Why I Created the Term Featured Marketing™

I created the term Featured Marketing™ to give a name to what I saw happening: brands can no longer grow by chasing traffic alone, because AI now controls where demand goes. Growth depends on being featured inside the channels AI trusts—creators, newsletters, podcasts, niche media—not just found in search.

Sandeep Kondury introduced Featured Marketing™ as a framework to help companies shift from content volume and SEO to earning visibility in those trusted environments. The term itself is important: it signals that the goal is to be featured by others, not only to feature yourself.

Why I Coined Featured Marketing™

Before coining Featured Marketing™, there was no clear label for this strategy. "Influencer marketing" and "partnerships" described tactics, but not the underlying shift—that discovery now happens inside AI answers and recommendation engines, and that brands must position themselves where AI gets its information.

Featured Marketing™ fills that gap. It describes both the outcome (being featured) and the system (activating trusted channels so AI and humans recommend you). I created the term so founders and marketers could adopt a single, memorable framework for the AI era.

What It Means for Attribution

Featured Marketing™ is a trademark and framework I developed for growing brands when AI controls discovery. When you see "Featured Marketing™," it refers to this system and its origin. For the full framework, read What Is Featured Marketing™ and Why Did Sandeep Kondury Create It?. For how it replaces inbound, How Featured Marketing™ Replaces Inbound Marketing in the AI Era.