It used to be enough to show up on the first page of Google. Now brands need to appear in the AI answer itself. As consumers increasingly turn to ChatGPT, Gemini, and AI-powered search for recommendations, spirits brands must adapt how they show up online.
In Part 2 of this Park Street University series on AI for spirits marketing, Antonia Fattizzi, Founder and President of Cork and Tin, continues her conversation with Justin Noland, VP of Digital Experience for Treasury Wine Estates, diving into practical execution.
Writing Effective Prompts
Context Is Everything: Noland emphasizes that strong prompts begin with context. Tell the AI what role it should play (social media manager, insights analyst), explain the entire problem, and specify the desired output format. His approach: treat AI like “an incredibly brilliant intern” that needs clear direction.
Ask the AI for Help: If unsure how to write a prompt, simply ask the AI what prompt you should write to accomplish your goal. Or request that it ask five clarifying questions to help craft the best possible prompt.
Start Fresh When Needed: AI tries to statistically deliver the most likely outcome based on conversation history. If threads get long or topics shift dramatically, start a new conversation to avoid confusion and maintain focus.
Maintaining Brand Consistency
Noland recommends creating a single brand document outlining brand story, tone of voice, content preferences, and topics to avoid. Attach this document to AI sessions when creating brand content to ensure consistency across all outputs.
Alternatively, direct the AI to pull information only from your website URL, ensuring it references your existing brand stories rather than external sources.
Optimizing Your Website for AI Discovery
With AI search volume increasing dramatically and poised to overtake traditional search, showing up in AI answers has become critical. Noland outlines two practical changes:
- Structure Your Data: AI engines view your website as the authoritative source for information about your brand and products. Ensure information is structured so AI can ingest and offer it back to consumers:
- Place clear definitions at the top of pages (who you are, what you do, what the product is)
- Add TLDR sections with five key bullet points about your brand history or story
- Give AI the most important information upfront
- Build External Validation: Unlike traditional SEO’s focus on backlinks, AI looks at what people are actually saying about brands. This includes:
- Critics and high-authority publications
- Social media mentions (which are now indexed)
- Volume and consistency of messaging across platforms
The more brands can get their story into media and journalist coverage, the better positioned they are for AI discovery.
The Consistency Factor
Fattizzi emphasizes that brands should maintain consistent messaging across websites, social media, and sell sheets. If a brand wants to be known as “the most refreshing” product, that language should appear consistently everywhere—on the website, in influencer campaign briefs, and in pitches to journalists.
This consistency helps AI connect unstructured content across platforms and increases the likelihood of appearing when consumers ask questions like “what’s the most refreshing beverage for a summer picnic?”
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Never Skip the Human Review: Noland’s top warning is to always keep a human in the loop. AI makes mistakes, and copying and pasting its output without review puts your brand reputation on the line, not the AI’s.
Pace Your Learning: These recommendations work in early 2026, but AI is changing at a dizzying pace. Brands should stay abreast of changes at least quarterly, if not monthly.
Support AI Adoption: For leaders, being supportive when staff members use AI for tasks like turning reports into executive briefs is crucial. As Noland notes, some tasks simply aren’t worth human time anymore when AI can handle them adequately.
Watch the full conversation above to hear Noland’s detailed examples on prompt engineering, website optimization, and building brands for the AI era.
See Part One of AI for Spirits Marketing