic stadium. He could have ignored it; instead, ‘Scotland Day’ was born.

Following Scotland’s win – with spirits still high – the Tartan Army marched from the city’s Evans Way Park to Fenway, led by a band of pipers. Fans were gifted special edition blue tartan Red Sox jerseys, and the mascots ‘Tessie and Wally’ appeared in traditional Scottish dress. During the match itself, a crowd that had, mostly, never watched a baseball game in their lives, created a huge atmosphere by belting their way through the classic tunes with ‘Flower of Scotland’, ‘I’m Gonna Be’ and ‘Yes Sir, I Can Boogie’ echoing through the stands.

Of the 32,000 people inside Fenway that night, BBC Sport’s reporter on the ground, Scott Mullen, estimated you could treble Pollio’s initial forecast of 4,000 Scottish fans and not be overstating it. The Red Sox lost 6-4 to the Texas Rangers, although almost nobody seemed to mind.

What made this work wasn’t a slick campaign concept with all the bells and whistles. Pollio spotted a simple opportunity: thousands of Scotland supporters were already in his city and looking for something to do between football matches, with Scotland set to play Morocco this coming Friday. Before the gates even opened, pipe bands were playing outside on Jersey Street, fans in kilts were spilling across the concourses and the kind of atmosphere that you can’t artificially manufacture was already building in the stands.

Scots who had never watched a baseball game in their lives were singing their hearts out by the end of the first inning. The audience overlap was almost perfect – Bostonians are renowned for their sporting spirit – and, because the activation was built around people who were already there, the cost relative to what it returned was negligible.

The magic of this activation lies in its raw, unfiltered delivery. The Red Sox created the occasion and then allowed the fans to create the atmosphere. Every one of those supporters likely had a phone in their pocket. Every photo posted, every story shared, every TikTok uploaded put the Red Sox brand in front of audiences the club would never have reached through paid media. The best user generated content usually isn’t manufactured through hashtag competitions or giveaways – it happens organically when you give people something genuinely worth sharing.

In another world, this is an activation where someone has added three approval layers, a brand safety review and a six-week lead time that would cause it to become a sanitised co-branding exercise that ultimately generates nothing. The version that happened was confident and trusting enough to let the crowd take it somewhere.

A lesson that every comms and marketing team should take from this event is, instead of asking ‘how can we attach ourselves to this event?’, rather, ‘how do we create a moment and a memory for fans?’

According to CreativeX, an analytics platform for marketers, the ultimate driver of buying decision is memory. Now, whenever one of those Scotland fans think of baseball, they will instantly think of the Red Sox and that incredible night they experienced at Fenway, ultimately making them more likely to visit again or purchase merchandise. You must also consider the millions of views that the atmosphere has generated on social media by people stunned that a regular season Major League Baseball match has been commandeered by rowdy Scots.

During a World Cup, every host city has a full schedule. Every match creates a temporary captive audience of supporters, journalists and curious locals who don’t vanish at the final whistle. The teams and brands earning attention right now aren’t always the official partners, it is the brands sensing an opportunity, spotted something the others missed and moved before the window closed.

Mounjaro. Wegovy. Ozempic. A year ago, these were whispered about in celebrity gossip columns. Now they are prescribed by GPs, discussed openly at dinner parties and advertised by private clinics on public transport. GLP-1 medications have entered the mainstream and with them has come a quiet but significant rewiring of how people think about food, bodies, and the marketing messages promoted by lifestyle, food and drink brands.

The opportunity for food brands

GLP-1 users are not disengaging from food, they are re-engaging with it differently.

Reduced appetite tends to sharpen preferences. Smaller portions mean people are less willing to waste their appetite on something they don’t genuinely want. Protein and nutrient density matter more. The incidental, grab-and-go eating that much food marketing has long been built around gives way to something more deliberate.

That presents an opportunity, not a threat, for food brands willing to think about it properly. UK retailers have been moving in this direction already. High-protein ranges have expanded across Aldi, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer, and the language around satiety and nutrition has become more prominent in product positioning. The next step for savvy brands is connecting that positioning explicitly to the mindset shift GLP-1 culture represents, without making the medication the story. Part of the audience has changed. The product brief can also change with it.

Wellness has a new register

The wellness sector is navigating this with particular energy. Brands that built their identity around weight loss, whether through clean eating plans, calorie-tracking apps or transformation-focused fitness content, are finding that the old language lands differently now. ‘Results’ used to mean a before-and-after. That framing feels thinner (so to speak) when a prescription can deliver a comparable outcome.

The smarter wellness brands are pivoting toward what medication cannot easily provide: the feel-good architecture around health. Energy, sleep quality, strength, gut health, mental clarity. These are genuine and growing consumer priorities and they are not displaced by GLP-1 use; in many cases they are amplified by it. Brands that can speak to this broader definition of feeling well, rather than anchoring everything in a dress size, are finding a receptive audience. Boots have launched a campaign for its ‘Summer Club’, which focuses on a plethora of different body types, races and abilities. This shift to showcase real people, instead of picture-perfect influencers works well and allows their demographic to broaden.

A growing audience that looks different

What many social media users are increasingly vocal about is specific: the gap between the bodies brands present as aspirational and the bodies their customers actually live in. That tension predates GLP-1 culture, but these medications have sharpened it. Whilst GLP-1s are becoming more popular, a significant portion of consumers are not interested in weight-loss or becoming smaller, so  brand activations cast entirely from narrow physical mould starts to look less like inspiration and more like a decision. Gone is the body-positive movement of the early 2020s, catapulting us straight back to the outdated ideation that skinny = better.

The backlash, when it comes, is swift and well-documented. UK audiences on TikTok and Instagram have become adept at calling out influencer lineups that feel homogeneous and the commentary travels fast. Critique of a recent campaign with M&S shows that users are paying attention to these ideals. They want to see diversity in content, despite many influencers and celebrities shrinking by the day. A 2024 Dove study found that only 3% of women in the UK feel represented in advertising. That figure has sat uncomfortably in the industry for a while. GLP-1 culture has given it new urgency. There are many creators who fit in diverse categories such as race, gender, disability and body type. In 2026, there is simply no excuse for brands to overlook this.

What this means for social strategy

Knowing your audience has shifted is one thing. Making sure your content reflects that is another. None of this requires brands to reference GLP-1s, take a position on weight loss medication or wade into contested health territory. It requires something simpler: paying attention to who your audience is now.

Casting decisions are the most visible place to start. A genuine audit of who appears in your brand content, what range of bodies and experiences is represented and whether that lineup bears any resemblance to your actual customer base.

Content briefs are less visible but equally important. Food content that only speaks to abundance, indulgence and effortless eating is addressing a narrower slice of the audience than it used to, especially with HFSS restrictions (UK laws designed to tackle obesity by restricting the promotion and visibility of foods and drinks High in Fat, Sugar, or Salt). Content that has considered choices, quality over quantity and honest nutrition sits alongside that rather than replacing it. The brands doing this well are not abandoning appetite; they are expanding what appetite looks like. A brand that has navigated HFSS changes well is Tunnocks, who’s recent ad focused on the lifecycle of their brand, whilst avoiding any mention of the biscuits whatsoever.

GLP-1 culture has exposed assumptions that were already under strain. The brands that treat this as a prompt to think more honestly about their audiences, their casting and their messaging will find themselves better positioned, not despite the shift, but because of it.

From newsroom to agency: What five years in PR has taught me.

This summer marks five years since I moved from journalism into PR. Given I’m close to reaching a decent landmark in my new – or not so new – career, I thought I’d reflect on a few things I’ve learned along the way.

Firstly, yes, I know I look too young to have had a 17-year media career – 12 years in journalism career, followed by almost five years in PR – but here we are. There are plenty of transferrable skills that have helped me along the way, such as having a strong feel for what a good news line is, being comfortable picking up the phone, as well as being a decent writer. Agency life has reinforced some points and made me learn a few lessons along the way.

The importance of the case study

My time in PR has reinforced just how powerful human stories are. The stories that perform the best are those where someone is named and pictured [or filmed] – and has an interesting story to tell. However journalism adapts in the months and years ahead, I’m confident that won’t change.  

In one recent example, we spoke to mum-of-four Yasmin Whittington as she was taking part in the Glasgow Kiltwalk to thank The Archie Foundation – a charity which supports babies, children and families across the North of Scotland who are experiencing a hospital stay or bereavement – for how they supported her family as they try to get a diagnosis for their daughter Elyza’s rare condition. The powerful nature of her family’s story led to strong media interest across the UK and beyond, and helped raise money for Yasmin’s charity challenge and shine a light on the great work carried out by the charity  

Relationships are important, but a good story will always win

Whether it’s with journalists or clients, being someone that people like and trust is a great starting point, especially in this new AI world. On the journalist point: One day on LinkedIn you’ll see a post from a PR arguing that relationships with journalists aren’t important, it’s all about the story and if the story is poor, you stand no chance. The next day you’ll see a counter post saying PR is all about relationships, and you need a good contact book to secure coverage. For me the truth is somewhere in between. Being friendly with a journalist improves the chances of them answering your call or reading your email, but ultimately story is king and determines the end result.

Be nice to people along the way

This can apply to any career, but I’ve always tried to be nice to people I work with whatever their role in the business. There’s never been a cynical motive to doing this but it’s interesting the way things pan out. Various younger journalists I became friendly with in my newsroom days are now senior in journalism or PR in similar roles to me, so simply being a considerate human being can be very helpful as you progress with your career.

Becoming a mini-expert in all sorts of subjects

One of the most enjoyable aspects of agency life is slowly building knowledge on a variety of topics -often in areas you knew very little about. I already had a decent grounding in sport but over the past five years I’ve also worked with an accountancy firm, renewable companies and a port operator, as well as clients in football, basketball and many others. One day you might be writing about how George Pig wearing a hearing aid can help removing stigma around hearing loss and the next explaining growth in the liquid bulks market. The variety has been really interesting, and it’s been great to visit clients in person and see first-hand the work they do.

Great coverage rarely happens by accident

As a journalist, especially at the start of my career, I wasn’t that clued into the PR work that goes on behind the scenes to help turn a good story into a great outcome. The best results rarely come from sending out a press release and hoping for the best. For companies, they come from working with people who take the time to really understand your business and its priorities. This is essential to identifying the best news angles and navigating a busy news landscape to secure meaningful coverage that supports the client’s business objectives.

Nearly five years in, I’m still learning all the time, but it’s been a great move for me both professionally and personally. I look forward to seeing what the next five years bring and writing my next blog in 2031.

Brands combining SEO and PR have always outperformed brands relying on just one. New 2026 research strengthens the case, especially for AI search visibility.  

Almost half of the brands ranking on Google’s first page are invisible to ChatGPT for the same queries. That gap has a structural cause and a familiar fix. Backlinks and referring domains have been measurable evidence of integration paying off for two decades. AI citations are the new layer, sitting alongside the long-running link signals as evidence the work pays. Both functions still work on their own, but they’ve always worked better together. AI search has made the combination matter more. 

Google rankings no longer guarantee AI citations 

EMGI’s SaaS AI Citation Gap Report, published April 2026, analysed 150 SaaS companies across 120 keywords. 44% of brands ranking in Google’s top 10 received zero ChatGPT citations for the same queries. Conversely, 81% of ChatGPT brand mentions came from companies outside Google’s top 10. 

The reason is structural. Google works from an index of pages it has crawled and stored. AI search systems pull sources when a user asks a question, then synthesise an answer from the places they trust. The two systems reward different signal mixes and brands captured in both are those running both functions. 

Your website is still the foundation 

Your website must do its job. If it doesn’t clearly communicate who you are, what you do, and how well you do it, the rest of the visibility stack has less to work with. Owned content is a baseline. AI models retrieve and read what’s there and so it follows that a thin website limits the impact of off-site efforts. 

Where AI citations actually come from 

The sources of AI citations beyond the website will feel familiar to digital PR teams: mentions, backlinks from credible publications, branded search demand and presence in trusted channels.  

Airops’ 2026 State of AI Search found that brands investing in off-site presence are 6.5× more likely to earn AI visibility with around 85% of those mentions living on external domains. 

LinkedIn is worth singling out. SEMrush’s analysis of 325,000 prompts found LinkedIn is now the second most-cited source in AI search behind Reddit, with around 11% of answers referencing a LinkedIn URL. ChatGPT and Google AI Mode pull most LinkedIn citations from individual posts rather than company pages, making employee thought-leadership the lever for B2B brands. We treat that as part of brand footprint anyway and the data confirms it. 

Where the combination outperforms 

The compound effect is critical. Brands that earn a Google ranking alongside an AI citation are 40% more likely to resurface in subsequent AI runs than brands cited only once. A B2B SaaS ranking #1 on Google can be invisible in ChatGPT for the same query if competitors have built more mention volume on review sites and trade press. The ranking still earns the click in traditional search. It just earns less from the AI answer. 

The dual-signal payoff also lifts traditional performance. Seer Interactive’s analysis of 25.1 million organic impressions across 42 organisations found that brands cited in AI Overviews earned 35% more organic clicks and 91% more paid clicks than uncited competitors. Earned coverage doesn’t only feed AI search – it tightens performance across the whole search ecosystem. 

We see the engagement signal in our own client data. For a UK housebuilder, ChatGPT referrals delivered 3.80 pages per session between October 2025 and February 2026, ahead of every other traffic source on the site (Bing 3.00, Google 2.77, direct 2.65, Rightmove 2.24, Facebook 1.67). Volume was modest at 230 sessions over five months, but ChatGPT was the clear leader among AI sources, well ahead of Gemini (13 sessions), Copilot (7) and Perplexity (3). These visitors viewed more pages per session, aligning with broader findings about AI-referred intent. 

AI citations are the latest measurable output of the same work that has earned the third-party coverage backlinks depend on. Brands consistently visible across Google and AI search are running them as one programme. 

AI models are getting more selective 

ChatGPT cites only 15% of the pages it retrieves. When GPT-5.3 Instant became the default earlier this year, it cited 20% fewer domains than its predecessor and subsequent updates have continued the trend. Brands that maintain visibility through those changes tend to run a steady earned-media programme. Whether any specific citation today survives the next model is uncertain – the programme that produces the citations is more stable. 

Three pieces of an integrated programme 

For brands already running SEO and PR as one programme, this argument is settled. For everyone else, the obstacles are familiar: separate teams, budgets, and reporting lines. The case for integration is now stronger. 

The work splits into three pieces. 

A shared brief between search and PR teams identifying which third-party publications, review platforms, and forums AI models retrieve from, mapped against the queries where the brand has thin authority.  

Reporting against AI citations alongside press coverage and link metrics, with tools like Profound and Ahrefs Brand Radar. 

Patience to let the curve develop. One B2B SaaS case study showed AI citation rates rising from 8% to 24% over 90 days, generating 47 qualified leads and $64,000 in closed revenue. The pattern resembles early-stage SEO. 

This isn’t about rebuilding marketing around AI search. AI search is still a small share of total traffic for most brands. The real value is that the same work improves both AI and traditional search performance, positioning brands ahead of future shifts.  

What this changes in the planning brief 

The argument for integrating SEO and PR isn’t new and the evidence isn’t either. What’s new is the type of evidence. AI citations have joined the long list of signals that earned coverage produces. For integrated teams, the data validates the model. For everyone else, it makes the business case for integration harder to ignore.