Brodeur Partners blog

How Great Stories Make Brands Relevant

Jacob Penn — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 20:52:16 GMT

You know the conversation.

You're at a social gathering making small talk with someone new. It's going well, your jokes are landing, you're building rapport. Then comes the question: "So what do you do for a living?"

My answer almost always kills the conversation: "I work in marketing."

Most people don't know what that means. Marketing? That's advertising, right? And nobody wants to talk about advertising.

A better answer would be: "I'm a professional storyteller." That leads somewhere interesting. It also happens to be true.

Why Stories Matter

At Brodeur, we tell stories that make our clients' products and services relevant to specific audiences. Our stories aren't judged just on entertainment value—they're measured by whether they drive action. Did the audience click, like, share, or buy? If not, we've got more work to do.

Every product or service solves a problem or improves someone's life. There's inherent drama in that dynamic, which means there's a story waiting to be told. Our job is to structure it, frame it, and deliver it effectively.

Why not just share facts and specs? Because humans think in stories. We're constantly constructing and revising the narratives of our lives—it's how we're built. Science proves that facts activate two parts of the brain while stories stimulate seven. Higher brain engagement means higher memorability, which is essential to selling.

Best-selling author Alex Haley said the best way to begin a speech is "Let me tell you a story." Nobody wants a lecture, but everyone loves a good story. Those words make you lean in, like huddling around a campfire waiting to hear what comes next.

The Proof

Here's a story that proves the point.

On a cool, damp day at Stanford, Professor Chip Heath divided his class in half and had students craft one-minute presentations on a controversial topic. After all the presentations concluded, he played an unrelated 10-minute video. Then he asked students to write down everything they remembered from the presentations.

The results were striking:

Only 5% remembered any statistics (even though the average presentation included 2.5 stats)
63% remembered the stories

This experiment, featured in Heath's bestselling book Made to Stick, perfectly illustrates why storytelling is central to everything we do at Brodeur—from media pitches to commercials to PowerPoint decks.

What Makes a Good Story?

There's no simple formula, but we know what matters:

Emotion connects people to your message
Authenticity builds trust (more than ever)
Engagement makes audiences work just a little—give them two plus two, not four

Despite relying on research and data, building powerful stories is more art than science. But it's our trade. We believe in stories, and we work tirelessly to craft and optimize them for our clients.

We're not just marketers. We're storytellers.

Here's Which Brands and Media Outlets LLMs Actually Cite

Jacob Penn — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 14:46:54 GMT

Try searching for "best travel credit cards" in Google versus ChatGPT and you'll see two completely different worlds.

The Google Reality

When I search Google, the first two results are ads. Below that? Ten blue links staring back at me. Ten potential tabs to open, ten sources to compare, ten rabbit holes to fall down. And here's the kicker: each of those tabs will have different answers and rankings, forcing me to spend even more time cross-checking recommendations for each card.

And let's be honest, when was the last time you clicked to page 2 on Google? For most of us, the answer is never. Those first ten results essentially make up the internet. This friction is exactly why more people are turning to LLMs for a quicker, more efficient search process.

The AI Reality

ChatGPT tells a different story. Instead of ten blue links, I get four recommendations. But here's what caught my attention: when I asked the same question on different days, the answers changed. Different banks and credit cards were recommended across different sources. While Google's rankings remain mostly steady and predictable, AI gives each user a unique answer, making the landscape far more dynamic and unpredictable for brands.

The Test

With the help of Scrunch, I designed an experiment to understand what was really happening beneath the surface of AI search. I created 15 different prompts on the theme of "best travel credit cards" to mimic how real people might phrase their searches.

I then simulated these prompts across 4 different LLM models daily until I had completed 500 total searches. This sample size allowed me to see past the randomness and identify genuine patterns in how AI models recommend credit cards and which sources they cite.

The Results

Here's how often each credit card issuers appeared in AI search:

Chase: 95%
American Express: 79%
Capital One: 77%
Citi: 34%
Wells Fargo: 16%
Bank of America: 13%
Discover: 5%
U.S. Bank: 2%
Barclays: 1%

For anyone familiar with travel credit cards, these results probably aren't surprising. The real revelation wasn't which brands appeared most often, it was the sources behind those recommendations. While Google consistently offered me the same 10-15 domains, my AI search results cited over 160 unique websites.

Yes, the usual suspects like NerdWallet and The Points Guy appeared, but so did countless smaller brand websites and niche media outlets such as Thrifty Traveler, Fang Wallet, Finance Buzz, Card Ratings, and Two Dusty Travelers. These smaller players would never crack Google's page one without significant SEO investment, but they did appear in AI search.

What This Means for Publishers

LLMs are leveling the playing field in a way Google never has. It's no longer just about domain authority, backlinks, or how much you've invested in SEO. If you have quality, citable content, you have a chance to appear in an AI answer, regardless of your site's traffic or brand recognition. The gatekeepers are changing. And the gates are opening wider.

Why This Matters for Brands

As more consumers migrate to AI search, brand visibility is no longer just about what you say on your own website. It's about what others are saying about you across the internet. In the Google era, you could optimize your site and control your message. In the AI era, your brand reputation is being shaped by every review, comparison article, and mention scattered across hundreds of sources, many of which you've never heard of.

The brands that understand and monitor their AI visibility today will be the ones that maintain relevance tomorrow. Because in this new search landscape, you don't just need to be found, you need to be recommended. And that recommendation is built from a chorus of voices, not a single website.

Want to discuss AI search and what it means for your brand? Send me a DM or email me at Jpenn@brodeur.com.

AI Visibility: The Newest Battleground for Brands

Jacob Penn — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 14:11:03 GMT

AI Search and AI Visibility: The New Frontier for Brands

For years, brands have optimized for search engines, climbing to the top of Google results pages to win visibility and customer trust. But there’s a seismic shift underway, one that’s changing how people discover, evaluate, and choose brands. It’s called AI Search, and it’s rewriting the rules of digital visibility.

What Is AI Search?

AI Search refers to how generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Claude answer questions and make recommendations. Instead of a list of blue links, these tools provide synthesized, conversational answers. They pull information from across the web, summarize it, and often recommend a handful of brands or solutions.

This shift means people aren’t just “Googling” anymore, they’re asking AI assistants for advice, and those AI-generated answers are increasingly shaping decisions about products, services, and companies.

Why AI Visibility Matters

In a world where AI answers first, traditional SEO is no longer enough. AI Visibility is the ability of your brand to appear and be recommended in these AI-generated responses

If your brand isn’t being surfaced in AI answers, you risk becoming invisible at the very moment a customer is asking for what you offer. Early studies suggest:

More than 80% of generative search queries recommend only 3–5 brands
Many AI tools cite the same “trusted sources” repeatedly, creating a winner-takes-all effect
Once AI models establish which brands are most relevant, it becomes harder for others to break in

The reality is stark: AI is curating the future of search. If you’re not visible, you’re not considered.

Why Brands Must Act Now

AI search isn’t a far-off trend, it’s happening now. Millions of people are already turning to AI tools for recommendations on everything from B2B services to consumer products. The brands that act early have a huge advantage:

First-mover positioning: AI models learn from today’s content. If you optimize now, you shape tomorrow’s answers.
Authority building: AI favors trusted, consistent, high-quality sources.
Defensive protection: If competitors dominate AI results, your brand may be shut out of the conversation entirely.

This isn’t just an SEO play, it’s a fight for digital relevance in the next era of search.

The Bottom Line

AI search is redefining how people discover brands, and the window to claim your space is closing fast. Just like brands that ignored SEO in the early 2000s were left behind, those who ignore AI visibility today will struggle to catch up later.

Brands that want to stay competitive need to understand how AI models perceive them, measure their current AI visibility, and take deliberate action to optimize for generative answers.

The future of search is here. The question is: will AI recommend you or someone else?

Brodeur Partners Launches Relevance AI

Andy Coville — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 16:00:00 GMT

New Suite of AI Services Combines Behavioral Science with Optimization Tools to Help Clients Manage, Monitor and Improve their AI Visibility

BOSTON, June 26, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Brodeur Partners, a strategic communications agency known for its behavioral science-driven Relevance methodology, today launched Brodeur Relevance AI—a new suite of services designed to help organizations strengthen their visibility and relevance in AI-powered search and discovery environments.

As information discovery rapidly shifts from traditional search engines to AI-driven answer engines, organizations face new challenges and opportunities in shaping how they are understood and recommended by platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude. Brodeur Relevance AI addresses this pivotal moment by equipping clients with the tools and strategies to audit, optimize, and enhance their presence across all major generative AI platforms.

A New Imperative for Communications and Public Relations

With AI-generated answers increasingly shaping stakeholder perceptions and business outcomes, Brodeur Relevance AI ensures that clients' messages are not only intrinsic to relevant AI outputs but also positioned in ways that maximize credibility and influence. The service leverages Brodeur's proven Relevance approach, combining deep behavioral science insights with strategic earned, owned, social and digital media strategies to drive meaningful engagement and authority.

"This is a defining moment for communications and public relations," said Andrea Coville, CEO, Brodeur Partners. "With Brodeur Relevance AI, we're helping our clients ensure their messages are not just present, but also persuasive and relevant in the conversations that matter most, including those individuals have with AI models. As importantly, we're prepared to assess and improve how GenAI is being deployed and used by all stakeholders, from marketing, to employee recruitment and engagement to customer service and beyond. Optimizing messaging takes on a whole new meaning in the age of AI."

Brodeur Relevance AI: Core Capabilities

The Brodeur Relevance AI proprietary platform will ultimately incorporate technology that will allow clients to monitor their brand's relevance in real time across a variety of metrics. Currently, clients can leverage these four core AI visibility services:

Brodeur Relevance AI Visibility Audit: Measures a brand's likelihood to be mentioned in AI-generated answers for relevant topics, tracks average ranking position, and identifies the number and quality of sources cited by each LLM.
Platform Optimization: Evaluates gaps in AI visibility and combined with Brodeur's Relevance methodology, identifies where and how to balance messaging delivered through earned media, owned, social and digital strategies.
Strategic Content Strategy: Guides clients in developing and deploying content that is authoritative, credible, and relevant to AI platforms as well as human audiences. Leveraging Brodeur's 10+ years of research on Relevance ensures that AI visibility is not only optimized but holistic and balanced.
Ongoing Monitoring and Improvement: Brodeur's Relevance AI tools continuously track AI visibility and relevance, identify new content opportunities, and ensure clients remain at the forefront of AI-driven discovery.

"While some firms focus solely on Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), we take a more holistic approach," added Coville. "We recognize that true AI visibility requires a mix of GEO, AI Optimization (AIO), and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) strategies, ensuring our clients are not just found by AI, but also understood and recommended across all key platforms. Beyond that, we are layering in our proprietary knowledge and data on Relevance to unlock ways to drive behavior change."

Why This Matters Now

Recent shifts in information discovery mean that earned and owned media are more influential than ever in shaping how AI platforms understand and recommend brands. Organizations that proactively manage their AI visibility will be better positioned to build authority, create engagement, and drive business impact.

Today, AI's influence reaches across the entire organization—affecting not only marketing and external communications, but also internal communications, recruitment, and crisis preparedness. In recruitment, AI-powered search results can shape employer branding and candidate perceptions, directly impacting talent acquisition. For internal communications, the way organizations are represented in AI-generated content can shape employee perceptions and engagement, while in crisis communications, rapid and accurate AI visibility can help control narratives and mitigate reputational risks. By aligning these functions around a unified approach to AI visibility, organizations can ensure their messages are relevant, consistent, and effective wherever stakeholders encounter them.

About Brodeur Partners

Brodeur Partners is an integrated communications agency that helps companies become and remain relevant in a complex world. It is differentiated by its focus on relevance, behavioral change, and ability to bring a discipline-agnostic approach to its business-to-business, nonprofit, consumer, and higher education clients.