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19 May 2025 | Issue #93

In this issue:

• Why HBO, Why?!?
• Benefits of Being Discovered by AI
• Are AI Chatbots Replacing Search Engines? New Research from Andy Crestodina and Friends
• Another New Podcast Interview About The Visual Marketer
• Design Quote of the Week

Re-re-re-branding

On Thursday, Warner Bros. Discovery announced it was renaming its streaming platform ... again. Max will now be known as HBO Max again.

HBO has had the unfortunate luck of being acquired multiple times over the past few years. Time Warner was acquired by AT&T (in a deal that was delayed for over a year) and then sold to Discovery four years later.

When you have so many corporate overlords in a short amount of time, it's nearly impossible to have any long-term planning.

Will this go down as one of the biggest brand fumbles in history? Maybe. But it also may not matter too much in the long run because the product is still basically the same.

HBO/Max was really smart to use social media to get ahead of the jokes when the "new" brand was announced. Everyone was going to have the same jokes, so they got ahead of it and made the jokes themselves.

It's a smart move and will actually build brand affinity because they understand that the audience thinks all of this rebranding is ridiculous. But just imagine that first meeting when the brand team told the social team that Max was changing its name again.

Why?

Originally, I thought it was a mistake to call it HBO Max. The HBO brand was known for its quality. If a new show came out on HBO, I was likely to try it out because HBO has such a great batting average when it comes creating quality shows and movies.

When AT&T (who clearly knows nothing about entertainment or branding) decided to cash in HBO's brand and label a bunch of its crap content (the Turner shows, reality TV, etc) as HBO content, it diluted the HBO brand.

They attempted to leverage HBO to boost their other brands, but it ultimately damaged the HBO brand.

While "Max" wasn't the best name for a streaming network, at least it allowed HBO to be HBO. Separating the content into different buckets allows HBO to regain some of its lost luster.

Marvel did something similar recently when it broke Marvel Studios into separate sub-brands. All of the TV shows were damaging the Marvel Studios brand.

Disney/Marvel knows that Marvel Studios is the cash cow. Breaking out non-movie content into sub-brands enables the audience to select the content they want to consume while establishing prestige for the Marvel Studios product

HBO was on the way to rebuilding its brand, but now that's at risk.

The people at HBO, Max, WBD, and others will have to deal with the ridicule for a while. Lacking a cohesive brand experience is embarrassing for any organization that wants to be taken seriously.

It looks like they have no idea what they're doing. And normally, this means their product is lacking. But if HBO/HBO Max can get back into the business of creating high-value content, all will be forgiven.

HBO/Max has had a few breakout hits over the past few years. It looked a little bleak after the end of Game of Thrones, but the HBO brand is regaining its swagger.

Let's just hope this new change doesn't derail the progress HBO has made.

Brand guru Scott Galloway predicts that WBD will spin these assets into its own business that doesn't get dragged down by the cable business (similar to what Comcast just did with many of its lagging networks).

WBD knows it's more important to the value of the company to have a strong streaming service than just a strong HBO.

It's a great example of leveraging a strong brand for financial gain.

​ NEWS AT THE INTERSECTION OF DESIGN AND MARKETING

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🤖 Benefits of Being Discovered by AI

Last week we talked about why/how you should work to be discovered by AI systems so you're offered as part of the answer within AI search results.

Rolf Mistelbacher gives an example of content he created that doesn't appear in Google SERPs, but it appears as the top result in the deep research responses of ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.

Run tests. See how your content is performing, then fine tune it.

​Keep reading​

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🔎 Are AI Chatbots Replacing Search Engines? New Research from Andy Crestodina

Andy Crestodina of Orbit Media Studios shares findings from a recent survey exploring how AI chat tools like ChatGPT are influencing search behavior.

• AI Chatbot Usage on the Rise: 62% of respondents use AI chatbots daily, with 51% planning to increase their usage.
• Perception of AI Replacing Search Engines: 49% believe AI chat tools will eventually replace traditional search engines.
• My Take: Just listen to Andy. He's smarter than you and I combined.

While AI chatbots are gaining popularity, traditional search engines remain dominant in daily usage. The integration of AI features into search engines, like Google’s AI Overviews, indicates a trend toward a hybrid model combining traditional search with AI capabilities.

​Keep reading​

​ THE VISUAL MARKETER

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Helping marketers and business owners create more effective visuals. Read The Visual Marketer now!

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RECENT AND UPCOMING ENGAGEMENTS

This past week, I was part of a conversation related the creation of my first book, The Visual Marketer. It was an interesting conversation with authors in all different states of their writing career.

You can watch the video here (even though my name is misspelled: https://www.linkedin.com/events/7328059791812046849/comments/

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On June 6th I'll be speaking at EvolveDrupal in Boston. I met with the organizers and a few of the other speakers earlier this week, and it looks like a really good group.

I also have a few other podcasts and roundtables in the queue.

If you're looking for podcast guests, or want to collaborate on something, shoot me a DM.

DESIGN QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“The most important part of design is finding all the issues to be resolved. The rest are details.”
– Soumeet Lanka

My AI disclaimer: I write the main story. I find the news stories, and the summary is by ChatGPT. I write the My Takes bullet. If AI generates the images, I include the prompt so you can see how I got to that image.

Thanks for reading!

–Jim

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