Maison VIVE debuts the US' first single-use sparkling water siphon. Sep. 17, 2026 at 4:57 pm Maison VIVE will introduce its premium sparkling water to Miami hospitality this fall. Its proprietary single-use siphon bottle brings a new way to serve water to the city's restaurants, hotels, and bars. The bottle dispenses sparkling water through the siphon's spout and is designed to preserve carbonation between servings. The format makes serving water an interactive part of the dining experience. "We're building a sparkling water brand that guests order by name," said Eric Jacobs, founder of Maison VIVE. Jacobs previously served as Chief Innovation Officer at VaynerMedia. The first release will feature a limited edition of hand-numbered bottles. VIVE's Miami launch will begin through the Première Pour Society, a program offering founding restaurants, hotels, and bars early product access, marketing support, and neighborhood exclusivity. About Maison VIVE Maison VIVE is a modern luxury beverage house creating drinks for dining, entertaining, and celebration. Launching with sparkling water in its signature siphon bottle, VIVE plans to expand into flavored waters, soft drinks, mixers, and premium and zero-proof cocktails. Its ambition is to build a recognizable family of beverages, connected by distinctive design and an interactive serving experience. Maison VIVE and VIVE are trademarks of VIVE Brands, Inc. Unlock the articles, expert interviews, and data reports that power the food and beverage industry. Join its community and stay ahead with exclusive insights from BevNET and Nosh.

Heckler appoints Jonathan Gerard as MD of Singapore. The creative production company looks to strengthen its presence in the region and put storytelling at the centre of its next phase of growth. Heckler has appointed advertising and production leader Jonathan Gerard as Managing Director of its Singapore studio, as the creative production company looks to strengthen its presence in the region and put storytelling at the centre of its next phase of growth. Gerard joins Heckler following five years at VaynerMedia APAC, where he was most recently SVP, Regional Head of Delivery and Head of Production APAC. He joined the agency when it was a 40-person operation and played a key role in its growth into a 300-person regional team spanning eight markets. With more than 20 years' experience across advertising, production, creative operations and delivery, Gerard brings a career built around making complex creative businesses work better, from production and integrated campaigns to team leadership and operational growth. His career has included senior production roles at VaynerMedia, BBH Singapore and MullenLowe, alongside an earlier career in film and television production. He also worked as Head of Production on Nike's Hyper Court, a project created by BBH Singapore that brought together digital, animation and live-action content to provide basketball training resources to players across Manila. For Gerard, the move to Heckler marks a return to a more hands-on relationship with the work. "I want to shift the perception of Heckler to the centre for best-in-class storytelling, not just best-in-class post-production," he says. "Advertising has forgotten what made it great: that it's a collective of different ideas coming together to tell stories for an audience. You can't tell a story without an audience. And if everyone's telling the same story, no one listens." That belief closely aligns with Gerard's approach throughout his career. Reflecting on his time at VaynerMedia, he has described people as the real product of a creative business, placing investment in teams, mentoring and developing talent at the heart of effective leadership. It is an approach he intends to bring to Heckler Singapore, while building on the studio's existing creative culture. "You are only ever as strong as your people and we have some of the best at Heckler," says Gerard. "It's not about the tools, it's about the person behind the tools. Ultimately, my job at Heckler is to ensure it's a place that people want to come and create, both for our team and for our partners." Gerard's career began in production, including directing music videos in New Zealand, where he developed the resourcefulness and problem-solving mentality that has remained central to his approach. Membership offers you insight, inspiration and tools to transform your workflow Find out more "I had to hustle," he says. "That same hustle and drive is still needed today, especially when you're finding creative solutions to budget, time or whatever problem you're facing." That production-first perspective has evolved into a broader belief that the best work comes from breaking down traditional boundaries between disciplines. His work on Nike Hyper Court is one example. The project brought together more than 10 production partners, including Heckler, and used digital content, animation and physical basketball courts to give young players access to training resources. Gerard describes it as proof that "production doesn't have to be linear" and that teams can adapt the process around the idea rather than forcing an idea into a predetermined production model. Now at Heckler, he is looking to apply that same philosophy to the studio's future. "Craft is matching the execution to the story," he says. "It's ensuring the way you are telling the story is in service to the story. And storytelling is key." For Gerard, that means creating a studio where brands, agencies, directors and artists can collaborate with production as a creative partner rather than simply the final stage of the process. "I love making anything and everything," he says. "It's what drew me to join Heckler. I felt like I was so far away from the work and from being able to make an impact on it. So I want to blow off the cobwebs and get back to telling stories."

Be the brand that AI recommends: A how-to in building brand visibility. Brands are not just marketing to humans anymore. Today, people are turning to AI for literally everything and that includes their shopping habits. One of AI's biggest shifts is how it's become a go-to, virtual shopping assistant, consolidating information to help consumers determine what to 'Add to Cart.' Instead of navigating through pages of links and reviews, they're receiving synthesized answers, curated recommendations, and increasingly, direct suggestions about what brands to buy, trust, and choose. As AI becomes more and more prevalent in its day to day routines, and shapes its buying and spending, an important question is on the top of every marketers mind: What does AI trust enough to recommend? And the underlying question...how do I make sure my brand, or my products, are the ones being recommended? VaynerMedia teamed up with Profound to get the data to better understand how exactly AI recommendations work. Here's your AI AEO crash course AKA the key to winning brand discovery in the recommendation era. Lesson #1: AI recommends brands by learning through your digital footprint. One of the most important things VaynerMedia has learned from its study is where AI pulls information from. What stood out most was the rate at which social, creator, and user-generated content has climbed as a source. Over the last six months it rose as a share of citations across five of the six major AI engines VaynerMedia studied. It is one of the fastest-growing inputs shaping how AI understands brands. Although the platforms varied, it became clear that social content is a huge contributor to AI citations. However, just having a social media presence does not guarantee visibility. Brands need to be highly intentional and consistent about what they're posting and where. Volume may be a factor in how AI agents discover your brand, but citation is the overall goal. The brands that are actually making this distinction, and showing up in recommendations, are the ones who have expanded and developed their social scopes. They're showing up across media, reviews, creator content, community discussions, expert sources, and more. Essentially, they're tuned into various conversations happening online, giving AI a variety of sources and formats to pull from. The biggest takeaway here is that social media has increasingly become part of the information pool AI uses to understand brands. A strong social media presence shapes visibility, reference, and familiarity but it also develops credibility and authority, which AI will look for when it responds. So, it's not necessarily about posting the most, but it is crucial that brands post enough to discover what pieces earn independent citation, so they can analyze and scale it across the web. Lesson #2: there is no single ecosystem that AI favors to learn about your brand. VaynerMedia has established that AI learns from ecosystems...but exactly which ones? Well there's bad news and good news. Bad news first: There is no one ecosystem, or singular AI strategy that brands can implement for visibility. The good news is that brands are entirely capable of discovering what content of theirs resonates with AI and building a strategy from there. But first, more of the stats: Its research shows that: * Google's AI products lean heavily on Youtube * ChatGPT relies more heavily on Reddit * Copilot draws from distinct professional networks like LinkedIn VaynerMedia also discovered that among all social platforms, YouTube was the strongest proof point. It's rapidly climbing across competing answer engines, moving from roughly #247 to #34 in ChatGPT and from #61 to #13 in Copilot. It's a huge signal for brands to keep track of, but it's also not the only factor to consider. The ecosystem is still largely complex, so it's crucial for brands to treat every platform intentionally, and to continue building their understanding to AI. It may be a process, but the brands truly winning in this next era are the ones that understand where influence lives and build accordingly. Lesson #3: the rise of creator authority. As noted, YouTube is a huge player in the AI visibility game, and there's a reason for that. As AI systems look for trustworthy, explanatory content, it's often being pulled towards creator-led videos, AKA exactly the kind you'd find on YouTube! AI is not swayed by branding or messaging. Instead, it disproportionately favors content that explains, evaluates, and educates. * Reviews * Comparisons * Tutorials * How-to content * & Creator-led recommendations AI is single-handedly changing the way credibility is built and it's doing it by spotlighting individual voices. Brand visibility is becoming a function of consistent participation. It is not enough to show up. Brands need to be talked about, referenced, and reviewed across a diverse mix of sources. With creators in the mix, brands earn the third-party validation AI increasingly relies on to recommend them. Lesson #4: AI operates at the speed of culture. AI may have a lot of information to read through, but it certainly doesn't stall. From publication to citation, the median time it takes for AI to pick up fresh content is just 6.8 days. Ninety percent of content gets cited within about 37 days. Here is the part most brands miss: half of everything AI cites is less than 13 weeks old. That window slides forward every day, so the content working for you now ages out of it. If you are not publishing consistently, you fall out of the answer. AI is reading the internet continuously (just like VaynerMedia!) so the more information it obtains, the smarter it grows and the more developed its answers will become. New content is at the forefront of discovery, and fresh information is what will shape the future of brand visibility. For marketers, this may come with a bit of a learning curve. A lot of brands still operate on campaign timelines...but the reality is that AI does not. It's going to reward the brands that show up every day, not every quarter. Consistent publishing, rapid learning, and editorial velocity are going to become some of the biggest advantages. The future of marketing & next steps for AI brand visibility. If there's anything to take away, it's this: brands must build for both attention and recommendation. * Brands first need to win social and UGC to generate the convos and signals that will put them into consideration. * From there, it's all about converting that momentum into authority, across channels, that AI will gravitate to. VaynerMedia believe that the next 12-18 months of AI discovery will be some of the most important. The recommendation era is still in its early stages, so if brands start now, while systems are still in early development, they'll show up bigger and better than those who decide to wait. The brands investing in their content footprint now are teaching AI what to recommend later...don't wait! Still have questions on where to get started? Check out the full, completely free report here or contact VaynerMedia - let's chat! Summary. * Consumers are increasingly turning to AI answer engines to help them make their purchasing decisions. They received curated recommendations on what brands to buy, choose, and trust. * AI learns from ecosystems, pulling from social, creator, and user-generated content. * There is no singular platform that AI pulls from. It learns from different platforms across the web. * Independent voices (such as that from reviews, tutorials, etc) are shaping the information that AI uses to understand brands. * AI incorporates new content within days, and half of what it cites is under 13 weeks old, so consistent publishing is what keeps a brand in the recommendation set. * Brands must build for both attention and recommendation, and should start now while the recommendation era is still in early development. More posts.