Why Brands Can’t Ignore AI and the New Era of Media

Artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept hovering at the edges of communications strategy. It’s here, fully integrated into the way people search, consume, verify, and share information. And whether brands are ready for it or not, AI has become one of the most influential forces shaping reputation, media narratives, and public perception. This is not just another technological shift: it’s the next era of media. For years, brands invested heavily in SEO, social media, influencer partnerships and content strategy. Now, they must think about something new: what does AI say about you? How does it summarize your brand? Who does it compare you to? Does it surface your latest news? Does it trust your sources? Does it even recognize you? Whether we like it or not, AI engines such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude are quickly becoming the “front door” to information. As Gartner’s Emerging Technologies research notes, generative AI is one of the fastest-adopted tools ever recorded — and it is now reshaping search behavior on a global scale. At the same time, public trust dynamics continue to shift. Edelman’s Trust Barometer shows deepening distrust in traditional institutions and a growing reliance on alternative information sources. AI and public relations now intersect in a way that can drastically influence how a brand is understood before a journalist calls, before a customer visits your website and even before someone clicks a Google result. (If they even click or use Google at all, that is.) This is why brands cannot ignore AI: and why the role of a strategic communications partner has never been more important. At LaRue PR, we see AI not as a threat but as an opportunity to elevate storytelling, strengthen brand credibility, and protect reputation in a world that is moving faster than ever. AI Is Transforming Discovery & Brands Must Adapt The first fundamental shift is how people discover information. Increasingly, they aren’t “Googling”… they’re asking AI: What’s the best skincare brand for sensitive skin? Which wellness brands are worth the splurge? Who are the top founders in sustainable fashion?   Generative engines respond with synthesized answers pulled from across the internet, often shaping opinions before a user ever lands on a website. PR Daily cites this shift as one of the defining trends of 2026, noting that brands must prepare for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO): the practice of optimizing messaging for AI-driven search. If AI can’t understand your brand clearly, or if your digital footprint is inconsistent, AI tools will either misrepresent your story or skip over you entirely. That’s the new reality. Journalists Are Using AI Every Day & Expect More from Brands AI isn’t only shaping public behavior, it’s transforming journalism. Reporters now rely on AI to research, verify facts, analyze documents, and scan press releases. The Cision State of the Media Report confirms that journalists want cleaner, clearer, more structured information because they’re using AI to help them parse large amounts of content quickly. This means that messy messaging, overly promotional language, or inconsistent facts are no longer minor annoyances—they’re dealbreakers. If AI can’t interpret your content accurately, journalists won’t either. For brands, this raises the bar significantly. Messaging has to be sharp, structured, credible, and consistent across every channel. It must be intuitive not only for humans but also for the AI systems journalists rely on. That’s a new skillset and a new opportunity. AI Is Changing How Stories Spread Across Media & Social Platforms AI doesn’t just influence what people search, it drives what they see. Social platforms use AI to recommend posts and determine which content reaches audiences. Media outlets now depend on AI to analyze performance and shape editorial priorities. Hootsuite’s Social Trends Report underscores that AI-powered distribution increasingly dictates reach, visibility, and engagement. This creates a new dynamic: the best story doesn’t always win. The most optimized one does. Brands who understand how AI interprets tone, structure, authority, and engagement can dramatically improve the spread of their earned media, thought leadership, and brand narratives. But brands who ignore AI risk creating content that performs quietly, even when the story itself is strong. AI Raises the Stakes of Reputation Management Perhaps the most urgent reason brands cannot ignore AI is the rise of synthetic media: AI-generated content that looks real, sounds real and spreads fast. According to the Brookings Institution, the proliferation of deepfakes and AI-generated misinformation poses significant strategic and reputational risks. A single piece of synthetic content can damage years of brand equity in minutes. And once misinformation spreads, retracting it becomes immensely difficult. Monitoring reputation is no longer something brands can do weekly or monthly, it must be continuous, cross-platform, and AI-augmented. This is where narrative intelligence matters: tracking sentiment, mapping narratives, identifying misinformation, and anticipating shifts before they become crises. It’s also where a strategic PR partner becomes essential. AI Has Changed What Audiences Expect from Brands AI has conditioned consumers to expect instant answers, personalized recommendations, and contextually relevant communication. The Deloitte Global Marketing Trends Report highlights that modern customers expect more precision, more speed, and more utility from brand communications than ever. In the world of AI and public relations, this translates to: more authentic storytelling more transparent messaging more humanized brand communication more consistency across touchpoints Audiences no longer respond to generic corporate language. They want specificity, vulnerability, purpose, and clarity. AI simply accelerates the pressure to deliver all four. AI Is Transforming Thought Leadership & Executive Visibility Executives who embrace AI are already producing more content, contributing to more conversations, and building stronger digital footprints. HubSpot’s Marketing Trends Report reveals that leaders who use AI thoughtfully see higher engagement and recognition across digital channels. Thought leadership is no longer about publishing occasionally: it’s about creating a consistent drumbeat of insights that are backed by clarity, originality, and authority. This is where strategic PR and AI intersect powerfully. LaRue PR works with executives to strengthen their POV, structure their messaging for generative engines, and create visibility that

The Agency’s Checklist: How to Audit an Influencer Profile Like a Pro

More than 80% of surveyed brands identify influencer marketing as an effective brand strategy. While influencer marketing may be a lasting trend, not every campaign is created equally. The best partnerships start with choosing the right influencer for your brand. Failing to do your due diligence when selecting an influencer partner can result in a waste of your allocated budget, low engagement, or damage to your reputation. Influencer audits are a simple but essential step that separate successful partnerships from costly mistakes. LaRue has a proven 10-minute framework to audit an influencer profile quickly and effectively. Why Influencer Audits Matter Auditing is a crucial first step, before there’s even an offer on the table or a contract to sign. Influencer audits are a great opportunity to:  Prevent fake followers and inflated engagement: A comprehensive audit takes any potential inflation out of the equation. You can verify whether or not an influencer’s follower count is genuine or padded. Bot-generated engagement can drive false engagement numbers, making it seem like an influencer is getting more likes, comments, and shares on their posts than they really are. Ensure alignment with brand values and voice: The influencer you choose should align well with your brand values, identity, and community. Your brand’s first responsibility is to your customers. It’s important that an influencer partnership never feels like a betrayal of your values or like you’re selling out for the prospect of new followers or increased impressions. Protect against compliance risks (FTC guidelines, brand safety): FTC guidelines aim to ensure customers are not exposed to deceptive advertisements. To comply, influencers are typically required to disclose paid partnerships, offer unbiased opinions, and avoid misleading statements and claims. Clearly defined guidelines for influencer/brand partnerships with these compliance risks in mind help maintain brand transparency and avoid any potential issues from the get-go. Step-by-Step Framework: How to Audit an Influencer Profile Audience Analysis When it comes to analyzing an influencer’s audience, a quick check for follower count is not enough. Dive into follower demographics with a focus on key attributes such as age, location, and interests. This will let you know whether or not your two audiences align well. Don’t forget to verify authenticity as well. Watch out for bots or duplicate accounts, sudden spikes in followers that suggest inflated metrics, and mismatched engagement. You should have two goals for this step: ensure audience overlap with your brand’s target market, and feel confident that the influencer’s follower count and engagement is genuine.  Content Consistency Take a look at the influencer’s backlog of content. Look for a clear niche, consistent message, and cohesive values. It’s also important to assess the quality of visuals, captions, and posting cadence. Verify that previous branded collaborations blend naturally with organic content and posting patterns. You’re looking for a partner who prioritizes consistency and credibility, maintains a well-defined identity, and has built a meaningful online community.  Engagement & Performance Metrics Analyze engagement and performance metrics over time, not just for one or two specific posts. Measure average likes, comments, saves, and shares to get an idea of how much interaction this influencer gets from a typical post. Look beyond vanity metrics: evaluate conversation quality in the comments and clock the tone of the chatter. Rely on both qualitative and quantitative measure when considering how well content tends to perform on this account. Compare the influencer’s engagement rate to industry benchmarks.  Compliance & Transparency To avoid any compliance headaches going forward, see how this influencer has handled previous branded partnerships. In particular, look for the proper use of #ad, #sponsored, and disclosure tags. Monitor branded content for any misleading statements or false impressions, especially in the health and fitness space. Review the influencer’s history for any controversies, offensive content, or guideline violations. Alignment with Brand Values Look for compatibility between the influencer’s content and your own by analyzing tone, aesthetics, and messaging. Take a look at topics covered, types of content posted, and influencer/audience interaction. Consider any past partnerships to see whether the influencer has teamed up with competitors in your space or complementary brands. Ensure the influencer reflects the values and lifestyle your brand wants to project, and that your audience expects to see from your content. The Quick-Check Checklist (10 Minutes or Less) Before you dive into an intensive audit, you can run down a quick checklist in 10 minutes or less. This initial run-through can help you weed out unfit candidates, and identify potential matches that are worth auditing more closely. Before you spend time on in-depth vetting, follow this simple checklist: Scan engagement quality on three recent posts: Take a quick look at how the influencer’s last three posts have performed via audience interaction. Observe likes, shares, comments, and how many times it has been saved. Consider the tone of the comments, and whether it has generated positive conversation. Check follower growth patterns: Check out trends in follower growth over time, paying close attention to drastic peaks that could indicate inflated metrics or sudden drops that could hint at an unstable following or past controversies.  Confirm disclosure practices: Sift through previous branded posts and see if paid partnerships have been disclosed. Look for hashtags indicating an ad, and screen the content for both authenticity and credibility. Review top 9 posts for tone and brand fit: The top 9 best-performing posts on any influencer’s account can be very telling in what kind of content they get the most success with and what their audience responds to. A brief analysis of these top posts can give you a crash course in the influencer’s typical tone, messaging, and values. Consider whether or not it is compatible with your brand. How LaRue Turns Audits Into Strong Partnerships LaRue has years of expertise in facilitating successful influencer marketing campaigns. We are dedicated to promoting strong partnerships that benefit both parties. LaRue utilizes advanced tools for detecting fake followers, preventing any missteps over inflation or false engagement.  Our team is skilled at managing influencer/brand relationships every step

Here Are the PR & Media Trends We Predict for 2026

As the communications landscape accelerates toward 2026, one truth is becoming impossible to ignore: PR is no longer what it used to be. Love it or hate it, the industry is evolving faster than any other era in modern communications, shaped by rapid advancements in AI, shifts in how audiences discover information, the collapse of traditional media gatekeeping and the rise of new types of influence. Brands today are navigating a world where search, storytelling, credibility, and reputation are being rewritten in real time. The PR function has always hinged on relationships and narratives, but 2026 introduces a new set of pressures: executives expect measurable ROI, audiences expect transparency, journalists expect precision and algorithms expect structure. Meanwhile, misinformation spreads faster, attention spans shrink, and brands have to show not only what they do, but what they stand for. The discipline of PR is widening, integrating, and becoming more central to how organizations grow, protect themselves, and show up in culture. At LaRue PR, we see 2026 not as a period of disruption, but as a period of expansion. The brands and agencies that succeed won’t simply adopt new tools: they’ll rethink the role of PR entirely, treating it as a strategic growth engine rather than a visibility function.  PR Trends for 2026 Below are the PR trends for 2026 that will shape the future of communications and how forward-thinking brands can prepare. 1. ROI & Impact Measurement Will Define PR’s Value One of the clearest findings from recent industry research is that measurement will make or break PR teams in 2026. Where PR has often been evaluated on “mentions,” “impressions,” or vanity metrics, the new standard is business impact: conversion, sales lift, pipeline growth and long-term revenue implications. Communications leaders are being asked to explain — in executive language — how PR contributes to the bottom line rather than just brand awareness or media buzz.  For brands and agencies alike, this means building correlation models, tracking referrals from earned coverage, and integrating PR performance data with sales and marketing metrics. At LaRue PR, that means designing campaigns with measurement built in from the start and reporting not just on coverage, but on tangible outcomes. 2. AI, GEO & Optimization for Generative Engines AI isn’t just a buzzword anymore. It is now deeply embedded in how PR is practiced. Experts predict that brands will need to optimize for how AI and large-language models (LLMs) surface information, not just how humans consume it. This shift has been dubbed “Generative Engine Optimization” (GEO).  What that means in practice: press releases, bylines, and earned content should be structured not only for human readability but for machine parsing, all with clear headlines, concise paragraphs, and authoritative citations.  Meanwhile, AI will evolve from a tool for drafting or media-monitoring into a strategic partner:  helping forecast reputation risks, analyze audience sentiment, and even suggest which narratives are likely to appear in AI-generated search responses.  For PR practitioners and brands, mastering GEO and adopting ethical, data-backed AI workflows will become a baseline skill. Agencies that ignore this shift risk becoming invisible in “zero-click” information ecosystems. 3. Authentic, Hyper-Personalized Storytelling & Audience Engagement As audiences become more savvy — and skeptical — generic PR campaigns are losing power. According to recent forecasts, 2026 will bring a renewed emphasis on hyper-personalization, authenticity, and relationship-building.  This means tailoring messages not just by channel, but by audience segment, too: crafting stories that reflect shared values, purpose and cultural context. Niche or micro-media (think newsletters, independent blogs, small but engaged podcasts) will continue to gain value because they offer authenticity and focus that large outlets often can’t match.  Brands should treat communications as community-building — not just broadcast. For agencies like LaRue PR, this means helping clients invest in storytelling that feels human, grounded, and aligned with their core identity. 4. Integration of PR + Marketing + Brand + Activations In 2026, the boundaries between PR, marketing, content and brand strategy will blur even more. As one firm puts it, the most successful communicators will function as “community architects,” building ecosystems of influence rather than one-off campaigns.  In practical terms, that means PR strategies integrated with content marketing, social media, influencer and brand partnerships, experiential activations (events, pop-ups), and long-term brand-building initiatives. The core shift: PR stops being an afterthought and becomes central to brand growth — tightly woven into every channel that touches audiences.  For agencies, it means offering broader services, building interdisciplinary teams, and designing campaigns that drive not just awareness — but engagement, loyalty, and revenue. 5. Rise of Real-World Experiences & Events Amid Digital Saturation As digital noise increases, AI-generated content skyrockets, social media algorithms shift and everyone competes for limited attention, physical presence becomes more valuable. Several forecasts expect a rebound in investment in in-person events, experiential activations, and real-world brand moments in 2026.  These aren’t just “party” events. They’re strategic touchpoints: press previews, immersive activations, community meet-ups, live storytelling, product launches, or cause-based gatherings. Events offer intimacy, sensory engagement, and the chance to have deeper conversations — qualities harder to replicate online. For PR agencies, these activations serve as both brand-building and performance tools; they create content, drive word-of-mouth, and generate media coverage in a way that aligns with deeper brand values. 6. Reputation Risk, Narrative Intelligence and Crisis Management in a Fragmented Landscape 2026 will likely bring new challenges, from increased misinformation and disinformation to increased scrutiny and audience polarization. Experts expect narrative intelligence, like real-time monitoring and analysis of how narratives evolve, to become a core function of PR teams.  As audiences become more scattered across platforms (social, niche media, newsletters, forums), and as AI-generated content becomes harder to distinguish from human-created narratives, brands will need to be even more vigilant. Crisis management will have to evolve accordingly: from reactive statements to preemptive monitoring, scenario planning, and swift response capabilities. Transparency, clarity, and ethical storytelling will define whether brands survive or thrive under scrutiny.  For PR agencies, this means investing in tools and teams

The Future of Influencer Marketing: Why Agencies Still Matter in 2026

Influencer marketing has exploded in popularity, but the landscape is changing fast. Between AI-generated content, micro- and nano-creators, and shifting algorithms, ideal brand strategy can change on a weekly—or even daily—basis. With so much up in the air, many brands question whether or not they still need a marketing agency. The answer is unequivocally yes.  There is more to navigate now than ever in the influencer and content creation space. The right agency can ensure you stay on top of trends and keep you from feeling overwhelmed or out of touch with current industry standards, and avoid costly mistakes. Partnering with the right influencer marketing agency, like LaRue, means the difference between a scattered, inconsistent digital footprint and strategic, ROI-driven campaigns for your brand.  The New Influencer Marketing Landscape Picking the right influencer for your brand doesn’t just mean looking for the highest follower count anymore. Micro- and nano-influencers are known for their niche content and close relationships with their audiences. These types of influencers offer more authenticity and more active engagement. This kind of influencer marketing can be harder to scale, as a greater number of partnerships must be considered to achieve comparable performance to one larger influencer.  With the rise of AI-generated content and virtual influencers, there are both new opportunities and new risks. This kind of content can seem easy to customize and scale at first glance, but raises more complex issues related to ethics, authenticity, and transparency. An agency partner can help you weigh the costs and benefits of these marketing strategies as they arise, and land on an approach that works best for your brand.  Change is also constantly occurring at the platform level. Shifts in the popularity, perception, and policies of various social media channels can significantly impact how you should structure your influencer marketing campaigns. TikTok bans, Instagram algorithm changes, and the growth of YouTube Shorts is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to platform changes. Why Agencies Still Matter in 2026 Agencies provide structure, strategy, and oversight in a chaotic space. If you spent all of your time monitoring trends, brushing up on best practices, and staying informed about compliance regulations, you would hardly have any time to run your brand—let alone maintain an effective brand strategy. An agency can provide invaluable logistical support, leaving you with the creative freedom you need to make the right kind of difference.  Strategic Campaign Design Influencer marketing agencies can help you with every aspect of campaign design, from selecting the right influencer to coming up with an effective content strategy. Each step of the way, your agency partner will keep your brand goals in mind and ensure your influencer campaign aligns with your values and reflects well on your brand. An agency can also help balance micro-, macro-, and AI-driven partnerships, so you don’t get lost in the weeds. They can also provide support in crafting overarching narratives baked into your brand strategy that resonate with your audience, not just one-off posts. Compliance & Risk Management The right influencer marketing agency will make the process of adhering to compliance simple. Navigating FTC guidelines and disclosure rules can be a headache when you’re managing everything on your own, especially when changes are rolled out. An agency can take on the responsibility of managing all these nitty-gritty details so you don’t have to. Agencies can protect your brand reputation by sidestepping influencer missteps, and vet creators for authenticity and brand safety.  Measurement & ROI With analytical expertise and top industry tools, agencies can help you access the metrics you need to see how campaigns are benefitting your brand—and what leaves room for improvement. An agency can use in-depth, advanced analytics to go beyond vanity metrics. This can measure true business impact, gauge audience perception, and prove ROI. The focus should be on iterating campaigns based on data, not guesswork. You’ll have all the insight you need to make informed decisions about future campaigns. The Value an Influencer Marketing Agency Brings The right influencer marketing agency brings a lot to the table. They make dealing with all of the complexities of an ever-shifting influencer landscape less stressful for your brand, and help you get the results you want. When you partner with LaRue, you’ll see a variety of benefits, including: Access & Relationships Agencies open doors to top-tier creators and publishers. Influencer marketing agencies have valuable existing relationships with influencers and creators. This makes getting an introduction, and eventually a partnership, that much easier for your brand. You’re more likely to make a connection than you would by cold-calling influencer agents or messaging creators on social media. These relationships mean that agencies can often negotiate better rates and deliverables.  Time & Resource Savings Adding an agency to your team means you’ll experience significant savings in both time and resources. Agencies can help you manage contracts, briefs, timelines, and reporting. They can provide the tools and expertise to streamline campaign oversight. By taking the complicated logistics off your plate, agencies allow internal teams to focus on big-picture brand strategy. This leaves more room for creativity and can lead to a more productive workflow. Creative & Cultural Expertise Agency partners ensure content feels authentic, not transactional. If you’re hitting snags while trying to maintain compliance and stick to the guidelines laid out in a contract, your agency can offer creative suggestions based on past successes. Agencies stay on top of cultural trends and industry shifts, helping your brand stay on top of cultural relevance and audience connection. Case in Point: Agencies as Growth Partners Agencies are geared toward growth. The right agency partner will future-proof influencer strategies to ensure they continue to perform well amid constant change. By integrating SEO components and evergreen content into campaigns, your brand strategy gains longevity and avoids irrelevance. Working with an agency on a long-term basis offers the benefits and value of a lasting partnership, versus transactional one-off campaigns with different agencies or marketing groups here or there over the

How to Measure Brand Awareness Without Losing Your Soul

Brand awareness isn’t just about whether people know your name—it’s about whether they care about your brand. A brand can become a household name overnight for all the wrong reasons, and then be forgotten by the next news cycle or worse, stuck with a bad reputation. The goal of your brand strategy shouldn’t be to just go viral. Instead, the focus should be on making the right kind of impression, and building a meaningful connection with your target audience.  Metrics are critical to track this progress, but they don’t tell the full story. A comprehensive brand strategy relies on more than just data points. Brands that chase empty numbers risk irrelevance, while those that balance data with cultural resonance build staying power. At the end of the day, you can’t track brand awareness without considering brand perception—and there should be more to both than plugging numbers into spreadsheets. Why Measuring Brand Awareness Is Harder Than It Looks There’s a major difference between recognition and resonance. Brand recognition means that an individual knows your brand’s name or associates your logo with your brand. This is typically a very surface-level interaction. Brand resonance refers to a deeper relationship between consumer and brand. Over time, the brand comes to resonate with the consumer in some meaningful way. For example, the consumer might identify with the brand’s core values of sustainability and empowerment, use their products on a daily basis, or feel like they’re a member of a shared community of like-minded consumers.  Traditional methods of measuring brand awareness and recognition rely on vanity metrics such as impressions, mentions, and follower counts. Vanity metrics are all about quantity over quality. While they might tell you how many times a social media post or ad has been seen, they don’t tell you anything about how that piece of content was perceived or the kind of impression it made. Chasing empty buzz can create a lot of noise, but it doesn’t automatically translate into results. A brand strategy based on shallow metrics is unlikely to promote brand resonance, customer loyalty, and meaningful engagement. The Metrics Side: How to Measure Brand Awareness with Data When used thoughtfully, metrics do bring something to the table. A well-rounded brand strategy is built on the understanding that metrics are only one part of the story. Pairing metrics with additional methods of analysis and more holistic tools makes all the difference. These are the most popular metrics used to track brand awareness: Social Media Metrics Impressions capture how many times a piece of content pops up on a screen, while reach measures how many unique users see that piece of content. It’s important to use these metrics together. An ad could show up seven times for the same user. This would count as seven impressions, but one reach. Looking at impressions alone can overestimate how many people are actually seeing your content. Share of voice is another key metric that focuses on how your brand awareness on a particular platform compares to your competitors. Measuring share of voice allows you to determine how your brand strategy is working across different media channels, and where there could be room for improvement.  Analyzing engagement is another essential aspect of tracking the impact of your social media. Monitoring comments, likes, and shares can provide insight into how people feel about your posts and your brand. Keep an eye on growth in your follower count and engagement rate over time. Trends up or down in both can be compared to different social media campaigns and strategies to see what kind of content is received positively by your target audience.  Website & Search Data Metrics aren’t just for seeing how many views you’re getting on Instagram or Tiktok. It’s also crucial to get an idea of who’s visiting your website and how they are interacting with it. Branded search volume lets you know how often users are searching for your brand specifically online. Trends in this metric can help you visualize shifting interest in your brand and specific attributes, such as new products or key services. Tracking brand search volume over time can indicate how certain marketing campaigns or media strategies are impacting brand awareness and audience growth.   It can also be beneficial to monitor where website traffic is coming from. Direct traffic is a metric that measures how many website visitors reach your site by typing in the address and seeking it out directly. Referral traffic, on the other hand, captures all of the visitors who reach your site by clicking a link from another source. Common sources include social media posts, partner websites, product roundups, and blogs.  Media Coverage & Mentions Tracking media coverage involves measuring every instance in which your brand’s name or products appear in relevant outlets. This generally includes social media, blogs, websites, video clips, newspapers, and magazines. When analyzing mentions, it’s essential to consider both volume and sentiment. Volume is the number of mentions you get, while sentiment goes deeper—looking at the tone and perception of those mentions. The goal of sentiment analysis is to determine whether your brand is mentioned in a positive, negative, or neutral light. This provides insight into how consumers may feel towards your brand and products or services when they encounter the mention. Surveys & Recall Studies Surveys can be a useful tool when measuring brand awareness in your target demographic, or in other consumer groups that your brand hopes to reach. Brand recall surveys are a time-tested strategy for determining brand awareness. These surveys ask participants to name the top brands that come to mind in a specific industry or product space, or to recall which brand was linked to a certain type of marketing campaign. These kinds of questions let you know how recognizable your brand is in your industry, and how memorable your marketing efforts are.  A net promoter score or NPS is a measure of how likely a customer is to recommend your brand, products, or company to others. Higher

From Black Friday to New Year’s: Affiliate Marketing Benefits That Last Beyond the Holidays

The frenzy of holiday shopping holds a lot of potential for the average brand’s bottom line. To capitalize on this time of year, many brands laser in on promoting short-term sales. The smartest brands, however, view holiday affiliate campaigns as a long-tail growth engine. Investing in seasonal affiliate marketing with a consideration towards the future can provide more than just a month-long boost in sales. The true affiliate marketing benefits extend far beyond Q4, making January and February stronger, more resilient months.  The Immediate Payoff: Q4 Affiliate Sales Affiliate programs may have long-term benefits, but they do also offer serious rewards in the short-term. Affiliate marketing drives measurable revenue during the peak holiday shopping season. You can expect to see increased sales from specific sales pushes like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and holiday gift guides or product roundups. There is typically a major surge in new customer acquisition during Q4 as new customers find your brand and purchase your products. Publisher motivation through higher commissions and bonus structures encourages increased performance and measurable progress towards sales goals. The Overlooked Affiliate Marketing Benefits Beyond the Holidays Holiday content doesn’t disappear on December 26th—it remains discoverable and continues to work for brands. The benefits of your affiliate marketing efforts can extend far beyond the holidays. With a little extra planning, you can ensure your seasonal content has even more staying power.  Evergreen Content Keeps Driving Traffic Gift guides, “best of” lists, and influencer reviews are indexed in search and continue to appear for users in the weeks and months after the holidays. Busy parents, online shoppers, and procrastinators will continue to find these roundups in January and beyond.  Long-tail keyword relevance keeps your rankings alive. For example, searches like “best gift ideas” and “top lifestyle products” are year-round staples that will pull up holiday gift guides. Your product might be served to a user looking for a Valentine’s Day gift in February, a Mother’s Day gift in May, or a birthday gift in July.  Affiliate Links Build Year-Round Visibility Just as content doesn’t self-destruct immediately when the holidays end, affiliate links don’t vanish overnight. Product links remain active on blogs and product roundups, allowing for year-round engagement. Affiliate partnerships also increase domain authority and visibility in search. Partnering with credible affiliates means an increase in high-quality backlinks, which helps solidify the trustworthiness and ranking of your own site. Customer Loyalty Extends Into Q1 Holiday shoppers often become repeat buyers in January. If a customer takes a chance on your brand during the holiday season and likes what they find, they’re more likely to come back in the new year and become a regular customer. Affiliate marketing can promote customer retention and loyalty. Brands can refine their marketing efforts and target post-holiday customers for higher lifetime value. Turning Seasonal Spikes Into Long-Term Growth LaRue helps clients strategically leverage holiday affiliate marketing benefits to get lasting results. With the right brand strategy, seasonal spikes in consumer activity can be transformed into long-term growth. An agency like LaRue provides the resources and logistical support to achieve this goal. Strategic Publisher Partnerships LaRue has existing relationships with top-tier publishers, and can facilitate connections between brands and their target outlets. With strategic partnerships, coverage can go beyond just seasonal content. LaRue can help brands land coveted spots in gift guides and product roundups, and feature in evergreen content pieces.  Data-Driven Insights With expertise in data analysis and cutting-edge analytical tools, LaRue helps brands use Q4 analytics to refine Q1 campaigns. This approach identifies which kinds of content successfully drove conversions, and which strategies need to be adjusted in the future. These kinds of data-driven insights allow brands to double down on high-performing tactics and create a sharper, more refined brand strategy going forward. Brand Awareness Beyond Discounts An experienced agency can ensure your brand is known for more than just your latest holiday promotion. LaRue works with you to identify your brand voice and identity, elevating your storytelling so you aren’t just tied to sales events. Together, you will develop a cohesive brand identity across marketing efforts, promoting meaningful brand awareness. These efforts will help your brand maintain visibility in evergreen, lifestyle, and trend-driven editorial content, and ensure that any features highlight your values and messaging. Why Affiliate Marketing Benefits Compound Over Time Affiliate marketing is more than just a quick revenue tool to break out during the holiday season and then shelve until next year. Affiliate links continue to drive traffic long after campaigns end. Brand mentions and backlinks build credibility with both consumers and search engines, improving ranking and expanding your customer base. Long-term partnerships create compounding visibility, revenue, and trust. Affiliate marketing is an investment that pays off on both a short- and long-term basis, making it a valuable addition to any brand strategy.  Affiliate marketing benefits are not confined to the holidays. While a December gift guide might start off as a holiday shopper’s inspiration, the piece can pop up again months later for a shopper searching for a gift for their best friend, grandparent, or child’s teacher. Product features can benefit your brand months after their initial publication.  With the right marketing agency on your team, your brand can turn an affiliate campaign’s seasonal peaks into sustained momentum. Partner with LaRue to go beyond temporary sales spikes and build lasting year-round growth.

Substack Marketing Is More Than Newsletters—It’s the Key to Reaching Today’s Most Engaged Readers

In 2025, audience trust is shifting from institutions to individuals. With more information — and misinformation — available online than ever, audiences are looking for sources they can believe in and depend on. More often than not, these sources are individuals producing relatable, authentic content rather than big media outlets or organizations.  Given these trends in audience interest, marketing goals and strategies are shifting. Reaching your target audience might mean relying on newer, more intimate platforms. While traditional media outlets, both online and print, have been the gold standard for decades, a new channel is emerging: Substack newsletters. Renowned journalists, influencers, change-makers and entrepreneurs are turning to Substack to not only create their own platform (and e-mail list) but as a way to better reach their communities and share stories. With freelance assignments, editorial staffs and issues shrinking, Substack offers a new frontier in and major upgrade in blogging. In some ways, Substack marketing can be more valuable than traditional press coverage for niche brands. LaRue PR maintains a relevance-first philosophy that combines proven marketing strategies with the latest digital developments to help brands solidify their place in an ever-evolving media landscape. What Is Substack Marketing? Substack launched in 2017, and started gaining popularity in 2020. At its core, Substack is a newsletter platform that allows creators to build loyal subscriber bases. The focus is on direct communication between the Substack author (the creator) and their readers (the subscribers). Optional discussion features allow audience members to interact with one another and creators, contributing to the potential to foster connection and community with this platform.  Substack marketing entails pitching to creators, leveraging paid/earned collaborations, and getting brand mentions in newsletters. Substack is known for cultivating close relationships between authors and audiences. The middle man — the editor — is removed from the equation in Substack, giving journalists the opportunity to tell their story, exactly as like. For brands, this means there’s significant value in Substack creators linking to or mentioning a specific product: they’re perceived as a trusted authority by subscribers, and their endorsement matters.  This demonstrates a clear strategy shift for marketing in general: from press release blasts to relationship-driven, creator-first outreach. Consumers would rather hear about a new product release or up-and-coming brand from a content creator they’ve been following and have learned to trust, rather than reading a blip about it from a top media outlet. Individual brands can also leverage this strategy to create their own Substacks to strengthen the consumer/brand relationship, positioning themselves as creators.  Why Substack Audiences Are So Valuable Understanding the depth, niche appeal, and engagement rates Substack readers are intentional — they opt in to receive content and often pay to support writers. Whether they sign up for free or paid subscriptions, readers choose to engage with specific creators and tend to stick with them over time. Engagement metrics are strong with this model: high open rates, time spent reading, and conversion potential. In fact, average Substack open rates exceed 50%, compared to ~20% for traditional email marketing.  Cult Followings and Targeted Reach Substack is known as a space for creators to delve into niche topics that audiences will flock to. There are many Substacks with a niche but powerful influence: Hunter Harris’ Hung Up, a pop culture focused Substack that boasts over 178,000 subscribers; Dr. Cara Goodwin’s Parenting Translator that translates child development research into key information for parents with more than 20,000 subscribers; or The Quiet Life with Susan Cain that offers curated “quiet” lifestyle content to over 280,000 readers.  This type of marketing helps you reach exactly the right person — not everyone, but your people. Substack’s platform is uniquely positioned to help creators and brands reach their target audiences. The more specialized your topic, the more success you can expect. This is in stark contrast to more established strategies that tended to prioritize generalized messaging to speak to as many readers as possible. Here, it’s about speaking to the right readers, and delivering ultra-specific, meaningful messages.  Substack vs Traditional PR Placements What does “ROI” actually look like in today’s media landscape? A brand mention in a Substack will undoubtedly look different than one in a customary glossy of the past. While audience size may be smaller depending on the specific Substack, engagement and trust is likely much higher. Audiences trust creators more than media institutions—and are more likely to take action on a recommendation from a newsletter they chose to receive.  Which of these sounds more effective: Seeing an ad for a product pop up during a muted TV commercial break, or reading about a trusted author trying out an exciting new product in their weekly newsletter? Given the media-consumption patterns of today’s audiences, the latter is more organic and much more likely to result in a positive impression of the product in question. Consumers would rather hear about a personal connection to a brand or product from an individual they have a vested interest in than see a static advertisement from a source they don’t have a relationship with.  Direct Traffic, Conversions, and Long-Term Brand Affinity Brands are seeing more traffic and conversion lift from niche newsletters than from standard online articles. Newsletter audiences are more likely to remember and act on a personal story or product recommendation woven into content. If they hear about a facial cleanser as part of a Substack describing the author’s updated summer skincare routine, odds are it’s going to be more effective than a standard press release touting the benefits of the cleanser. It all boils down to consumer trust: right now, that trust is more likely to be placed in a creator than a company. How LaRue PR Uses Substack Marketing Strategically LaRue’s Relevance-First Approach Instead of chasing headlines, LaRue focuses on impactful moments of visibility. We understand that for audiences, a mention in a bi-weekly newsletter can be more impressionable than a feature in a standard news article. To promote brand/consumer synergy, LaRue puts in the effort to identify

Affiliate Program Audit 101: How to Set Your Brand Up for Scalable Press and Profit

In today’s PR and influencer ecosystem, even the most glowing brand mention won’t move the needle if affiliate links aren’t in place. We’ll walk you through the essentials of an effective affiliate program audit — and show how LaRue PR helps clients ensure their foundation is both press-ready and profit-optimized. An affiliate program is not a “set-it and forget-it” marketing strategy — at least, it shouldn’t be. The affiliate landscape and the digital space it occupies is dynamic and ever-changing. An effective affiliate program must readily adapt and evolve to keep up with this fluidity. That’s why scheduling regular reviews and updates of your affiliate practices and procedures is essential.  To get the most out of your affiliate strategy, we conduct an affiliate program audit: a comprehensive evaluation of your brand’s affiliate infrastructure. It’s not enough to just have a few affiliate links on standby. Flexibility should be part of your strategy, allowing you to make adjustments in response to changes in factors like trending platforms, commission rates, and product availability. While we all wish it wasn’t true, the reality is most media outlets and influencers won’t feature a brand without affiliate links in place. With advertising revenue continuing to dwindle, both traditional media outlets and content creators see affiliate marketing as a powerful currency. Revenue from affiliate links is crucial for digital publishers. Publishers want to feature brands and services that their audiences will respond to — and that have earning potential. In today’s digital age, being set up for affiliate marketing is the bare minimum. Staying on top of regular affiliate management is the key to standing out. The Core Components of an Effective Affiliate Program Audit Before you pitch your brand to any affiliate, you should take stock of these aspects of your affiliate program. Of course, LaRue is here to help and guide you through not only the best practices, but the most effective ones. Partner Platform Presence Step one of your affiliate program audit: take a look at the network, partners and sub-affiliates you’re working with. Are you partnering with brand-aligned affiliates and networks that support your goals? For example, is your current affiliate network (i.e. Impact, AWIN, CJ) granting you the ability to strategically and dynamically commission with your top partners (i.e. Rakuten, LTK, Skimlinks)? Are your attribution questions being answered from your current reports? Aside from signing up with the biggest platform and highly-trafficked affiliate partners, we recommend casting a wide net of niche partnerships specific to your vertical to build trust and brand affinity. Your affiliate strategy should not be siloed from your PR efforts – it is essential to ensure top media publications and creators are supported as an affiliate and their specific link and asset needs are met.  (Not sure how to do this? We’re pros—and will take care of it for you.) Commission Structure Don’t forget to l review your commission structure. Consider whether or not your rates are competitive in your category. You want your rates to fall within what’s appropriate for maintaining your company’s margins, are attractive to potential affiliates, and compete with similar brands to further incentivize potential partners to join and promote your brand. If you’re unsure about your offer, look into benchmarking it against similar brands. This will give you an idea of where you stand in the competitive landscape, and help guide any restructuring decisions.  There are a variety of commission types to consider as well. If you’re not getting the desired results within your existing strategy, it’s time to re-evaluate the commission structure and make strategic changes  to your existing strategy. Pay-per-click, pay-per-lead, tiered commissions, new versus returning dynamic commissioning, SKU commissioning, and flat rate deals are all examples of popular affiliate commission types. The right commission structure for your brand will depend on a variety of factors, including the price of the product(s) or services you offer, current market conditions, seasonality, trends in customer loyalty. SKU Coverage and Product Feed Health Next up in your affiliate program audit: make sure your product availability is up-to-date. Are your bestsellers listed and linkable? These are the products with the highest earning potential for you and possible affiliate partners. Additionally, verify whether or not your product catalog is up to date across platforms. This will ensure broken links or out-of-stock products aren’t impeding performance.  There’s nothing worse for a potential customer than clicking a link only to get an error code or discover a product is no longer available — that’s hard to come back from. It’s essential to ensure everything is properly set up within the program to facilitate a smooth, simple shopping experience from first click to final purchase.  Attribution and Tracking Reliability No affiliate program audit is complete without being able to accurately assess performance. Look into whether clicks are being tracked accurately, and check for the possibility of tech glitches or delayed updates that could cause you to miss out on sales. Narrow down a few key performance indicators (KPIs) to focus on for the time being, and see how they trend over a set period of time. Link these KPIs to specific goals for your affiliate marketing efforts, and adjust your strategy accordingly. We recommend evaluating affiliate performance against a key set of industry and vertical benchmarks to ensure the program is healthy and providing value to the overall business and marketing mix. (We’ve been in the weeds of many programs over the years—we’ll help you identify strategic adjustments that will support you and your brand in the long run.) How Affiliate Readiness Supports Scalable Press and Visibility When you’re affiliate-ready (and have a strong backend setup to show for it), you’ll have much greater headline potential and more success landing affiliate partnerships. Journalists, editors, affiliate managers, and influencers are under pressure to generate revenue. If a brand isn’t obviously affiliate-ready, it will likely be passed over in favor of other, better options.  Many top-tier media outlets (think The Strategist, People, Forbes, BuzzFeed) require affiliate links for product

Why Storytelling PR Is the Most Underrated Growth Strategy in 2026

There is more media available now than ever, and it is easy to get lost in a sea of information (and misinformation). To cut through the noise, the answer is not to lean into corporate jargon—rather, it is to tell customers a story. Audiences crave authentic, emotionally compelling narratives, not traditional, buttoned-up messaging. Storytelling PR is gaining traction for its ability to connect with consumers and enhance both brand awareness and credibility. LaRue PR approaches storytelling as a growth strategy, and so should your brand.  What Is Brand Storytelling in PR? Storytelling PR refers to the practice of merging PR strategy with a narrative approach. It blends strategic messaging with emotional connection. The goal of storytelling PR is to identify your brand’s voice, clarify your core values, and then turn these foundational ingredients into a cohesive, impactful narrative that acts as the driving force behind future PR campaigns.  Traditional PR often focused solely on forming connections and delivering information through media relations. In this case, a PR team would focus on finding the right journalists, bloggers, and media outlets to feature your brand—and let those outside parties control the narrative. Storytelling PR is all about taking back this control and reframing it in a more individualized, meaningful way. Instead of letting a third-party decide how to report a product launch or brand expansion, storytelling PR ensures that the story originates from the source: you and your brand.  Effective storytelling PR relies on several key components, including:  Narrative Arc: Any compelling story has a beginning, middle, and end, and the narratives that are the backbone of storytelling PR are no exception. The narrative should take your audience on a journey—think defining a problem, highlighting the lack of adequate solutions on the market, and presenting your product as a unique answer to the issue at hand.  Relatability: Whether your product or services have a broad audience or fit a specific niche, the narrative you develop should be relatable. This means understanding your target demographic, the issues they face, and the values that matter most to them. The goal of your story should be to spark or strengthen a connection between your brand and your audience, not to alienate them. There’s a fine-line between story and sales pitch, and it’s essential to land on the side of story.  Values: Nothing puts a damper on the impact of a PR campaign like inauthenticity. The narrative you choose should emerge from and showcase your brand’s core values. When these values are baked into the narrative, it’s far more likely they will be picked up on by both potential and existing customers who share central concerns with your brand. These values can be the basis of an impactful storytelling experience, fostering lasting connection.  Voice: One of the most important aspects of storytelling PR is that it draws from your unique, established brand voice. Any media or content that comes out of this storytelling campaign should be recognizable as originating from your brand and your brand alone. The style, tone, content, and perspective of the narrative should all align with your brand identity and values to ensure that your audience will recognize it as your brand’s distinct voice. Why Storytelling PR Works in 2026 In today’s digital age, consumers and journalists alike are fatigued by corporate speak and generic hype. Authenticity now outperforms polish in both media and social. The average individual isn’t looking for a new product report that provides a technically-perfect account of its specifications, or a concise press release on a merger that can be easily skimmed. Instead, they’re looking for content that will make a lasting impression. A funny, relatable, or touching piece of content will outperform any traditional PR strategy in 2026. Just as customers are now showing their favor for narrative-based communication, Google’s algorithm now favors human-first, experience-driven content—PR included.  From Pitch to Placement: How Storytelling PR Drives Media Coverage Narrative-led angles grab media attention and get picked up over formulaic alternatives. Consider, which of these is a more compelling investment for a journalist: a story-led piece about a woman who started out creating vegan, cruelty-free makeup in her basement and turned it into a successful brand that’s going to line store shelves soon, or a press release about a new line of organic lipsticks that will be released in a month?  The first piece is more likely to grab audience attention, providing an intriguing origin story and a peek behind the brand. The second option could easily get lost in the near-constant buzz of new brand and product launches. At the end of the day, it’s simple: personal, mission-based stories outperform product pushes. With storytelling PR, there is ample opportunity for media coverage to pick up speed and snowball. More generic pieces will likely burn themselves out instead. Storytelling PR Builds Brand Affinity and Customer Trust With traditional approaches to PR, there’s little opportunity to truly get to know a brand and its inner workings. Rather than turning them away at the door, storytelling PR invites customers to take a closer look into a brand—from how it started to its future goals. Founder stories, customer journeys, and behind-the-scenes content are all excellent additions to a storytelling PR strategy. These kinds of narratives offer the chance to build memorable connections between brands and customers.  Consumers are more likely to share and engage with story-driven content, especially when it aligns with their own values, interests, and life goals. A good story has the potential to make a lasting, positive impression that will be linked to a customer’s perception of that brand for years to come. As a result, storytelling fosters connection and trust. Earnest, authentic narratives lay the groundwork for emotional brand loyalty.  The Overlooked SEO Power of Storytelling PR There is much more SEO potential when taking a storytelling approach to PR than the traditional, concise approach of the past. Media placements with rich, keyword-aligned narratives drive backlinks. Authentic content increases time on page and shareability. Consumers are going to

Why PR Value Can’t Be Measured in Impressions Alone

Impressions and AVE (Advertising Value Equivalency) were once considered the gold standard in tracking the impact of PR efforts. These outdated metrics allege that the size or range of the media coverage a PR campaign achieves is directly linked to its value. Contrary to what these metrics claim, the number of individuals who view a piece of content, or the space that said content takes up, are not wholly representative of its value.  These metrics fail to take into account all of the underlying PR and marketing strategy that go into creating each and every campaign—not to mention their place in a carefully planned out brand strategy. After all, PR is about a lot more than just content creation. Metrics like impressions and AVE only measure small pieces that are part of a much bigger picture. As a result, they’re incapable of capturing everything that matters about PR value in 2025. LaRue PR helps clients redefine and track success in ways that are more strategic, measurable, and aligned with individualized business goals.  What Is PR Value—Really? Traditionally, PR value was calculated by determining how much monetary value could be attributed to the media coverage generated by a PR campaign. In 2025, PR value means something different. Now, it is a reflection of influence, visibility, credibility, and conversions—not vanity numbers. When determining PR value, there’s a big difference between volume-based metrics and impact-based metrics. Volume-based metrics, like impressions and AVE, encompass factors that can be quantitatively measured. For example, say your PR team puts out a press release detailing a new product in development at your company. A volume-based assessment of its value could include the number of clicks the press release gets, how many mentions there are of your new product in the media landscape, and how many news outlets or social media accounts pick up the story.  Impact-based metrics take another, more holistic, approach to determining value. Volume-based assessments are all about tracking the immediate, clearcut reach of a PR campaign. Impact-based metrics dive deeper, aiming to provide a look at what your PR strategy means to your audience and the lasting impression it leaves. As a result, impact-based metrics can offer insight into the potential long-term effects of PR.  To continue the above example, an impact-based approach to assessing the value of a press release about a new product might track how many times the piece is shared, which demographics are engaging with the content, the tone of the media coverage your brand is getting, and a consideration of how well related media aligns with your brand’s core values. Impact-based metrics monitor brand awareness, ensuring that it is in line with your brand identity and established messaging guidelines. Quality is far more important than quantity in today’s media environment. Broad, surface-level reach is no longer the goal. Instead, brands want to resonate deeply with their target audience, making a meaningful impact that won’t be forgotten by the next news cycle.  The Problem with Impressions and AVE Impressions only account for how many times any given piece of content pops up on a feed or is shown to an individual. They don’t track how long the content is viewed, how it is engaged with, or the impact that it makes on the viewer. Impressions are inflated and misleading in a multi-channel landscape. A piece can be viewed for as little as one second to be counted as an impression, and if the same piece shows up multiple times for one user, it’s logged as multiple impressions.  This means that if someone sees a brand post three times and scrolls past it immediately three times, the total count is three impressions. Conversely, if someone spends time reading a post, comments on it, shares it with their friends, and follows up by visiting the brand’s website, the total count is only one impression. The second example is indicative of more meaningful engagement, but counts less than the first. Impressions are unable to capture these nuances in user interaction, and fail to effectively qualify the relationship between a brand and its audience.  AVE pins the value of PR on its equivalent financial cost in units of comparable ad space. This is a false equivalence—there are significant differences between modern PR and the ads of the past that inspired AVE in the first place. PR is about a lot more than media mentions and product spotlights.  While these features are important, they need to be analyzed with more than mere tally marks. AVE doesn’t even begin to measure the deeper impact of media coverage, such as how it impacts brand awareness, perception, and understanding. AVE devalues the real power of earned media, failing to track long-term impacts on brand credibility, customer loyalty, and audience reach.  Smarter Ways to Measure PR Value in 2025 There are better, smarter ways to measure PR value in 2025 than sinking time and effort into flawed tools like impressions and AVE. Impact-based metrics that are growing in popularity include: How PR Supports Full-Funnel Marketing Goals PR is not just about buzz-building—with the right team on your side, it’s a business growth function. There’s a clear pathway from brand awareness→ consideration → conversion. This is known as the marketing funnel of the current digital age. Potential clients have to hear about your brand before they can begin to consider the products or services you offer. If you have a comprehensive PR strategy that includes clear messaging in line with your mission statement and core values, any media coverage you get will positively impact both the awareness and consideration stage.  It’s the best way possible to ensure your target audience hears a story that resonates with them, sparking their interest in your brand. Once they feel a connection to your brand, they’ll be much more likely to take the next step when they hear about your brand again in the future—whether that means subscribing to your website, making a purchase, or checking out your services. Done correctly, PR drives