Summer 2026.
Three questions shaped this summer, and none of them came from a marketing textbook.
The first came from a client who wanted to know why his website was producing fewer enquiries even though his Google ranking had not moved. The answer was not in the ranking. It was in the fact that more and more people no longer click on results at all, but have an answer read out to them. Anyone who does not appear as a source there does not exist for the person asking. Two pieces grew out of that question: one on Generative Engine Optimization, one on what happens when it is no longer people who shop, but their agents.
The second question surfaced while reviewing contracts. How many companies have been working with service providers for years without the agreement that the GDPR makes mandatory for exactly that arrangement? The answer is uncomfortable, and the effort to fix it is smaller than most people fear.
The third question was the most annoying one. Austria's KMU.DIGITAL funding pot was exhausted in early August, and once again businesses missed out on support they would have qualified for. Not because their project was too weak, but because they asked too late. Two pieces in this issue are meant to make sure that does not happen to you when the next window opens.
The rest is craft: a playbook for betting brand launches, the production story of a spot that reached a large-format screen within forty-eight hours, and the uncomfortable observation that agencies work brilliantly for their clients and remain planless for themselves.
Rainer BracharzAugust 2026
01When machines are the customers
Two pieces on a shift that is already under way: it is no longer only people who read websites, but systems that decide on their behalf.
The Agentic Web: When AI Agents Shop for Your Customers
GEO: how your company becomes the answer ChatGPT and Google AI give
02What the law requires
Three obligations that nobody reads voluntarily, and that affect every business regardless.
Data processing agreement (DPA): when it is mandatory, what goes in, who signs
Data Protection for SMEs: The Pragmatic 7-Step Roadmap
Sports betting content and copywriting: what good copy delivers
03Money waiting to be collected
Funding rarely fails because of the application. It fails because of the order of steps and the timing.
KMU.DIGITAL in practice: how Austria's funded digitalisation consulting works
Finding a KMU.DIGITAL consultant: certification, fields
04Craft
Three pieces of work from practice, written down so they can be repeated.
Launching a betting brand: the playbook from 15 years of sports betting marketing
Real-time DOOH: How a spot gets onto a digital billboard in 48 hours
Agency pricing: from your hourly rate via the agency markup to predictable growth
This issue collects pieces published between July and August 2026. The pieces themselves remain permanently available at their own addresses, independently of the issue.
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