Algorithm CEO Graeme Stiles joins Samsung Africa CMO Homoya and EcoAfrica Digital Marketing CEO Lzanan duPlessis on Marketing Media Money, CNBC Africa's flagship marketing show, to discuss how Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is reshaping the way South African and African brands are discovered, recommended and trusted by AI.
Watch on YouTube · CNBC Africa · Marketing Media Money · April 2026
Key takeaways
We are shifting into a recommendation world. Google was almost a menu that the user would search through. Now it's like you've got a waiter telling you what is best.
There's a massive first mover advantage for brands who are able to plug in and start owning their space in the GEO environment.
The South African market has the same tools, the same tech, the same abilities as everybody globally. I disagree strongly that we're a year behind.
On the panel
Graeme Stiles
CEO & Founder, Algorithm
16+ years in SEO. Built Lighthouse GEO, Africa's first AI visibility platform.
Homoya
CMO, Samsung Africa
Leads marketing for Samsung across the African continent.
Lzanan duPlessis
CEO, EcoAfrica Digital Marketing
Specialist digital marketing agency for tourism and hospitality.
Hosted by Gamu Masabil on Marketing Media Money, CNBC Africa's show covering marketers, brands and strategies shaping the future of advertising and marketing in Africa.
Full transcript
Lightly edited for readability. Timestamps reference the broadcast video above.
Host (Gamu Masabil)
Search engine optimisation and advertising have long worked together to power modern brand visibility. SEO builds long-term discoverability while advertising drives immediate reach. Now in Africa, this is critical as the continent has over 570 million internet users with more than 70% of traffic coming from mobile devices. As digital ad spend rises in key markets like South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, brands must stay visible, credible and competitive in an increasingly algorithm-driven landscape. Welcome to Marketing Media Money on CNBC Africa.
Host
How are we defining the shift? Are we seeing an end of traditional SEO? Is it becoming obsolete or is it changing how brands are using it today?
Homoya · CMO, Samsung Africa
It's changing how brands are using it today. Ad spend is not necessarily growing, but marketing mixes are changing. The fundamentals of marketing haven't changed - the marketing funnel will forever remain the marketing funnel. What GEO is doing now, especially at the consideration phase, is driving a trusted voice because it's coming from reviews and citations rather than brands being able to buy that exposure. It takes away the ad spend and drives us to want people to talk more about our products rather than us buying clicks.
Host
Most businesses have no idea what AI is saying about their brand. Is ranking on Google still the mainstay? What mistake are brands making today?
Graeme Stiles · CEO, Algorithm
The traditional side of SEO is changing massively. I've been in the SEO field for 16 years now, and almost every year you hear about the death of SEO. But for the first time since I can remember, there's a massive shift in the foundations and the basics. We are shifting into a recommendation world. Google was almost a menu that the user would have to search through, make a decision. As we move into the recommendation world, it's like you've got a waiter there telling you what is best, what you should be looking at, curated for you. The traditional SEO elements are still relevant, but that's only one part of the puzzle now. Technically, you need the basics in place so the different AI models can understand your content. But there are a lot of other elements - the social engine optimisation side, platforms like TikTok becoming massive search engines in their own right. All of those pieces pulling together is where you're going to see the results for brands moving forward.
Host
How can brands stay ahead without burning their budgets?
Lzanan duPlessis · CEO, EcoAfrica Digital Marketing
You really have to know who you are as a brand. What's the authentic thing that you stand for? Map out the reality of who you actually are and what you want to be the answer for. So when there is something like generative engine optimisation, you can create a whole ecosystem of content for which you are the definitive answer.
Lzanan duPlessis · CEO, EcoAfrica Digital Marketing
In a very practical way, you have to start creating something we call GEO clusters. In the old days, we created SEO blogs - content with heavy laden keywords. But now in a GEO cluster, you start off creating a GEO pillar blog with all the information on something like a Botswana safari. Then around that pillar you create smaller blogs that answer all the relevant questions surrounding that big concept - best lodge in Botswana for children, best lodge in Botswana for honeymoon. You become the answer foundationally. It's a golden thread that follows through how you structure your content.
Host
Africa is largely becoming a mobile-first economy. What can brands do today to tailor their experiences?
Homoya · CMO, Samsung Africa
Mobile phones drive discoverability of basically anything. The first port of call when you want to search anything is your mobile phone. The power of ratings and reviews and that trusted voice is critical. If Google's not going to answer the question the way you want, there's deeper meaning in going into large language models and asking which one is the best phone in South Africa today. While that can be driven by GEO, usage, ratings, reviews, media reviews and social reviews become more and more important. Social PR starts to play a role - if I give a device today and someone goes to Reddit and tells the community how the device is, we might not count that as advertising spend, but at a large language model perspective it adds to citation. You have to reverse engineer the process because you start socially with the understanding that it eventually drives discoverability in the AI space.
Host
I asked ChatGPT how it recommends things to its users. It said: 'I don't really care about keyword stuffing or backlinks for ranking. What I care about is credibility, clarity, context and authority signals.' In an environment where authenticity cannot be bought or monetised, how can brands package and measure success where ranking is no longer the greatest marker?
Graeme Stiles · CEO, Algorithm
For us it always comes back to the data underpinning the entire system. The old SEO metrics and signals aren't really relevant anymore. But what is available is the ability to reverse engineer the system. From an Algorithm point of view, we've developed a tool that gives us that data - it allows us to understand the different citations. If you were looking up a business, ChatGPT would cite the sources it's using in that answer. We're able to see that, understand what it's citing, understand what is being perceived as relevant by the LLMs, and off the back of that we're able to start optimising and understanding the system. The key thing is understanding that data - understanding how visible you are compared to your competitors. That's all data that's accessible to marketers. We're able to see who's performing well in those LLMs, who's being referenced, and what other sources they're using as reference material.
Host
Within the context of South Africa where we often lag behind global trends, do we have enough tools at our disposal for brands looking to engineer themselves into this space?
Graeme Stiles · CEO, Algorithm
Definitely. I saw an influencer in the marketing space the other day saying we're a year behind the international players. I disagree strongly. The South African market has the same tools, the same tech, the same abilities as everybody globally. The data is there, the information is there. There's a massive first mover advantage for brands who are able to leverage that space, plug in, start optimising and start owning their space in the GEO environment. The models do seem to prefer more global businesses by default - but it's up to us to optimise, do what we need to do, and take that space and own it. So yes, definitely something we can do locally.
Host
What's something brands are still getting wrong, and is the pace of progress fast enough?
Lzanan duPlessis · CEO, EcoAfrica Digital Marketing
In our world, specifically digital marketing and tourism marketing, something we use a lot is storytelling, especially video storytelling. But something we still miss is realising that these videos need to be smart videos. AIs can't actually listen to a video or read them. So we have to make sure there are transcripts and chapters in the back end of each video to make it readable and understandable for AI to suggest. For a lodge in Botswana, you want a three-minute video broken up into small frequently asked questions. In the first 15 seconds this is answered, in the second 20 seconds this question is answered - and that should be in chapters and schema and markup in the back end to make it readable and discoverable by AI.
Host
When we are largely relying on large language models to recommend brands, are brands losing control of the narrative or outsourcing it?
Graeme Stiles · CEO, Algorithm
It's a fast-moving target. At the moment there's definitely control - we can influence what the machine is talking about and understanding around us. I've seen a couple of patents from Google. The direction they're going is interesting - there's a patent they've just released where they can build your website on the fly based on what the user is requesting. Instead of the traditional SEO flow where you search, find a website, click through and consume that brand's content, they're going to own all of that. They're going to create that experience using AI and agents to serve it up how they want you to see it. Which is a little bit scary. But these are still a while off - we've got 18 months plus of being able to influence it. And I agree on the human side of things - wherever we can plug in the human elements, that's going to have massive power as well.
Lzanan duPlessis · CEO, EcoAfrica Digital Marketing
Part of regaining control is making sure we are controlling end-to-end in the process for a brand. Making sure it's not fragmented - social media doing its own thing, the website SEO doing its own thing, the bookings happening somewhere on an OTA - but all of these integrated into one seamless process. When that whole process is aligned, you take back some of the control.
Host
What is one tip an entrepreneur, brand or organisation can adopt today to ensure they stay ahead of the curve?
Graeme Stiles · CEO, Algorithm
It's not an exciting answer, but it's always the data. If you do the research before you spend the budget, you're going to save a huge amount - and that's where the value is. Get the lay of the land, understand the data landscape, understand what competitors are doing, and most importantly understand what your audience is actually looking for. Only once you've got that data should you start looking to deploy budgets. Otherwise, the shotgun approach of hoping something will work is never going to be sustainable long term. And the final insight: don't look at these different tactics in isolation anymore. The channel approach of just doing SEO - those days are gone. You need to look at the holistic landscape - GEO, the social side - all of that works together.
Algorithm is a Generative Engine Optimisation agency in South Africa. We build the entity authority, structured data and AI citation patterns that get South African brands recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews.