Third City Launches GEO Planning Unit and AI Visibility Tool
Third City has created a dedicated Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) Planning Unit and released GEOView, a tool that shows marketing and communications leaders how their brands appear in AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude.
The move follows the agency winning GEO Agency of the Year at the PRmoment Awards 2026 and Agency of the Future at the PRovoke SABRE Awards EMEA 2026.
How the unit is structured
Cathy Farmer, Third City's head of GEO, leads the unit alongside account director Izzy Shipley and senior account manager Isabella Iacovone. The team draws on nearly a year of client work across sectors including Dr Martens and Kia.
The GEO approach differs from traditional SEO
Third City treats GEO as a strategic communications discipline, not a technical optimization tactic. Brands earn AI visibility through distinctive storytelling and PR work, not keyword optimization or link building.
This reflects how AI platforms operate. Generic content gets absorbed into consensus answers. Only authoritative, non-commodity voices get cited in AI responses.
What GEOView does
GEOView runs hundreds of searches across AI platforms to map where a brand appears and how it compares to competitors. Because AI platforms produce slightly different answers each time, the tool repeats searches to identify genuine patterns rather than one-off results.
The data feeds into a diagnostic report from the GEO Planning Unit. This report compares what AI platforms say about a brand against what the brand wants to be known for, highlighting gaps.
Environmental accountability
Third City has partnered with Offset AI to measure and offset the carbon and water footprint of its AI work through verified restoration projects. The agency says it is the first UK communications agency to offset the environmental impact of its AI operations.
Running AI searches at the scale needed for meaningful findings carries an environmental cost. Rather than wait for an industry standard, Third City chose to address it directly as part of its B Corp commitments.
Mark Lowe, co-founder of Third City, said: "AI search rewards brands with something distinctive to say and ignores everyone else. Generic content gets absorbed into the consensus answer; only authoritative, non-commodity voices get cited. Even Google is now telling brands this explicitly. We've built the tooling and the team to help brands stay on the right side of that shift, and accounting for the environmental cost is part of doing it responsibly."
For PR and communications professionals managing brand visibility, understanding how AI platforms present your organization is increasingly essential. Learn more about AI for PR & Communications and how these tools fit into broader strategy.
Your membership also unlocks:
