Strategy

Where buyers form consideration sets.

Quarterly briefs for marketing directors and VPs. Named-author analysis grounded in Binet & Field, Sharp, Romaniuk, and the current evidence on AI search visibility — written for SMB and mid-market operators in insurance and retail.

Published quarterly · Chris Gardner · Insurance + Retail focus

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The audit answers one question: where is your budget leaking. Strategy answers a different one: where is the consideration set forming, and are you in it. The briefs below take that second question seriously — one vertical at a time, one quarter at a time. Every brief is signed, dated, sourced, and aimed at the strategy decision rather than the campaign optimisation.

The briefs

Strategic essays, not optimisation tips.

Each brief: 1,500–2,200 words, named author, dated publication, named primary sources. Written for the executive who decides where the next dollar goes — not the operator who deploys it.

1 brief · Q2 2026
Brief 01 21 Apr 2026 Insurance

Where Insurance Buyers Form Consideration Sets in 2026

Why most brokers are absent from the moment of choice — and the strategic shift required to compete.

The Quality Score work is real, the conversion-rate work is real, and they are both happening too late. Insurance buyers form their consideration set before they ever reach a paid search funnel — in the AI answer surface, the peer review graph, and the category entry points buyers do not announce. Most brokers compete on the activation half of the budget; the brand half determines whether they were in the consideration set in the first place.

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Related research

Longer-form work that informs the briefs.

Research · Video brand effectiveness

Video Brand Building in the Attention Economy

The dentsu Brand Reset 2026 study, distilled. Linear television produces ~4.5% long-term sales lift from a single exposure; short-form digital produces ~2% — but at materially lower cost per percentage point of lift. The implication for SMB and mid-market video budgets.

Talk to the author

If a brief surfaces a strategic question for your business — Chris Gardner reads every inquiry personally. Findings translate into strategy — execution runs through LocaliQ when you’re ready.