Most earned media programs follow a familiar rhythm: a fundraising round, a product launch, a significant executive hire. The announcement generates a targeted media outreach campaign, meaningful coverage, and often a wave of related thought leadership. It’s a proven approach, and when the news is compelling, it remains one of the most effective ways to build awareness.
But AI has changed what’s expected of earned media.
Buyers don’t just encounter your brand when you make news. They’re researching vendors every day, and increasingly they’re doing it through AI-powered search experiences that rely on credible, third-party sources. That means earned media is no longer just about creating visibility around key moments; it’s about building a body of authoritative coverage that helps shape how AI understands and recommends your company.
This is precisely the gap V2’s Earned Media at Scale services were built to bridge.
Why consistency now beats intensity
Consider what AI systems are actually reading. Muck Rack’s latest research analyzed more than 25 million citations across ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini and found that 84% of cited links come from earned media. Far more than paid and advertorial content accounted for.
That matters because AI isn’t simply summarizing your website. It’s building an understanding of your company from the reporting, commentary and third-party validation it finds across the web.
Buyer behavior is changing, too. More people are turning to generative AI as part of the research process, asking tools to compare vendors, explain markets or recommend solutions. Those systems don’t judge a company based on one standout article. They look for repeated signals across trusted sources to determine what’s credible and representative.
That’s why consistency matters. One great story can introduce your brand. A steady stream of earned coverage gives AI — and the people using it — confidence that your company is a recognized authority, not just a business that made headlines once.
What “at scale” actually means, and what it doesn’t
The word scale can make PR people a little skeptical, and honestly, that’s fair. Too often, it brings to mind syndicated content, wire pickups or backlinks that look good on a report but don’t do much for your brand. But that’s not Earned Media at Scale.
Earned Media at Scale is built around newsroom-ready, data-driven stories that are published across a vetted network of local, regional and national news outlets. These are genuine editorial stories that provide value to readers, appearing on publishers with real audiences and the editorial trust that search engines rely on.
The benefit isn’t just more coverage. It’s a broader, more consistent editorial footprint that helps reinforce your brand over time. Local and regional publishers remain some of the most trusted sources, reaching audiences through established news brands while collectively creating a much broader editorial footprint than a single national placement can provide.
And none of this replaces traditional media relations. There’s no substitute for a great company announcement, a thoughtful executive profile or a strong relationship with the right reporter. Those are still the moments that define a communications program. Earned Media at Scale simply gives brands another way to stay visible between those moments, building the kind of consistent third-party coverage that’s becoming increasingly valuable in an AI-driven world. Earned, owned and paid stop working in isolation and start reinforcing one another, which is where integrated programs actually earn their keep.
What it looks like in practice
Rocket Software, an enterprise software company that helps large organizations modernize the technology their businesses run on, wanted a timely, consumer-relevant story heading into the holiday shopping season. The hook was simple: one digital glitch, a slow page or a failed payment, is often all it takes to lose a customer for good. They leveraged proprietary data and the single story earned more than 300 publisher pickups, about double the category benchmark for both placements and views. It ran on high-authority national outlets like Yahoo, MSN and AOL as well as regional newspapers, and 75% of the placements landed on domains authoritative enough for search engines and AI systems to trust. Hundreds of credible placements from one story, in a stretch of the calendar that usually goes quiet.
Thrive, a managed services and cybersecurity firm that works with mid-sized businesses, ran a narrower, more technical story and got the same result. Its piece on why companies should take a disciplined, staged approach to AI adoption was written for mid-market decision-makers, not a broad consumer audience, and still syndicated to 180 publisher sites while beating the category average on pickups and views. Nearly three-quarters of those placements ran on higher-authority domains. The lesson: this works for a serious B2B argument, not just a consumer hook.
The through line in both: consistent, credible presence built over months, not a single moment that faded by the next quarter.
The takeaway
Whether you’re a communications leader trying to keep your brand visible between announcement or a marketing leader looking to extend the value of proprietary research, the challenge is increasingly the same: maintaining a consistent presence across trusted publications.
The economics of attention have shifted. Buyers and the AI systems they rely on both reward brands that are continuously present and consistently credible, not just the ones that land the occasional big hit. Earned Media at Scale is how you build that presence, and how you make sure that whenever someone goes looking, your story is already on the page.
Want to see what a consistent earned media presence could look like for your brand? Let’s talk.
Hannah Fairbanks is a senior vice president at V2 Communications, where she leads integrated communications strategies for B2B technology companies, aligning messaging with business goals to drive measurable impact. She specializes in translating complex technologies into clear, compelling narratives across earned, owned and paid media.
About V2 Communications
V2 Communications is a top PR firm for tech companies and a leading integrated communications partner focused on B2B, AI, climate and energy, and healthcare technology brands. The firm delivers integrated communications programs across earned, owned and paid media, helping companies build market leadership, increase visibility and drive measurable business results.