Avidly APAC

On Wednesday, we had the pleasure of bringing some of ANZ's leaders in construction & property to an exclusive workshop where we explored industry challenges, what a purpose-built customer-first tech stack actually looks like in practice, and the real-world stories of companies who've made the shift.

The construction and property industries are all battling the same problems: disconnected systems, dirty data, no single source of truth, and the companies pulling ahead are the ones treating their CRM as the cornerstone of their tech stack, not an afterthought. It's not about having more tools. It's about having the right ones, connected in the right way.

Huge thanks to Sonia Jones, Sam Firman and Tarryn Behrens from HubSpot for hosting us again at the Sydney office, to Moya Jakobsson and Maxine Dare from SimondsHomes, thank you for flying out to present your transformation journey, and to Marc van den Berg for sharing how he led change management for one of Australasia's largest construction companies. And lastly, to everyone who showed up, we hope you found value in it and took at least one thing away that will help you move the needle.

That's a wrap on our Spring Spotlight: The AEO Edition HUG Event!

Thank you to everyone who joined us across Australia & New Zealand, we loved having you in the room (virtually speaking).

We covered a lot of ground, including:

- Why AEO is the next major shift in digital visibility
- How AI platforms decide which brands to surface, and which to ignore
- What early adopters are already doing differently
- Practical steps to build an AI-first search strategy today
- The latest HubSpot Spring Spotlight product updates

If you missed it or want to revisit anything, keep an eye out; we'll be sharing resources from the session shortly.

You want to be the business AI recommends.

Book a meeting with our team and let's talk about what an AI-first strategy could look like for your business: https://ap1.hubs.ly/y0Zpf_0

Construction is one of the most operationally complex industries on the planet, and most CRMs treat it like it's the same as selling software.

That's a problem we've spent years fixing.

We've officially been recognised as a HubSpot Construction Industry Specialist.

A badge awarded to a select group of partners who don't just know HubSpot, but genuinely understand the industries they are serving. For us, one of the many industries in which we have proven ourselves time and again is construction.

We've worked closely with businesses across the construction sector to tailor HubSpot to reflect how they operate, from pipeline stages built around bid and tender cycles to integrations with project management and job-costing tools.

This badge adds to Avidly APAC's growing list of HubSpot recognition, including six HubSpot Accreditations and Solutions Partner of the Year for four consecutive years. Each one reflects a different dimension of what we do: technical depth, implementation quality, and now, industry expertise.

If you want to know more, you can read the full press release here: https://ap1.hubs.ly/y0Z7yL0

Most lead scoring models fail before sales ever uses them.

And they fail because they're built on assumptions instead of actual conversion data.

Here's what usually happens:

- Sales and marketing sit down and brainstorm what they think makes a good lead
- Points get assigned to a few actions and attributes
- The model is launched
- And then inevitably… nobody pays attention it

Most people find that the problem is that most models are built on gut feel instead of real conversion data.

AI-Enhanced Lead Scoring flips the process entirely.

Instead of asking "what do we think matters?", AI analyses what actually happened before your customers converted. Real behaviours. Real engagement patterns. Real signals.

The result? A prioritisation system your sales team can actually trust and act on.

Read the full blog here: https://ap1.hubs.ly/y0Ys7n0

And if you want to go even deeper, we're covering AI-Enhanced Lead Scoring live at our Spring Spotlight: The AEO Edition HUG Event this Wednesday

Register here: https://ap1.hubs.ly/y0Ysj30

We are one week out from our Spring Spotlight: The AEO Edition HUG Event.

This is fully online, so anyone across ANZ can join live. You just need to register!

Here's what we're covering:
- Why AEO is the next major shift in digital visibility
- How AI platforms decide which brands to surface, and which to ignore
- What early adopters are already doing differently
- Practical steps to build an AI-first search strategy today
- Plus the latest HubSpot Spring Spotlight product updates

This is your chance to make AEO a competitive advantage

Wednesday 10th June
11am AEST / 1pm NZST
Free to attend

Register here: https://ap1.hubs.ly/y0XNk-0

27% decline in organic traffic for businesses in just one year.

This is a structural shift that has changed right in front of us.

The reality is that buyer research has moved. People are asking AI instead of Googling. And if your brand isn't part of that answer, you're not even in the room when it matters most.

That's exactly what we're unpacking at our first HUG session of 2026: Spring Spotlight: The AEO Edition.

Here's what we're covering:
- Why AEO is the next major shift in digital visibility
- How AI platforms decide which brands to surface, and which to ignore
- What early adopters are already doing differently
- Practical steps to build an AI-first search strategy today
- Plus the latest HubSpot Spring Spotlight product updates

Fully online, so anyone across ANZ can join live.

Wednesday 10th June
11am AEST / 1pm NZST
Free to attend

Register here: https://ap1.hubs.ly/y0WtnQ0

After HubSpot released its AEO dashboard at Spring Spotlight, we jumped onto it straight away.

Having just rebranded and changed domains, our baseline wasn't as good as it otherwise would've been.

So we got to work.

In just 2 months, we increased our own brand visibility from 17% to 65%, nearly 4x growth.

How did we do it?

We systematically selected and executed the most relevant items in HubSpot's AEO recommendations tab.

AI search is already here, and the brands investing in Answer Engine Optimisation now are the ones showing up in results.

We will be exploring this more in our upcoming HUG, and we've gone fully online, so anyone across ANZ can join live.

Wednesday 10th June
11am AEST / 1pm NZST
Online: free to attend

Register here: https://ap1.hubs.ly/y0VYmN0

Your AI is only as good as the data you give it.

HubSpot just quietly released the new AI Context Dashboard, a centralised source for your organisation that powers AI across the entire HubSpot platform.

This has been extended from the Brand Identity tab to let you flesh out the context around your business, and the more you put in, the smarter your AI gets.

Here's what you can load it up with:

Company identity: legal name, domain, industry, ownership structure
Business profile: what you do, who you serve, how you make money
Market context: competitive landscape and key stakeholders
Tech stack: the tools and apps that run your business
ICPs & Personas: your ideal customers and the buyers you target
Email personality: your brand's unique tone and communication style
Brand Kit: visual styles so AI can actually match your brand

The idea? One source of truth that every AI feature in HubSpot draws from.

Setting this up properly is essential if you're trying to get the most out of any AI.

If you're going to remember one thing, remember that context is king.

Want to have this set up for you by the experts? Check out our new AI foundations service, where we give your AI the context it needs.

https://ap1.hubs.ly/y0VHbF0

AI-powered search has fundamentally changed how buyers research.

Over 60% of Google searches now end without a single click, organic traffic is declining, and platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity now have hundreds of millions of weekly active users.

If your brand isn't showing up in AI-generated answers, you're missing critical visibility at a key stage of the buyer journey.

This is your chance to make AEO a competitive advantage and become the business AI recommends.

That's exactly what we're exploring at our first HUG session of 2026: Spring Spotlight: The AEO Edition.

Here's what we're covering:

- Why Answer Engine Optimisation is the next major shift in digital visibility
- How AI platforms decide which brands to surface, and which to ignore
- What early adopters are already doing differently
- Practical steps to start building an AI-first search strategy today
- Plus the latest HubSpot Spring Spotlight product updates

We've gone fully online so anyone across ANZ can join live.

Wednesday 10th June
11am AEST / 1pm NZST
Online: free to attend

Register here: https://ap1.hubs.ly/y0T9xN0