Interest Media, Agentic Marketing, and AI Visibility: Highlights from SOCi ReImagine 2025

Summary

SOCi ReImagine 2025 showcased how large language models (LLMs) and agentic AI are reshaping the future of marketing. The event brought together industry leaders, innovators, and SOCi experts to share real-world insights on using LLMs and automation to deliver smarter, more localized, and more human brand experiences.

The SOCi ReImagine conference last week in Chicago was an action-packed two days full of usable insights and perspectives from top brands and thought leaders in local marketing. Here’s a recap of the conference highlights. 

ReImagine Day One

Keynote speaker Gary Vaynerchuk, better known to his millions of social media followers as Gary Vee, kicked off the proceedings with a high-energy talk focused on his observation that social media has become interest media, with feed content driven by personalization and user preferences. In light of this change, the focus of marketing should be on mid-funnel creative content which is validated organically before marketers use paid promotion to amplify. Gary noted that AI is the tool smart marketers will use to gain advantage in this new ecosystem. Marketers will not be replaced by AI, he said, but they will be replaced by marketers who know how to use AI.

Keynote speaker Gary Vaynerchuk

SOCi CEO Afif Khoury then led the audience through the transformation of local marketing through the use of agentic AI, which allows brands to deploy a highly trained, automated marketing expert at every brand location, unlocking better local customer experiences. 

Khoury’s session was followed by a powerful CMO-led discussion on the transformation of marketing through AI, led by Brandon Rhoten, SOCi advisor and CMO of GroundTruth, and including Kim Lefko, CMO of Ace Hardware; Kyle Martin, CMO of Unleashed Brands; Janie Page, CMO of The Human Bean; and Christine “CG” Millier, head of marketing at Presidium Residential.

Ace Hardware CMO Kim Lefko speaks as Christine “CG” Millier looks on

The morning session concluded with a conversation between SOCi VP of Product Marketing James Morse and Kyle Sawai, CMO of Liberty Tax, who got specific on the transformative power of SOCi’s agentic solution and how it enabled Liberty Tax to leverage strategies like review response to grow digital traffic and new business. 

The afternoon began with three tracks of breakout sessions, where SOCi experts and partners dove into a rich array of topics like AI visibility, the rise of social search, and building the right tech stack for franchises. 

Speaking of tech stacks, the conference returned to the main stage with Scott Brinker, the “godfather of martech,” who helped draw a broader context for the rise of AI and encouraged marketers to embrace low-code and no-code solutions to unlock creativity and innovation. 

The day concluded with another animated panel discussion, led by SOCi’s Kevin Dickard and including Danika Brown from the Goddard School; Sean Stevens from Nothing Bundt Cakes; and Kelli Turner from Anchor Pacifica Management, helping the audience understand the real challenges and opportunities of AI implementation in complex organizations. 

ReImagine Day Two

The second day of the conference started off with a bang. The morning keynote was delivered by Google’s Lisa Landsman, who offered a tour of Google’s dizzying array of new AI projects, from AI Mode to Project Astra, and guided marketers through the many new features that can help them stand out locally in Google Search, Maps, and AI. 

OpenAI’s Kelly Ryan in conversation with SOCi CMO Monica Ho

Next up, SOCi CMO Monica Ho led a fireside chat with OpenAI’s Kelly Ryan. Their far-ranging discussion touched on changes in user behavior due to the rise of AI search, the launch of OpenAI’s new Atlas browser, and the promise of agentic commerce as represented by OpenAI’s new instant checkout feature. 

My own presentation followed, where I offered a summary of the findings of an AI visibility study we recently conducted at SOCi, revealing that traditional SEO helps brands appear in AI search but does not guarantee their data will be accurate.

Then, SOCi’s Kaci McBride offered a new perspective on performance metrics for local marketing, suggesting that marketers should think outside traditional attribution models and embrace correlations that can help to illuminate productive strategies. 

We concluded day two by presenting the SOCi ReImagine Awards, honoring brand marketers who embrace innovation and positive change. The winners were Jersey Mike’s, Carquest, and NTY Franchise Company. 

Also throughout the conference were onstage and in-person demos of SOCi’s Genius Agents, including the newly launched Social Agent as well as the Reputation Agent and Search Agent. 

The conference program was enthusiastically received by attendees, who learned from each other both in the sessions and informally via many networking opportunities. 

And that’s a wrap for SOCi ReImagine 2025. See you next year!