The Future of Content, AI, and Brand Growth: A Masterclass with Maria Del Pilar Casal

This episode is PACKED with high-level insight AND hands-on, practical advice for marketers, founders, and content creators who want to stay ahead of the AI tsunami reshaping how brands communicate, convert, and grow.

Today, Reed sits down with Maria Del Pilar Casal — an award-winning marketing executive with 15+ years leading strategy for Unilever, Toyota, Verizon, and several global brands you definitely recognize. Pilar is known for creating campaigns that don’t just win awards — they move revenue.

This conversation cuts through the noise and gets into:

🚀 What You’ll Learn in This Episode

🔥 How AI Is Reshaping Consumer Behavior

• Why Gen Z is now treating AI like a “third influencer”
 • How AI is transforming discovery, purchase decisions, and brand expectations
 • What AEO (AI Engine Optimization) means — and why brands must adapt fast

🔥 What Small & Medium Businesses Can Do RIGHT NOW

• Why AI may actually help SMBs more than big brands
• Where AI fits best in your workflow (and where humans are still unbeatable)
• How to identify gaps in your day and delegate them to AI

🔥 The Content Formats Dominating 2025–2026

• Video is king… but not in the way everyone thinks
 • When long-form content matters more than viral clips
 • How to turn one recording into 10+ pieces of content across every platform

🔥 The Power of Collaboration

• Why creators, influencers, and brand partners amplify results
 • How even small businesses can access creator marketing affordably
 • What makes micro/nano influencers more valuable than celebrities

🔥 The Near Future of Digital Marketing

• Why website traffic is about to drop (and why it’s not all bad)
 • The coming wave of AI-driven referrals and ads
 • Why email lists are about to become gold—again
 • How brands should diversify content + channels to stay resilient

👤 Connect with Maria Del Pilar Casal

👉 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariapilarcasal/

Pilar offers consulting, brand strategy, and content collaboration opportunities.

📈 Ready to Scale Smarter, Faster, and Louder?

MarketSurge helps businesses build growth systems that generate inbound demand, automate efficiently, and create content that converts.

🌐 Website: https://marketsurge.io

🎯 Book a 15-Minute Value or Free Coffee Call:
https://link.marketsurge.io/widget/bookings/marketsurge/demozvwcxw

🎙️ Podcast: https://marketsurge.transistor.fm/

🐦 X/Twitter: https://x.com/marketsurging

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketsurgeio

Creators and Guests

Host

Reed Hansen

Reed Hansen is a seasoned digital marketing executive with a proven track record of driving business growth through innovative strategies. As the Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge, he focuses on leveraging AI-powered marketing tools to help businesses scale efficiently. Reed's expertise spans from leading startups to Fortune 500 companies, making him a recognized authority in the digital marketing space. His unique ability to combine data-driven insights with creative solutions has been instrumental in achieving remarkable sales growth for his clients. ​

What is Inside Marketing with MarketSurge?

Welcome to Inside Marketing with MarketSurge — your front-row seat to the boldest business insights, marketing breakthroughs, and entrepreneurial real talk.

Hosted by Reed Hansen, Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge and a digital marketing veteran who's helped scale everything from scrappy startups to Fortune 500 giants, this podcast dives deep into what’s really moving the needle in today’s marketing world. Find us at Marketsurge.io

Each week, we’ll break down the latest marketing and business news (minus the fluff), explore tech trends you actually need to know, and feature unfiltered conversations with the most interesting minds in entrepreneurship and marketing.

Whether you're a founder, a marketer, or just a curious hustler looking to level up, this is where growth happens—loudly, smartly, and with just the right amount of sass.

Subscribe, tune in, and let’s scale something legendary. 🚀

Speaker: Welcome to Inside
Marketing With Market Surge.

Your front row seat to the
boldest ideas and smartest

strategies in the marketing game.

Your host is Reed Hansen, chief
Growth Officer at Market Surge.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Hello
and welcome back to Inside

Marketing with Market Surge.

Today we're joined by Maria Del Pilar.

Caza, an award-winning marketing
executive with more than 15 years

of experience driving results for
some of the world's biggest brands,

including Unilever, Toyota, and Verizon.

Pilar has built and led
marketing campaigns that

don't just look good on paper.

They deliver measurable business impact.

From Creator marketing and branded
content to media and partnership

strategies, she's helped brands
connect with audiences in ways that

are both innovative and effective.

What I love about Pilar is that she
doesn't just talk high level trends.

She breaks things down into practical,
actionable steps that companies of any

size can use to grow online right away.

This is going to be an incredibly
insightful conversation for

founders, marketers, and anyone
looking to understand how to turn

digital strategies into real growth.

Pilar, welcome to the show.

Maria del Pilar Casal: Thank you so much.

Thank you for having me, and
I have to give you credit on

the pronunciation of my name.

Thank you.

You said it wonderfully.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: you.

Thank you.

I try, I try.

It's one, you know, one advantage of
doing an undergrad with a major in

Italian, but not, it hasn't served me
in many other facets of my career, but

Maria del Pilar Casal:
We'll have to practice.

Maybe we'll go have a nice Italian meal in
your area and I'll let you order for us.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge:
good, there's some good ones.

Absolutely.

Well well, Pilar, alar AI is changing
how campaigns are built and optimized

and, you know, I know you've been in
the forefront of you know, this kind of

innovation working for these big brands.

how have you seen how AI has reshaped
how brands connect with their audiences?

You know, and, and it'd be interesting,
I'll preface this by saying you a lot

of my audience are small and medium
sized business leaders and marketers.

So your perspective from working
with larger brands I think

is particularly interesting.

Maria del Pilar Casal: Absolutely.

Yeah.

So I think to your question on how
AI is changing, how brands engage and

how they're marketing to consumers,
I would say it's two pronged.

The first is that it's changing
the consumer journey and

therefore the marketing funnel.

But also how consumers
expect to be engaged with.

So on the first front, we're seeing that
for Gen Z, which is the consumer that.

Brands tend to be focusing on
more and more, even though Gen

Alpha's right around the block.

But for Gen Z, social and YouTube and
TikTok have been really the big kind

of focuses of discovery where they're
figuring out what they want and also where

they're getting a lot of recommendations,
including now we've seen an uptick

also in platforms like Reddit, right?

So consumer kind of
generated recommendations.

What's interesting about AI is that
AI is popping up, or these AI tools

are popping up like almost us.

Third influencer in that dynamic of
how they're making their decisions.

So you have them using tools
like chat, GPT to not only ask it

questions and maybe Google, but
really to make entire life decisions.

They're spending a lot of their
day asking it questions, telling

it about their lives, and so the
way in which they discover and make

decisions is starting to change.

So what that means for brands, big
and small, is that you have to then

be, make sure you're showing up.

In these spaces where they're
now making these decisions.

And I think it's being referred to now
as a EO and I've seen a few different

acronyms, but it's, it'll be different
from search engine optimization, right?

Which I think that was a lot of keyword
based searching and now we're seeing

with AI and AI tools that it's a lot
more of kind of utility based content.

Now, how you show up there, I think
I won't offer recommendations yet.

There's a lot of great content on
the intranet about it, but I think

that's gonna continue to really.

Evolve and the tools will begin
to decide and set parameters for

how brands can show up there.

But on the second front and a little
bit more of a simpler change is that.

AI tools are incredibly personalized,
and so the consumers who are using

them, particularly Gen Z as we
mentioned, are becoming very used to

having personalized recommendations,
personalized interactions.

And so I think that'll start to affect how
brands engage with consumers on social,

but also on their website and email, and
being able to really personalize what you

do, but also more deeply target consumers.

The great thing I think for small
and medium businesses is that this

is what they're really good at.

'cause I think you earn each of your
customers just by pure sweat and grit and

you know them all deeply in a way that
big brands sometimes, they know their

consumer but sometimes not as intimately.

'Cause it's been so long
they've been building the base.

So I think it's an area where
small businesses can really excel.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: And that's
a great point I was gonna get there.

The, you know, AI obviously is like
very accessible, you know, it's not,

it, it can be inexpensive to use
and can be fairly easy to learn.

You know?

That said, to go along with the
last point you made, do you, do you

think that AI is going to help small
and medium sized business marketers

more, or does this continue to
give the big brands the advantage?

Maria del Pilar Casal: Yeah, I
think it can, there's two answers

that I would give to that.

One of the things I think big brands are
figuring out is how they're going to use

ai because we don't know what the future
of that platform looks like, right?

It's very similar to social.

In which pla brands went all in,
publishers went all in, and then suddenly

the platforms changed the algorithm and
how you could access your community.

So I think brands have learned that
they have to be very mindful of how

they build in certain spaces and
how they engage with consumers in

certain spaces because they may not.

Own that space at the end of the day.

And so if you think of a brand
spending a lot of time training and

putting their information into AI
tools, then to not know what kind

of happens to that information.

And so that time that they've
spent, I see brands beginning

to build their own internal ai.

So I mentioned all that to say that I
think they'll be slower to adopt, right?

They'll depend much more on third party
tools that they already use using AI to be

a more efficient in the work that they do.

For small and medium sized
business, you don't have many times

those same constraints, right?

Especially if you're the start of
building, you can give your whole

self to the tool and pull from it.

Where I think it would probably be most
helpful for a small and medium sized

business is to look at one, what's
taking up most time of your day, and

two, where you have gaps in headcounts.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Hmm.

Maria del Pilar Casal: One tip I would
give is maybe write out what your

day looks like and what are your pain
points, and feed it into your preferred

AI tool, and you can even ask it to
recommend for you where it thinks that

it, the tool can be most helpful to you.

What I've seen is that, and
I may be biased because I'm a

marketer, I don't feel that AI is.

Fantastic at Creative, yet I still
think humans are a lot better at

that, so I'll hear many times they
say, oh, have it write copy for you.

I don't love the copy that comes out of
it, but if you say, I imagine smaller

businesses have more limited headcount.

If you have a person who's really
great at doing your social and your

creative not so great at the numbers.

AI can be a great way for them to grab
reports and bulk download data, feed

it to that tool, and ask it to give it
patterns or trends that it's seeing.

'cause AI is very good at
predicting behavior and at finding

trends and patterns in data.

So I think when it comes to reporting
to analyzing data to, you can.

Upload cus within data privacy
restrictions of course, but upload in,

commentary that you're getting on a social
post or maybe the reviews you're getting

on your website and have it comb through
that data and make recommendations.

Back to you.

I know some folks are also testing
with video creation as well.

I don't see that it's quite
where it needs to be yet.

I think that's the next frontier.

Once it gets really good at creating
video and ads and I think it will

level the playing for wheels even more.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: That's,
well, that's, I think it's encouraging.

The way you describe it, you know,
I you know, I am a small and medium

sized business owner, and I use AI
quite a bit and I do feel like it, it,

it extends my ability to do things.

You know, like, like a lot of tasks I
wouldn't want to take on if I didn't have.

AI to, to generate.

Now you touched on content, and I know
this is a, an area you work a lot in.

And so given that, you know, and I
know you've worked in the influencer

space as well, you know, what do you
think are the content formats that,

that are really resonating right
now and, and in the near future?

You know, whether it's, you know,
towards the end of the year or looking

forward to 2026, what, what kinds of
content should brands be focused on?

Maria del Pilar Casal: Yeah, so I
think we hear frequently that video

is where everyone needs to put
all of their focus and attention.

My answer varies on that, which is
that I think, or rather I should

say sorry, I'm gonna start over.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Go ahead.

Okay.

Maria del Pilar Casal: I know we'll
hear a lot about focusing on video.

My answer would be much more to
focus on each of the platforms

that you're on and your audience.

We hear frequently that consumers
have short attention spans.

What I would offer is that I think
the time a consumer wants to.

Deciding whether your content
is interesting or not is what's

really decreased because there is
so much content to choose from.

And so it's really important to
have content that is going to

grab that person's attention.

And I think we default, so that has to be
video, but it really depends the platform

that you're on and what your goal is.

So for example, I've seen a lot
of brands are starting to play a

little bit in the substack space.

Substack right now is not a place
where maybe you're gonna get.

Thousands of views and, hundreds
of thousands of comments.

But it might be a place where you can do
some really deep brand engagement with

a hyper-focused consumer group, right?

So if you have a particular product
launch where you're, this product

and this consumer, they, let's say
it's a higher end product that we're.

Requires a little bit of explanation
on its quality and its manufacturing

style, and that's why it calls
for such a high ticket price.

That might be something that works
really great in Substack if you find

your consumers of, whatever good
it is, maybe high end luxury goods

who appreciate longer form content
that's more explanatory and who will

engage with that type of content.

And then you're on TikTok where you might
wanna be much shorter and to the point.

So what I would say is
focus on whenever you're.

Focus on your content thematics and
what you're going to share, and then

share that out in various formats.

So you wanna always record with
video and audio, and then from

there you can draft content, which
is where AI can be really great.

So for example, if we were doing this
podcast or we are doing this podcast.

Episode we have audio and visual from
it, but you could get clips for TikTok.

You could use the text file from
the podcast to craft a newsletter.

You could use the text to then maybe
craft a longer form article for

Substack, wherever you're present.

But I think there's various formats
that are working really well.

You just have to adapt to the
audience into the platform.

We're seeing video as always long and
short form, depending on the platform.

And TikTok has been seeing
some success with longer form.

It just depends what you're talking about.

As well as, longer form text content on
platforms like Substack and even LinkedIn.

Yeah.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: So, so you know,
even talking about trends, you know, I is.

that a brand produces, is it is there like
a certain lifecycle you should plan for or

Duration where it's valuable?

You know, you were talking about like
substack or long form video for like

deeper explanations of a product or

Do you feel like that there is content
that is durable, that is like long term?

Or, or should you think of it all as kind
of like consumable and, and short term?

Maria del Pilar Casal: Yeah, so
I, I think you have your evergreen

and then you have your very kind
of timely, which is reacting.

It's in a time and place and it's
reacting what's happening to the

world around us, whether it's in tone
or in the content that it features.

I would say with ai, I know
people use these tools.

Your content always has to be.

Useful in some way, and if it's gonna
be evergreen and last longer, there

has to be a utility component to it.

So think of how people are searching
on an ai, like a Chachi pt, right?

They are maybe already have a
product in mind, but they're being

very specific with their questions.

Does this work for me specifically?

I'll give you an example.

Weighted vests we're trend.

I wrote an article and it's actually
where trending, and I was like,

oh, I'm gonna get a weighted vest.

This was everywhere, all over my TikTok.

So I asked my chat GBT, I'm
like, Hey, can you tell me some

pros and cons on weighted vest?

'cause I wasn't like a
hundred percent sure.

And Chad, he remembered that I had a
abdominal surgery and let me know that

I actually can't use weighted vest.

He said for someone like you
recently had abdominal surgery,

you can't use the weighted vest.

And so I think you have to, I
give that as an example that you

have to make sure you're creating
content that is very utility driven,

but also keeps things in mind.

So it's not just, Hey, weight, invest
great for exercise, but if I were

creating content on that, I might.

Say by the way if you have an injury,
you're recovering, maybe instead get

these, wrist weights that I sell.

Also, so I think if you're creating longer
form content, sorry, not longer form.

If you're creating longer tail
contents, you have to keep in mind the

different obstacles that may come up
in someone's decision making process.

'cause you want that concept to
not only surface up an ai, but

to be useful over a longer term.

But you should have a combination.

Of both.

And I think the content that you're
creating, that's much shorter

form ensuring that it's timely.

But I think utility content
is what people always go to.

They wanna know how to use things they
wanna know more about what's going on.

So that longer form content, that
longer tail content works really well.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Can I
I, you know, you, you've mentioned

something and, and I would like
to, you know, pick your brain

We're on a podcast, which
I think is great content

Nice to repurpose and I'd, I'd, I'd
put like one other dimension of this.

The cool part of this is that it's
a collaboration that, you know,

we're, we're both gonna share it.

Maria del Pilar Casal: Yeah.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: I feel like
I'm gonna learn a ton from you and, and

be able to share your expertise with, my
audience, you know, I don't know if I'm

gonna add much to your audience, but,
we'll, we'll we'll, we'll, we'll play

it off as, as if it is, but the, the
question I have is, what is the, what do

you see as the benefits of collaboration?

Whether it's like this with a partner or
with somebody that's like, just, you know,

out outright an influencer, you know,
how, how do you see that as a valuable

for a brand you know, to, to undertake?

Maria del Pilar Casal: Yeah, so I
say I think at its simplest form,

and we see this in music, right?

You're uniting two audience groups.

And so when you have two audience
groups, you're always gonna be more

powerful, you have more eyeballs.

What is special for brands with a
collaboration if it's a creator,

an influencer, or celebrity, is
that a brand already reaches.

The people it reaches as itself.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Mm-hmm.

Maria del Pilar Casal: can talk all
day about how wonderful and amazing

you are, but it's until someone else
says that you're amazing or wonderful,

that someone might be convinced because
you've maxed at how much you can

convince someone of your own worth.

And so I think having
that secondary voice.

That leans in and says, Hey, this
is actually really fantastic,

you should check it out.

Leaning into that special relationship,
leading into their own engagement

to their own community is what
really is additive in the process.

I also, a brand can't be everything to
everyone, and so when you bring in other

collaborators and other voices, they
find a unique aspects of your product

that speaks to different consumer groups.

And as I mentioned earlier, with the
personalization that's happening with

ai, I think we're gonna see brands
really need to like niche further and.

Down in their efforts.

And realistically, no
brand can do that, right?

There's not enough content in the
world, but if you're collaborating with

different influencers and influential
voices, they can do that for you.

And so your one product that maybe
you have three or four ways that you

would speak about in three or four
main consumer groups, now you have.

Influential voices within those
broader consumer groups that can talk

to specific subsets and do in a very
specific and particular way that's

also quite authentic and organic.

And I don't, it's really unfeasible for
a brand to be able to do that each way.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Okay.

Now, how, how do you, so, you
know, I think you've talked

to like the value of it.

How, how does a, a brand, maybe even a

With limited resources, do this
like on a regular basis, you know,

create, create content or find
collaborations that are really of value?

You know, is there, is there
like a good process for that?

Or you know, how do you vet
the right collaborators?

How do you do

Maria del Pilar Casal: Yeah.

Yes, the great, brands are big brands
are lucky because they hire an agency

and they spend a lot of money on tools.

That's obviously not feasible, I think,
when you're starting a business or

you're not a Proctor and gamble but.

So I'll offer two things.

The first is I spent a lot of my
career actually working in local

markets, doing social and streaming
at a one or two market level.

And what I learned there is that micro
creators, nano creators and local

creators, which are creators that
might have a slightly larger following,

but are very specific to an area.

Are very effective at driving
sales beyond the upper funnel brand

awareness and brand engagement.

They're really good at sales because
they do have this more niche community.

And the relationship can be
much cheaper 'cause they have.

Traditionally a smaller following.

And so I think for small and media sized,
medium sized business, looking first

that if your products is primarily for a
specific consumer area a specific market

or specific city, finding influencers who
are not necessarily huge and have huge

price tags, but finding someone who's
following is really specific to that area,

who's well known locally can be really.

Helpful but also looking at micro
creators in generally, right?

So you might be someone who
sells a product across the us

but it has a very specific group.

So for example, maybe you have a
paleo vegan dairy free product.

You might be better off with a YouTuber
who has a small community of a few

thousand, but whose community shows up
every day for that particular product.

Then pairing up with a big foodie.

Influencer whose audience is
getting messaging all day long

and all different topics, and who
goes there for a variety of food

topics, which is much more focused.

So one I would recommend, I would
lean into those smaller creators

and the smaller followings.

And typically their rates
are much more manageable.

They're willing to come into longer term.

Partnerships where maybe you can
do a content over time and pay

a flat B per content piece or
post in terms of finding them.

I think if you don't have a tool
that's accessible to you, right?

There's tools that exist now,
but that's not accessible.

Just engaging on the social
platforms and constantly saving

whatever you come across.

I know a lot of social media
managers for smaller brands will

have what they call a burner account.

So that the algorithm doesn't go too close
to their own interests and they're able

to see everything and they will just,
when they're scrolling and anytime that

they see something interesting, save it.

I also find LinkedIn to be really
useful for finding influencers

because they tend to be really good
about showing the business side

of what they're doing on LinkedIn.

And so you can usually do a search
on there that's pretty helpful.

You might also ask chat, GBT and see
what answer you get or Plexity or Claude.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: So what do,
so this is actually something I'm,

I'm personally interested in and, you
know, forgive, forgive my indulgence

and something I'm, very interested in.

Now, say you, you do have a little
bit of budget that you'd like to seek

out influencers and collaborators.

What, what are some of those high-end
tools that you would recommend using

to find, to find good collaborations?

Maria del Pilar Casal: Yeah,
I, so there's Creator iq.

That was one that I used and you
could input information in to source

it Off the top of my head, I'd have
to think about some of the other.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: That

Maria del Pilar Casal: names, but
one item that, yeah, creator is

a tool I've used for a long time.

They, and I think they're,
that's still their name.

I will tell you.

One other really great place to find local
micro nano creators in your commentary.

Look at your best customers.

You'd be surprised how many of those
customers actually have a pretty

strong following, but see who's
making content about you already.

You can source.

There's also a new one, I
think it's Passion Foot.

It may be calls which is a site where
people can monetize and put themselves.

And it has to be smaller creators put
themselves up there to be selected.

So I know there's a few new tools and few
websites that are much more accessible.

Those influencers I see start at
like $400 per post or even less.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Okay.

That's

Maria del Pilar Casal: Yeah.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yeah, super
helpful and I think that I mean,

I, I'm a big fan of collaboration.

That's kind of why I am doing.

This effort of the, the podcast,
you know, I like to meet new people.

You never know when a connection
might pay off down the road.

And you know, the things you can
learn, the people you can connect to,

like peripherally, you know, like a.

Maria del Pilar Casal: yes.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: You know, the
people like, like yourself, pilar, that

are willing to come on these podcasts.

You tend to be a type that's
like a super connector.

You know, you, you know a lot of
people and you tend to make the

effort to connect with people.

So these, you are good
kind of people to know.

So let me, let's zoom out a little bit
and maybe let's, let's, or predict you

know, what do you think in the next three
to five years what do you, what kinds

of changes do you think we'll see in the
marketing function or content creation?

Do you, do you think that largely be the
same, or do you think We'll you know,

it'll be, it'll be completely different.

I mean, is AI gonna
just disrupt everything?

Maria del Pilar Casal: So what I think is.

I know and I feel like we see,
it's it depends on the day.

One day it's like AI is
useless, it's suing nothing.

Look at the output it
gave me the next day.

It's like AI's taking over everything.

Our jobs are all gone.

The world's forever changed.

So I would say probably the next few
months, because I think the speed at which

AI is moving is what is probably most.

Interesting alarming.

Depends how you feel about it.

So it's changing quite quickly.

I, and just for reference, I was seeing in
Digiday this article they did that, said

that now one out of every five referral
clicks to Walmart comes from an AI tool.

And it's only, they
said they their traffic.

It's less than 5% of the total traffic
they get, but that's up 15% from July.

So where this article came out,
let's say a week ago in September.

So that kind of growth in just
July, August, September, is less

than three months is incredible.

So I don't know if we'll
have three or five years.

We may have a few months, one year.

It will take time though for, as I
mentioned earlier, it's going, this is

the part that I think sometimes gets
lost in a lot of the conversation.

It will take time for companies
and for brands to integrate this.

This will take time because
they have a lot of legal, they

need to figure out, right?

Again, they're putting a lot of data
or they want to avoid putting a lot of

data into tools that they do not own.

And they're having their employees, or
would be having their employees send

a lot of time and resources, training
tools again, that they do not own.

So that's something that they have to be.

Very mindful of, but I think what we'll
see the most change is in the referral

traffic we've started to see already.

And I don't have the percentage, but
I know Google is reporting that there

has been a drop in how much traffic is
going past the search engine results

page because they have that AI answer.

And so people are seeing the
answer there and sticking there.

So I think mostly immediately
what you're gonna see is a

drop in traffic to your sites.

Some people say you may get more
qualified leads at your site

though, because the people who
come through will have come through

recommended specifically to your site.

I think that has yet to be seen, but we're
seeing a drop in traffic to the site.

That's obviously gonna affect for all
kinds of publishers, their digital media.

So is it worth spending and buying
digital media ads on websites?

Will they have enough impressions
to sell because people aren't

visiting the sites as much?

I think this is where your email,
your news, your newsletter, all of

that will become more important.

I.

So probably digital media, I think will
be the most effective, most immediately

that'll become, I'm going to assume I'm
not gonna make a blanket statement, but I

assume those will become less effective.

And so social and video premium
video and streaming environments

will probably become the most
effective digital media tools.

And then I think the.

Personalization is just gonna
become really important.

It's not gonna be enough to just
say, Hey, look at this great product.

It's like when social and creators
popped up and people move their

attention and started listening
to other voices, there is this now

new voice that's speaking for you.

And brands will have to make
sure they show up there.

But like I mentioned earlier,
we still dunno what that.

Means I did see that and I believe it was
Sam Altman for track, GPT, who announced

that there will start to be an option in
the pro version to opt into receiving kind

of morning tailored recommendations and
information, which to me reads like ads.

So I think within a few months we
may, and I say a few months, maybe

it's a month and a half, but we may
have an actual ads product coming

out of OpenAI and for chat GPT.

And of course that'll just put
the pressure on everyone else

to speed up the ads product.

But I think, I can't imagine
that in the next six months.

We won't be seeing maybe
advertising on the platform and

dollars will start to shift from
digital media to these platforms.

Or at the very least, we're already
seeing dollars shifting to creator,

the maybe digital dollars, shifting
more into social, into creator.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Well, you
know, that I, I think that sounds right.

I mean, it's not necessarily good news,
but you know, it's it's, it's feels like

it's the inevitability of, of things, you

Maria del Pilar Casal: not.

I think it's, listen, if you're a
publisher and your bread and butter

is the website, it's not great news.

But I think it's a good
reminder that you need to have a

diversified monetization strategy.

So it can't and I don't think that
many businesses have placed all

their or publishers have placed
all their bets on the website.

The issue is that it, it goes
again, back to ownership.

Many publishers put so much efforts
into social media and every time that

algorithm changes, they would get hit
and their referral traffic would get hit.

But at the same time, because they
own their websites, that's where they

wanted to make sure they were getting
mo where they were putting most of their

efforts, driving folks to the website.

And so this continues to decrease.

I, that's why I mentioned newsletters
and any way of capturing proprietary

data and first party data, right?

So email, no one can ever take your email.

List from you.

An email, I don't know that's going
away, at least in the next few years.

So I think it's important to always
make sure that if you are a publisher,

if you're a content creator, if that's
your business, as the content people

consume that going back to our earlier
point, you are diversified and where

you're present and in the content
formats if you, where you, the content

formats that you leverage, right?

We don't know what's
gonna happen with TikTok.

What will the sale look like?

Does that mean a new app?

Does that mean you.

The algorithm's different.

Are you losing followers?

We don't know any of that.

So I think it's not great news, but
it's just a reminder that you really

have to diver diversify what you're
doing and embrace what's coming

because it's here regardless of
whether you jump on the ship or not.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Well, this
is a lot of great information, Pilar,

Appreciate you sharing so much.

I, I think you know, you've got
some great experience and some, some

With some you know, big
enterprise brands, so that's.

That's great for our audience.

Now if people would like to work
with you, I understand you, you offer

consulting and if they would like to
work with you, collaborate with you

on content, how can they find you?

Maria del Pilar Casal: Yes, the best
way I probably should be building up

my email list and follow my own advice.

The best way to reach me is on
LinkedIn and I can share it for

the notes here for the post.

But it's Maria del Pilar casal.

You can find me and I used to be the
only Maria Lar Casal on LinkedIn.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Oh.

Maria del Pilar Casal: there's four of us.

It's global.

One of them is in Argent, so
I'm the only one in the us.

But there's more people popping up.

But you can find me on
LinkedIn, send me a DM.

I'm very responsive there.

And yeah, reach out for
a chat or to learn more.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: great.

Well thanks so much for joining us
Pi, and we will you look forward to

future collaborations and, and and
following the great content you put out.

Maria del Pilar Casal: No.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate the time.

This has been a really great conversation.

Speaker 2: Want to stay ahead of what's
actually working in marketing right now.

Head over to Market surge.io

and see how we're helping businesses
grow smarter, faster, and louder.

That's market surge.io

because your next breakthrough
shouldn't be a guess.