Study Highlight: PRCA MENA Mental Health Report 2025

Jonty Summers (pictured) will start a new role at Burson as Head of Corporate Affairs in Dubai at the end of June. He joins from Hanover, where he spent ten years as Regional Managing Director, establishing and running Hanover's advisory business in the Middle East.

“We are thrilled to welcome a leader of Jonty’s calibre to our team,” said Fouad Bou Mansour, CEO, MENAT, Burson.

“In a region as dynamic and fast-paced as the Middle East, clients require senior counsellors who combine a deep, nuanced understanding of the region with a proven track record of delivering results. Jonty embodies this. He has over 20 years of experience providing strategic, C-suite-level counsel to top-tier organisations, helping them navigate challenges, growth, and transformation. His expertise will be a tremendous asset, and I am confident he will play a pivotal role in continuing to elevate our corporate offering and helping our clients win in this complex environment.”

Jonty's career includes senior leadership roles at Edelman, where he was Senior Vice President for corporate practice across the Middle East. Prior to this, Jonty was Managing Director at Bladonmore in London, before transferring to Abu Dhabi in 2009. He began his career as a journalist and then worked in publishing in London.

"Having spent my career helping organisations build and protect their reputations through periods of transformation, growth and change, I am excited to join Burson as it continues to grow and evolve its offering across the Middle East,” said Jonty.

“This is one of the world’s most dynamic and strategically important regions, and organisations here face both extraordinary opportunities and increasingly complex operating environments. Burson's sector expertise, global reach and local relevance position it exceptionally well to help clients navigate, lead and grow in this breathtakingly disruptive landscape." 

Maverick Indonesia and GridOto have released a new whitepaper examining how AI search engines are changing the way they cite sources when answering automotive-related questions in Indonesia.

The report, News Platforms Losing Ground to Marketplace Platforms and YouTube, argues that AI search visibility is no longer shaped mainly by traditional news coverage. Instead, platforms that help consumers compare, evaluate and make purchase decisions, including automotive marketplaces and YouTube channels, are becoming more influential in AI-generated answers.

Key findings from the report
Marketplace platforms have overtaken news media as a major AI citation source. According to the report, marketplace became the most-cited category, rising from 25.8 per cent to 31.5 per cent, while news media declined from 32.8 per cent to 29.7 per cent. The findings suggest that AI engines are increasingly favouring transaction-oriented content, such as product listings, price ranges, comparisons and specifications, over broad editorial information.

Social media also recorded significant growth, largely driven by YouTube. The report found that YouTube is becoming a more prominent source in AI answers, particularly where videos provide structured answers to specific consumer questions. Long-form videos, comparison content and buying guides were more likely to be cited than short-form content.

The study also highlights a shift in who AI trusts on YouTube. Individual creators now account for nearly half of YouTube citations in the dataset, while YouTube channels owned by news media have declined. Maverick Indonesia and GridOto suggest this may be because individual creators often frame content from a user or buyer perspective, making it more relevant to consumer decision-making prompts.

News media still matters, but AI appears to be more selective in how it cites publishers. Only six of the top 20 news domains tracked in the report increased their citation share. Suara.com saw the strongest proportional increase, with most of its growth coming from ChatGPT.

The report also points to crawler access as an important, but not sufficient, factor in AI visibility. Media that allowed AI crawler access saw mixed results, while outlets that restricted access often recorded citation share declines. After GridOto opened access to AI crawlers in June 2025, its AI referral traffic showed an upward trend, with ChatGPT emerging as the main driver.

Why it matters for communications professionals
For PR and communications teams, the study suggests that AI search is becoming a reputation channel in its own right. Visibility is no longer only about search rankings, media coverage or owned websites. Brands need to understand which third-party sources AI engines trust and cite when consumers ask questions.

For automotive brands, this means marketplace listings, KOL reviews, YouTube explainers and structured news content can all influence how AI describes a brand or product. The report notes that brand-owned visibility is weakening, with official car brand pages and dealer sites both declining as citation sources.

For publishers, the findings point to the need for “AI-readable” editorial formats. Maverick Indonesia and GridOto recommend structured headlines, ranked lists, comparison tables, FAQs, evergreen explainers, updated buying guides and open crawler access to improve the likelihood of being cited by AI engines.

For communicators more broadly, the lesson is that generative search requires an ecosystem view. AI visibility should be tracked by source type, prompt, platform and competitor, rather than treated as a website or SEO metric alone. 

DDB Group Philippines has rebranded as GGC Group Asia following the retirement of the DDB brand globally by parent company Omnicom Group after its acquisition of Interpublic Group.

The agency group, which has operated as DDB's affiliate in the Philippines since 1992, will continue to operate independently while maintaining access to Omnicom's global marketing communications tools and resources as needed.

Chairman and CEO Gil G. Chua (pictured) said the rebrand marks a new chapter for the business while recognising its longstanding partnership with DDB Worldwide and Omnicom Group.

As part of the transition, DDB Philippines has been renamed Velocity+, DDB MNL becomes Alab MNL, and Tribal Worldwide Philippines will now operate as The Tribe. Other agencies within the group, including Optimax Communications, Agile Intelligence, Ripple8, Touch XDA, and Bent and Buzz, will retain their existing brands.

The rebrand also brings together several sister companies from the FCT Group under the GGC Group Asia umbrella, including FOSA, Caishen, Track Mnl, Xpress Move, Strawberry Jam, and PhilMovers.

According to the company, the group now comprises 14 companies across 18 locations nationwide with more than 7,500 employees. It added that the transition will not affect leadership, client relationships, talent, contracts, or ongoing operations.