Carve Communications’ Toy Experts Scott GoldbergThe New Value of PR and How It Can Help Expand Consumer Visibility in an AI World

EARNED MEDIA IS TRANSFORMING AI!!!!  Yes, it’s true!

FACT: Over half of consumers (52%) replaced traditional online search with generative AI tools like Chat GPT, Bing Copilot, Google Gemini, Claude and Perplexity.

FACT:  OpenAI, the creators of ChatGPT, recently launched Instant Checkout which allows users to make purchases directly via ChatGPT. It’s likely no coincidence that Walmart reported that 20% of their referral traffic comes from ChatGPT. ​​ AI-chat is definitely starting to influence how consumers shop online.The click-to-buy stage in digital shopping is coming to a slow death.

FACT: A study found that 95% of AI citations come from unpaid media sources, and 85% of those are earned media placements.

How is that for bold facts?!  Those stats alone should make you think, “Do I have the right marketing plan and budget allocation in place to reach today's consumer NOW?”

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) vs. GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)

SEO is all about optimizing your website – from the technical aspects to your content – in order to rank in search engines, with the goal of being as close to the “top” of the results as possible when a consumer searches. 

Alternatively, GEO is the practice of tailoring content so that it appears within answers produced by generative AI systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini and others.

Quality and consistent coverage on high authority editorial sites are rewarded in GEO. LLMs are built to look for these trust signals and earned media from third-party sources. This is especially true because there is no equivalent of "paid search" on LLMs (yet).

The Conclusion - Yes, you still need SEO, but now you also need to add GEO to your marketing toolbox.

So, what’s a marketer to do?

If your goal is to reach the current consumer, then it’s time to accept there’s a new way to impact their ultimate purchase decision.

What’s key for these AI models and how do you WIN?

Clarity – The narrative you're telling should be clear and concise across all of your platforms, in press materials, on LinkedIn, industry trade magazines, corporate blogs and newsroom pages, on your socials, your company YouTube pages, and even Wikipedia sites. Yes, you read that right.  Even putting press releases on the wire is back in vogue to feed the AI machines.

Consistency - The LLMs look for patterns, one earned PR placement or blog post for your brand every six months is simply not enough. Steady repetition and reinforcement gets your brand included in the “answers” when consumers ask questions on these AI platforms. And, of course, you want to ensure you’re repeating the right messages over and over again.

Authority – Securing high profile, “trusted” articles in credible sources (aka PR placements in mainstream media, industry trades and niche pubs) that GEO can track and “summarize” when asked about a brand, product or service is now required. It’s all about the quality of the content and the credibility of the sources.

Prompts – You need to understand how consumers search for your product or category on LLMs. This will help you establish benchmarks for how strong your brand visibility is now (vs. the competition), where you might need to reinforce certain messages or find untapped opportunities to make a difference in the future.  With a steady check-in, your visibility should change over time with concerted efforts.

Pro tip:  Want to go a bit deeper on your prompts, you should check out your competitors' brands and products and see what models they show up on vs. your brands. Listen, learn and activate accordingly from there.

Beyond that, encourage your team to learn everything there is to know about how consumers research products and shop using LLMs today and, in the meantime, reconsider how you're dividing up your marketing budget this holiday season and into 2026.

We leave you with this!  Earned media fuels the AI machines and those AI machines are where consumers are right now! Take control of your brand narrative and lead the conversation in LLMs with a strong and consistent PR strategy in line with the modern way consumers are learning about products and making their purchasing decisions.