About this episode

Joe and Robert explore the implications of AI in marketing, discussing the evolving role of bots and the impact on SEO and marketing strategies.

This week on This Old Marketing, Joe and Robert dig into a very strange new reality for marketers: the next audience may not be human. First, Anthropic's Fable and Mythos models get caught in the middle of U.S. export controls, raising a huge question for any company building on AI platforms. Then OpenAI reportedly floats the idea of giving the U.S. government a five percent stake in the company. Is AI becoming national infrastructure? And if so, what does that mean for marketers building on someone else's platform? Next, the boys look at the big takeaways from Cannes Lions , where creators, talent agencies, retail media, sports, and AI took center stage. The ad business is still talking about creativity, but the power seems to be moving toward those who own trust, audience, commerce, and distribution. From there, Joe and Robert discuss new research showing that AI search citations do not line up neatly with traditional Google rankings. In other words, winning SEO may not mean winning AI search. The game is shifting from ranking to being cited. Finally, they break down the rise of AI agents as web visitors . If bots are now browsing, comparing, filtering, and buying on behalf of…

People in this episode

Hosts: Joe Pulizzi, Robert Rose

Topics covered

• AI in marketing
• SEO and AI search
• Cannes Lions insights
• Marketing strategy
• Bots as customers

Keywords

• AI marketing
• Cannes Lions
• SEO
• bots
• marketing strategy
• Anthropic
• OpenAI
• Kraft

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Anthropic, OpenAI, Cannes Lions

Products: Kraft

More episodes of This Old Marketing - News Podcast Weekly with Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose

• OpenAI Eyes Apple Revenues (541) · July 17, 2026 · 1h 8m
• The AI Trust Economy Is Here. Nobody Is Ready. (540) · July 10, 2026 · 1h 11m
• Google Wants the Tools. Meta Wants Your Face. Walmart Wants the Ads. (538) · June 26, 2026 · 1h 11m
• Anthropic: Theater or AI Rented Land? + Fox's Big Distribution Play (537) · June 19, 2026 · 1h 10m
• AI Is Coming for the Payroll Line (536) · June 12, 2026 · 1h 3m
• The Media Reckoning Is Here (535) · June 5, 2026 · 1h 15m

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the This Old Marketing - News Podcast Weekly with Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose podcast page.