We’re Not Just Optimising Ads, We’re Rebuilding Trust

You can’t efficiency your way into someone’s heart.

You can’t programmatically buy cultural relevance.

That line hit me hard. It’s not mine. But I wish it was, it belongs to Gustaf Wick.

It perfectly captures where our industry stands today — stuck between the seductive promises of AI-fueled efficiency and the very real need for human-centered marketing. The McKinsey report, 'New Front Door to the Internet: Winning in the Age of AI Search', outlines the inevitable rise of AEO and GEO. It’s here. It’s massive. It’s going to shape $750 billion in revenue by 2028. But if we’re not careful, we’ll forget the reason behind it all.

At Hotspex Media, we’re leaning into AI — but not for the reason you might think.

We’re not building AI tools just to do the same things faster. We’re building an intelligent company — one that uses AI to connect our data, our people, and our creativity into a single system that gets smarter every day.

Where others might use AI to shave pennies off a CPM, we’re using it to borrow an F1 term: 'find the tenths of a second,' that makes a message land. That builds trust. That deserves attention.

But I’ll be honest, programmatic still has a perception problem. To many, it’s a sea of cheap banner ads, irrelevant pre-rolls, and endless retargeting loops. And they’re not wrong.

If our industry is going to rise to meet the age of AI, we need to go back to basics.

The truth is, great advertising still starts with real people solving real problems. We’ve seen it first hand with our brand and agency partners. Our partner testimonials aren’t just pats on the back; they’re proof; proof that empathy, curiosity, and hustle still matter.

We don’t just sell impressions. We earn them.

I want to work with clients who share that value system — who see the humans behind the dashboards, who believe in making a difference, who understand that this isn’t about reach at all costs. It’s about resonance.

According to McKinsey, more than half of consumers are already using AI-powered search platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google’s AI Overview as their first step in the buyer journey.

Traditional SEO? Still important. But it’s no longer the full story.

Top of Model + Top of Mind equals brand growth. Brands now need to optimise for how AI summarises, compares, and recommends, not just how Google ranks. That means rethinking how we tell stories. Reworking how we earn trust. Refocusing on relevance.

This shift isn’t just a media challenge. It’s a brand one. Because if your brand doesn’t show up where AI looks… your brand doesn’t show up at all.

Maybe this is why vinyl sales are soaring, why Taylor Swift fans (many of whom don’t even own a CD player) are breaking physical sales records and most surprisingly, why Venmo is running ads for debit cards.

In an age of frictionless everything, people want something they can hold onto. They want experiences they can feel. And they want brands that feel human.

The most successful campaigns today — the ones that travel, convert, and matter — don’t feel like media buys. They feel like invitations. Like moments. Like something made with care.

If we want to win in this new world, we need to learn how to play the game. AEO, GEO, and AI-everything, we can’t rely on old playbooks, but we also can’t lose sight of timeless principles.

Be relevant. Be useful. Be honest. Be human.

Let AI handle the grunt work, let humans handle the magic.

If you’re a brand that believes in these things, we should talk. Not because we have all the answers. But because we have the people willing to chase them down, every day, every hour, every tenth of a second.

Let’s build something worth seeing.