Short reads for short attention spans

The Battle for AI Brand Sentiment Becomes More Complicated

As brands invest in understanding how they appear within AI-generated answers, new research reveals that measuring AI brand sentiment may be considerably more complicated than traditional reputation monitoring.

A study by Celeste Gonzalez of Lastmile Retail and AI visibility platform SE Ranking analysed 900 ChatGPT responses across 180 prompts, testing how positive, neutral and negative questions influenced the way brands were described.

The findings were striking. Negatively worded questions reduced average brand sentiment by 56 points compared with neutral prompts, while positive wording increased sentiment by just 26 points. Even more concerning for marketers, only 44% of prompts produced the same sentiment classification across all five repeated tests.

Questions relating to trust, privacy, reliability and refunds proved particularly resistant to positive framing, suggesting that some reputational concerns cannot simply be overcome through favourable prompting.

The research highlights a growing challenge for marketers: a brand might appear positively in one AI conversation but receive a considerably less favourable assessment when a consumer asks a sceptical question.

Why it matters

AI visibility alone is no longer sufficient. Brands need to understand not just whether they are mentioned by AI assistants, but how they are represented across different consumer questions, comparisons and concerns. This creates a stronger case for measuring AI brand sentiment alongside traditional search visibility, reputation management and share of voice.

Further reading at Search Engine Land:

Negative prompts have 2x impact on ChatGPT brand sentiment

Google Prepares to Bring AI Mode Advertising to the UK

Google has confirmed plans to introduce advertising within AI Mode to the UK during the final quarter of 2026, marking another significant step towards commercialising conversational search.

Following expansion into ten additional international markets, Google is preparing to bring sponsored placements into its AI-powered search experience in the UK, Brazil and Mexico.

Unlike conventional search, where advertisers typically target individual queries, AI Mode allows consumers to conduct more detailed, conversational research. According to Google, AI Mode queries are, on average, three times longer than traditional searches, providing richer context around consumers' intentions, preferences and requirements.

Google is also introducing multiturn advertising in the US, allowing sponsored placements to appear during follow-up questions within an ongoing conversation.

For example, someone researching a new laptop might initially ask for recommendations before narrowing their requirements around performance, battery life and price. Advertising could become relevant at different stages of that conversation rather than relying on a single keyword search.

Google reports that sponsored and organic product listings within AI Mode are already generating similar click-through rates, although it has not published detailed performance benchmarks.

Why it matters

AI Mode advertising could fundamentally change how paid search campaigns reach consumers. Rather than focusing primarily on keywords, advertisers may increasingly need to optimise around conversational intent, product information and the evolving context of customer research. For UK advertisers, the immediate priority will be understanding how this new inventory is delivered, measured and incorporated into existing Google Ads strategies.

Further reading at Google:

Ads in AI Mode expand to new markets

Christmas Advertising: The Battle Between Brand Building and Retail Conversion

The UK's biggest retailers are launching their Christmas campaigns, providing a timely reminder that even in an increasingly automated advertising landscape, emotional brand building remains a powerful commercial tool.

John Lewis has unveiled its twentieth Christmas campaign, Gloria and Pickles, featuring Dame Kristin Scott Thomas and music from Sam Fender. The campaign continues the retailer's tradition of emotionally driven storytelling, encouraging consumers to rediscover the joy of thoughtful gifting.

Early creative effectiveness testing from System1 awarded the campaign 5.6 Stars, its strongest Christmas result since 2019. Some 61% of viewers reported feeling happy after watching the advert, demonstrating the emotional impact that distinctive brand storytelling can generate.

However, the campaign also highlights an increasingly important challenge: translating brand attention into commercial outcomes.

Writing in The Drum, retail media specialist Kristina Kaganer argues that John Lewis risks losing potential sales to competitors when consumers discover products through its advertising but subsequently purchase elsewhere. The retailer has integrated shoppable product listings and in-store activations, but opportunities remain to connect these experiences with loyalty, first-party data and subsequent purchases.

Meanwhile, Boots has launched its own integrated Christmas campaign, combining emotional and product-led advertising with a highly sophisticated media strategy. Its plans include a Netflix takeover, TikTok search activity, Snapchat Promoted Places, Reddit gift guides and real-time footfall intelligence designed to connect advertising investment with store visits.

Boots is targeting more than 300 million audiovisual views and 72.7 million out-of-home impacts, demonstrating the scale and sophistication of modern Christmas retail advertising.

Why it matters

The most effective Christmas campaigns need to do more than generate attention or immediate sales. They must connect emotional brand building with measurable commercial activity across search, social, retail media, physical stores and loyalty programmes. The opportunity for marketers is to use brand advertising to create demand, then ensure their media and customer experience strategies capture that demand before competitors do.

Further reading at The Drum:

What John Lewis’s 2026 Christmas ad reveals about retail media