Jackson
Wightman

Media Results and Industry Recognition

Wightman’s clients have earned placements in the world’s leading technology and business media outlets, including The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, The Verge, The Times, Good Morning America, CNN, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, and Mashable, among myriad others.

Across his work with consumer technology brands, Wightman has helped turn Keychron into a global brand with over $100M in sales, took e-bike maker Velotric from $0 to $20M in U.S. market sales, helped HOTO Tools double U.S. sales through strategic media and category creation, and contributed to more than $200M in retail channel sales by helping brands earn the credibility major retailers look for.

Over 15 years focused on technology communications, his client work has spanned startups, scaleups, and multinational brands across categories including keyboards, drones, e-bikes, smart home, tools, fitness, and emerging consumer hardware. His approach combines earned media visibility, commercial outcomes, and modern AI-era discoverability, helping brands win attention in both traditional press and the recommendation systems increasingly shaping purchase decisions.

Jackson Wightman on AI Search Visibility and GEO

As generative AI has reshaped how buyers discover brands and products, Wightman has positioned Proper Propaganda at the forefront of GEO — the discipline of optimizing communications strategy so that brands are cited, recommended, and surfaced by AI platforms such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews. He has developed a proprietary GEO framework called The Generative Engine Optimization Guide: A Holistic Blueprint published as a free resource at Proper Propaganda that gives brands a practical blueprint for earning credibility and visibility in AI-driven search.

Speaker, Podcast Guest, Panelist and Moderator

His thinking on GEO and AI-era PR has been featured across a growing roster of industry podcasts, including Pitch Perfect, Performance Delivered, Stories & Strategies, In Clear Focus, The Brand Called You, Exploring Growth, Your Partner In Success Radio, and We Live to Build.

Wightman has also spoken at leading industry conferences and events as a speaker, panelist, and moderator, where he shares insights on technology PR, AI search visibility, brand building, and growth communications. Speaking appearances include CES in Las Vegas, La Station in Paris, Google in Tel Aviv and the HAX accelerator in Shenzhen.

Books, Writing and Thought Leadership

Wightman is a seasoned media contributor, with bylines in some of the world’s most respected outlets in tech and business journalism, including TechCrunch, Fast Company, The Financial Post, The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, and PR Daily. He regularly publishes on LinkedIn and Substack.

Wightman is the co-author, with Borjana Slipicevic, of The Tech PR Playbook. It is an Amazon bestseller and practical guide for leaders of innovation companies on how to build media relationships, generate meaningful coverage, and grow brand awareness through strategic PR. The book draws on decades of hands-on agency experience helping companies — many of them from outside the U.S. — break through in America’s most demanding media environment. A free audiobook version is available to listen here.

In addition to his agency work, Wightman has contributed to the development of digital communications education at McGill University’s School of Continuing Studies, as a course designer and adjunct faculty member.

Core Areas of Expertise

His core areas of expertise include U.S. tech consumer behavior, U.S. market-entry communications, technology public relations, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), earned media strategy, and brand narrative development.