Communications Strategy

Digital PR Agency

Moving the dial on AI discovery: A GEO case study in LLM visibility

the challenge

Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is transforming how consumers discover and choose products.

As AI-powered search and recommendation systems, including large language models (LLMs), increasingly shape recommendations, brands must compete not only in traditional search results but within AI-generated answers.

For a globally recognised home appliances brand, this created a new competitive battleground.

Despite strong performance driven by integrated PR, social and influencer activity, including over 900 pieces of earned coverage, more than 22 million video views and market share growth of over 900 percent in a key category, the brand’s visibility within AI-generated answers remained limited.

In other words, while it was highly visible across traditional and social channels, it was not yet consistently appearing in the AI-generated recommendations increasingly shaping purchase decisions.

Together, we set out to prove something ambitious:

That AI visibility is not accidental. It can be influenced, measured and grown through strategic earned authority.

strategy

Our objective was to establish the brand as a credible and competitive presence across AI-driven discovery...

… including platforms such as ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and other AI-powered search environments, in several priority small domestic appliance categories.

Success would be defined by tangible shifts in:

– AI visibility / share of voice
– Brand mentions and citations
– Estimated LLM traffic potential
– Competitive positioning

Ultimately, the goal was not simply visibility. It was influence in the answers consumers increasingly trust.

Smoking Gun developed an earned-first GEO approach designed to build authority across the environments AI systems, including LLMs, draw from.

Our approach centred on a simple belief: LLMs learn from credible conversation.

So we focused on placing the brand within the trusted sources AI systems rely on, including editorial coverage, expert content, blogs, forums, product round-ups and reviews.

This meant:

– Building contextual brand mentions within real advice-led content
– Securing inclusion in guides and comparison features consumers rely on
– Creating authoritative signals through trusted third-party environments
– Ensuring the brand appeared alongside key competitors in the environments LLMs frequently cite

At its core, the strategy took Smoking Gun’s earned authority approach and structured it around the specific queries, content types and publishers that AI systems draw on when generating answers.

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execution

The campaign combined sustained earned media performance with targeted visibility aligned to high-volume AI search and LLM query themes.

Stories and placements were informed by search and query insight, focusing on the types of questions consumers repeatedly ask AI systems, including:

“Best” and “top-rated” product comparisons
Cost and energy-efficiency considerations
Product maintenance and troubleshooting
Usage advice and real-world performance scenarios

Activity included:

Editorial placements across lifestyle, home and product-focused publishers
Inclusion in buying guides, comparison features and “best of” round-ups
Expert commentary embedded within advice-led articles
Forum and community placements aligned to real consumer discussions
Authority-building brand mentions reinforcing credibility across multiple categories

This activity ran alongside a high-performing press office programme, ensuring consistent brand presence across national and specialist media throughout the project period.

Rather than chasing volume, the focus was on contextual relevance. The objective was to ensure the brand appeared consistently within the types of content AI systems repeatedly reference when generating answers.

The impact?

Over four months, the project delivered clear and measurable gains across the brand’s priority home appliance categories. Results reflect combined performance across these segments, including highly competitive kitchen and home technology categories.

results

AI share of voice

Share of voice increased from 3.2% to 9.1%, establishing a strong competitive presence within AI-generated answers.

Brand mentions

Mentions grew from 274 to 1,424, significantly exceeding KPI and reinforcing the brand as a recognised authority within AI responses.

Traffic potential

Estimated LLM-driven traffic potential rose from 48k to over 3.2 million, signalling a major shift in discovery opportunity.

Category positioning

The brand achieved meaningful ranking gains across multiple home appliance segments, moving into strong challenger positions against established competitors.

Why it matters

For the brand, the project marked a meaningful shift in how it appeared within AI-generated answers across key categories.

It showed that:

GEO performance can be influenced through earned authority signals
PR and storytelling play a meaningful role in shaping AI recommendations
Visibility across editorial, creator and community environments compounds AI presence over time

In short, the work moved the brand from passive participant to active contender in the AI discovery landscape.

The Smoking Gun difference

While the project incorporated new measurement frameworks, the strategy and execution were driven by Smoking Gun’s core strength: creative, credible storytelling.

By embedding the brand within trusted editorial, expert and community conversations, we built the repetition and contextual relevance AI systems, including LLMs, rely on when generating recommendations.

The project reinforced an important point: earned media does more than generate coverage. It contributes to credibility, association and recall across the environments AI systems draw from when shaping responses.

The takeaway

This project demonstrates that GEO is not solely a technical exercise. It is a credibility exercise within AI-driven discovery.

By aligning creative storytelling with the themes and questions that shape AI responses, Smoking Gun delivered measurable improvements in AI share of voice, brand authority and AI visibility.

For the household brand, it delivered tangible competitive gains.

For Smoking Gun, it demonstrated how earned-first strategy can actively influence performance in AI-driven discovery.