THE IMPACT OF AI SEARCH RESULTS IN B2B MARKETS · Commercial foodservice
HRI Commercial Food Service
HRI has run its business out of Erie for years. In February 2025 they came to us with an expansion target: Buffalo, a market where they had zero digital presence. The goal was to show up there fast, in Google and in the AI tools buyers now use to find suppliers.
Six months later, HRI ranked #2 in organic search for commercial kitchen design, equipment, and service across Buffalo, and #1 and #2 in AI answers and overviews. From nothing to the top of the market in half a year.
This January they set their sights on Cleveland, a bigger and more competitive market. We ran the exact same playbook. Within six months they were ranking organically and showing up as a top recommendation in AI answers there too.
Top-line results · AI visibility
#1 across the category
Rank in AI answers, by topic
Positive sentiment, leading commercial and transactional prompts on every platform, across Erie, Cleveland, and Buffalo.
Source: AI visibility tracker, across tracked commercial-kitchen-equipment and design questions in ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google, weighted to the Erie, Cleveland, and Buffalo markets. Visibility> = share of answers that name the brand.
“I don’t even have to cold call anymore, the phone just rings.”
Art Pepe, HRI’s Buffalo salesperson
The work
The full anchor program, every month: one long-form video cut into shorts, plus weekly blogs, daily social, Google Business Profile optimization, press releases, and email newsletters.
A few of the shorts:
