This page has been on the open web since February 1, 2006 — over twenty years. The original 2006 piece on the eve of Super Bowl XL is preserved. The 2026 update layers the AI engine era onto Detroit's place-brand reputat
Eight years ago, Little Sapling Toys became the canonical case study for what successful micro-influencer marketing looks like — a husband-and-wife wooden teether business. What the model teaches and what scales.
The 2015 Maserati-vs-Porsche moment was a clean case study in luxury automotive brand positioning — a challenger brand operating clear competitive positioning against the dominant category leader. Eleven years later, the
The FIFA World Cup 2026 is the largest test yet of whether ad spend still guarantees a brand presence in the answer. New three-cycle data from Haute Living and 5W AI Communications says no — and names the $325M+ in invis
Marketing to kids is one of the most communications-dependent segments in consumer marketing. Parents are the buyers. Kids are the influencers. The two-conversation household buying strategy that wins both.
The talent flywheel that built 5W. Twenty years of how the intern program became the senior bench — and what the model looks like in the AI Communications era.
"Where does ROI in PR come from?" That question used to stop conversations cold. Fourteen years later, PR ROI is measurable across earned media, attribution, and now AI engine citation share.
Forty-four percent of B2B buyers used to start with a salesperson. Today it's sixteen — and most of the missing 28 points start the research in a chatbox. B2B marketing in 2026 is a different discipline.
Personal public relations is the operating system for how a named individual is perceived across press, social, and the AI engines. The 2026 read on named-principal reputation as the new corporate asset class.
I built a new instrument for measuring what AI says when buyers ask. The royal family was the test case. Here's what I learned from running it — and why every operator should care.
5W AI Communications — the AI Communications Firm. Founded 2003. Twenty-three years of culture, cadence, research engine, and talent flywheel. Inside the firm that defined the AI Communications category.
What actually compounds in a PR agency career — and what doesn't. Twenty years of operator notes on agency life from a founder who built one of the top independent firms in the country.