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Brand Visibility in AI

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There's an old search engine joke that the best place to hide a dead body is page two of Google search results.

When search engines are the primary mode of finding information, brands do everything they can to be on the first page. That includes SEO tactics to become one of the ten blue links as well as sponsored ads based on buying keywords.

But as "search" shifts to "ask", AI responses blow up that playbook. A typical AI response might mention only three brands, one brand, or no brand at all. And if a brand isn't mentioned in AI responses, it's increasingly invisible.

What's more, what gets noticed by search engines is radically different than what gets noticed by generative engines. SEO (search engine optimization) will operate differently than GEO (generative engine optimization).

Brent Nelson, Chief Strategy Officer at Edelman, wrote about some of this shift in Ad Age recently:

"What drives visibility isn’t your ad budget or keyword bids; it’s earned media. Analysis shows that 90% of what appears in AI summaries is “earned-driven”—pulled from reviews, press, blogs, forums and cultural chatter. Paid now plays a different role, amplifying what’s already there...

"The new shelf space isn’t a store; it’s the AI summary. Brands need to understand their earned footprint across AI-generated answers. Who gets cited? Who’s trusted? Who’s missing? That’s the new baseline of visibility."

Earned media is not the same type of level for marketers to pull. It will be interesting to see how this evolves in 2026.

Keynotes from the road

Right before breaking for the holidays, I got to deliver a keynote to an All Hands meeting for a FinTech company from a corner of my cartoon studio.

Next up, I’m planning two sessions in the next few weeks — a public virtual event with at IT company (more details soon) and a private company event with a fashion brand.

As always, please let me know if you’d like to talk about any events you’re planning (or know of) that you think could be a good fit. For an idea of my approach with events, here are some of my more popular keynote topics.

Cartoon From The Archives

Here’s a related cartoon I drew from 2017. And here’s where you can read and search all 23 years of these cartoons.

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Thank you for all of your support (and cartoon material)!

-Tom

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About Marketoonist

Marketoonist is the thought bubble of me, Tom Fishburne. I first started drawing cartoons as a student in the Harvard Business School newspaper (not quite as well-known for humor as the Lampoon) and later started this newsletter from a General Mills cubicle in 2002. The cartoons have followed my career ever since. I poke fun at the ever-changing world of marketing and business because I believe that laughing at ourselves can help us do our best work.