Sustained momentum of campaigns is more prevalent now than ever, with the release of GTA VI and Battlefield 6, amongst other fan favourites, capitalising on the cultural impact the pre-release campaigns have.

Content Eco-systems

Content ecosystems adopt the approach of staggering content related to the games, so that the conversation stays alive. In contrast to historic campaigns, where print media and digital would run set ad campaigns to promote the upcoming releases of games.

This method garners public discussion, improves search visibility, drives pre-release sales and increases the social impact of a game, before it’s even rolled out to the public. The approach to drip-feeding teaser trailers and stills of in-game shots further fuels the hype around the games. This particular method of running a campaign has so far proven effective at keeping the conversation going.

Rockstar released the second GTA VI trailer in May, and a peak of searches is noted by Google Trends, but instead of seeing a natural decline, the search volume has continued on an upward trajectory.

Social Eco-systems

Another unique approach to marketing video games is to create content and conversation across social channels known to be home to communities of avid gamers. These include Twitch, Discord, Reddit, YouTube and TikTok.

Companies creating games like Battlefield 6 and GTA VI do well to tap into these communities to generate excitement around the game’s release. This is particularly effective as a strategic shift, as it utilises the voices of real people, whose personal experiences can drive conversion rates. User-generated content has been known to be an effective sales tool, as it authentically portrays the gaming experience through the amplification of discussion.

Experimental Marketing

Experimental marketing techniques break the mould of print and digital campaigns, instead offering value to the audience before the game releases with beta codes for demo plays, early access collaborations with established gaming influencers, and augmented reality experiences of the game.

We see this technique embraced by Epic Games for Fortnite, with influencer collaborations and custom skins which allow fans of the game and influencers to modify their avatars. It shows audiences that these companies are also socially aware, tapping into internet culture to create another point of connection with their customers.

All of these techniques, compounded with traditional methods, make for a really effective sales technique. Creating conversation and drip-feeding the experience keeps the fans wanting more.

How can we as marketers capitalise on these eventised campaigns

Pre-launch

Brands and content creators often fail to create content that meets the potential long-tailed search queries of anticipatory fans. Pre-launch business can capitalise on the buzz around the topic, to create unique content which expands on topics beyond the common search terms like “release date”, “game map” and “trailer.

Instead, pre-launch, brands should create content which focuses on speculative content, which further fuels the excitement, intrigue and curiosity around how the game will function.  An example of the type of content that could feed into this includes…

• GTA VI Map leak & predictions
• GTA VI Pricing Predictions
• Fact or fiction: another delay on release dates

These types of topics feed into the intrigue around products and allow fans to voice their opinions with a different approach to the overall subject. Anticipating the searches before the game drops ensures you’re one of the few people delivering the answers that companies like Battlefield Studios and Rockstar aren’t going to willingly give out.

Post-launch

Creators and companies alike can use the post-launch period to create content that is going to be useful to novice players. Creating content such as guides, play-throughs, commentaries, tips and tricks, and how to use mods.

Creating content that adds value to the reader is guaranteed to drive traffic. More so, this type of content even leads to conversions, as it may be the push that a person needs to validate their purchase.

Campaigns for games and media continue to transfigure. The landscape is shifting, and the tools marketers have expanded, allowing for a more holistic approach to marketing these types of products. 

Google Ads is making another big shift toward automation: by the end of this year, manual language targeting will disappear from Search campaigns. Instead, Google’s AI will automatically detect and target user languages.

What’s changing?
Up until now, we’ve been able to tell Google exactly which languages to target—whether that’s English, French, or Spanish—so ads only showed to users browsing in those languages. Once this rolls out, that option goes away. Google’s AI will take full control, using a mix of signals like search queries, browser settings, and behavior to decide a user’s language.

What’s not changing?
This is Search-only for now. If you’re running Display or YouTube campaigns, you’ll still have the manual language targeting options we’re all used to.

Why this matters?
On the surface, this makes campaign setup simpler and could, in theory, mean better detection of user intent. But the flip side is reduced control. If Google’s AI misinterprets signals, ads could start showing in markets or languages you don’t want to target—or, equally worrying, you might miss out on the audiences that matter. That means we’ll need to keep an even closer eye on performance data and be ready to step in quickly if something looks off.

Industry context
This change was first picked up by PPC News Feed (credit to Ezra Sackett for spotting it) and it fits a clear pattern: Google is steadily removing manual levers in favor of automation. We’ve already seen this with responsive search ads, automated bidding, and Performance Max.

The bigger picture
For me, this underlines the reality of where Google is heading: more automation, less manual control. While AI can certainly drive efficiencies, it also forces us as marketers to adapt—shifting our focus from setup to strategy, measurement, and making sure automation is working in our favor.

A new study from Nielsen Norman Group shows that while generative AI is changing how people search for information, Google remains the first stop for most users. The research found:

• Google is still the default starting point for online searches because of habit and familiarity
• AI Overviews give quick answers, but they reduce the need to click through to websites
• Chat tools like Gemini and ChatGPT speed up research, but people still cross-check results in Google
• Familiarity with AI brands, such as casually calling ChatGPT “Chat,” is growing quickly

Why users keep starting with Google

The pull of familiarity is strong. Many participants admitted they went straight to Google simply because that is what they have always done. Some mentioned that their browser defaults to Google, which removes the need to think about alternatives. Others talked about how comfortable and natural it feels to start there. This kind of routine behaviour gives Google a powerful edge that even the most advanced AI tools struggle to overcome.

AI Overviews: a shortcut that is changing user behaviour

One of the most significant shifts the study highlighted was the role of Google’s AI Overviews. These are automatically generated summaries that appear at the top of the results page, blending information from multiple sources into a single, easy-to-read snapshot.

AI Overviews were first introduced in 2023 under the name “Search Generative Experience” (SGE). They were initially tested in Google Labs before rolling out more widely in 2024 and 2025. The goal was to provide quick, conversational answers to queries without users needing to click through multiple links. Over time, they evolved into a standard feature of the search results page.

For users, AI Overviews feel convenient. Instead of scanning through ten blue links or skimming several articles, they can glance at a summary and move on. For marketers and publishers, however, they represent a challenge. By pulling key information into the search results, AI Overviews reduce the incentive for users to click through to original websites. This means fewer opportunities to attract traffic, fewer ad impressions, and potentially less engagement with full content pages.

It is worth noting that this behaviour is not entirely new. Featured Snippets and Knowledge Panels have been surfacing direct answers within Google’s results for years. AI Overviews simply take this trend further by synthesising more complex information in a natural, conversational style. The difference is scale: where Featured Snippets answered narrow questions, AI Overviews can now handle broad, multi-part queries that previously would have driven more traffic to publishers.

For marketers, this means adapting content so that it is not only useful on your own site but also optimised to appear within these AI-driven summaries. Structuring information clearly, answering questions directly, and establishing authority signals are becoming more important than ever.

AI tools boost speed but not total reliance

When participants tried using Gemini or ChatGPT for research tasks, they often found the process faster and more useful than traditional search. AI was particularly good at helping users brainstorm, clarify ideas, or simplify complex subjects.

But even the heaviest AI users did not rely on it alone. Almost all of them went back to Google to cross-check facts or to dive deeper into trusted sources. This shows that AI is not yet seen as a single source of truth. Instead, it is an assistant that speeds things up, while Google remains the place people go to validate what they find.

Familiar names carry weight

Another interesting trend was how quickly users became comfortable with AI brands. Just as “Google” became a verb, some participants already referred to ChatGPT simply as “Chat.” Familiarity makes tools feel more trustworthy, and brand recognition could play a big role in which AI tools people stick with in the future.

What this means for marketers

Generative AI is reshaping the search journey, but it is not replacing it. The biggest barrier to AI adoption is not accuracy or technology, but the deeply ingrained human habit of starting with Google.

For marketers, this means two things. First, organic visibility in Google still matters, even if AI Overviews are reducing the number of clicks. Second, content strategies must begin to account for AI summarisation. It is no longer enough to write only for human readers. Your content also needs to be clear, structured, and credible enough to be picked up by AI systems.

ChatGPT traffic has been steadily rising since its release in November 2022. Ahrefs, a comprehensive digital marketing and SEO platform, has recently done a study comparing monthly referral traffic to websites from Google Search compared to ChatGPT.

What the numbers say

The first three months of data have been released, covering 44,421 sites and unsurprisingly, Google is still dominating referral traffic currently with 41.9% of total web traffic compared to 0.19% of ChatGPTs. However, ChatGPT referral traffic is currently growing at a much faster rate than Google, with Google growing 1.4% Month over month and ChatGPT growing 5.3%.

While 0.19% may look insignificant at the moment, if ChatGPT keeps up its current growth rate, then this will see it change rapidly. It’s also worth remembering that 8.5 billion searches are made daily on Google, which means 0.19% of the market share still represents millions of potential customers users could be missing out on by not optimising for AI traffic. 

What should Marketers do?

With these statistics in mind, there are a number of steps marketers can take to future-proof their sites and ensure consistent traffic growth:

• Continue to optimise for SEO on Google, making sure you are consistently optimising your content and site to stay in Google’s rankings and in front of the majority of your traffic.
• Track traffic sources on your own sites. Referral traffic on your own site might be slightly different from the statistics reported by Ahrefs. Some sites may do better on AI than others. Make sure to track your referral traffic so you know where your site visits are coming from and optimise accordingly.
• Optimise for AIO and ChatGPT. Make sure to optimise for and use AI-friendly content, such as using informative, concise content on your site, to appear more in AI models.

What does this mean for Marketers?

When analysing the numbers, it’s clear that for the time being, Google is still the most important platform for visibility and reaching the largest potential audience. However, ChatGPT can still be regarded in its infancy and will grow significantly in the years to come, meaning that marketers to ignore ChatGPT would be missing out on a new, growing customer base. Optimising for both, while prioritising Google, is currently the most sensible strategy going forward.  

Google has quietly rolled out a new beta feature in its Performance Max (PMax) campaigns, enabling advertisers to exclude audiences by gender.

What is Performance Max?

Performance Max is Google’s goal-based campaign type that runs across all Google Ads inventory—including Search, Display, YouTube, Discover, Gmail, and Maps—using machine learning to find the best-performing placements in real time. Advertisers provide creative assets, audience signals, and goals, and Google’s AI automatically serves the most relevant ads to likely converters. While powerful, PMax has often been criticised for its lack of control over targeting compared to traditional campaign types.

Why This Matters

The ability to exclude genders gives marketers more precise control, allowing them to avoid wasting spend on audiences unlikely to convert. For brands with gender-specific products or services, this could mean better campaign efficiency, stronger return on ad spend (ROAS), and more relevant ad experiences for users.

How It Could Be Used

• Separate campaigns for men’s and women’s products – allowing Google’s algorithms to optimise budgets and bids based on gender-specific performance.
• More relevant ad copy and creatives per audience – tailoring messaging, tone, and imagery for maximum resonance.
• Focused product feeds for higher Shopping ad relevance – ensuring the right products are shown to the right gender, reducing mismatched impressions.

For example, a sportswear retailer could run one PMax campaign exclusively targeting men with male-specific creative and product listings, while running a parallel campaign for women with tailored visuals and messaging. This not only improves the relevance of ads but also ensures each campaign can be optimised for its specific audience without budget dilution.

Bottom Line

As with most new features, early adopters could see performance gains before competitors are even aware the option exists—especially in markets where relevance and targeting precision make all the difference.

OpenAI has released GPT-5, its most advanced artificial intelligence model to date, promising faster answers, more accurate information, and greater control over how responses sound. For digital marketers, this is not just another tech announcement. It could change how you plan, create, and deliver campaigns.

A leap forward in AI capability

GPT-5 is designed to act like an on-demand expert. It can understand complex requests, follow nuanced instructions, and adapt to different writing styles with more precision than previous versions. According to OpenAI, it is better at avoiding the factual mistakes AI tools have been criticised for in the past, and it can manage much longer conversations or documents without losing context.

The model also introduces a dynamic approach to answering questions. It can decide whether to respond quickly or spend more processing power on deeper, more reasoned replies, depending on the complexity of the request. For marketers, this means more relevant responses when you need strategic thinking and faster turnaround for simpler tasks.

More control over tone and style

One of the most useful upgrades for content creation is tone control. GPT-5 allows users to set the depth and length of responses, as well as experiment with built-in personas such as Cynic, Robot, Listener, and Nerd. While these are still in preview, they provide an easy way to test different voices for campaigns without having to rewrite everything from scratch.

This extra control helps ensure that the output matches brand voice guidelines more closely. Whether you need a concise product description, a warm and friendly newsletter, or a formal press release, GPT-5 can adapt while keeping the structure and key messages intact.

Handling bigger and more complex projects

Earlier AI models could struggle when given large, detailed briefs or multi-page documents to process in one go. GPT-5 can handle much larger amounts of text at once, allowing it to reference entire campaign plans, long reports, or past marketing materials without forgetting details along the way.

This makes it far more useful for project work such as developing integrated campaign strategies, creating multi-platform content calendars, or pulling insights from market research. You can feed in more of your background material and get a response that considers the whole picture rather than just snippets.

Integrating into your existing workflow

GPT-5 is available in both the free and paid versions of ChatGPT, with Pro subscribers getting unlimited access and a high-performance version called GPT-5 Pro. It is also being integrated into Microsoft Copilot and other productivity tools, meaning you could access it directly within software you already use for planning and collaboration.

For marketers, this opens the door to seamless use of AI throughout your workflow. Imagine drafting social copy in the same place you schedule it, or running competitive research without leaving your project management tool. This tighter integration could save time and reduce the friction between ideas and execution.

Early reactions and what to watch

Initial feedback has been mixed. Some users love the improved reasoning and accuracy, while others feel it is less personable than previous models. This matters for marketing because tone and personality play a key role in customer engagement. It is worth experimenting with settings and personas to find a balance that works for your brand.

As with any AI tool, GPT-5 is not a replacement for human judgement. It should be seen as an assistant that speeds up research, drafts content, and generates ideas, but still needs human review to ensure quality, creativity, and brand alignment.

What this means for your marketing

The launch of GPT-5 is another step in making AI a practical, everyday part of marketing work. With faster responses, better accuracy, and more control over tone, it can help you get from idea to execution more efficiently. For campaign planning, content creation, and research, it has the potential to free up time for the higher-value creative and strategic thinking that machines cannot replace.

The real advantage will come to those who learn how to use it as part of their process rather than as a one-off novelty. Marketers who experiment with GPT-5 now will be in the best position to understand its strengths, spot its weaknesses, and adapt their workflows accordingly.

A vulnerability across 3 WordPress file plug-ins is leaving up to 1.3 million sites on the platform susceptible to cyber attacks. The plug-ins affected include File Manager WordPress Plugin, Advanced File Manager and File Manager Pro.

How are sites affected?

The core vulnerability can be exploited by anyone on the internet, without a login, if the file manager has been set to publicly accessible. Once the hackers exploited the plugin they can start deleting files on your site causing major damage. This could lead to themes, plug-ins and media libraries being completely wiped out or completely disabling a site, leading to major SEO ranking drops, financial loss and damage to brand reputation.

How is the vulnerability caused?

The vulnerability is caused by outdated versions of elFinder file manager. Elfinder is not a WordPress plugin but rather an open-source file manager library that can be integrated into other tools. These vulnerable WordPress plugins use elFinder to provide their file management features. Versions from 2.1.64 and earlier are susceptible and are easily manipulated by attackers.

How to fix the issue

Site owners can make sure their sites stay safe by simply updating to the latest versions of the plug-ins which don’t use the susceptible version of elFinder and also ensure all file managers are not publicly accessible on their site. Make sure to restrict access only to accounts that are trusted such as admins.

How this affects Site Owners

This is not the first and won’t be the last case of WordPress plugin vulnerabilities causing issues for site owners. Many of these vulnerabilities often come from third party libraries. Site owners need to continually monitor plug-ins and make sure they are updated promptly when possible to reduce the risk of vulnerability.

This year’s summer party went off without a hitch, and the team yet again embraced our competitive sides and took our throwing abilities to the next level. We took our summer celebrations over to Leeds for a day of healthy competition, great food and a drink in the sunset to round out the brilliant day!

Boom Battle Bar

The day commenced with the team meeting at Boom Battle Bar in Leeds, where we went to throw axes, test our shuffleboard skills, and perfect our dart throwing.

Our axe-throwing abilities varied across the group, with me (Maisie), unfortunately, taking last place with a meagre 27 points. Liam, the king of axe throwing, accrued over 113 points, with Sean taking second place at a solid 71 points, and Matty closely following with 49.

Once our hopes of winning had been squandered to the secret axe-throwing Olympian Liam, we shifted our sights to shuffleboarding. The competition was truly tight, and Sean and Matty battled me and Liam for the shuffleboard winning status.  Matty and Sean stole the victory with a strong 15 point to 11.

Our time at Boom Battle Bar was wrapped up with a skill-testing darts match, where we played games like Shanghai and Killer to see who had the most precise throw. Matty once again took the lead, winning both rounds of darts.

Lunching at LIVIN’Italy

The team moved on to grab a bite to eat at the fantastic LIVIN’Italy restaurant. A wonderful, authentic Italian, where the ambient atmosphere and fragrant dishes combine to create an unforgettable dining experience.

Grazing on small plates like the focaccia, which was accompanied by a fantastic tomato sauce. We tried new bites, like the pasta lollipops and arancini, which were both sumptuous before moving on to the main course.

Each of us dined on a truly spectacular dish, with each of us walking out super happy and with a full stomach. The perfect lining for the sunset drinks to follow.

Sunset drinks at Leeds Dock

We completed our fantastic Summer Party, enjoying a drink at Waterlane Boathouse and SALT. Debriefing on the day and enjoying the lovely weather and views in each other’s company.

We all had such a brilliant day together, testing our abilities, nibbling on delectable Italian dishes and getting dedicated time to enjoy hanging out and celebrating our efforts for this year.

Here at Intelligency, we use SE Ranking, an SEO management platform, to help our clients invest in their websites’ organic rankings. SE Ranking announced this week that they have acquired Planable, a social media management platform. This acquisition will see a merger of the SEO giant with social media tools into one all-encompassing marketing platform.

What is SE Ranking

As an all-encompassing SEO platform, SE Ranking provides agencies and marketers with extensive SEO tools to manage and control website growth. Tools available on SE Ranking include:

Keyword Research Tool

Keywords are an important part of any SEO strategy. SE Rankings’ keyword research tool allows marketers to research keywords that consumers are using in their industry to target them with content.

Competitor Research Tool

SE Rankings competitor research tool gives an overview of competitors’ websites, including traffic levels, keyword rankings, backlink profile and more. This tool allows marketers to monitor and identify gaps in their SEO strategy compared to their competitors.

Technical Audit Tool

Technical audits are imperative to maintaining strong SEO performance. SERanking’s technical audit tool tracks issues with crawling and indexability, site speed, content and more, allowing users to stay on top of site issues that can negatively affect rankings.

What is Planable

Planable is a centralised social media management tool that allows marketers to coordinate their social media activities across various platforms in one place. Planable allows users to schedule, publish and analyse content across major social media sites, including Facebook, X, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, Google My Business and more.

How will this impact marketers

SE Ranking plans to incorporate Planables’ social media tools with its SEO capabilities into one platform. This will allow agencies, such as Intelligency, to manage clients’ SEO and social media all in one place, leading to a more seamless marketing experience for clients and reducing spend across multiple platforms.

Perplexity is an AI answer engine. Instead of showing a traditional list of links like Google, it writes a direct answer to a question and cites the sources it used. It combines search results with AI-generated summaries, aiming to give users an immediate, trustworthy response.

Researcher Metehan Yesilyurt has investigated how Perplexity might decide which sources appear in its answers. While these findings are not officially confirmed, they give useful clues for anyone working in SEO or content marketing.

Why this matters

If you want your brand to be mentioned or cited inside AI answers, it helps to understand what kinds of signals may improve visibility. These insights suggest how to choose topics, structure content and act quickly on trends.

Key takeaways from the research

• Quality matters more than keywords.
  Perplexity uses a “three-layer reranker” for entity searches. It starts with a normal search, then applies stricter machine learning filters. If not enough results meet the quality standard, it removes them all and looks again. Thin or purely keyword-based content is unlikely to appear, so building topical authority is important.
• Some sites get a manual trust boost.
  The system appears to give extra weight to certain trusted domains such as Amazon, LinkedIn, GitHub and Coursera. Being linked from or referencing these platforms could pass some of that trust to your content.
• Trending topics and YouTube can work together.
  If a YouTube video title exactly matches a trending Perplexity query, it may get more visibility on both platforms. Acting quickly on emerging topics can help capture this effect.
• Engagement and freshness drive rankings.
  Early clicks and interaction with a new post act like a vote of confidence and can extend its visibility. Content loses traction over time, so updating it regularly can help.
• Depth and interlinking help visibility.
  Perplexity prefers comprehensive content that fully answers the question and related queries. Linking related pages together into a hub can strengthen authority.
• Negative signals can bury content.
  Repetitive or low-quality pages, poor feedback, or too much overlap between articles can harm visibility. Consolidating similar content and focusing on unique value is better.

How might marketers use Perplexity?

• Monitor trending questions in your industry and create content that answers them in detail.
• Publish supporting YouTube videos with titles that match those trending queries.
• Build topic clusters with a main hub page and interlinked articles.
• Refresh and update top-performing pages to maintain visibility.
• Where relevant, reference credible, high-authority sources.
• Promote new content quickly through email, social media and other channels to spark early engagement.

The tactics for doing well in Perplexity are very similar to solid SEO practice. Focus on creating high-quality, comprehensive content, keep it fresh, make it easy for users to engage, and build real authority in your niche.