Cision Finds YouTube Gets Cited More Than Toyota's Own Site in AI Car Answers as Harley-Davidson Moves Its Global Media to Horizon

Two announcements from November 9 speak to the same question every marketing team is asking: where do people actually form opinions now, and who should buy the media to reach them? Cision published a report on how search, social and AI answers interact. Harley-Davidson moved its global media account to Horizon Global.

Cision: stop measuring search, social and AI separately

Cision’s report, The State of Search and Social 2027, combines Brandwatch Consumer Research and Trajaan data: about 565 million social posts and nearly 5,000 search queries and AI prompts, mostly from August 2025 to August 2026. It covers health, food, cars, AI and online culture. Four findings stand out.

AI answers don’t cite you as much as you think. In AI responses to “best car” questions, Toyota led with a 13.8% share of brand mentions. But Toyota’s own website was cited far less often than YouTube, which had more than 4,000 citations. The most-cited sources were YouTube creators, editorial outlets and individual journalists. If you want to appear in AI answers, your owned site is not the main lever. Reviews, creators and press are.

AI frames topics differently from consumers. For magnesium glycinate, a popular supplement, social conversation is about stress relief. AI answers focus on bone and cardiometabolic health. A brand that only listens to social would miss how an AI is describing its category to the same people.

Trends change shape rather than disappear. Searches for “maxxing” cooled, while mentions of “whimsymaxxing” rose 917% year over year. Dubai chocolate spiked and faded in 2025; matcha is described as always on. Reading search and social together is how you tell a fading trend from a mutating one.

Interest and resistance grow together. AI-related search volume is up 2,400% over four years, while social conversation shows worry about data centers and backlash against “AI slop.” Position AI features with both in mind.

The report’s main recommendation is blunt: teams that measure search, social and AI separately will misread demand. It’s a vendor report, built on the data Cision sells, so it naturally argues for the kind of integrated listening Cision offers. The Toyota and YouTube finding holds up regardless.

Harley-Davidson picks Horizon Global

Harley-Davidson awarded its global media business to Horizon Global after a review that ran several months. Horizon Global is a joint venture of Horizon Media and Havas, with $20 billion in combined billings across more than 100 countries, run by CEO Bob Lord. It will handle media strategy, investment, planning and measurement across North America, Europe and the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Latin America, while keeping room for local markets.

No financial terms, budget or start date were disclosed, and the release doesn’t say whether LiveWire, Harley’s electric brand, or Harley-Davidson Financial Services are included. Chief brand officer Marcus Fischer framed the move around serving core riders and bringing in new ones, which has been Harley’s main challenge for years: its customers are aging and its younger buyers are hard to win.

The common thread

Both point toward consolidation. Cision says to stop running search, social and AI as separate silos; Harley moved to one agency for all regions with one platform, Horizon’s BluConverged, underneath. Consolidation buys consistent measurement and buying power. The risk is losing local nuance, which is why Harley made a point of keeping it. For mid-size brands, the practical step is cheaper: check who your category’s AI answers cite, and put effort into those sources.