Observed Signal · Oct 26, 2026 · Product Development · Source: Digiday · Impact: 3/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Daily Mail Tests GEO with Brands Before AI Product Launch
The Daily Mail is running around a dozen GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) tests with brands to develop an AI visibility product, expected to launch early next year. Carly Steven, director of SEO and editorial ecommerce, detailed the initiative at Digiday's Media Strategies London event. The tests track brand visibility across AI platforms, create bespoke branded content to improve citations, and measure impact beyond referral analytics. In an early test, brand visibility rose from 50% to nearly 75%. The publisher sees GEO as a new revenue opportunity, with brands increasingly asking to appear in AI-generated answers. The initiative involves cross-team collaboration and aims to protect the publisher's IP while monetizing AI search visibility. Other publishers like Future, Ziff Davis, Forbes, and CNNIC are also exploring similar products.
This news highlights the growing trend of publishers productizing GEO services, which is an emerging revenue stream in the AI-driven search landscape. It signifies a shift in how media companies adapt to AI's impact on content discovery and brand visibility, making it relevant to the AdTech/MarTech industry.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- Daily Mail is running 12-15 GEO tests in the US, UK, and Australia.
- Carly Steven, director of SEO and editorial ecommerce, announced the initiative at Digiday's Media Strategies London event.
- In an early GEO test, brand visibility rose from about 50% to nearly 75%.
- The GEO product is expected to launch early next year.
- Other publishers like Future, Ziff Davis, Forbes, and CNNIC are also exploring GEO products.
Connected Companies & Entities
4 Entities mapped“Future's GEO product has more than 30 clients and secured renewals.”
“Ziff Davis says it has multiple GEO clients.”
“Forbes is turning AI-search visibility into a consultative offer for brand partners.”
Ontology Mapping & Concepts
Related Market Signals & Shifts
Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
BCN launches 'GEO Brand Impact' for AI visibility
Brand Community Network (BCN) has packaged Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) into a commercial service called "GEO Brand Impact." The offering, aimed at direct and agency clients, combines visibility analysis, content strategy, production of AI‑optimized content (listicles, product reviews, comparisons), placement within BCN editorial environments and ongoing optimization and measurement. BCN says it will track metrics such as Brand Visibility, Citation Rate and Sentiment. The company cites a portfolio of more than 300 brands and 500 media properties (including Focus Online, Chip, Bunte, Chefkoch, TV Spielfilm and Onmeda) with a claimed cross‑media reach of 63 million in Germany. BCN notes it cannot guarantee inclusion in specific AI answers (e.g., ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews) because sources used by LLMs depend on multiple factors.
Generative Engine Optimization Goes Mainstream
CiteLens published a benchmark study (June 2026, Turkey) that ran 320 buyer queries across four AI answer engines — Google AI Mode, Perplexity, Claude and ChatGPT — and compared each engine’s citations to Google and Bing organic results. Results show Google AI Mode (93%) and Perplexity (89%) overwhelmingly cite Google’s top-10 organic results, indicating classic SEO strongly influences those engines. Claude cited Google top-10 results 53% of the time and skewed toward well-known brands (58% of citations went to sites with a Wikipedia presence). ChatGPT cited only 30% from Google top-10 and surfaced many niche domains; fewer than 4% of ChatGPT’s citations were in Bing’s top-10. CiteLens says the findings mean there is no single “AI SEO” and publishes an AI Leaderboard and tooling to measure AI visibility by engine, country and sector.
Brands Shift Focus to AI Search for Visibility
MarTech contributor Greg Kihlström argues that brand discovery is shifting from traditional search to AI-driven answer engines, making Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) a C-suite priority. Conductor research cited in the article finds nearly one-third of digital marketing leaders view GEO as the top performance challenge for 2026, with 97% reporting positive results from GEO efforts. Companies are reallocating budget and building GEO capabilities in-house—including structured data/schema work, API-based monitoring, publishing long-form authoritative content and prioritizing first‑party data—to remain discoverable by LLM-powered answer engines like ChatGPT and Gemini. The piece says measurement is moving from volume metrics to quality-focused KPIs (e.g., direct conversions from AI referrals, AI search market share and brand sentiment in AI outputs), and warns brands that delays may widen the gap between high-maturity and laggard organizations.
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