Brandwatch vs Muck Rack

Leadership changes: Chief Revenue Officer and Head of Strategy removed from Brandwatch About page

Gianna Panattoni Jackson (CRO Americas) and Lexi Britton (Head of Strategy) have been removed from the leadership section.

PR Emerges as New SEO for AI Search Visibility

Fashion brands are increasingly turning to public relations (PR) as a key driver of visibility in AI-powered search engines, as generative engine optimization (GEO) gains prominence. Data analytics provider Launchmetrics, in collaboration with PR agency KCD, has introduced a new metric, AI Visibility (AIV), to measure a brand's presence in LLM responses on platforms like Google Gemini and ChatGPT. This metric complements the existing Media Impact Value (MIV) rankings, providing brands with a dual score to compare traditional media impact with AI-driven discoverability. The initiative highlights that earned media, such as press coverage and influencer mentions, significantly influences AI citations, with research indicating that over 80% of AI-cited links come from earned media. As consumer research increasingly starts with AI assistants, brands are expected to reallocate budgets from SEO towards PR and GEO strategies to enhance their AI visibility and overall brand awareness.

• Launchmetrics and KCD launched a new 'AI Visibility (AIV)' metric to measure brand impact in LLM responses.
• Muck Rack research found that 82% of links cited by AI come from earned media.
• Launchmetrics predicts PR budgets could double as brands seek to influence AI-generated answers.

Brand Reputation Wins in AI-Driven Search

A sponsored analysis by Journey Further argues that AI-driven search is collapsing brand discovery, evaluation and conversion into a single step because large language models synthesize third-party opinions (reviews, editorial coverage, community conversations) into answers. Brands that invest in earned media—trusted press, credible citations and community advocacy—are more likely to surface positively in AI-generated results. Journey Further cites internal analyses showing longer, more nuanced queries are rising and that advice pieces attract the majority of high-authority linking coverage. The article highlights technical issues too: many LLMs cannot read dynamically rendered site content, so server-side rendering and LLM-readable product data are important. It recommends shifting budgets toward earned proof, mapping audience influence sources, auditing product data, and building prompt banks.

• Journey Further analysis found searches of five to seven words increased 52% year-over-year (2026 vs 2025) and queries of eight words or more grew 34%.
• Journey Further’s Salient analysis of 4,000 high-authority links found advice pieces attracted 47% of linking coverage; product launches and shopping guides generated less than 2% combined.
• Muck Rack’s May 2026 Generative Pulse study reported that 84% of AI citations come from earned media.