Why Earned Media Defines the Modern Brand
Why Earned Media Defines the Modern Brand
Is anyone else tired of hearing about how AI is coming for their jobs or disrupting entire industries?
I’m not. Let’s hear more.
Marcus Aurelius said, “What stands in the way becomes the way.”
He was right. The obstacle has become the way as AI large language models (LLMs) establish themselves as leading “search engines.” The unbought, unforced mentions generated through earned mentions in credible outlets have become the most influential signal in how LLMs decide who to trust.
What used to be a six-second Google query with a list of blue links has turned into a six-minute conversation with an AI that’s capable of recommending, rationalizing, and even transacting, all in the same prompt.
If you’ve been around digital marketing long enough, you remember when SEMRush and Ahrefs were the shovels and pickaxes of SEO gold mining. You could reverse-engineer what Google rewarded and, with a good work ethic, climb your way up. But AI doesn’t rank, it reasons. It’s not asking, “Who has the most backlinks or keywords?” It’s asking, “Who do I believe, and what are people actually saying?”
Just as we trusted organic SERP more than paid ads, belief still can’t be bought. It has to be earned.
Tools like Profound, Evertune and Passionfruit are becoming crucial right now. They’re not built to chase and rank for keywords; they’re built to read the mind of the machine. Just like a submarine uses sonar to create a picture of the ocean floor, Evertune runs millions of prompts across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and others to analyze how brands appear in answers, what tone or sentiment surrounds them, and which sources the AI trusts enough to cite. It’s like having access to the world’s most influential editor’s subconscious.
It’s not science fiction, it’s the next era of search. When a consumer asks, “What’s the best backcountry knife?” or “Which flyfishing gear brand is actually worth it?” the AI doesn’t run a page crawl. It leans on what it already knows, which are the narratives shaped by journalists, reviewers, and honest customer conversations across the open web.
That’s where earned coverage becomes the oxygen of brand presence. If Google rewarded optimization, AI rewards authenticity reinforced by authority.
We’re already seeing this play out. Our clients who have invested in meaningful, strategic, proactive PR efforts are already winning.
We’ve already seen this play out firsthand with clients like Uncharted Supply Co., which has invested in meaningful, strategic, and proactive PR efforts. By aligning our affiliate strategy and PR outreach for Uncharted Supply’s “Preptember” activation, we successfully positioned the brand to earn media placements in high-authority outlets like CNN Underscored, The Daily Beast, and DotDash Meredith, driving meaningful revenue and, more importantly, long-term credibility.
Tools like Evertune.ai are already revealing how this kind of earned authority becomes the raw material large language models like ChatGPT rely on when determining which brands to surface and trust. It’s a glimpse into how modern PR and affiliate integration not only influence consumers but also inform the algorithms shaping tomorrow’s discovery on LLMs like ChatGPT and others.
The irony is that as AI continues to flood the market, human elements like credibility, story, and reputation matter more than ever. The future of visibility for brands won’t disappear from SERP, but it certainly isn’t about gaming algorithms. It has more to do with teaching machines what’s worth repeating.
This is the next generation of earned media.
The brands that invest in being talked about where and when it matters, and not just advertised, will own the narrative that AI retells tomorrow.
Is anyone else tired of hearing about how AI is coming for their jobs or disrupting entire industries?
I’m not. Let’s hear more.
Marcus Aurelius said, “What stands in the way becomes the way.”
He was right. The obstacle has become the way as AI large language models (LLMs) establish themselves as leading “search engines.” The unbought, unforced mentions generated through earned mentions in credible outlets have become the most influential signal in how LLMs decide who to trust.
What used to be a six-second Google query with a list of blue links has turned into a six-minute conversation with an AI that’s capable of recommending, rationalizing, and even transacting, all in the same prompt.
If you’ve been around digital marketing long enough, you remember when SEMRush and Ahrefs were the shovels and pickaxes of SEO gold mining. You could reverse-engineer what Google rewarded and, with a good work ethic, climb your way up. But AI doesn’t rank, it reasons. It’s not asking, “Who has the most backlinks or keywords?” It’s asking, “Who do I believe, and what are people actually saying?”
Just as we trusted organic SERP more than paid ads, belief still can’t be bought. It has to be earned.
Tools like Profound, Evertune and Passionfruit are becoming crucial right now. They’re not built to chase and rank for keywords; they’re built to read the mind of the machine. Just like a submarine uses sonar to create a picture of the ocean floor, Evertune runs millions of prompts across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and others to analyze how brands appear in answers, what tone or sentiment surrounds them, and which sources the AI trusts enough to cite. It’s like having access to the world’s most influential editor’s subconscious.
It’s not science fiction, it’s the next era of search. When a consumer asks, “What’s the best backcountry knife?” or “Which flyfishing gear brand is actually worth it?” the AI doesn’t run a page crawl. It leans on what it already knows, which are the narratives shaped by journalists, reviewers, and honest customer conversations across the open web.
That’s where earned coverage becomes the oxygen of brand presence. If Google rewarded optimization, AI rewards authenticity reinforced by authority.
We’re already seeing this play out. Our clients who have invested in meaningful, strategic, proactive PR efforts are already winning.
We’ve already seen this play out firsthand with clients like Uncharted Supply Co., which has invested in meaningful, strategic, and proactive PR efforts. By aligning our affiliate strategy and PR outreach for Uncharted Supply’s “Preptember” activation, we successfully positioned the brand to earn media placements in high-authority outlets like CNN Underscored, The Daily Beast, and DotDash Meredith, driving meaningful revenue and, more importantly, long-term credibility.
Tools like Evertune.ai are already revealing how this kind of earned authority becomes the raw material large language models like ChatGPT rely on when determining which brands to surface and trust. It’s a glimpse into how modern PR and affiliate integration not only influence consumers but also inform the algorithms shaping tomorrow’s discovery on LLMs like ChatGPT and others.
The irony is that as AI continues to flood the market, human elements like credibility, story, and reputation matter more than ever. The future of visibility for brands won’t disappear from SERP, but it certainly isn’t about gaming algorithms. It has more to do with teaching machines what’s worth repeating.
This is the next generation of earned media.
The brands that invest in being talked about where and when it matters, and not just advertised, will own the narrative that AI retells tomorrow.
Is anyone else tired of hearing about how AI is coming for their jobs or disrupting entire industries?
I’m not. Let’s hear more.
Marcus Aurelius said, “What stands in the way becomes the way.”
He was right. The obstacle has become the way as AI large language models (LLMs) establish themselves as leading “search engines.” The unbought, unforced mentions generated through earned mentions in credible outlets have become the most influential signal in how LLMs decide who to trust.
What used to be a six-second Google query with a list of blue links has turned into a six-minute conversation with an AI that’s capable of recommending, rationalizing, and even transacting, all in the same prompt.
If you’ve been around digital marketing long enough, you remember when SEMRush and Ahrefs were the shovels and pickaxes of SEO gold mining. You could reverse-engineer what Google rewarded and, with a good work ethic, climb your way up. But AI doesn’t rank, it reasons. It’s not asking, “Who has the most backlinks or keywords?” It’s asking, “Who do I believe, and what are people actually saying?”
Just as we trusted organic SERP more than paid ads, belief still can’t be bought. It has to be earned.
Tools like Profound, Evertune and Passionfruit are becoming crucial right now. They’re not built to chase and rank for keywords; they’re built to read the mind of the machine. Just like a submarine uses sonar to create a picture of the ocean floor, Evertune runs millions of prompts across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and others to analyze how brands appear in answers, what tone or sentiment surrounds them, and which sources the AI trusts enough to cite. It’s like having access to the world’s most influential editor’s subconscious.
It’s not science fiction, it’s the next era of search. When a consumer asks, “What’s the best backcountry knife?” or “Which flyfishing gear brand is actually worth it?” the AI doesn’t run a page crawl. It leans on what it already knows, which are the narratives shaped by journalists, reviewers, and honest customer conversations across the open web.
That’s where earned coverage becomes the oxygen of brand presence. If Google rewarded optimization, AI rewards authenticity reinforced by authority.
We’re already seeing this play out. Our clients who have invested in meaningful, strategic, proactive PR efforts are already winning.
We’ve already seen this play out firsthand with clients like Uncharted Supply Co., which has invested in meaningful, strategic, and proactive PR efforts. By aligning our affiliate strategy and PR outreach for Uncharted Supply’s “Preptember” activation, we successfully positioned the brand to earn media placements in high-authority outlets like CNN Underscored, The Daily Beast, and DotDash Meredith, driving meaningful revenue and, more importantly, long-term credibility.
Tools like Evertune.ai are already revealing how this kind of earned authority becomes the raw material large language models like ChatGPT rely on when determining which brands to surface and trust. It’s a glimpse into how modern PR and affiliate integration not only influence consumers but also inform the algorithms shaping tomorrow’s discovery on LLMs like ChatGPT and others.
The irony is that as AI continues to flood the market, human elements like credibility, story, and reputation matter more than ever. The future of visibility for brands won’t disappear from SERP, but it certainly isn’t about gaming algorithms. It has more to do with teaching machines what’s worth repeating.
This is the next generation of earned media.
The brands that invest in being talked about where and when it matters, and not just advertised, will own the narrative that AI retells tomorrow.
Is anyone else tired of hearing about how AI is coming for their jobs or disrupting entire industries?
I’m not. Let’s hear more.
Marcus Aurelius said, “What stands in the way becomes the way.”
He was right. The obstacle has become the way as AI large language models (LLMs) establish themselves as leading “search engines.” The unbought, unforced mentions generated through earned mentions in credible outlets have become the most influential signal in how LLMs decide who to trust.
What used to be a six-second Google query with a list of blue links has turned into a six-minute conversation with an AI that’s capable of recommending, rationalizing, and even transacting, all in the same prompt.
If you’ve been around digital marketing long enough, you remember when SEMRush and Ahrefs were the shovels and pickaxes of SEO gold mining. You could reverse-engineer what Google rewarded and, with a good work ethic, climb your way up. But AI doesn’t rank, it reasons. It’s not asking, “Who has the most backlinks or keywords?” It’s asking, “Who do I believe, and what are people actually saying?”
Just as we trusted organic SERP more than paid ads, belief still can’t be bought. It has to be earned.
Tools like Profound, Evertune and Passionfruit are becoming crucial right now. They’re not built to chase and rank for keywords; they’re built to read the mind of the machine. Just like a submarine uses sonar to create a picture of the ocean floor, Evertune runs millions of prompts across ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and others to analyze how brands appear in answers, what tone or sentiment surrounds them, and which sources the AI trusts enough to cite. It’s like having access to the world’s most influential editor’s subconscious.
It’s not science fiction, it’s the next era of search. When a consumer asks, “What’s the best backcountry knife?” or “Which flyfishing gear brand is actually worth it?” the AI doesn’t run a page crawl. It leans on what it already knows, which are the narratives shaped by journalists, reviewers, and honest customer conversations across the open web.
That’s where earned coverage becomes the oxygen of brand presence. If Google rewarded optimization, AI rewards authenticity reinforced by authority.
We’re already seeing this play out. Our clients who have invested in meaningful, strategic, proactive PR efforts are already winning.
We’ve already seen this play out firsthand with clients like Uncharted Supply Co., which has invested in meaningful, strategic, and proactive PR efforts. By aligning our affiliate strategy and PR outreach for Uncharted Supply’s “Preptember” activation, we successfully positioned the brand to earn media placements in high-authority outlets like CNN Underscored, The Daily Beast, and DotDash Meredith, driving meaningful revenue and, more importantly, long-term credibility.
Tools like Evertune.ai are already revealing how this kind of earned authority becomes the raw material large language models like ChatGPT rely on when determining which brands to surface and trust. It’s a glimpse into how modern PR and affiliate integration not only influence consumers but also inform the algorithms shaping tomorrow’s discovery on LLMs like ChatGPT and others.
The irony is that as AI continues to flood the market, human elements like credibility, story, and reputation matter more than ever. The future of visibility for brands won’t disappear from SERP, but it certainly isn’t about gaming algorithms. It has more to do with teaching machines what’s worth repeating.
This is the next generation of earned media.
The brands that invest in being talked about where and when it matters, and not just advertised, will own the narrative that AI retells tomorrow.
Let’s Chat
Want to hire us? Reach out if you like what you see. Want us to hire you? Share your résumé and a little about yourself. We also encourage freelancers to share their portfolios and rates—we're always looking for collaborators.
© 2025 Gunpowder Inc. | All right reserved. |
Let’s Chat
Want to hire us? Reach out if you like what you see. Want us to hire you? Share your résumé and a little about yourself. We also encourage freelancers to share their portfolios and rates—we're always looking for collaborators.
© 2025 Gunpowder Inc. | All right reserved. |
Let’s Chat
Want to hire us? Reach out if you like what you see. Want us to hire you? Share your résumé and a little about yourself. We also encourage freelancers to share their portfolios and rates—we're always looking for collaborators.
© 2025 Gunpowder Inc. | All right reserved. |
Let’s Chat
Want to hire us? Reach out if you like what you see. Want us to hire you? Share your résumé and a little about yourself. We also encourage freelancers to share their portfolios and rates—we're always looking for collaborators.
© 2025 Gunpowder Inc. | All right reserved. |