Marketing Showcase: Turning Insights into Action

Last week, a couple of members of the CitCom team had the privilege of attending the marketing showcase at Edgbaston Cricket Ground. It’s not every day that we get to step out of the office and into the world of networking, listening, and learning with our fellow marketers… so rest assured, insights were documented, ideas were formed, and too many coffees were consumed.

Here are our top 3 takeaways of the day.

1. AEO may be the new SEO

Search is evolving – and fast. The focus is no longer solely on ranking, but on optimiszing for the answer. Enter Answer-engine optimisation, stage left!

AI Chatbot search has increased by 80.9% YOY from April 2024 to March 2025 and fewer consumers are clicking-through to websites. We’re entering a zero-click era: If the answer isn’t served on a silver platter, users move on.

With 70% of buying decisions happening off-site (through AI summaries and reviews) authority comes from relevance, clarity, and usefulness, rather than volume or keywords. Brands need to build influence where decisions are forming. If your content isn’t AI-ready, it won’t get picked.

2. Attention is a currency

Did you know you have around eight seconds to say something compelling before you lose a consumer’s attention? Creative assets give you even less, at just 1.2 seconds on average. If your content doesn’t land quickly, it doesn’t land at all. 

That means one idea per video, and one key takeaway. Videos become more powerful when treated like chapters, not monologues – made for snippets, native formats and segmented audiences.  

That’s not to say content can’t be recycled and repurposed. A single shoot can produce social cuts, ads, GIFs, behind-the-scenes content, photography and evergreen assets… but attention is never guaranteed. It has a price, and it’s earned. And that cost is only rising. 

When content is relevant, snappy, and well-paced, you can hook them long enough to stay… even in just a 1.2-second glance. Use it sparingly.

3. Email still converts, when it’s personal and optimised 

Email marketing is far from dead. In fact, it remains one of the most effective conversion channels – not by chance, but by craft. Performance improves when messages are tailored to individuals and the channel itself. This means readable fonts, above the fold content, thumb-friendly CTAs/links, few emojis, and intentional whitespace. 

Thoughtful design gets it delivered, personalisation gets it opened, and segmentation makes it resonate. When the email respects the platform and the reader, it delivers depth, storytelling and conversion power that many channels may struggle to replicate. 

As always, the marketing landscape may be an orchestra of noise, but strategy is the conductor. Today, success belongs to brands that evolve and adapt with intent. Necessities lie in platform-optimisation, AI-consideration, and tailoring. 

If we’ve held your attention this far, we must have done something right. Thank you for reading – we hope these takeaways are as insightful for you as they were for us. Get in touch today and we can help you turn strategy into action.