Asleep at the wheel: Two brands – one terrible at appearing in AI, one great. Why this is, and why it matters

It might be tempting to think that brand size, recognition, previous SEO rankings or ad spend equates to visibility in AI. This is absolutely NOT the case.

Recently I did a talk looking at how two brands – same marketplace, same business size, similar product price and same customer target – can be performing wildly differently in terms of their Earned Visibility. 

So, let’s look at mattresses. 

Simba Vs Eve

Simba and Eve both offer ‘mattress in a box’ mattresses. They are both well known brands in the space, they both have the same target audience, both claim to be the best / highest rated mattress and both have chunky budgets (Simba now has a huge team and Eve has the backing of Bensons for Beds). 

But when it comes to Earned Visibility and AI brand discoverability, that’s where the similarities end. 

Earned Visibility – Battle of the Mattresses Edition 

We carried a full Earned Visibility Audit for both brands. The results were startling. 

Simba had an overall Earned Visibility score of 65 whilst Eve scored just 27/100, less than half of Simba. 

Simba’s strong score will be the result of consistent, dedicated work. The brand shows up regularly in national media like The Sun, GQ and The Independent, backed by a stream of useful research content and expert commentary that reinforces its authority. Add to that a technically sound, fast-loading website and well-optimised structure, and AI systems can easily read, trust and surface Simba’s content in results.

Eve, by contrast, has a quieter footprint. Its listings are older and less complete, its content cadence has slowed, and its site structure is only partially optimised – meaning fewer clear signals for AI or search engines to interpret. It’s not that the brand lacks quality; it’s that it’s harder to find. In a world where visibility depends on proof, not presence, that difference is everything.

Does this really matter?

Absolutely.

We looked at hundreds of real queries across the UK’s most popular search tools, asking questions like “best cooling mattress for hot sleepers UK” and “highest-rated mattresses under £1,000” .

The upshot? Simba appeared in 80% of AI answers, compared to Eve’s 20%

I can’t stress enough how appearing in the answers is essential to getting your customers to find you. Over half of Brits now use AI regularly when shopping, with a serious chunk of these turning to AI before Google, asking friends or other sources. Earned Visibility isn’t just a PR or SEO metric, it’s the deciding factor as to whether you even make it onto the radar of your customer. 

So, what can we take from this?

There are a few key learnings here for any brand:

1. Find out if you’re in the answer –  Recent research suggests that around one in four brands aren’t appearing in AI answers AT ALL. Is this you? Do you know if you’re in the answer? Because if not, you need to. At a very basic level, this is a question of carrying out a few searches as if you were a consumer. To get a more detailed picture, reach out to someone that can analyse search at scale (your Earned Visibility Score^TM will tell you exactly how visible you are (or aren’t)

2. Audit your proof points and level up your PR – Being found in AI search isn’t just about keywords or meta tags – it’s about proof. Ask yourself: are you being mentioned by credible third-party sources? Do your reviews, partnerships, and data-backed insights exist outside your own site? AI tools pull from citations, not just content.

3. Keep your content fresh (which you probably already are) and targeted (which you might not be) – As AI adoption grows, users are asking ever more specific questions, it’s important that you are positioning yourself as the brand to answer these questions. Is your content backed by data and genuinely answering a users question?

Want to know how your brand is performing?

AI search isn’t ‘coming soon’, it’s already here. If you’re not in the answer, you aren’t being seen by your customers. Find out how discoverable your brand really is by getting your full Earned Visibility Score

Or drop me an email directly at dominic@yourssincerely.online