The future of marketing is being rewritten right now, and the conversation is electric.
On June 9, AMA Charlotte hosted its premier marquee event, 704Forward, inside the unique, high-energy atmosphere of the Triple C Brewing Barrel Room. The night brought together some of the brightest minds in influencer marketing and artificial intelligence to tackle the ultimate modern marketing paradox: How do we balance lightning-fast technological innovation with authentic human connection?
As a former program speaker on both the AMA Charlotte and AMA Chicago stages, it was inspiring to look out at a packed room of the city’s most forward-thinking marketing professionals. And as I sat in the audience listening to the excellent pro panel, I couldn’t help but look at the conversation through the lens of my own creative influencer journey.
I’ve been in the trenches of the creator economy since its inception. Way back in 2009, General Motors named me one of the top social media women in Chicago, which led to a memorable breakfast strategy session with their CEO. By 2011, I was moderating panels on the intersection of bloggers and brands at the Bloggers and Brands Summit. I’ve lived the evolution of this space from the early days of raw text blogs to talking about the future of modern creators on Convince and Convert’s Influence Pros podcast on How to Use Micro Influencers to Build Big Engagement.
When you’ve spent nearly two decades navigating these shifts, you realize that while the platforms change, the psychology of influence never does. Here’s my perspective on what went down on stage at 704Forward, and what it means for the next era of marketing.
The Lineup: Powerhouse Perspectives in Charlotte Marketing
The evening’s panel was masterfully guided by Ohavia Phillips-Reed, founder of The cOHllab and the in-arena host for the Charlotte Hornets. Ohavia brought pure sports-arena energy, guiding the conversation with her signature focus on love and impact.
She was joined by an excellent lineup representing every corner of the modern creative ecosystem:
- Amanda Williams: Group Director of Integrated Communications at Wray Ward, bringing a 24-year agency legacy of crafting high-impact influencer partnerships.
- Ausley Karner: Director of Influencer Marketing at NASCAR, driving how the sport shows up natively in modern culture through creator partnerships.
- Matthew Wilson: Head of Global Revenue and Enterprise Partnerships at Scale Social, a creator economy pro specializing in turning influence into predictable business outcomes.
- Sunita “Sunni” Gabrielle: Content creator, event producer, and founder of Queens Society CLT, known for community-first content that natively builds real local relationships.
Key Takeaways & Expert Commentary
1. Navigating a Non-Linear Consumer Journey
Amanda Williams kicked off a crucial discussion about how fundamentally the audience journey has fractured. The traditional marketing funnel is no longer a straight line; consumers bounce fluidly between discovery, consideration, and purchase.
Because of this, digital can lead to exhaustion; integrated campaigns must optimize to be everywhere. Amanda introduced the room to a vital shift: it’s no longer just about standard SEO anymore. Modern marketers must design strategies around AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) to win real estate in AI search layouts. And, she urged brands to throw out old audience personas. If you haven’t updated ICPs in the last six months, you’re marketing to a past version of consumer reality that no longer exists.
2. Pairing Behavioral Science with AI
When Ohavia asked Sunni Gabrielle how she builds deep trust in a whirlpool of algorithms and automation, Sunni’s answer was instantaneous: vulnerability. By sharing her real, raw experiences, like the struggle of making friends in a new city over the age of 30, she built an organic community of hundreds of women who genuinely show up for one another.
Matthew Wilson masterfully tied this back to qualitative data and behavioral science. A common corporate misconception is that creators only drive top-of-funnel vanity metrics. In reality, a diversification of assets, faces, and human messaging is what feeds modern algorithms and drives predictable business outcomes.
My Take: Large Language Models (LLMs) and tools like ChatGPT or Gemini are incredible for efficiency, speed-to-market, and data analysis. But as the panel agreed, AI can’t manufacture “soul”. To unlock maximum ROI, brands must use AI to handle the collateral grunt work, freeing up humans to inject the genuine storytelling that stops the scroll.
3. The Shift to Bespoke Creator Partnerships
Amanda highlighted the heavy friction that often exists when dealing with multiple layers of talent managers and agents. Her agency’s solution? Throw out the rigid, cookie-cutter creative brief. When a brand sends a strict, robotic script, creators feel handcuffed. Instead, establish top-line guidelines (the critical “do’s and don’ts”) and allow the creator to build something bespoke that natively thrives on their specific channel.
A Question of Community: Podcasting & Media Integration
During the audience Q&A session, I stepped up to the microphone to bring a topic close to my community into the spotlight: audio content and community building.
With Charlotte playing host to the upcoming Empowered Podcasting Conference this August, where I am honored to be a featured panelist speaking on community, I asked the experts:
“How can brands and podcasters collaborate more effectively to build deep, sustainable communities around audio content?”
The panel offered some brilliant, forward-thinking tactical advice:
- Ausley Karner (NASCAR) unpacked the strategy of the “cross-platform echo”. Her favorite approach is partnering with lifestyle creators who also run podcasts. By bringing them trackside into the intense, behind-the-scene world of the NASCAR garage, they capture high-velocity real-time social content for immediate release. Then, a month later, they might dive deep into a long-form podcast episode to unpack the emotional experience. It creates an incredibly rich, extended content lifecycle.
- Amanda Williams added that modern PR teams are now pitching top podcasters exactly like traditional media outlets, utilizing specialized AI discovery platforms. For specific niches—like the tradespeople, plumbers, and builders her team manages—audio is a dominant, high-indexing medium. These audiences spend many hours a day in their trucks listening to audio, making podcast integration a non-negotiable part of modern campaign recommendations.
Beyond the Contract: The True Power of Influence
Listening to the panel discuss managing creator relationships brought me back to my work on the agency side. I’ve managed large-scale influencer campaigns for national book launches, and served as the interface between Bosch Power Tools North America and their community of creators.
In 2010, I co-created and directed a global program for the British Council’s TNT2020 initiative, bringing creators from all over the world to Chicago to explore how social media can be leveraged for social good.
What I’ve learned from both sides of the coin,as a creator who has partnered with travel and tourism boards like Atlantic City, major automotive brands, and lifestyle companies, is that everyone has influence.
Influence isn’t just about the size of a contract; it’s about the waves of impact you create. When I co-founded Social Media Club Chicago and grew it into one of the largest chapters in the world with over 3,000 members, it wasn’t built on paid advertising. It was built on real relationships and shared experiences and lots and lots of Dominos Pizza.
Today, whether I am dropping an in-depth review of a world-class art exhibition like the Dior exhibit just to shine a spotlight on a venue, or counseling a B2B brand on how to structure a creator campaign, the rule remains the same: The magic happens when you brew your own authentic experience around the brand.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is the difference between SEO, AEO, and GEO?
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Optimizing your website and content to rank highly on traditional search engines like Google.
- AEO (Answer Engine Optimization): Structuring content specifically to answer direct conversational questions asked through voice assistants (like Alexa or Siri) and early-stage AI search interfaces.
- GEO (Generative Engine Optimization): The newest frontier in marketing. It involves optimizing your brand’s digital footprint so that Large Language Models (like Gemini, ChatGPT, and Perplexity) discover, synthesize, and explicitly cite your content as an authoritative source in their generative AI responses.
How does behavioral science apply to influencer marketing?
Behavioral science looks past basic quantitative numbers (like follower counts or impressions) to understand the psychological why behind consumer actions. In influencer marketing, it helps brands understand how factors like cognitive bias, social proof, and relational trust shape a consumer’s purchasing journey, allowing for highly personalized, impactful content strategies.
What is a “bespoke” creator model?
Instead of handing an influencer a rigid, pre-written script that makes them sound like a corporate robot, the bespoke model provides the creator with top-line brand guidelines and the essential “do’s and don’ts.” The creator is then given the artistic freedom to produce content in their own unique voice, which natively resonates with their organic audience and drives significantly higher engagement.
Can influencer marketing work for complex B2B industries?
Absolutely. At the heart of it, B2B influencers are educators. Whether it’s specialized finance, commercial architecture, or industrial trades, every niche has trusted experts who share product insights, field tutorials, and industry reviews. Partnering with these micro-influencers allows B2B brands to build immense credibility right where critical purchasing decisions are being made.
Meet Barbara Rozgonyi
Barbara Rozgonyi is a pioneer in digital marketing, an international keynote speaker, and an AI & PR Visibility Strategist. As the founder of CoryWest Media and the creator of the Influence Waves™ framework, she helps executives, fractional CMOs, and forward-thinking brands amplify their presence, master Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), and command authority in a tech-driven marketplace.
Barbara is the publisher of WiredPRWorks™, ranked #32 on Feedspot’s “100 Best Public Relations Blogs” for 2026, an international columnist, and an alumna of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. A former Chicagoan now thriving in the University area of Charlotte, North Carolina, she serves as a dynamic link between two of the country’s most vibrant marketing communities.
Ride the Next Influence Wave
Are you ready to unlock your organization’s true authority, navigate the shift into AI-driven visibility, or build an impactful community around your brand? Let’s collaborate.
AI created the article cover image and assisted with editing.
