On 6 November, Bang Digital hosted a sold-out Intelligence Series event, moderated by Paula Greten, with panel insights from Renae Lunjevich (Managing Director) and Geordie Frost (Customer Experience Director).Across five core themes, the panel unpacked what’s changing in digital, what isn’t, and where marketers should be focusing as we head into 2026.
Geordie’s insights
•The AI hype is shifting into real operational impact.
• The priority for 2026 is embedding AI deeper into workflows, not just using ChatGPT for content.
• The biggest unlocked opportunity is one-to-one personalisation at scale.
Renae’s insights
• The fastest wins come from operational excellence: removing admin-heavy, repetitive tasks to free teams for strategy and creativity.
• Many businesses still rely on outdated or siloed reports.
• Real-time, cross-business reporting powered by AI and data warehousing transforms decision-making.
• The goal: spend time and budget where it matters.
Geordie
• AI-driven “how-to” and informational searches are rising, signalling early behavioural change.
• Generative search must now be a priority for all businesses — but we’re not yet at the point where it replaces traditional search.
• Google still holds more than 90% of global search volume, meaning the full behavioural shift will take time.
• Adoption will differ based on audience — making intent-first thinking more important than platform-first thinking.
Renae
• Businesses should prepare for generative search, but not pivot away from traditional SEO prematurely.
• Strong SEO fundamentals (FAQs, schema, purposeful content) naturally enhance performance across both AI search and traditional Google search.
• Avoid over-investing in “shiny new toy” tactics — build strategically for both worlds.
Where to focus next
• Create intent-led content that answers real user questions.
• Structure content clearly — both users and AI models reward clarity.
• Keep your existing SEO strong; it still drives the majority of discovery.
Geordie
• Apps bring transactional capability into ChatGPT (e.g. booking travel end-to-end).
• This hints at a “super app” future similar to WeChat.
• Adoption will be slow — most businesses don’t need to build ChatGPT apps yet.
• Marketers should focus on customer intent and behaviour before pursuing new channels.
AI Governance & Safe Rollout (Renae & Geordie)
• Start with repeatable tasks — they create the highest ROI.
• Don’t remove critical thinking from teams; AI should assist learning, not replace it.
• Intelligent automation (data movement, workflow building, integrations) often delivers more value than large-scale AI implementations.
Renae
• Human creativity, empathy and strategic thinking will become more valuable, not less.
• Teams must avoid automating away foundational learning.
• Reducing admin creates space for higher-order thinking — strategy, innovation, problem-solving.
Where marketers should train in 2026
• Less focus on prompt engineering (too fast-moving).
• More focus on strategic decision-making, problem solving, data interpretation and operational understanding.
Geordie
• Experimenting with AI tools builds intuition and awareness of possibility.
• A broad understanding of AI capability unlocks new opportunities.
Renae
• Future platform performance (Facebook/Meta and Google) will rely heavily on first-party data.
• Without strong integration, targeting quality and algorithm optimisation will decline.
Geordie
• The loop — ads, tracking, CRM, reporting, optimisation — is now essential.
• Clean, trustworthy data strengthens every touchpoint across the customer journey.
• Integration improves bidding, lead qualification, nurture and insight.
Renae
• Traffic and clicks are becoming less reliable due to AI overviews.
• Marketing must measure business KPIs: revenue, cost per qualified lead, conversion quality and customer value.
• Marketing needs to be directly linked to broader business objectives.
Geordie
• Attribution will never be perfect, but it is evolving.
• Focus on all contributing touchpoints and make informed, directional decisions.
Renae
• A major uplift in data maturity — better reporting, deeper insights and stronger strategic decisions.
Geordie
• Personalisation at true operational scale — finally becoming reality.
Awards aren't everything. But we are pretty proud to be Perth's most awarded Google Premier Partner agency. Over the years we have been recognised by both Telstra and Google in their award categories, which are highly competitive. Here's a few of our PPC advertising accolades we are particularly proud of.
