“Last year I went to Brighton SEO and I saw this statistic: nearly 97% of content gets no traffic from Google. As somebody who has been in digital PR my entire career, this broke my heart.”

That’s how Nicole Franco, Head of Digital PR + AI Innovation at Fractl, opened her talk and it long time content marketers felt the sting of truth. With over 5,000 campaigns under her belt, Nicole knows exactly why most content dies in obscurity… and what the top 3% are doing differently.

In a world where Google’s new “AI Mode” threatens to bury your blue links, Nicole offered a crystal-clear roadmap for winning attention, backlinks, and media coverage, even in the age of generative search.

If you’re relying on generic blogs or lazy outreach, you’re already behind. Here’s what you really need to know.

Google Just Rocked the SEO World

The event opened with commentary on the shockwaves from Google Marketing Live, which introduced “AI Mode” which is a generative search overlay that might permanently bypass your blue links.

“Google’s going to actually have an option when you go to regular Google search that you can switch to AI mode… a generative chat experience but with pure search results.”

And if that didn’t raise your blood pressure?

“They’re also showing how this is gonna be more paid search… and if you haven’t heard the term already… we’re calling AI agents. Not bots; agents. Agentic.”

So your “10 Best SEO Tips” blog post just got pushed off the SERPs by a shiny AI box. The solution? According to Nicole, it’s all about earning links that real journalists actually want to cover.

 

3 Campaigns That Crushed & Why

1. Ghost Jobs: 700+ Backlinks and Counting

Campaign for: Clarify Capital
What it exposed: Companies posting job listings with zero intention to hire
How? Surveyed 1,000 hiring managers. Found 1 in 10 had ghost jobs open for more than 6 months.

Results: 700+ links. Wall Street Journal. TIME. BBC. Business Insider.

A Clarify Capital campaign that exposed job listings with no intent to hire.

“We surveyed 1,000 hiring managers… and found nearly one in ten had a job open for more than six months.”

This hit during layoff season and tapped into public anger.
Results? Coverage in WSJ, BBC, TIME, Business Insider, CBS, CNBC, and 700+ links.

“That piece of content was sitting happily on the client’s website just gaining a ton of traction year over year.”

Why it worked:
✔️ Emotional hook (workforce betrayal) – Perfect mix of outrage and timing
✔️ Timely news cycle – Hit during peak layoff season
✔️ Unique insight + coined phrase
✔️ Tangential, but totally relevant to brand (they offer small business loans)

 

2. Scrolling Into Bias: AI’s “Perfect Body” Is Blonde

Campaign for: Lumina
What it did: Asked AI to generate the “perfect” female and male bodies
Findings: Blonde, brown eyes, olive skin. Every time.

Results: 500+ links. Fox News. Daily Mail. Yahoo.

A haunting study of AI image bias for Lumina.com using Midjourney, DALL·E 2, and Stable Diffusion.

“40% of the images actually provided negative beauty standards… the ‘perfect’ woman was blonde, with brown eyes and olive skin.”

Released during peak conversations about Barbie, influencers, and digital dysmorphia.

Why it worked:
✔️ Socially charged topic – Body image + AI + TikTok = wildfire
✔️ Emotional tension
✔️ Timed with Barbie release and TikTok discussions
✔️ Gut-punch headline journalists couldn’t ignore

 

3. Best States for Women-Owned Businesses: 200+ Backlinks

Campaign for: Clarify Capital (again)
Built a meta-ranking: 50 states, 5 variables
Bonus move: Matched it to National Small Business Week

“We could pitch niche publications in every single state.”

Results: CNBC. The Hill. Yahoo. Local press across 50 states

Why it worked:
✔️ Strong multi-dimensional dataset
✔️ National and localized relevance
✔️ Hopeful narrative post-COVID

 

A data meta-ranking timed with National Small Business Week.

“It opened up our pitching ability overall… we could pitch niche publications such as those in Alabama, California, etc.”

 

Why Most Campaigns Crash & Burn

Nicole didn’t just celebrate wins, she broke down why campaigns fail. Some brutal truths:

❌ “Not newsworthy.”

“The most negative sentiment we actually received from journalists was: your content is not newsworthy.”

If your content isn’t tied to the news cycle, no one cares. Period.

❌ “You missed the moment.”

“Don’t pitch a daylight savings campaign the day after daylight savings happens.”

Time your pitch to the peak of the news curve, not after the conversation has died.

❌ “It’s boring.”

“Just because a brand’s niche seems boring doesn’t mean the content you create has to be.”

70% of homeowners feeling “house poor” might sound dull, until you realize that single stat landed 1,100+ backlinks.

 

Real Advice for Small Teams & Agencies

Someone asked: How do I get started with outreach?

Nicole’s answer?

• Start with Gmail
• Use ChatGPT to find journalists covering your topic
• Don’t pitch garbage
• Make it newsworthy or don’t bother
• Think: Who, what, when, where, why. Can you already see the headline?

She’s pitched CNN, WSJ, Entrepreneur, and landed them all. But she started b

Nicole showed exact ChatGPT prompts they use at Fractl to help scale ideas, but emphasized AI doesn’t replace strategy.

“Wouldn’t it be great to just ask, ‘Hey Google, can you create a campaign for me that lands 100 links?’”

Spoiler: You can’t. But you can use GPT to:

• Identify trending topics
• Draft headlines and news hooks
• Reverse-engineer journalist needs
• Scrape TikTok & Google Trends for what’s next

Her favorite use?

“I have a newsjacking GPT that helps me put pitches together based on campaigns that landed press in the past two years.”

That’s the difference between “using AI” and actually scaling with it.

 

Final Takeaways

If you want to win in today’s AI-influenced, link-desperate world, here’s what Nicole and the SFIMA team want you to remember:

🎯 What All Great Campaigns Have in Common:

• They tell a story.
• They hit a nerve.
• They arrive on time.
• They ride the news.
• They serve journalists a headline on a silver platter.

“Journalists get a thousand pitches a day… Why not hand them the story on a silver platter?”

 

SFIMA: Where Smart Marketers Level Up

Digital marketers, SEOs, PPCs, web developers, and content creators using AI need a real source of marketing strategy.

That source? SFIMA.

We’ve been at this for years, way before generative AI and “AI mode” even existed. If you want fresh insights like these, you need to show up to events like this one.

And not just for the talks. You’ll meet people building real campaigns, testing wild ideas, and actually sharing what works.

Don’t miss the next one.

👉 Get tickets to our next event

Join for $99/year. Sponsor for $500.

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Want more strategy that doesn’t suck?

Check these out:

• How AI Impacts Facebook Ad Strategy
• 6 Networking Events That Actually Lead to Success
• Doral Meetup Kickstarts SFIMA’s Return to Live Events
• Pubcon SEO & PPC Deep Dives
• Event Recap: GA4 with Alan Knecht

Missed the event? Don’t miss the next one. Because this is where Florida’s best marketers are learning to stay ahead of Google, AI, and the 97%.