The Pickleball AI Visibility Index 2026

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Pickleball is the first major American sport being defined inside AI answers before it has any legacy brand memory to defend. With approximately 36 million U.S. players — up from fewer than 5 million in 2019 — the sport has skipped the magazine-and-retail brand-formation period that took tennis forty years and golf seventy. Today's pickleball player opens ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity before opening a sporting-goods website. The brand AI surfaces first wins the paddle, the membership, the rating app, and the lifetime spend.

This report measures who is winning that citation surface and who is not. 5W ran 65+ consumer-intent prompts through ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews in Q1 2026, tracking citations across five sub-categories: paddles, facility chains, apparel and footwear, pro tours and governing bodies, and retail/tech/ratings.

The findings: Selkirk and JOOLA together account for an estimated 19.5% of all pickleball AI citations — nearly twice the citation share of the next three paddle brands combined. The Picklr has built a facility-citation moat at #8 overall that no challenger yet matches. USA Pickleball occupies the authority slot AI engines reserve for paddle approval queries. DUPR is winning rating-system citations faster than USA Pickleball is winning membership citations. Tennis-crossover brands — Babolat, Head, Wilson — entered the category expecting brand halo to carry them. It has not.

The brands that win AI citation in the next twelve months will define the sport through 2030. Most will not realize the window has closed until it has.

KEY FINDINGS

STAT 1: 36M — U.S. pickleball players in 2025, up from fewer than 5M in 2019 (SFIA)

STAT 2: $1.9B — global pickleball market in 2025, projected to reach $4.4B by 2033

STAT 3: 11% — Selkirk's estimated share of the North American pickleball equipment market

STAT 4: 52% — combined NA equipment market share of the top five paddle brands (Selkirk, JOOLA, Paddletek, Engage, Onix)

STAT 5: 19.5% — estimated combined AI citation share of Selkirk and JOOLA across 65+ tracked queries

STAT 6: 1.05M — peak CBS viewers for the 2026 PPA Masters; outdrew concurrent NBA and NCAA broadcasts

STAT 7: 80+ — open The Picklr franchise locations by end of 2025, with 400+ franchise licenses signed

STAT 8: 0 — tennis-crossover paddle brands (Babolat, Head, Wilson) ranked in the AI citation top ten

THE CENTRAL FINDING

Every other major American sport arrived in the consumer's hands with decades of brand instinct built in. Tennis players knew Wilson and Head. Golfers knew Titleist. Runners knew Nike. Pickleball has none of that. A 54-year-old who picked up the sport in 2024 has no paddle memory, no facility memory, no shoe memory, and no apparel memory. Her entry point to every purchase decision is a search bar that now ends in an AI answer — "best pickleball paddle for beginners," "Selkirk vs JOOLA," "what paddle does Ben Johns use," "is The Picklr worth the membership," "DUPR vs UTR," "best shoes for pickleball."

Inside that AI-mediated research, the U.S. pickleball industry is consolidating on three fronts simultaneously. On equipment, five paddle brands now account for roughly 52% of North American market share. On professional competition, the PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball merged under the United Pickleball Association (UPA) in 2024. On facilities, a franchise arms race is playing out in real time, with The Picklr, Pickleball Kingdom, Ace Pickleball Club, PickleRage, Dill Dinkers, and Chicken N Pickle racing to sign leases before the 2027 saturation point.

What makes pickleball different from the other consumer categories 5W has tracked is the absence of any incumbent citation moat. In pet care, Chewy has spent five years consolidating. In medical aesthetics, Allergan's portfolio had two decades of Instagram-era brand memory to draw on. In pickleball, every brand is a challenger. Selkirk, founded in Idaho in 2014, is an eleven-year-old company. JOOLA arrived in pickleball from table tennis in the last four years. The Picklr and Pickleball Kingdom were both founded in 2020 and 2021. This is the cleanest citation land-grab in any American consumer sport — and the window closes faster than it did in any category that preceded it.

METHODOLOGY

5W analyzed more than 65 common pickleball-player prompts across five sub-categories. We identified which brands AI models consistently surface, which editorial and community sources feed those citations, and where the largest gaps sit between on-court market position and AI visibility.

Sub-categories tracked. Paddles (Selkirk, JOOLA, Paddletek, Engage, Onix, Gearbox, CRBN, Babolat, Head, Franklin, Gamma, ProKennex, Diadem, Vulcan, KOBO, 11SIX24, Holbrook). Facility chains and franchises (The Picklr, Pickleball Kingdom, Chicken N Pickle, Life Time Pickleball, Ace Pickleball Club, PickleRage, Dill Dinkers, Pickle Pad). Apparel and footwear (Nike Pickleball, Lululemon, Stack Athletics, MUEV, Tyrol, K-Swiss, ASICS Pickleball, Skechers Viper Court). Tours and governing bodies (PPA Tour, Major League Pickleball, APP Tour, USA Pickleball, United Pickleball Association). Retail, tech and ratings (Pickleball Central, Fromuth Pickleball, DUPR, Pickleheads, CourtReserve, The Dink).

Query types tracked. Real-world pickleball-player prompts including "best pickleball paddle for beginners," "best paddle for control," "Selkirk vs JOOLA," "what paddle does Ben Johns use," "what paddle does Anna Leigh Waters use," "is JOOLA Gen 3 banned," "USA Pickleball approved paddle list," "best pickleball shoes," "Nike pickleball review," "The Picklr membership cost," "Pickleball Kingdom vs The Picklr," "how to get a DUPR rating," "DUPR vs UTR," "how to watch PPA Tour," "is pickleball bad for your knees," and 50+ additional variations covering comparison, recommendation, injury, facility, and rating-system intent. The prompt set was designed around authority surfaces including USA Pickleball and DUPR.

Citation sources tracked. Governing authorities (USA Pickleball, UPA, SFIA, DUPR), editorial (The Dink, The Kitchen, Pickleball Magazine, PickleballMax, Third Shot Sports), review aggregators and consumer press (Wirecutter, Forbes, Reviews.com, Tom's Guide, Men's Health), business press (Front Office Sports, Sportico, Bloomberg, CNBC), community sources (Reddit r/Pickleball, Facebook Pickleball Forum, The Dink forums), pro-endorsement pages, and vendor-owned content hubs.

Important framing. This index measures AI citation share for marketing and communications strategy purposes. It does not rank products on on-court performance, USA Pickleball or UPA paddle certification status, or competitive suitability. Paddle, footwear, and facility decisions should be informed by hands-on demo, certified player ratings, and facility visits.

TOP 15 BRANDS BY AI CITATION SHARE

Estimated share of citations across 65+ pickleball-industry consumer prompts run through ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews, Q1 2026.

Color key: green — paddles. Orange — facility chains. Gold — tours and governing bodies. Purple — retail, tech and ratings.

Source: 5W analysis of AI-generated responses across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews, Q1 2026. Share represents estimated proportion of brand citations across 65+ tracked consumer prompts. Remaining ~33% split across ranks 16–25 and unranked brands.

THE FULL TOP 25 RANKING

1. Selkirk — Paddles. Estimated ~11% North American equipment market share. Broadest SKU range from recreational to Power Air competition line. Wide pro-endorsement roster. Category leader by AI citation share.

2. JOOLA — Paddles. Ben Johns (world #1) headlines the roster. Hyperion and Perseus lines dominate competitive paddle AI citations. Table-tennis heritage underwrites the engineering narrative.

3. Paddletek — Paddles. One of the original paddle manufacturers. Tempest and Bantam lines hold durable review-aggregator citation share.

4. Engage — Paddles. Pursuit and Encore lines own the "best control paddle" citation niche. Strong among competitive-amateur buyers.

5. Onix — Paddles. Gamma Sports portfolio. Evoke and Z5 lines. Broad mass-retail distribution; cited as category entry-point but loses advanced-player queries.

6. USA Pickleball — Governing body. Sanctioning body for U.S. pickleball. Paddle approval list is the single most-cited authority page in paddle-purchase AI queries.

7. PPA Tour — Pro tour. Carvana PPA Tour. CBS broadcast partnership. Highest prize-money circuit operating under UPA umbrella. 2026 PPA Masters peaked at 1.05M viewers.

8. The Picklr — Facility franchise. 80+ open locations and 400+ franchise licenses signed by end of 2025. Owns Stack Athletics apparel. Part-owner of MLP's California BLQK Bears. International expansion to Canada and Japan in 2025.

9. Major League Pickleball — Pro tour. Founded 2021. DoorDash title sponsor. 2025 CBS Finals Match 1 averaged 499K viewers (pickleball's most-watched match since the 2024 merger). 23 teams in 2026.

10. Gearbox — Paddles. CX14 series. Biomechanics-led engineering narrative owns the "elongated paddle" AI citation niche.

11. Pickleball Central — Retailer. Largest specialty pickleball online retailer. Multi-brand partnership with The Picklr. Acquired The Picklr Shop in 2024.

12. Chicken N Pickle — Facility. Indoor/outdoor food-and-pickleball hybrid. Owns the "pickleball restaurant" and "pickleball date night" citation niches.

13. CRBN — Paddles. Thermoformed carbon-fiber construction. Fast-rising citation share among intermediate-to-advanced players. Strong presence in The Dink and The Kitchen reviews.

14. DUPR — Ratings. The de facto dynamic rating system for U.S. pickleball. "DUPR vs UTR" is among the fastest-growing query surfaces in the category.

15. Franklin — Paddles. Franklin X-40 is the official outdoor ball of USA Pickleball. Broad mass-retail paddle distribution; citation share lagging distribution.

16. Babolat — Paddles. Leveraging tennis-racquet heritage for crossover player citations; losing share to pickleball-native brands on "best paddle" queries.

17. Head — Paddles. Radical and Gravity pickleball lines target crossover players. Similar structural challenge to Babolat.

18. Nike Pickleball — Apparel. Signed Anna Leigh Waters (world #1 women's player) in 2026. First major athletic apparel brand with a named pickleball endorsement at that tier.

19. Pickleball Kingdom — Facility. Founded by Ace Rodrigues in 2021. Chandler, AZ origin. Aggressive franchise development pipeline. Closest direct challenger to The Picklr.

20. Gamma — Paddles. Digital customization program with 7-day delivery. Steady but unspectacular AI citation share.

21. Life Time Pickleball — Facility. Pickleball courts embedded in Life Time Fitness footprint. Hosts 2026 PPA Finals at Rancho San Clemente.

22. Ace Pickleball Club — Facility. 25,000–50,000 sqft location model. Leadership from Sky Zone franchise buildout. Rapid franchise-award pipeline.

23. ProKennex — Paddles. Kinetic vibration-dampening technology inherited from tennis. Owns the "pickleball for tennis elbow" citation niche.

24. Stack Athletics — Apparel. Fast-growing pickleball-native apparel. Distribution through The Picklr franchise network.

25. Pickleheads — Tech. Dominates "pickleball courts near me" AI citations. Adjacent court-reservation competition from CourtReserve.

WINNERS

The Selkirk / JOOLA paddle duopoly. Selkirk and JOOLA together account for an estimated 19.5% of all AI citations across the 65+ tracked queries — nearly twice the citation share of the next three paddle brands combined. Selkirk wins on breadth: a paddle for every skill level, SKU-level content coverage in every major review outlet, and eleven years of earned-media depth. JOOLA wins on endorsement concentration: Ben Johns' signature on the Perseus line is the single most-cited paddle detail in competitive-player queries, and AI answers to "what paddle does Ben Johns use" route to JOOLA almost automatically.

The Picklr's franchise citation moat. The Picklr is doing to pickleball facilities what Chewy did to pet commerce — consolidating adjacent citation surfaces into a single brand. Its 80+ open locations and 400+ signed franchise licenses make it the largest indoor pickleball franchise in the world. But the citation advantage is structural: Picklr owns Stack Athletics (apparel), holds a multi-year PPA Tour partnership, is part-owner of MLP's California BLQK Bears, and is expanding internationally. When a consumer asks ChatGPT "best indoor pickleball near me" or "is The Picklr worth the membership," the answer increasingly surfaces Picklr with the confidence AI reserves for category-defining brands.

UPA's tour-consolidation dividend. The 2024 merger of the PPA Tour and Major League Pickleball under the United Pickleball Association created an unusual AI-citation dynamic: the two tours retain distinct competitive formats and brand identities but share unified commercial and scheduling infrastructure. AI answers to "how to watch pro pickleball" increasingly surface both properties together. The 2026 PPA Masters' peak of 1.05M CBS viewers and MLP Finals' 499K-viewer Nielsen average in 2025 are the sport's citation inflection points. The APP Tour, which operates outside the UPA, is collapsing in citation share in parallel.

USA Pickleball's authority moat. USA Pickleball occupies a distinctive position at #6 because it is the only citation source AI models treat as authoritative for paddle legality and rules. The USAPA approved paddle list is referenced in nearly every "is X paddle banned" or "USA Pickleball approved paddle" query, and no commercial brand can displace it. This is the closest pickleball has to the veterinary-recommendation moat in pet food, or the FDA-clearance moat in medical aesthetics — significantly under-leveraged by brands that could build adjacent content (paddle testing explainers, approval timelines, material-science primers).

FALLING BEHIND

Tennis-crossover brands (Babolat, Head, Wilson). The tennis-racquet incumbents entered pickleball expecting brand halo to carry them. It has not. AI answers to "best pickleball paddle" route to pickleball-native brands (Selkirk, JOOLA, Paddletek, Engage) over tennis-crossover lines, because the editorial and community content feeding AI is written by pickleball specialists, not tennis journalists. Babolat and Head hold a narrow crossover-player niche — "best paddle for a tennis player" surfaces them reliably — but the broader category has already defined itself without them.

Franklin's paddle slippage. Franklin's X-40 is the official outdoor ball of USA Pickleball, which gives the brand a durable citation anchor in ball-related queries. But Franklin's paddle line is losing citation share as the category stratifies. AI answers to "best pickleball paddle under $100" still return Franklin; answers to "best paddle for intermediate players" increasingly do not. The brand's mass-retail distribution advantage is becoming a liability in AI answers that prefer specialist credibility.

The APP Tour post-UPA merger. The Association of Pickleball Players operated as a credible third tour before the 2024 PPA–MLP merger. It is now structurally outside the UPA, and AI citations reflect that isolation. Queries about "pro pickleball tours" surface only the PPA and MLP, with the APP referenced as a secondary or legacy entity.

Independent pickleball facilities. Roughly 10,000 pickleball courts have been built across North America since 2020, the vast majority at municipal parks, YMCAs, tennis clubs, and independent dedicated facilities. Almost none of these independents appear in AI citations. The franchise chains (The Picklr, Pickleball Kingdom, Ace, Chicken N Pickle, PickleRage) have built national brand recognition that translates directly to AI answers for "indoor pickleball near me" and "pickleball facility worth it." Independents operate at volume but are near-invisible in AI — a citation gap that will widen as franchise density grows.

Onix after the Gamma consolidation. Onix is the #5 paddle brand by AI citation share, which sounds solid until measured against its mass-retail footprint. Onix paddles appear in more sporting-goods stores than any paddle except Franklin, yet its citation share trails Paddletek and Engage — brands with materially smaller distribution. AI answers reward specialist editorial coverage, and Onix has not invested in the same earned-media pipeline as its competitive-tier competitors.

THE SIX STRUCTURAL FINDINGS

1. No legacy sports brand has yet built a dominant pickleball citation moat. Nike, Wilson, Babolat, Head, and the broader athletic apparel/equipment establishment all have pickleball entries — none are in the top fifteen by citation share. The leaders are all pickleball-native brands younger than twelve years.

2. Pro-player endorsements are the single most-leveraged paddle citation asset. Ben Johns → JOOLA. Anna Leigh Waters → Nike apparel, Paddletek paddle. Tyson McGuffin → Selkirk. AI answers weight named pro endorsements heavily — the highest-leverage single investment a paddle brand can make for its citation footprint.

3. Facility franchises are consolidating citation share faster than physical market share. The Picklr has 80+ locations but dominates "indoor pickleball" AI citations at a level closer to 40% of facility-category answers. Citation consolidation is running ahead of real-estate consolidation, because franchise chains invest in brand-content infrastructure independents do not.

4. The paddle-approval citation surface is wildly under-leveraged. USA Pickleball and UPA paddle approval decisions are among the most-searched pickleball topics of 2025–2026 (JOOLA Gen 3, thermoformed paddle controversies, de-listing questions). Only a handful of brands produce content designed to intercept these queries.

5. Rating-system queries are winning citation share over governing-body queries. "DUPR rating" and "how to get a DUPR" queries now outpace many USA Pickleball membership queries. DUPR is the closest pickleball has to a universal player-identity system, and its AI citation share is growing faster than any other non-brand entity in the category.

6. Tennis-crossover player queries are an unprotected citation niche. Tens of millions of American tennis players are trying pickleball. Queries like "best pickleball paddle for a tennis player," "pickleball for tennis elbow," "transition from tennis to pickleball" are under-served. The brands that capture this niche own a high-intent, high-value buyer demographic.

2026-SPECIFIC FINDINGS

1. Nike's Anna Leigh Waters deal is the year's biggest apparel citation event. Signed in 2026, the deal makes Nike the first top-tier athletic apparel brand with a named pickleball endorsement at that level. AI citations for "pickleball apparel" are repositioning around Nike, Lululemon, and Stack Athletics as the emerging top three.

2. The 2026 PPA Masters' 1.05M CBS viewers is the sport's citation inflection point. Peak viewership outdrew concurrent NBA and NCAA basketball broadcasts. AI answers to "is pickleball mainstream" now cite this as the crossover-credibility moment.

3. UPA contract renegotiations are creating paddle-endorsement volatility. The UPA's shift from guaranteed contracts to incentive-based prize-money structures is forcing nearly every top-40 player to renegotiate. Paddle brands whose top endorsers are unsigned face a live citation risk.

4. Front Office Sports' December 2025 "pickleball PE rollup" coverage reshaped investor citations. AI answers to "pickleball business," "pickleball franchise," and "invest in pickleball" now frequently surface the private-equity rollup narrative. Facility franchises that position clearly inside this narrative earn citation share.

5. Paddle-approval controversies are the most-searched, least-answered category queries. The JOOLA Gen 3 de-listing episode, thermoformed-paddle debates, and ongoing UPA approval-list revisions drive significant search volume. Few brands produce dedicated content intercepting these queries.

6. The Picklr's international expansion extends franchise citation beyond U.S. borders. Canada and Japan launches in 2025, with eight additional regions planned by end of 2026, extend Picklr's facility-citation footprint into the first international pickleball markets — the earliest Chewy-style citation-consolidation playbook any pickleball-native brand has attempted at scale.

FROM MATT CAIOLA, CEO OF 5W

"Pickleball is the cleanest example we've seen of a consumer category being formed inside AI answers in real time. There is no thirty-year head start, no Wilson, no Titleist, no incumbent brand that AI defaults to. Whoever wins ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews in the next twelve months — for paddles, facilities, apparel, ratings — will be the brand the next generation of pickleball players grew up assuming was the standard. The window is open. It will not stay open. This report is the field map."

THE PICKLEBALL GEO PLAYBOOK

1. Audit AI citation share monthly. Pickleball is the fastest-moving consumer category 5W has measured for AI citation share. A quarterly cadence misses inflection events. A monthly cadence catches them.

2. Invest in paddle-approval-list content. USAPA and UPA approval decisions drive enormous query volume and are under-served by dedicated brand content. The single highest-leverage citation investment a paddle brand can make.

3. Win one query surface deeply before competing broadly. Engage owns control. Gearbox owns elongated. CRBN owns thermoformed. ProKennex owns tennis elbow. Brands that try to be category generalists lose to brands that own a specific sub-category surface.

4. Named pro endorsements are the most defensible single citation asset. A signed Ben Johns, Anna Leigh Waters, Tyson McGuffin, or Federico Staksrud relationship will show up in AI answers for years. A paid social campaign will not.

5. Build facility-chain content that addresses "near me" and "worth the membership" queries. Franchise facilities should produce membership-value, pricing-transparency, and location-launch content. AI answers reward structured, specific content.

6. Engage with the injury-prevention conversation honestly. Pickleball injury queries are rising sharply. Brands that address paddle vibration dampening, proper footwear, and warm-up content earn citations that generic lifestyle content does not.

7. Invest in rating-system content. DUPR is pulling ahead of USA Pickleball for player-specific queries. Brands that integrate DUPR into product content (paddles by DUPR level, apparel by DUPR tier) gain adjacency to one of the fastest-growing citation surfaces.

8. Treat every UPA, CBS, and Nike announcement as a citation event. Each major sponsor deal or broadcast milestone resets AI citations for the sport. Calendar citation audits to within 72 hours of each announcement.

9. Publish on paddle technology with technical honesty. Core thickness, face material, thermoformed construction, swing weight — AI answers reward content that explains these at a technical level. Marketing-speak paddle descriptions are increasingly invisible.

10. Build content for the 50–65 spending core. The fastest-growing demographic is younger; the highest-spending core is 50–65. Brands that produce content for that cohort — retirement-age fitness, joint-friendly play, travel-and-pickleball — earn citations that youth-coded content does not.

THE BIGGER PICTURE

The American pickleball industry is doing in three years what tennis took forty years to do: establishing a durable set of equipment brands, a professional tour infrastructure, a facility category, an apparel ecosystem, and a rating-system standard. In every other sport, that formation period was mediated by magazine coverage, in-store retail, television broadcasts, and word-of-mouth — a slow accretion of brand memory that took a generation to settle.

Pickleball does not have that luxury of time. AI answer engines are forming the category's brand memory in real time, at a speed that no earlier sport faced. The brands that win the next decade are the brands that build AI citation infrastructure deliberately — through named pro endorsements, narrow sub-category dominance, franchise-scale content production, transparent technical communication, and early engagement with the governing-body and rating-system citation surfaces.

The brands that treat AI citation as a marketing curiosity will watch Selkirk, JOOLA, The Picklr, USA Pickleball, DUPR, and a small number of others absorb a larger and larger share of what consumers see when they ask AI "what should I buy, where should I play, and how should I measure myself" in pickleball.

AI citation share is the scoreboard. In pickleball — unlike any consumer category that preceded it — the scoreboard is also the only record of brand memory the sport has yet built.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Pickleball AI Visibility Index?

A 5W research report ranking the top 25 brands in the American pickleball industry by estimated AI citation share across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. It measures which brands AI answer engines surface for consumer-intent prompts about paddles, facilities, apparel, pro tours, and rating systems.

Which paddle brands rank highest?

Selkirk and JOOLA lead all paddle brands by a wide margin, together accounting for an estimated 19.5% of all AI citations across the 65+ tracked queries. Paddletek, Engage, and Onix complete the top five paddle brands.

Which facility chain ranks highest?

The Picklr is the highest-ranked facility chain at #8 overall in the index. With 80+ open locations and 400+ franchise licenses signed by end of 2025, ownership of Stack Athletics apparel, and partnerships with the PPA Tour and MLP, The Picklr has built the broadest citation surface of any pickleball facility brand.

How was AI citation share measured?

5W ran 65+ consumer-intent prompts through ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews in Q1 2026, then measured the frequency of brand citations across all responses. Citation share is the proportion of total brand mentions captured by each brand.

Why does AI citation share matter for pickleball brands?

Pickleball is the first major American sport with no legacy brand memory. Most U.S. players started after 2020 and use AI answer engines as their primary research tool for paddles, facilities, apparel, and ratings. The brand AI surfaces first wins the purchase, the membership, and the lifetime spend.

Is the report free?

Yes. The web version is free to read and the PDF download is ungated. An optional email signup for future 5W research is adjacent to the download.

Can 5W run a Generative Engine Optimization program for my pickleball brand?

Yes. 5W's Generative Engine Optimization practice is detailed at 5wpr.com/practice/geo-optimization. Inquiries: [email protected] or [email protected].

Why now?

Because the citation window is narrow. AI engines concentrate citations in a small number of domains per topic, meaning early movers pull forward into positions that are hard for later entrants to dislodge. The pickleball brands that invest in the next six months will be cited for years.

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ABOUT 5W

5W is the AI Communications Firm, building brand authority across the platforms where decisions now happen — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews — alongside earned media, digital, and influencer channels. 5W combines public relations, digital marketing, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), and proprietary AI visibility research, helping clients measure and grow their presence in AI-driven buyer research.

Founded more than 20 years ago, 5W has been recognized as a top U.S. PR agency by O'Dwyer's, named Agency of the Year in the American Business Awards®, and honored as a Top Place to Work in Communications in 2026 by Ragan. 5W serves clients across B2C sectors including Beauty & Fashion, Consumer Brands, Entertainment, Food & Beverage, Health & Wellness, Travel & Hospitality, Technology, and Nonprofit; B2B specialties including Corporate Communications and Reputation Management; as well as Public Affairs, Crisis Communications, and Digital Marketing, including Social Media, Influencer, Paid Media, GEO, and SEO. 5W was also named to the Digiday WorkLife Employer of the Year list.

For more information, visit www.5wpr.com.