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The Best SEO Podcast: Defining the Future of Search with LLM Visibility™

Episode: AI-First Marketing For A Legacy Industry With Renaud Delaquis
Host: Matthew Bertram
Guest: Renaud Delaquis (Coastline Academy)
Date: November 3, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode explores the transformational impact of "AI-first" thinking and tools on legacy industries, focusing specifically on Coastline Academy—a large-scale, technology-driven driving school in the U.S. Host Matthew Bertram interviews Renaud Delaquis, a marketing and operations leader, about how Coastline Academy leverages AI not just in digital marketing, but across operations, local marketing, and recruitment. Together, they discuss the real-world application of AI, the unique marketing challenges in legacy sectors, and innovative workflows that bridge traditional branding and AI-driven strategy.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Evolving from Traditional SEO to AI-First Business Models

• AI's impact beyond digital marketing:
  Renaud emphasizes that AI’s biggest changes aren’t just occurring in search or advertising but in the operational and workflow processes across the business—scheduling, logistics, recruiting, and community outreach.

  "Very often it'll change things that you don't expect." – Renaud (04:12)

• AI-First in a Legacy Industry:
  Coastline Academy built proprietary AI-driven systems before widespread adoption of LLMs, primarily to optimize instructor-student matching and scheduling, minimizing drive time and maximizing lessons.

  “We had a very smart CTO who put together this system that would pair a driver or an instructor with a student and optimize...scheduling...while minimizing the travel time.” – Renaud (04:40)

2. The Disconnect Between AI Adoption and Business Demographics

• Slower adoption curve:
  Coastline serves teenagers (the users) and markets to their parents (the buyers), a group less likely to discover driving schools through AI tools or modern search engines—leading to slower returns on investment in AI-driven organic search.

  “No one is...going on ChatGPT searching for the best driving school in their town. That's just not what's happening.” – Renaud (07:48)

• Legacy decision-making habits:
  Most families simply reuse the driving school chosen by siblings or parents, further diluting the role of digital discovery.

  “No one thinks about a driving school except for that small period of time when you need it.” – Renaud (07:05)

3. Local Marketing at Scale with AI

• AI enhances traditional marketing:
  Coastline leverages AI for scalable local marketing—generating and localizing flyers, banners, and outreach to schools, clubs, and community organizations, replicating tactics quickly across 500+ locations.

  “Anything we do in one market, we want to replicate in all the others. And the problem with that is...creating real material, like marketing assets...” – Renaud (11:29)

• Offline-to-online growth:
  AI tools help source contacts for potential partnerships (e.g., high schools, Boy Scouts) and automate outreach.

  “AI does...it allows us to scale whatever tactic...almost infinitely.” – Renaud (10:12)

4. Measuring Brand Impact and Market Penetration

• Utilization Rate & Market Share:
  Coastline's core success metric is instructor utilization within a given area, calculated mainly as a percentage of 10th graders taking lessons compared to census data (18:32).

  “We can calculate market share...how many 10th graders there are in an area,...compare that to how many students we have in an area, that'll give us an idea of the market share.” – Renaud (18:32)

• Share of Voice & Analytics:
  AI tools like AthenaHQ are used to measure brand presence, but their utility is limited compared to real business KPIs.

  “The reason why I don't know it by heart is because I don't really rely on it.” – Renaud (22:29)

• Focus on First Principles:
  Ultimately, Renaud values directional movement in brand searches, click-through rate, and real business metrics over granular attribution—trusting that "doing the right things" leads to growth.

  “Even if right now there's a Google update that is not working in my favor, am I the type of business that Google wants to promote? Yes, I am.” – Renaud (28:30)

5. Agile Testing and Scaling

• A/B tests in real markets:
  Coastline runs controlled pilots in nine test areas with local managers, rapidly rolling out successful campaigns company-wide.

  “The moment something works somewhere, we can scale it everywhere. I think that's very cool.” – Renaud (31:49)

6. AI Transforming Recruitment—The "Aha" Moment

• Treat recruiting as marketing:
  When Coastline’s HR director left, leadership pivoted to using marketing frameworks—defining candidate personas, running personality assessments, and identifying high-value hires like retired educators.

  “Recruiting is essentially just selling something to someone. Like, except instead of...them buying, they're buying into the company.” – Renaud (33:13)

• Linking data, HR, and revenue:
  Analysis showed highly motivated educators increase lesson counts (and revenue) and better outcomes, informing both recruiter targets and training for onboarding (35:34–36:34).

  “We know who we want and they generate more money for us and they create better drivers.” – Renaud (35:30)

• Workflow integration:
  Marketing and HR now collaborate to ensure recruitment and marketing targets are synced to business capacity—creating a balanced, data-driven two-sided marketplace approach.

  “Now we have this shared mission...where the way that we will increase revenue...comes from marketing and HR collaborating to make sure that we hire the best people.” – Renaud (36:08)

7. Partner, Don’t Compete: Market Strategy

• Partnering with competitors:
  Instead of fighting entrenched online driver’s ed platforms on SEO, Coastline partnered with them, turning lead magnets into mutual gain by sending customers to Coastline for behind-the-wheel training.

  “If we can't beat them, let's join them. Because what we told them is like, listen, you guys sell the product that comes before us...” – Renaud (41:57)

8. Staying Focused Amid Endless AI Possibilities

• Discipline over distractions:
  With AI making almost any idea executable, Coastline leadership remains disciplined, focusing only on their core advantage (physical, high-quality lessons), resisting the urge to expand into unrelated digital areas.

  “What AI has done for us is...I don't need to know how to [do something], I could vibe code something and it'll happen...we try to be very mindful of not being distracted by anything that is not our core business.” – Renaud (44:01, 45:04)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the challenge of attribution in the AI era:
  “All the reporting tools have drastically changed...I have the lowest amount of trust in my reporting than ever before.” – Renaud (27:49)

• On using AI like healthy food:
  “Use it as you would healthy food...just a little bit every day.” – Renaud (46:58)

• On marketing and recruiter synergy:
  “My priority as a marketer is to hire people...in my, as a demand generating, like my job is to, is to generate demand. But now I need to generate some offer...” – Renaud (35:34)

• Humor and human touch:

  • “You know what? This podcast doesn't have enough typing sounds in it...” – Matthew (20:37)
  • “That's the loudest keyboard I could possibly buy. Again, to make things real.” – Renaud (21:05)

Important Segment Timestamps

• 04:12 – How AI has redefined Coastline’s operations beyond the marketing department
• 07:05 – The challenge of marketing to both teens and parents in a legacy industry
• 12:27–14:15 – How Coastline leverages AI for local, offline marketing and convenience
• 18:15–19:43 – Measuring success by utilization rate and market share
• 22:24 – The limitations of current AI analytics tools (e.g., AthenaHQ AI)
• 25:32–26:59 – The importance of lift analysis and adapting to new reporting realities
• 31:07–31:49 – Structure of A/B and pilot testing in local markets
• 32:19–37:29 – The recruitment “aha” moment: personality assessments, defining personas, and the fusion of marketing with HR
• 41:43 – Partnership over competition with online driver’s ed providers
• 44:02 – Staying focused in a world of limitless AI-enabled ideas
• 46:58 – Final AI advice: daily engagement and measured adoption

Closing Thoughts from Renaud

• Use AI daily in small, consistent doses to stay current and discover new applications
• Prioritize ongoing, defensive driving education for safety—outcomes still depend on human skill and training
• Find Coastline Academy at coastlineacademy.com

Summary Takeaway

This conversation vividly illustrates how AI is less about magic quick wins in digital channels, and more about rethinking traditional processes—whether local marketing, measuring real-world impact, or reimagining recruitment and market partnerships. AI-first companies have a unique opportunity to leapfrog legacy competitors if they focus relentlessly on core value, scale what works, and blend automation with human insight.

For listeners in marketing, operations, or executive roles considering AI transformation, this episode delivers both tactical inspiration and a philosophical framework.