It’s time to capitalize on emerging trends, break new media ground, and see into the future
The new year is well and truly underway, and even blue Monday couldn’t stop us in our PR tracks! As out of office emails fade away and journalists return to their digital desks, January has seen us break into new coverage markets with new clients. But that’s not all! Our clients demonstrate why they’re respected thought leaders with timely crystal ball gazing, while our team experiments with new marketing strategies to navigate the era of Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)!
Hoist the industry sector market coverage flags—our clients are going for gold!
No New Year hangover for our clients! The new year brings an opportunity to forge fresh coverage inroads – and we’ve hit the ground running with our new asset investment planning and management software client. They are in the thick of it, selling to embattled electrical utilities trying to deliver power 24×7 in the face of bad weather, while EVs and data centers eat up their power grids! We set out a two-prong campaign with a piece digging deep into the planning and investment challenges reshaping the electrical grid’s future, followed by a case study from a major utilities provider. The result has been outstanding with some fantastic early coverage across energy and utilities media in North America.
Going a level deeper, the team has deployed social listening to track key utilities topics across a selection of top national journalists. That work is paying off, as we’ve secured a golden coverage interview opportunity with Reuters, watch this space!
Field leaders show it by helping educate the market
We wouldn’t be starting the year off on the right foot if we didn’t mention prediction pieces! They’re top of mind across our client base, particularly for our data movement client where their AI predictions piece gave them a head start as drafting and pitching took place in the run up to the festive period – ‘All AI want for Christmas!’ anyone?! It’s already proved a hit across top IT media in North America and Europe and the interest has only continued to grow!
As we’ve mentioned before, predictions articles are a powerful way to show prospects and the media that you’re a genuine thought leader. After all, leaders don’t just follow the market—they help educate it. When a new year comes, the IBA team has also practiced what we preach, so check out our take on what’s coming for B2B marketing in 2026.
New year, new strategies: IBA takes on the AI Overviews
It’s not just our clients who are entering 2026 with new strategies and thinking about the implications of AI. We’ve been closely tracking the rise of AI Overviews and how this is impacting the way search users discover and engage with content. In fact, this month we’ve done some digging for ourselves to see if we can reverse engineer Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) to help improve brand visibility for our clients.
No surprises that data is the key. Whether it is assessing global coverage by quantity or by industry sector, analytics help determine where you’re already hitting the mark and where there are coverage gaps to be filled. AEO is taking target practiceto a new level!
Spoiler alert: the overriding positive for B2B PR campaigns is that authoritative media outlets = authoritative sources in AI-generated answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and more. It’s early days for AEO but we’re on it already.
Not even a snowmageddon or a very Blue Monday could stop us in our PR tracks, and the years only just begun!
With the shortest month just around the corner, buckle up and brace for the year of PR and marketing ahead.
January definitely felt like a long one, but that hasn’t stopped us from breaking new coverage ground for our latest client, reeling in prediction article placements, and even going head-to-head with new AEO strategies – even North America’s snowmageddon couldn’t cover our media visibility!
Daniel Bellamy is Graduate PR Executive at IBA International.
