CASE STUDY
Two precise adjustments.
4× more daily revenue.
14× more purchases.
A light-touch, high-impact GEO and
Generative Engine Listening™ intervention to make a women-owned hosiery brand audible in AI-driven search – with zero additional spend on ads or content.
The STORY
A new player faces stiff competition against legacy brands
Our client, a new, innovative player in the hosiery industry, faced a crisis of digital audibility. Competing against established and well-known hosiery brands with decades of on- and offline authority, their products were being consistently missed by consumers using key e-commerce and search platforms.
We recognized that brute-force marketing was futile: the AI systems governing search and commerce, simply did not trust the new brand. By making two precise, light-touch, high-impact interventions to the brand's foundational data, we redefined its digital signal. This structural correction created measurable increases in traffic and revenue that money alone could never buy.
The Challenge
Fashion praise failed to translate into AI trust
While their products were featured in numerous "bests" lists in major fashion magazines, the brand, founded in 2023, had not yet received extensive coverage in independent news outlets and was competing in a space where authority and brand trust often trumped innovation.
We recognized that the brand was struggling because its focus was on inefficient marketing effort when it required precise attunement to the specific language of AI trust instead.
At &listen…, we listen to what others overlook. We work within the open web as a resource for sustainable digital transformation—harnessing it to expand access and reimagine knowledge systems to fix the lack of AI-recognized credibility. If your organizational audibility is being choked by an authority gap, we offer the structural intelligence to overcome that barrier.
The constraint of an emerging brand meant that the highest-impact public knowledge source for establishing digital authority was unavailable, escalating the challenge to a purely structural data problem.
- Wikipedia notability barrier
The brand did not yet meet the notability standards for a Wikipedia page, blocking access to the highest-impact public knowledge source for establishing AI trust and authority. - Algorithmic Authority Deficiency
The brand, founded in 2023, lacked the decades of established data and link equity required for AI systems to grant high trust and authority.
- Inefficiency of Effort
Traditional marketing effort was rendered highly inefficient because the underlying brand signal was too weak to register in high-intent search contexts.
- Categorical Imprisonment
A single, critical classification error in the product data feed disqualified the brand from appearing in the most valuable, high-intent purchase searches.
- Untranslated Praise
Real-world success (featured in "bests" lists in major fashion magazines) failed to translate into the technical, verifiable data required for AI trust.
The approach
Overcoming emerging authority with meticulous data hygiene
We discarded the strategy of pouring money into inefficient advertising effort and focused entirely on Generative Engine Listening™ Sound Checks and attunements—the precise technical work required to align the brand's public data with the expectations of modern AI systems. Our approach centered on three audits and two interventions:
The combination of these precise adjustments immediately created the unified brand signal necessary to achieve exponential returns.
01
A roadmap towards Wikipedia inclusion
What is the current state of the brand's digital authority?
By starting with a thorough assessment of the brand's digital authority, we established a roadmap towards Wikipedia inclusion. In the absence of clear Wikipedia notability, we suggested interim strategies for optimizing authority and redoubled our focus on meticulous data hygiene.
03
A critical data categorization fix
Is the brand's website and public structured correctly so that AI systems understand their targets and what they do?
We conducted a schema and entity validation audit to diagnose and correct problems and miscategorizations in the brand's public data and e-commerce platforms. We then made one simple fix to the brand's Google Merchants Profile that prevented AI recommendation systems to include the brand's products in search recommendations. By fixing this critical product classification error, we immediately unlocked the brand's eligibility to appear in the most precise, high-intent purchase searches, which made the brand audible in buy-stage, high-intent search contexts.
02
A verified digital entity across foundational web sources
How do you build AI-driven authority in the absence of notability?
We attuned the brand's public data with how AI systems interpret authority and relevance. This involved a process to structure open knowledge systems and create a verified, authoritative digital entity for the brand across foundational web sources. This built the required trust layer.
THE OUTCOMES
A clear and unified brand signal creates exponential increases in traffic and revenue*
By attuning the brand’s public data with how AI systems interpret authority and relevance — including a single correction in Google Merchant Centre — the brand became audible in buy-stage, high-intent search contexts.
+179.8%
organic search traffic
112.8%
search impressions
+31.5%
click-through rate
+1,457%
purchases from search
+270%
average daily revenue
$0
additional marketing spend
*Results measured over a 6-week period (Sep 22 – Nov 5, 2025), compared with the previous 6 weeks.
