Not long ago, “search” and “Google” were interchangeable.
But search has changed more in a single year than it has in the last ten.
Gen Z are turning social platforms into search engines. LLMs have become the gatekeepers of product recommendations. AI redefines how people shop.
As a brand defined by self-expression, innovation and culture, do you wait and see how change plays out — or make your move?
JBL moved fast. And it paid off.
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2,434%Growth in LLM referrals YoY
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10xHigher revenue during Black Friday and Cyber Monday than the next closest period
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54%Of new site content in AI overviews earned #1 position for JBL target keywords
Editorial powered by surround search
JBL reimagined editorial strategy. But the biggest change the brand made was to their mindset.
Today, practically any platform can be a search platform.
JBL looked beyond Google and zeroed in on where search discovery happens today: social media and LLMs.
The brand stopped waiting for audiences to arrive on Google, and started creating platform-native content that algorithms brought to searchers, everywhere. We call it surround search.
Owning the scroll everywhere
On YouTube Shorts, JBL turned deep expertise into social first moments. Hitting keywords that LLMs love, without sacrificing creativity audiences crave.
On Instagram, JBL tapped into trends and made a splash across feeds, anticipating audience needs before the question even came to mind. Consumers who love a deeper dive weren’t forgotten. On jbl.com, in-depth articles turned audience queries into edutainment in the brand’s distinctive voice. All of it data-driven. All of it designed to be enjoyed by human consumers and picked up by LLMs.
‟Search is everywhere now. But that doesn’t mean that people search the same way on every platform. We optimized our experience for people, crawlers, and AI agents alike.”
Making some noise
JBL’s new YouTube shorts rocketed to the top of JBL’s channel, earning some of the brand’s highest engagement. More discoverable, highly browsable, and impossible to ignore. With a blend of real-time seasonal trends and long-tail opportunities, JBL proved that when LLM-driven strategy and platform-native creativity come together, search is still as impactful as ever.
Key Takeaways
Here’s what JBL knows about search today that other brands are only beginning to find out.
1. Good data beats perfect information. And learning as you go crushes doing nothing.
2. Search is no longer a platform, but a mindset—and brands must meet searchers where they are.
3. Smart, disciplined creativity is still undefeated, whether your audience is a human or a bot.
