Danny Sullivan, founder and CEO of Nomada Digital, attributes his unconventional path into digital marketing to a math degree that unexpectedly opened doors. The York-based agency, established in 2020, specializes in B2B SEO and cross-platform visibility, serving clients across the Atlantic. Sullivan’s journey began when a travel firm mistook his calculus background for troubleshooting expertise, a misstep that launched his career. This problem-solving foundation shaped Nomada’s lean, senior-led structure, avoiding traditional overheads and siloed channels that often hinder smaller agencies.
A Cross-Platform Approach
Nomada positions itself as a cross-platform visibility agency rather than a traditional SEO or PR firm. Sullivan explains that modern B2B buying decisions span over 10 touchpoints across multiple platforms, including Google, ChatGPT, Bing, LinkedIn, and press. A single-channel strategy leaves brands invisible to most of the journey, he argues. The agency employs a five-tier Cross-Platform Visibility Framework, where SEO and AI optimization (AEO) form the base, followed by content clusters, conversion rate optimization (CRO), paid support on Bing and LinkedIn, and brand PR as the authority layer. This structure reduces the cost of all underlying layers and allows Google Ads to scale effectively.
“Brand authority and search visibility are the same thing,” Sullivan says. “They used to be separate conversations with separate budgets. They’re still different disciplines with different skills, but they drive the same outcome.” This integrated approach reflects a shift in how buyers discover brands, with Sullivan emphasizing that visibility must be rebuilt market by market for transatlantic campaigns.
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AI’s Impact on PR and Search
The rise of AI search and answer engines has blurred the lines between PR and search, Sullivan notes. Buyers increasingly receive answers before visiting a website, shifting how trust and credibility are established. According to a May 2026 Muck Rack report, 84% of links cited by AI models come from earned media, compared to under 14% from owned content. “Coverage lifts branded search, builds the authority that non-brand organic depends on, and feeds the citations that decide whether you appear in an AI answer at all,” he explains. UK brands expanding into the US face particular challenges, as extensive coverage in British publications may leave them virtually invisible to American buyers using ChatGPT for product research.
Sullivan warns that traditional PR metrics like reach and sentiment are insufficient. “If a report stops at reach and sentiment, it’s describing the work rather than its effect,” he says. Tracking branded search, AI citations, and referral traffic provides evidence of PR’s commercial impact, aligning with C-suite expectations.
Judging PR54: What Matters
As a PR54 judge, Sullivan emphasizes entries that connect business objectives to measurable outcomes. “Evidence of what the business needed, what the agency did, and what changed as a result,” he says, highlighting creativity in service of commercial goals. Campaigns that show how coverage feeds broader visibility efforts stand out, as does honesty about budget constraints and setbacks. “A sharp result on a modest budget is more impressive than a big campaign with vague outcomes,” he adds.
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When asked about founding Nomada Digital, Sullivan described years working in established agencies where he observed structural inefficiencies. He noted that junior staff often executed work while clients paid senior-level rates, and different marketing channels operated in isolation, creating unnecessary costs. This insight led him to create an agency built on a different model. The firm maintains a lean structure with senior leadership directly involved in client work, eliminates permanent office overhead, and deliberately avoids traditional silos that separate SEO, PR, and paid media teams. Six years later, this approach has enabled the York-based firm to serve clients across both sides of the Atlantic.
The Five-Tier Visibility Framework
Nomada’s methodology centers on a five-tier Cross-Platform Visibility Framework that sequences different marketing disciplines to amplify results. The foundation layer combines traditional SEO with AI optimization (AEO) to ensure content appears in both search engines and AI answer systems. Content clusters and conversion rate optimization build upon this base, while targeted paid support on Bing and LinkedIn provides efficient amplification. Brand PR then serves as the authority layer, reducing costs across all underlying components and creating conditions for Google Ads to scale effectively.
Measuring PR Beyond Traditional Metrics
Sullivan explains that AI answers tend to draw from publications trusted by the target market, and search authority does not translate cleanly across regions. The solution requires rebuilding visibility market by market, with PR in publications trusted by US readers typically serving as the starting point for establishing credibility with both search algorithms and AI systems.
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