#153 - The 3 levers that keep you visible in 2026

Joubin Rahimi

Great to have you back for a new episode of insights!. My name is Joubin Rahimi and I'm Annette Kriszun. Yes, we hadn't actually agreed on that, but I would have first said your wrong surname, or your wrong, no, your maiden name.

Annette Kriszun

Yes, we've known each other that long.

Joubin Rahimi

Exactly, you're the person I've known longest across all podcast episodes. So I'm glad you're here today, in your home town, in our home town. And you've had a tremendously impressive career. We met at some point when it was still called PIA, I believe? You were in performance marketing then.

Annette Kriszun

Performance Media was that.

Joubin Rahimi

Performance Media was even before that, that's right. Exactly, we had a touchpoint again there and now you're managing director of a really exciting unit. Perhaps you'd like to say 2, 3 sentences about a unit, a joint venture. Yes, yes, exactly.

Annette Kriszun

I'm now managing director of Scholz & Friends Digital Media GmbH. We're essentially the specialist agency for media teams within Scholz & Friends, and we're a joint venture between PIA Media and Scholz & Friends.

Joubin Rahimi

And why this so exciting for you all is that LLMs and AI change so much, we all know that, but where do you notice it most? With customer. And where do they move? Across all channels. And who's that for? So in that sense we get a glimpse into the future for most, who currently do far, far less, because many of our clients aren't so strong in the media business, more B2B-focused, and it doesn't affect them quite as much, though there are certainly B2B players active there too. But it's a look into the crystal ball of the future, that's why it's brilliant that you're here today.

Annette Kriszun

Thank you.

Joubin Rahimi

What would you say has changed drastically in the past year in the media landscape or media environment?

Annette Kriszun

Well, I think the buzzword of the last year and a half is AI and efficiency. And efficiency simply has different levels. On one hand, clients want agencies to become more efficient and cheaper.

Joubin Rahimi

Cheaper and faster.

Annette Kriszun

Cheaper and faster. At the same time, you can also see that the business is changing significantly, both on the agency side and the client side. Shop systems in particular, since you just mentioned the e-commerce situation, are heavily dependent on the traffic they generate on their landing page. And the topic of LLM traffic dropping away is a major issue, which also concerns us in the media area.

Joubin Rahimi

Do you see that in the data too?

Annette Kriszun

Yes, we see that in the data.

Joubin Rahimi

We're really deep into the data.

Annette Kriszun

Yes, yes, we do have Scholz & Friends on board as the creative side. But I always handle the somewhat more boring part for the creatives, the data-driven part. And there you can clearly see that traffic has dropped sharply within shop systems, but a lot is also falling away in insurance and banking.

Joubin Rahimi

And how are insurers, banks now trying to compensate for that? More SEA budget, or?

Annette Kriszun

That doesn't really help. In the end you go right back into the old business model, where people thought it was basically already dead as a channel. The topic of SEO and affiliate marketing is taking on a very high priority again, because you have to be much more content-driven in order to be found within LLM search and achieve a high ranking and be mentioned. And that's why you have to position your marketing quite differently in this respect than you did before.

Joubin Rahimi

And how? Exactly, yes, sure, since you're here already.

Annette Kriszun

So I think that the typical—

Joubin Rahimi

I believe, if you know that yourself, you won't necessarily get there.

Annette Kriszun

Yes, I think the typical answer from a marketer is that it's very customer-specific how you need to do that.

Joubin Rahimi

As always.

Annette Kriszun

That's why, no, you have to think very strongly from two corners. One is of course from topic of creation, so creating good content and again putting focus on topic of brand strength. And second topic is of course, within media finding ways to be found within these LLMs too. That means being out there more again in content marketing area too. And that's very exciting within industry, because of course budgets happening behind paid walls too, so also Spiegel topic and subscription model, are topics that don't happen in LLMs at all. That means we have to think differently again too, how we spend marketing budget.

Joubin Rahimi

Why do I need to rethink brand now? By 'new' you probably mean thinking more intensively, right?

Annette Kriszun

Yes, you have to think it more intensively, because as brand you must differentiate yourself more strongly again. Everyone says, we do that anyway. But if you still look at your competitors and USPs they advertise with, they're often very comparable, if you're honest. And LLMs are very tough. Yes, they compare that very strongly with what you've communicated externally in content-driven way. And at same time it of course helps big topic of emotionalising a brand. When you think of McDonald's or Coca-Cola. I don't know, everyone has budget, but they've simply managed to emotionalise at that point. And that helps again to be first choice.

Joubin Rahimi

How is it for industrial customers, or for us as TIMETOACT GROUP? Is emotionalisation a topic there too?

Annette Kriszun

I think I'd lean more towards SEO, so how do I build my landing page, my shops, so that I feature more strongly in LLMs again. And of course the topic of user experience. I can be crawled ever so well in the LLMs, but if my shop experience isn't good, customers simply won't be bothered and will say. There's also provider B, that's much more pleasant for me. That's why this remains a highly relevant topic that needs to be addressed.

Joubin Rahimi

You said content creation is needed again now, they need to develop new formats, bring the brand forward. Now at the same time we've got all this, like here TikTok versus Meta, these are also changing implicitly, probably also explicitly through AI-generated content. Do you see where this is heading? So will we soon only have synthetic content, or?

Annette Kriszun

Yes, I think that's a strongly European perspective. Because if you look at Asia,

Joubin Rahimi

You were there too just now.

Annette Kriszun

Yes, I've just come from that area. If you look at Asia, the topic of live shopping in social media environments is much more present there, and they work more with influencers. Of course AI is also always a topic, there are strong AI testimonials too, but I don't think you have to view AI so negatively, rather you can see it as support. You just have to be careful, and we're currently testing this in Germany and Europe. Totally. Incorporating AI into visual language. And I think every company has to find its own guidance on that. There are some brands that say, I won't use AI for people, meaning for human representation. And I think you have to watch how buyers react to that, what the response in Europe is.

Joubin Rahimi

So you still don't have any figures or insights?

Annette Kriszun

No, it's still too early for that. And Asia is a completely different market, and America works quite differently too.

Joubin Rahimi

Asia isn't just ahead of the times, that's my interpretation, but you're saying Asia is also different from us in Germany. If we look two years ahead, we won't become like Asia. Yes, definitely. Why?

Annette Kriszun

For me that's down to 2 factors. One is the bandwidth, how I can use the internet. That's noticeably lower in Europe than what I now have in Asia.

Joubin Rahimi

That hurts, right? Telekom, are you listening?

Annette Kriszun

That actually hurts, because I also like being online. And the second thing is also how you consume. In Asia it's much more normal to work with delivery services. 20 years ago it was normal to order something and have a delivery service arrive directly. And that's simply a very convenient format that people are strongly embracing, because the population also isn't only ever in the city. It's structured differently again, and that's why the logistics are structured differently again.

Joubin Rahimi

What also struck me when I was over there: while eating, far more people were on their phones, constantly on their phones. And especially among younger people, they were just purely on their phones, eating together, and we then somehow just watched, like watching TV. And they interacted little with each other themselves, but took photos, took selfies with the food, with themselves, and then posted or communicated again. I found that, I don't know if that was normal, that was in Vietnam, that was, that was noticeable, let's say, that was different.

Annette Kriszun

Yes, although I think that's already spilled over into Germany quite a bit more strongly. Yes, but you have to discipline yourself. Even on the underground, nobody looks at anyone else any more, everyone just looks at their phone. But sure, it's much more present here.

Joubin Rahimi

You said content creation has to change and media is changing too.

Annette Kriszun

And both have to talk to each other.

Joubin Rahimi

Crazy thought, probably, right?

Annette Kriszun

Yes, crazy idea.

Joubin Rahimi

But actually that's not quite right, is it? Of course they talk to each other.

Annette Kriszun

Well, I think that realisation has been around for a while now. That's actually what led to the joint venture being founded back then. And there are several companies now that offer creative and media together. But it's simply important that media and creative teams talk to each other very early on in projects, and that creative can use the data that media has and analyses, and that they're genuinely talking about the same platforms on which they want to produce the content or creative formats. Because even with close alignment, things can sometimes still run at cross purposes if that's been understood differently. And that's still growing – working closely together there and developing a shared understanding of it.

Joubin Rahimi

Yes, if I compare TikTok and Insta with TV, it's totally clear they have to be different. But Insta versus TikTok is already different too, isn't it? So it's not like you'd say, basically play out everything the same way, but—

Annette Kriszun

No, no, no, you really have to produce it very specifically. Because the social platforms also have entirely different orientations. On one it's more video content, and specifically more user-generated video content. On another it's an even stronger scrolling behaviour, where people consume less video and perhaps only watch for 2 seconds, unless they're really hooked at that point. That's why you really have to look at it specifically.

Joubin Rahimi

You're a pro in this space. We're – well, synaigy is a somewhat different space, but we have something in common: we have children, and do they have devices, or do they have devices? What's the attitude there? Advertising lives from having the hook and catching people. As a parent, that's certainly how I feel, I don't want that at all. That's a bit of a brainfuck, isn't it? Dad, you work in this space too. Yes, that's why.

Annette Kriszun

Yes, I'm lucky, my children are still a bit younger, so they don't quite understand it yet. But sure, I also find it an advantage because you know what the dangers are of the various platforms. But of course it's a completely different generation than we were.

Joubin Rahimi

Sure, we didn't have that.

Annette Kriszun

Started up an Amiga 500 to get onto the internet.

Joubin Rahimi

I think by the time of my school-leaving exams I had a smartphone, mobile phone. Yes, but that was texting, 40 pfennigs or something like that.

Annette Kriszun

30 characters or how many was it?

Joubin Rahimi

I don't even know.

Annette Kriszun

Think carefully about what you write, and, yes, that's a big challenge. You can see it with Australia too, how they're handling it now.

Joubin Rahimi

That would have been my follow-up question.

Annette Kriszun

With the UK. Well, I can completely understand that, and I think I judge it, I believe, quite well, this step, that the industry says about some things that they don't like it so much, which is also understandable. Yes, we obviously have to look at how we handle social media and also AI, that's moving on again now, Scott Galloway just said so as well.

Joubin Rahimi

No, I wasn't there, what did he say?

Annette Kriszun

Just like last year, he also said again that relationships are of course hugely important, and they get lost because people now have AI friendships, synthetic friendships that always only suggest positive things. Interpersonal relationships live on good times and sometimes worse ones too. That's why I do think it's a good step for us to regulate ourselves a bit, because it's also crazy that you'd just hand children the world on a plate. Alcohol and cigarettes are regulated too, but with this topic I think society itself has to grow into it.

Joubin Rahimi

And what I found exciting now, well of course Australia everyone will have heard about, it was big in the press here too. Taiwan also did something exciting. I was at DLD, and there was, I think it was the Minister for Digitalisation or Digital Minister of Taiwan, who was elected or brought into office in a rather amusing way, but that's another story. And they said if TikTok has a certain number of, well, messages where certain things are sent or shown that shouldn't be shown, once they cross that threshold they start reducing TikTok's bandwidth. So if TikTok then doesn't take down, let's say, malicious videos or content, the bandwidth drops. And after they gradually introduced that, or after it was introduced, TikTok slowly really started making an effort to push out the clearly identifiable bots. I found that exciting.

Annette Kriszun

The topic of content regulation and monitoring is hugely complex and difficult. We've already seen that with Meta. That's why it's an intermediate step that we've already tried to take, I believe, in Germany and Europe. But such strong regulation on age limits is of course an even stronger step, similar to what you'd do with certain films, right? Only from 12 or 16 years.

Joubin Rahimi

Take a look anyway first.

Annette Kriszun

Right, there will certainly be more, but that would of course be even stronger.

Joubin Rahimi

What would you recommend to managing directors and business leaders? What, say, 3 things would you give them to boost their visibility towards LLMs and on the GEO side?

Annette Kriszun

To push it up? Of course, driving further optimisation of one's own landing page. I'd assume that's happening anyway, but that it's really being brought back into budgetary focus, because perhaps it was seen as a given for a while.

Joubin Rahimi

But then the landing pages, and not the classic website at all?

Annette Kriszun

Yes, the landing page is also somewhere that needs stronger testing again, because I also think users have changed, and the requirement for the landing page at this point is that you also try to use the data feeds you have more creatively again, also in the area of customer experience and suggestions, predictions at this point, and that you then see again to what extent you can push content from outside your own platform more strongly again, right?

Joubin Rahimi

Yes.

Annette Kriszun

The classic affiliate marketing topic, content distribution rethought as 2.0.

Joubin Rahimi

Reddit and so on, does Reddit play a role or is that more of a hyped-up role?

Annette Kriszun

On Reddit, the target audience itself is so small and the traffic still manageable, that it wouldn't have a big impact on LLMs in Germany. So I'd say that's a niche topic, nice to have. You'd rather look at which platforms really have high reach, and how the various LLMs, and we're not just talking about one, actually pull the content out. And that's also something still in development, and what makes the whole space so exciting.

Joubin Rahimi

Always changing.

Annette Kriszun

Yes, that's also why it's so much fun to work in marketing, because the world has changed so much over the last 15 years, moving away from CPC into the whole social media and now LLM topic.

Joubin Rahimi

If you have more questions for Annette, write them below or message Annette directly on LinkedIn. I'm sure you'll learn a lot more than I managed to ask today. Thanks for watching, thanks for taking the time, right after the trip. And you said it still feels like 7pm today, and it's 1pm, right?

Annette Kriszun

Yes, yes.

Joubin Rahimi

The day is long.

Annette Kriszun

It's 1pm now, I'm good for another 3 hours. Thank you very much, Joubin.

Joubin Rahimi

Gladly, thanks, Annette.

Annette Kriszun

Bye.