Muck Rack's May 2026 study found earned media accounted for 84% of citations in ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini answers, with paid content at 0.3%, and other trackers point the same way with different definitions. For agencies, press coverage now works as an input to AI answers, with recency, outlet choice and query type shaping what gets cited.
YouTube's Made on YouTube event, Instagram's new AI-profile rule, Threads' community and podcast tools and TikTok's US joint venture all affect how brand content is made and found this fall. Here is what changed and how agencies should adjust client plans.
News job cuts are up 12% year-to-date, while Muck Rack and Cision surveys show journalists drowning in off-target pitches yet still relying on PR for story ideas. Here is what reporters say they want and how agencies should adjust.
DTC brands are wrestling with a defining creative budget question this fall: invest in polished brand films or spread dollars across high-volume user-generated content? Data from Meta, Kantar, Northbeam, and platform operators points toward a category-specific answer — and suggests the brands winning are treating both formats as complementary, not competing.
Amazon's demand-side platform is pulling DTC ad budgets away from Meta and Google by offering purchase-intent data no other platform can match — but its real value depends heavily on whether a brand already sells on Amazon.
