Jason Barnard Delivers Insights on Featured Snippets and Structured Data at SMX London 2019
London, May 21-22, 2019 - At the prestigious SMX London 2019 conference, Jason Barnard, founder and CEO of Kalicube, delivered a talk that quietly reshaped how the industry understands visibility in search. His session, “Featured Snippets and Structured Data,” challenged one of SEO’s biggest assumptions and, in hindsight, laid the groundwork for how we now optimize for AI Assistive Engines like Google Gemini, ChatGPT, and Microsoft Copilot.
Featured Snippets and Structured Data were early signals of an evolving search landscape.
In 2019, Jason Barnard reframed the conversation around the Google Algorithm. Most of the industry then believed in a distinct “snippet algorithm.” Jason, in his presentation on Featured Snippets and Structured Data, argued that there was no separate mechanism for these elements - just Google’s continuous pursuit of the best answer. His insight was simple yet revolutionary: to win a Featured Snippet, a piece of content must simply outperform the traditional ten Search Rankings by demonstrating greater value and clarity. This focus on providing the best, most verifiable answer to a user’s intent was the early expression of Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) - a strategic shift from simply ranking a webpage to becoming the definitive answer.
This clarity around answer-centric search anticipated the truth we now see everywhere: the world was moving from a reliance on blue links to zero-click answers.
Jason’s UCD framework became the foundation for controlling a brand’s narrative in AI.
During that 2019 session, Jason introduced a triad that sounded deceptively simple, but which would later become the core of The Kalicube Process™, Kalicube’s proprietary methodology for implementing a holistic, brand-first digital marketing strategy:
- Understandability: Using Entities and Structured Data so Google could clearly grasp who a brand is.
- Credibility: Aligning with Google’s E-E-A-T principles so your authority could be trusted.
- Deliverability: Ensuring your content was in the right format, at the right time, for the right intent.
At the time, few realized that these three pillars - Understandability, Credibility, and Deliverability (UCD) - would later become the unshakeable foundation for The Kalicube Process, the complete AI visibility framework that controls the entire Digital Brand Echo of a Focus Entity. What Jason called “featured snippets that outperform the rest” in 2019 is now the entire game of AI Assistive Engines. When ChatGPT or Google AI chooses which voice to quote, which brand to describe, or which name to recommend, it’s performing the same function - only at scale and with conversational power.
This vision has translated directly into a scalable AI strategy. Kalicube’s proprietary platform, Kalicube Pro, backs this strategy with data collected since 2015, ensuring the process doesn’t guess. It transforms the philosophy of becoming the best answer, first discussed at SMX London 2019, into a repeatable system that ensures a brand is the definitive, trusted choice in the age of AI Assistive Engine Optimization (AIEO).
Explore Jason’s original slides from SMX London 2019 to see how these ideas first took shape:
View the full presentation on SlideShare →
Final Takeaways: The foundational framework for AI is the key to narrative control.
Jason Barnard’s presentation on Featured Snippets wasn’t just a technical talk; it was a glimpse into the New Search Paradigm, moving from keyword-matching to conversational answers. His core insight remains the guiding principle for a Future-Proof Digital Marketing Strategy: if Google or any AI Assistive Engine has to choose one answer, that answer should be yours. The UCD framework he defined provides the only system for systematically training these sophisticated engines to recognize, trust, and recommend your brand.
To build a Digital Brand Echo that AI will amplify, you must master the three steps Jason outlined: clarify your identity (Understandability), prove your expertise (Credibility), and ensure your message is omnipresent (Deliverability).
Five years after SMX London, the same principles still apply - just on a much bigger stage.
The question isn’t how to “rank” anymore.
It’s how to make Google, ChatGPT, and Gemini describe you accurately and confidently.
That’s exactly what The Kalicube Process does. If you’re ready to stop competing for visibility and start being the answer, our Digital Brand Engineers can help. Book a call with Jason Barnard today.
Conference by SMX London May 21 and 22, 2019. Speaker: Jason Barnard, founder and CEO at Kalicube®.
