2025 Conductor Searchies: 12 Brands Winning in AI Search

Each year, the Conductor Searchies Awards celebrate customers who are driving exceptional results in organic, and now AI, search. These annual awards recognize the brands, teams, and individuals who are pushing boundaries, delivering measurable impact, and setting new standards for search excellence.

These awards aren't about who has the biggest team or the largest budget. They're about who's making the right moves: navigating complex website migrations without losing visibility, building content that earns trust with both users and AI, and pioneering strategies that didn't exist a year ago.

At C3 2025, we honored six award winners across categories that reflect the diverse challenges digital teams face today.

From AI innovators building answer engine optimization strategies ahead of the curve to content powerhouses dominating both traditional SERPs and AI Overview citations, these customers are proving what's possible with the right approach. We also recognized six runners-up who are setting their own standard for excellence in organic and AI search.

What ties these brands together is a commitment to doing the work that matters. They're not chasing vanity metrics or gaming algorithms. They're creating valuable content, optimizing strategically, and adapting to change faster than their competitors.

Let's dive into what makes each of them exceptional.

The 2025 Conductor Searchies winners

AI Innovator: ADP

Most companies talk about the future of search. ADP is building it—executing a comprehensive AEO / GEO strategy while competitors are still figuring out what those acronyms mean. Early in 2025, when AI-powered search was just starting to disrupt traditional SERPs, ADP's team began strategic conversations about how to optimize for answer engines and AI Overviews. For a company of their size and visibility, moving this quickly isn't just impressive—it's essential.

Here's why this matters. ADP is a household name, the kind of brand people trust when they search for payroll and HR solutions. But brand recognition alone won't protect them as search evolves. When users ask ChatGPT or Perplexity for recommendations, ADP needs to be in those answers. When Google serves up AI Overviews for complex HR queries, ADP's content needs to be the source. The team understands this, and they're taking action before the traffic shifts become irreversible.

What sets the ADP team apart is their willingness to invest in the future of search. They're not waiting for case studies or competitor playbooks. They're writing their own, positioning themselves to maintain their industry leadership as the rules of digital discovery fundamentally change. That's what makes them true AI Innovators.

Conductor Rookie of the Year: Joseph Herr, Kleen-Rite

Joseph Herr , SEO/Analytics Specialist at Kleen-Rite , and his team prove that you don't need years of Conductor platform experience to drive remarkable results.

The team started using Conductor less than a year ago and has already delivered wins that earned executive visibility—results compelling enough to showcase to senior leadership. Joseph's approach from day one was all-in: he earned his Conductor certification almost immediately and became a fixture at every Conductor Community event. He also holds the record for the most time spent in the platform during the demo period.

But what really sets Joseph apart isn't just his quick learning curve. It's what he does with that knowledge.

He's become one of the most valuable voices in the Conductor Community, always ready to help other customers troubleshoot issues or share what's working for his team. When someone posts a question in the Community, there's a good chance Joseph has already jumped in with a thoughtful answer. That generosity matters, especially in a space where search is evolving faster than anyone can keep up alone.

The results back up the enthusiasm. The wins Joseph and his team achieved were significant enough that their CSM presented them to Kleen-Rite's senior leadership, who were thoroughly impressed. It's the dream combination: rapid platform adoption, impressive business outcomes, and a genuine commitment to helping the Community succeed. That's exactly what Rookie of the Year looks like.

Small Team, Big Returns: Hines

Hines runs its entire digital strategy—corporate websites, marketing automation, paid media, data analytics, and client documentation—with a four-person team. No dedicated SEO person. Just strategic thinking, cross-functional collaboration, and a commitment to being ahead of the curve. The results speak for themselves, and they're the kind of numbers that make much larger teams take notice.

The team's strategy centers on collaboration and early adoption. They built partnerships across their Marketing-Communications team to share SEO knowledge and embed best practices into every content workflow. They established governance guidelines to ensure consistency across all digital properties. And when Conductor opened up Alpha testing for LLM-powered search capabilities, they jumped in.

That early investment paid off: ChatGPT became their third-largest referral traffic source in 2025, up from not even ranking in the previous year. Their Mid-Year Global Investment Outlook achieved the number one position in Google's SERPs, outperforming much larger competitors who publish similar content.

The numbers tell the story of a team punching well above their weight. From January 2024 to June 2025, the team drove:

• +136% increase in organic new users for Investment Management content
• +111% increase in organic sessions
• +83% increase in organic views
• 31.7 million impressions across Hines.com (up +22% year-over-year)
• 372,000 clicks (up +77% year-over-year)
• 51% of all sessions coming from Google Search
• Successfully scaled Conductor across 50+ Hines property marketing websites

Four people. Enterprise-level impact. That's what happens when small teams think big.

Best-in-Class Brand: Mastercard

Mastercard's Services B2B Marketing team tackled one of digital marketing's toughest challenges: consolidating seven separate web properties while maintaining search performance and supporting over 100 marketers.

When a business reorganization brought together three separate business units in late 2024, each came with its own digital presence. The team needed a migration strategy that wouldn't tank their visibility or disrupt the constant flow of content production that their organization depends on.

The team partnered with Conductor to audit all seven sites, building a data-driven migration plan based on actual performance data. This wasn't about migrating everything at once and hoping for the best. It was about understanding what was working, prioritizing strategically, and making evidence-backed decisions.

Meanwhile, their Digital Web team of four kept everything else moving, publishing hundreds of pages of thought leadership, campaign reports, event materials, and webinar content for their 100+ marketers.

What makes Mastercard's work truly best-in-class is how they've positioned themselves for what's next. With the rise of AEO, the team stepped up as champions for their entire Services Marketing organization, educating colleagues on search best practices and optimizing both migrated and new content for AI-powered search.

They're not just managing a complex technical migration—they're evolving their entire approach to digital discoverability while doing it. That's the kind of execution that defines best-in-class brands.

Industry MVP: e.l.f. Cosmetics

e.l.f. Cosmetics has cracked the code on scaling content for AI search. The beauty brand has transformed its approach to content creation, producing over 200 pieces of content that perform across both traditional search and AI-powered platforms. By incorporating Knowledge Sources directly into their workflow, e.l.f. maintains brand voice and regulatory compliance while tapping into AI-generated insights—turning what could be a bottleneck into a competitive advantage.

What sets e.l.f. apart is how they've woven AI search intelligence into every stage of content strategy. When launching new products like exfoliating face toner or brightening eye cream, the team doesn't just guess at what resonates. They dig into search behavior, analyze sentiment to identify real consumer pain points, and even pinpoint opportunities on emerging platforms like Reddit, where they can own the conversation.

The results speak for themselves: This data-driven approach has positioned e.l.f. as a top brand in Consumer Staples for AI search visibility. By tracking their citations in ChatGPT and Perplexity via AI Search Performance, they've gained visibility into how AI engines surface their content—and the results validate their strategy. They're not just creating content for AI search; they're shaping the answers consumers find.

Content Powerhouse: Navy Federal Credit Union

Navy Federal Credit Union's MakingCents financial education section shows what happens when you compete on expertise instead of budget.

While major banks pour resources into paid search and brand campaigns, Navy Federal built something more valuable: a content hub that genuinely helps people navigate financial decisions. That approach is earning them visibility and trust that money can't buy.

MakingCents delivers robust, non-promotional financial advice on the topics people are actively searching for—no product pushes or sales pitches, just clear guidance that helps people make informed decisions. That focus on genuine value is paying off. MakingCents pages rank in the top three for competitive, high-volume keywords like "Roth IRA," "passive income ideas," "buy now pay later," and "lease a car." In just the past three months, the content has racked up nearly half a million clicks from Google.

The real story is in how MakingCents performs in AI search. While the section accounts for about 6% of Navy Federal's search traffic, it represents roughly 17% of their AI Overview citations—nearly triple its proportional share. This is what happens when you create genuinely authoritative content that AI systems recognize as valuable.

With AI increasingly shaping search results, this kind of performance separates content that ranks from content that gets referenced. Navy Federal isn't just playing the SEO game—they're building the kind of authoritative resource that algorithms want to cite.

The 2025 Conductor Searchies runners-up

The decision between winners and runners-up came down to the smallest margins—different strengths, equally impressive results. These customers are driving real results and tackling the same challenges with strategies worth noting.

AI Innovator: Crutchfield

Crutchfield has always had a strong content strategy, but they're elevating it with AI in ways most brands haven't considered.

The team added a "what does ChatGPT say about Crutchfield" section directly on their homepage—a move that shows they're not intimidated by AI-generated answers.

While other companies worry about losing control of their narrative, Crutchfield is embracing transparency and bringing those AI insights directly to their users. It's the kind of proactive thinking that separates leaders from followers in AI search.

Conductor Rookie of the Year: Kent Lutt, The Buckle Inc.

Kent Lutt , Senior SEO and Site Strategist at The Buckle , has become the go-to resource for understanding AI search in the Conductor community.

He stays on top of the constantly shifting landscape and shares what he's learning with other customers. When someone posts a question about AI Overviews or answer engines, Kent's usually already there with practical insights. His combination of expertise and willingness to help makes him both a trusted resource and one of Conductor's strongest Community champions.

Small Team, Big Returns: UPMC

UPMC's six-person search team proves that quality optimization beats traffic volume every time. They focused on website refreshes for priority service lines like Women's Health and Orthopedics, and the impact shows up where it matters most for healthcare: patient conversions.

The team improved content quality, optimized for user intent, and strengthened their local SEO presence to drive more qualified traffic. In Q2 2025, these efforts resulted in:

• +7% increase in appointments booked
• +43% increase in forms submitted
• +7% increase in provider profile clicks
• 4,200+ appointment bookings from Google business profiles alone

The most telling stat? Organic traffic dropped 11% during this period, but conversions went up. That's the definition of doing more with less.

Best-in-Class Brand: Brunswick

Website migrations are high-risk moves for SEO—one wrong redirect or technical misstep can tank your visibility. Brunswick's Sea Ray team didn't just survive their March 2025 migration; they came out stronger.

They used Conductor's Writing Assistant to nail the on-page optimization and meta elements, while Website Monitoring kept them on top of technical issues throughout the rollout. Post-launch, organic search performance climbed, Site Health Scores jumped, and they wrapped the project ahead of schedule. That's how you execute a complex migration without losing ground.

Industry MVP: Rich Products

Rich Products operates a B2B site with over 1 million annual sessions, but their web team is just three people. Instead of spreading themselves thin, they got strategic.

They used Conductor to identify the highest-impact issues first, tackled sitewide optimizations, then shifted focus to high-interest product categories where they embedded keyword-rich content and FAQs that matched what their audience was actually searching for. The focused approach paid off:

• +14% year-over-year growth in organic clicks
• +117% year-over-year growth in Bettercreme category clicks
• +69% year-over-year increase in "Where to Buy" clicks
• +312% year-over-year growth in organic eCommerce transactions

That's the kind of strategic execution and measurable impact that sets industry leaders apart.

Searchies in summary

The 2025 Conductor Searchies winners and runners-up share something important: they're not waiting for the future of search to arrive. They're actively shaping it.

Whether it's ADP building AEO strategies before most enterprises have even started the conversation, or Navy Federal creating content that overperforms in AI citations by nearly 3x, these customers understand that search isn't static—it's evolving fast, and the brands that adapt early are the ones that stay visible.

What stands out across every category is the commitment to strategic execution over quick wins. Mastercard didn't rush their seven-site migration, they built a data-driven plan. Hines didn't hire a massive team, they prioritized collaboration and early adoption. Rich Products didn't try to do everything, they focused on high-impact optimizations. These aren't stories about luck or unlimited resources. They're about making smart decisions, using the right tools, and executing with discipline.

As AI continues to reshape how people discover information, the work these customers are doing today is setting the standard for what success looks like tomorrow. Thank you and congratulations to all our winners and runners-up—you're paving the way.