Being found, understood and chosen: a recap from The Great Convergence event

What does it take to be found, understood and chosen in a world shaped by AI and increasingly fragmented customer journeys? That was the question we looked to answer at our Great Convergence event. We brought together senior marketing leaders to hear IDHL's take on adapting to this new reality. Joined by IDHL partners StackAdapt and Trustpilot, we unpacked the changing relationship between brand, performance and AI and what good looks like in 2027. 

Big ideas are better when they're shared, so if you were unable to attend or want to revisit the highlights, you can dive into the key insights from each session below. 

Found

The discovery landscape is getting more complex as AI exerts more influence on how consumers find and engage with brands. Across our clients, we're seeing some big numbers: +553% in AI-driven transactions, +392% in AI referral sessions from a range of platforms.

In the first talk of the day, IDHL’s Helen Green, explored how visibility needs to be understood across different search engines, prompts and moments, with one customer question triggering multiple searches and memory recall. To make an impact, brands need authority and proof across the full answer space, not optimisation around a single keyword or surface. This depends on a variety of information: owned content, earned media, expert commentary, communities, reviews and third-party sources. 

So, what’s the solution? Brand information must be understandable and credible, complete with crawlable content, clear architecture, direct answers and supporting evidence. Brands should be prioritising important category questions, establish how the brand currently appears, strengthen authority and reinforce signals across the source ecosystem.

Helen's core takeaway was that brands cannot control every AI answer, but they can improve the information, signals and sources that shape them.

Understood

Next, we looked at ‘Being understood’ as the second part of the search equation. Chloe and Cheryl are our PR dream team that left no doubt as to why visibility is not the same as being understood. 

Search and AI reproduces narratives about brands, with visibility getting a brand into an answer, but meaning determines what it says. This meaning is assembled across multiple surfaces: what the brand says itself, what others say about it, what customers experience and what search and AI systems repeat. Conflicting signals across channels risk inconsistency and visibility without credibility, which is where brand and digital PR come in. The former creates meaning and relevance while the latter builds evidence through authority and third-party validation.

But there’s more! Consistency alone is not enough. A credible narrative requires a clear claim, supporting evidence and a customer experience that demonstrates a brand can deliver on its promises. The new challenge is crossing the gap between intended and actual meaning: what your organisation wants to be known for and what others are saying, versus what audiences take away.

Brands wanting the strongest chance of entering consideration should think about: 

• What audiences should understand about your brand? 
• Why should it matter? 
• What makes it believable? 
• Does that meaning remain consistent across media, social, search AI and customer experience? 
• And what evidence shows audiences have understood it as intended? 

Chosen

Now you know how to be found and understood, but that doesn't mean consumers will automatically choose your brand. Consideration was built in the last two stages, but preference is what tips the scale. The fireside chat with the IDHL team considered how customers rarely arrive at a decision with a blank slate - familiarity, relevance, memory and previous experience shape the options they consider long before the final click.

A key theme was the balance between creating demand and capturing it, and how excessive focus on bottom of the funnel activities can overlook the earlier activity that builds demand. Our experts, Tom Walkden, Rachael Higgins and Harry Lote, addressed the juggling act between short-term commercial pressure with longer-term brand building, adapting that balance to category and growth stage. A delicate balance it might be but with clear bottom line benefits: brands connecting brand and performance saw +19% growth in paid search. 

The conversation also examined audience prioritisation under constrained budgets and how marketers need to rethink measurement. Rather than giving credit to the final interaction, leaders should connect brand signals with commercial outcomes through incrementality, experimentation and informed judgement. 

The discussion reinforced a single truth: brands need to plan for influence before intent becomes visible, not only optimise for response once customers enter the market.

Where all three converge

StackAdapt and Trustpilot joined IDHL's Director of New Business, Chris Walsh, and Director of Client Performance, Kyle Brogan to bring together the emerging theme from every session: brand and performance are no longer separate disciplines.

In a world of AI-powered discovery, they are interconnected forces that influence how customers find information, form opinions and make decisions. The Found discussion centred on visibility, not just in rankings but in the AI-generated answers that shape consideration. In Understood, the focus was on meaning and how a consistent, proof-driven narrative reinforced across every channel turns awareness into consideration. The Chosen fireside chat explored the final challenge: building preference before demand becomes visible.

Together, these themes point to a new marketing reality: no individual signal guarantees inclusion, but together they strengthen influence across every stage of the journey. It's the brands that are consistently found, clearly understood and actively chosen that create stronger commercial outcomes. This value is clearly demonstrated in the growth of our clients, with +25% increase in direct search and +28% in organic despite falling CTRs when brands take a truly integrated approach. 

Connect brand and performance with IDHL

The conversations started at The Great Convergence don't end here. If you're thinking about how to help your brand become more visible, more meaningful and more likely to be chosen, get in touch with IDHL and let's explore what's next.