1. Equity
I’m not sure how Google would define “equity,” but my definition of equity is “stored value.”
As a homeowner, you understand home equity as the stored value that it offers you.
Your equity in your home is a product of all the time, energy, and money that you have put into it, plus the value that has been added by the passage of time.
Relational equity is accumulated in the same way.
“What have we invested in each other? What have we endured? How many years have we traveled through life together?”
Relational equity is why we tolerate annoyances and troubles from the people we love. They have added value to our lives, so they have relational equity in us.
Likewise, customer-bonding ads create relational equity between today’s businesses and tomorrow’s customers. They do this by highlighting shared perspectives, beliefs, and values.
Customer-bonding ads communicate authenticity, and vulnerability. And they are always there, 52 weeks a year. Authenticity, vulnerability, and the passage of time are not easy to fake or accelerate.
Keep those things in mind as you read on.
2. AI
Eighty-seven Wizards of Ads who stay in regular touch with nearly 1,000 businesses are a reliable finger on the pulse of what is happening.
This is what is happening:
Google Search results have been altered in a dramatic and unexpected way. Some companies have benefited greatly from Google’s new methodology while other companies have been devastated by it.
You’ll understand what separates the winners from the losers in just a moment.
With 6,000 employees, Edelman is the world’s largest PR agency. They help companies worldwide manage their reputations and trust through stories published in mass media.
Edelman has been doing what they do since 1952.
On October 27, 2025, Christmas decorations were vibrating in anticipation of replacing Halloween decor when Brent Nelson – Chief Strategy Officer at Edelman – was quoted in Ad Age magazine.
Explaining why Google dramatically expanded their results-ranking criteria, Nelson said,
“What drives visibility isn’t your ad budget or keyword bids; it’s earned media. Analysis shows that 90% of what appears in AI summaries is ‘earned-driven’—pulled from reviews, press, blogs, forums and cultural chatter. Paid now plays a different role, amplifying what’s already there.”
“The new shelf space isn’t a store; it’s the AI summary. Brands need to understand their earned footprint across AI-generated answers.”
“Who gets cited? Who’s trusted? Who’s missing? That’s the new baseline of visibility.”
In other words, Google is now rewarding Relational Equity.
3. A Prediction
Hundreds of new companies are about to leap into the Public Relations business. Their goal will be to get their clients mentioned in online press, blogs, forums and cultural chatter.
PR is an easy business to get into. It won’t be long before you are approached by someone who has a PR solution to help you improve your AEO (Ask Engine Optimization).
If you remember any of today’s Monday Morning Memo, let it be this:
“If you don’t have anything interesting to say, don’t let anyone convince you to pay money to say it.”
Company slogans, mush-mouth clichés and traditional ad-speak are not going to move the needle.
Every month or two, you are going to need something new, exciting, different, and entirely real to say.
4. A Suggestion
Radio stations would be smart to start a daily or weekly blog that is fun, quick, entertaining, easy-to-read, and full of valuable things that every consumer would want to know about.
If I owned a station in Austin, I would call my blog “Cool Things Austin Needs to Know”
If my blog was well written and full of actionable information and enough people got into the habit of scanning it each day, my radio station could become an important contributor to the online press, blogs, forums and cultural chatter that are now so very important.
Could a Radio station become a major online player in their community? Absolutely!
Remember, radio stations have the power to popularize their online blogs FOR FREE. Announcers could quote interesting tidbits from it each day and build a massive readership. Offline radio excitement would become online blog excitement.
Do I expect that radio stations will do this? Nope.
But if a few do dare to do it, do I expect them to be successful? Nope.
These are the four ways that their bosses will force them to screw it up.
1. They will try to make it a source of direct revenue.
2. They won’t write about anything or anyone who doesn’t advertise on their station.
3. They will allow advertisers to influence what is said about them in the blog.
4. It will be badly written, boring, and of no value to anyone.
But it would absolutely work if they did it right.
5. Closing comments
We are overwhelmed by a Three Ring Circus of media: online, offline, local, national, audio, video, print, outdoor, broadcast, streaming, digital, analog, physical, old-school, new-school, professional, amateur, full-color and black-and-white.
It is never the media that makes the message work.
It is always the message that makes the media work.
If you don’t have anything interesting to say,
don’t let anyone convince you to pay money to say it.
Roy H. Williams
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