Byron Sharp is everywhere on my LinkedIn feed lately.

So are Mark Ritson and Les Binet.
It feels like they have always been the "gods" of marketing.

But Google Trends tells a different story.

All three built distinguished careers over decades.
Sharp’s bestselling book "How Brands Grow" was published in 2010.

Yet search interest in all three remained mostly flat until mid-2025.
Then it suddenly jumped.
I have to admit, that’s also roughly when I discovered them.

I don’t know exactly what triggered the surge.
I’d genuinely love to hear your theories in the comments!

But the chart reveals something interesting about online bubbles.
If you asked me today, in August 2026, who the most influential marketing thinkers are, I would probably name these three.

Not necessarily because they are objectively the most influential.
But because my LinkedIn feed has made them omnipresent.

Meanwhile, the likes of Gary Vaynerchuk and Scott Galloway still attract far more search interest. Yes, both have expanded well beyond marketing.
But I still find their views on marketing highly relevant, especially Gary V’s.

And Philip Kotler, the father of modern marketing, remains by far the most searched of them all.

This doesn’t make Sharp, Ritson or Binet any less valuable.
It just shows how quickly a feed can turn experts into "gods".

Your feed is not the world. It’s a bubble.
And sometimes, a very recent one.

Who knows more of what happened in mid-2025?