Channel V Media, a public relations and communications agency specializing in market expansion and strategic positioning, is the 2026 PR Agency of the Year in the Financial Promoter Awards USA. The agency won for a practice most financial services companies are still trying to solve on their own: making a company visible to the AI engines their buyers now ask first.

The Financial Promoter, a financial services marketing publication, cited Channel V Media’s answer engine optimization (AEO) practice, which measures the distance between how a company describes itself and how AI engines describe it, then uses earned media to close the gap. The judges also recognized the agency’s work across banking, payments, fintech and insurtech. This body of work includes campaigns for SBS, Payroll Integrations, GFT, Zūm Rails, The Interledger Foundation and Eton Solutions.

The gap between what a company wants to tell the market about itself and what AI engines actually say about it now carries commercial weight. G2’s 2026 report The Answer Economy found that 51% of B2B software buyers begin research with an AI engine more often than with Google, up from 29% in April 2025, and that 69% chose a different vendor than they had planned based on what the engine told them. Financial services companies are now being described to their buyers by systems no one at the company has ever briefed.

Channel V Media builds earned media programs that feed AI discovery the same story a company tells its market. The agency grew SBS’s U.S. media coverage 400% year over year, expanded The Interledger Foundation’s media footprint across nine countries and three languages, and turned Payroll Integrations’ Employee Financial Wellness Report into an annual industry benchmark now in its third year.

A closer look at the work the Financial Promoter judges rewarded:

  • Increasing visibility to directly influence AI engines. Channel V Media treats answer engine optimization, also called generative engine optimization or GEO, as an earned media discipline rather than a technical one. The agency audits how ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude currently describe a company, identifies the sources those engines draw on, then places the coverage that changes the answer.

  • Creating a U.S. presence for companies already established elsewhere. SBS arrived from Europe with 1,500+ financial institutions across 100 countries and almost no U.S. recognition. Channel V Media rebuilt the company’s messaging around how banks create new revenue streams and customer acquisition opportunities, and grew its U.S. coverage 400% year over year.

  • Gaining a disproportionate share of crowded conversations. Channel V Media built Payroll Integrations’ inaugural Employee Financial Wellness Report on original survey research with U.S. HR leaders and employees, giving a mid-sized company ownership of a conversation far larger than itself. Coverage followed in Forbes, CNBC, Fortune, Newsweek, MSN, NerdWallet and Employee Benefit News, and the report is now in its third annual edition.

  • Creating differentiation where every company sounds the same. The Interledger Foundation was previously focused on telling the story of its grantmaking initiatives, but leaving out its global vision and technological accomplishments. Channel V Media reframed its funding as strategic investment in an open and inclusive payments ecosystem, and brought its live projects forward as proof. The work expanded the organization’s media footprint across nine countries and three languages and landed its first Forbes feature.

“Almost every company we talk to now has AI visibility at the top of its list, and almost none of them had connected it to public relations,” said Gretel Going, president of Channel V Media. “They were treating it as a technical problem to solve on their own. The engines are largely reading and repeating published journalism, which means the work that changes the answer is earned media.”

Channel V Media’s 2026 honors also include the PR News Content Marketing Award, a MarCom Award, a Hermes Creative Award and a Stevie Award. The agency works across fintech, martech and adtech, climate technology, healthcare, government, retail technology and manufacturing. The Financial Promoter has published the full list of 2026 Financial Promoter Awards USA winners.

About Channel V Media

Founded in 2008, Channel V Media (CVM) is a communications strategy and PR firm that specializes in building market momentum for companies ranging from Fortune 500 industry leaders to emerging venture‑backed innovators. CVM builds awareness for companies and their products, develops C-suite leaders into industry visionaries, positions clients to be among the most vocal in high-value conversations and drives inbound leads. Current and past clients include Opera, Penn Mutual, GFT, SBS, Meteomatics, Sherweb, First Insight and one of the world’s largest ecommerce marketplaces.

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