The Digital PR Newsletter #56

The PR Campaigns Google’s AI Is Quietly Killing

Hello, how's it going? (That's rhetorical, but good I hope)

With the rise of LLMs and Google’s AI Mode & Overviews, people are getting the information they need without ever clicking through to the site that created it.

Some types of PR campaigns are particularly vulnerable to this, and their best before date is fast approaching.

I’ll share what that campaign type is, and what campaigns I think are more immune or resistant to it and why.

So let’s get to it shall we?

For a while publications have had (some may say an unfair) advantage in Google, where the authority, trust, and recency of what they published meant they could rank for, well… kinda anything.
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If you’ve ever Googled something like what time a football match or tv show starts, or what channel it’s on etc, you’ll know what I mean.

You’ll get served up an article and somewhere in there, buried between the banner ads and pop ups, you’ll find the answer you were looking for (or not in my case below).

These types of articles were only ever created to capture search traffic from Google and to make $$$ for the publications.

PR has played a role in many similar articles, and I’ve personally benefited from this type of campaign over the years.
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With my Christmas Tree website (which I just recently sold btw), every year I’d either get asked to contribute comments or I would pitch the same stories. Either along the lines of how to make your Christmas tree last longer, or the best date to put up your Christmas tree.
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One publication has regurgitated that second story three times, originally in 2021, then again in 2022, and again last year too.

Those articles were only ever written to capture search traffic.
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But now, with ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews, people get those answers instantly, no click needed.

That means little or no traffic for the publication, and little reason to keep publishing that type of content.
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And if we are being honest with ourselves, maybe those articles weren’t really journalism in the first place, they were filler content, dressed up with a quote and a headline, designed to harvest traffic.

I think the writing is on the wall for these recyclable, made for SEO articles.

I’m talking about the kind of content that gets recycled each year with barely any changes like ‘how to stop frozen pipes’ articles during winter, or ‘how to keep cool during a heatwave’, or even ‘what to do with leftover pumpkin’ after Halloween.

This may seem a bit doom and gloom, and I get the anxiety around AI, but rest assured, PR won’t vanish. Stories will always be told, we just find different ways to tell them.

One of the most resistant will be campaigns that use case studies.
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They’re based on real people doing real things, and they’re also visual, there’s usually something to show, not just tell. That makes them more engaging, more shareable, and harder for AI to summarise or replace.
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In the Digital PR Club, we recently ran a masterclass on this. I spoke to ex-journalist and freelance Digital PR Liv Lott, who shared how to create strong case study campaigns, from finding the right people and asking better questions, to using visuals and backstories.
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Journalists like case studies because they’re original, credible, and human, and as long as that’s true, they’re going to stick around.

AI may spell the end for filler content, but the stories with depth, visuals, and human interest will always find their place.

That's all for this time, thanks for reading! For all previous newsletters, see below.

— Mark

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