The second placement is a perfect illustration of how this works. Someone types “can you recommend a fiftieth birthday gift under $200” into ChatGPT. The CNN piece surfaces, and Virgin Experience Gifts gets the citation.
The content doesn’t need to be exclusively about your brand. It just needs to include your brand in the right context, on a publication the model trusts.
Data-backed research and consumer studies
Research-led content carries more weight than standard brand messaging because it provides the model with concrete evidence to reference.
We see this consistently with studies and data-led campaigns. For example, one of our clients, a Fortune 500 dog food brand, created a study on the most dog-friendly cities in America. Time Out picked up the research, and it’s now surfacing in AI Overviews for related searches.
Journalists are also prioritizing data-led sources to gain visibility in LLMs. When you pitch a study with great data and a credible source, you’re giving them information they need to make their content citable in answer engines.
Thought leadership and expert commentary
Thought leadership is one of the highest-impact ways to build visibility in AI search, and it is often underused.