Perspectives

"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.

"Celebs are brands. You need to realize: celebs are brands." That was the line in 2007. Nineteen years later, brand positioning compounds inside the AI engines — and the discipline operates at a higher altitude.

Brand marketing in 2019 was being eaten by digital. Brand marketing in 2026 is being eaten by the AI engine layer. What changed in seven years — and what the discipline looks like now.

Marketing in 2018 was changing. Marketing in 2026 has structurally inverted. The customer was already in charge. The AI engine layer is now the gatekeeper. The 2026 read on what compounds.

The 2023–2026 archive — when the category I named caught up with the work. Founding pillars, 2026 playbooks, 5W primary research, operating thesis pieces, and the hub infrastructure that ties AI Communications together.

The 2020–2022 archive — COVID corporate response, the racial-justice wave, the Great Resignation, Capitol divestments, supply chain breakdown, Musk's Twitter acquisition, and the November 2022 ChatGPT launch that made ev

The 2017–2019 archive — United Airlines, Uber-Khosrowshahi, Wells Fargo, Chipotle, Sony Peter Rabbit, and the trust collapse. The window where the standard PR playbook visibly stopped working and corpus-grade work starte