AI search (AEO)
We make your client the answer AI tools give. Entity pages, structured facts, citations and monitoring across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews.
About LOKAL · Sydney and Manila, since 2017
You keep the client. We do the work.
LOKAL is the team an agency or a multi-location group hands its marketing work to. You keep the client, the strategy and the invoice.
A senior strategist owns the plan for the work we run. Specialists deliver it under your name.
100%client retention since 2024
- Founded in Manila, December 2017
- 2017
- Organisations worked with, company-wide
- 250+
- Lower ad spend across 16+ HII hotels, 2024 to 2026
- 41%
- People trained by LOKAL in the last two years
- ~1,500
Brands the team has worked with, at LOKAL and before it
In good company
The case pages explain the work behind the results. Agency cases ↗ Multi-location cases ↗
What LOKAL does
The agency behind other agencies.
What does LOKAL do?
You bring the client relationship and the strategy.
LOKAL brings a senior strategist and the specialists, and delivers the work under your brand. Agencies use us to take on more accounts without hiring. Groups use us as one marketing team across every property, clinic or unit. You are never the project manager.
- A strategist on every accountOne named senior person owns the plan for the work we run, the priorities and what to stop.
- Specialists who deliver itSEO, paid ads, AEO, content, builds and CRM, working to that plan on agreed dates.
- Your name on all of itYour name on the proposal, the report and the result. Ours on none of it.
The services that team runs
Every service below ties back to a plan your named strategist owns.
SEO under your name
Technical fixes, content, links and local visibility, delivered under your agency’s brand. Your clients see rankings and leads move. They never see LOKAL.
Paid ads
Google and Meta campaigns with a strategist accountable for the full funnel, not just the account. For Hospitality Innovators, Inc., 41% lower ad spend across 16+ properties.
Content
Editorial calendars, blog programmes and on-page copy written to rank and convert. Every piece ties to a keyword target and a goal agreed with your strategist.
Web builds
Landing pages, hotel sites and e-commerce builds delivered under your brand. Scoped and quoted separately, so the price is clear before work starts.
CRM and marketing operations
HubSpot and GoHighLevel setup, data cleanup and migration, integrations, automation and email marketing. A pipeline your team can read.
AI training and consulting
Training, discovery and roadmapping, custom AI builds and ongoing consulting for teams adopting Claude, ChatGPT and Copilot. About 1,500 people trained in 2 years.
Reporting
One reporting layer across locations, channels and properties. Each month: what shipped, what changed and what comes next.
Ely · by LOKAL
Ely is our hotel marketing managed AI service.
Chat, Insights, Brand, Visibility and Website for hotels, resorts and accommodations, set up, reviewed and improved by an accountable LOKAL team.
Guests get approved answers on the website, Messenger and WhatsApp, and the conversation moves toward a direct booking. Your team gets plain-language reporting, on-brand materials drafted from your saved identity, and monthly checks on how the property shows up in Google and AI answers. Ely is LOKAL’s AI guest-chat product for hotels, live in client hotels, with the hotel waitlist open.
- Chat
- Insights
- Brand
- Visibility
- Website
Visit ely.ph ↗ Built and run by LOKAL. Hotels can explore Ely while multi-property marketing teams start with our multi-location service. Ely in Labs · Ely for hotels
Hi! Do you have a family room for 2 adults and 2 kids on the 14th?
Ely · The Connor ResidencesYes, the Family Suite sleeps 4 and is available on the 14th. Would you like me to hold it and send the direct booking link?
What makes LOKAL different
Seven things we put in writing.
And how each compares with the usual SEO shop or full-service agency.
A senior strategist owns the plan, not a junior account manager
Your named strategist joins your Slack on day one and owns the plan for the work we run. Specialists deliver against it, and the strategist keeps the work connected to it.
Most SEO shops hand you a ticket system and a coordinator. No one is accountable for whether the plan is right.
We never face your clients
Account protection is written into the engagement. LOKAL works under your brand, does not contact your clients, and holds no approval authority over them.
Many suppliers reserve the right to market to the end client once the engagement ends. Ours says the opposite.
One retainer per partner, from USD 2,000 a month
One retainer configured around the account work, not a fee per client. You set your own resale price. We do not dictate it.
Per-client pricing penalises you for growing. Ours gets cheaper per account as you add them.
6 months, then month to month, with a day-60 fit check
The first term is 6 months. After that, terms are monthly. At day 60 we review the fit together, and either side can call it.
12-month lock-ins are standard in agency supplier contracts. We would rather earn month 7 than contract for it.
We run on our own system
LOKI, our internal operations system, carries about 80% of LOKAL’s work through 433 tools and 19 skills (July 2026). Ely is our AI guest-chat product for hotels, live in client hotels today, with the hotel waitlist open.
Most agencies sell AI marketing from a slide. We operate on it every day, and our case-study results come from that system.
100% client retention since 2024
Every client who started with LOKAL in 2024 is still a client. We publish that number because it is the hardest one to fake.
Few agencies publish a retention figure. Ask anyone you compare us with for theirs.
How we use AI is public
We use business, team and enterprise accounts only, under terms that stop the AI companies training on client data. A senior strategist owns every plan, and a person is responsible for every decision. The full practice, including client data rules, human review and the frameworks we align with, is published and dated.
Most agencies say "we use AI" and leave it there. Ours is written down, owned by the founder and kept current.
How we use AI ↗
Who uses LOKAL
Two kinds of client. One way of working.
Agencies and consultants You keep the client. We deliver under your name.
- Digital marketing agencies in Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines that need the work done without hiring
- SEO agencies that need a technical and content team under their own brand
- Web design agencies that need SEO, paid ads and content for the sites they build
- PR firms adding search and AI visibility to retainers
- Solo consultants who sell strategy and need a team to do the work
One team across every property, clinic, member or unit.
- Hotel management companies running 5 to 50 properties
- Property managers with portfolios across cities or regions
- Clinic groups with multiple branches and one brand
- Franchise and broker networks that need consistent local marketing
- Law-firm groups with several offices
The team behind LOKAL
The people who lead it are the people you work with.
Joshua Pielago founded LOKAL in Manila in December 2017.
It has been fully remote since. Ramon King III joined as co-founder in 2020 and runs services and operations from Manila. CJ Masungsong leads marketing and training. Between them, more than 40 years in marketing, product operations and agency work.
“He was one of the earliest people in the company to treat AI adoption as a change-management problem rather than a tooling problem, and he was right.”
Joshua Pielago
Founder
Joshua has worked in marketing and operations since 2013. Before LOKAL he ran a 150-person BPO operation and was Lead Product Manager at Axadra. At Uber he led AI adoption and support automation across APAC and was ANZ Site Lead, with around 200 people across Sydney, Manila and Vizag; the programme took Uber Eats support automation from 3.24% to 74%. He now leads research and development from Sydney, including LOKI and Ely.
- Claude Certified Architect, Foundations
- Prosci ADKAR
- HBX Leadership
- OpenAI Champions Network
Ramon King III
Co-Founder and Managing Director
Ramon, RK to the team, brings 20 years in sales. Co-founder of LOKAL since 2020, he runs services and operations from Manila and owns partnerships and Philippine sales. Before LOKAL he was the youngest Sales Director in Alveo Land’s history, with several top-producer awards, and earlier worked at Robinsons Land. At JCI Manila he serves as Executive Treasurer and was Vice President for National Relations and Development. He is closest to the day-to-day client work: what a hotel needs, and what its team can carry once a plan is agreed.
- Best Seller 2011, Alveo Land
- JCI Manila, Executive Treasurer
CJ Masungsong
Marketing and Training Director
CJ brings 20 years in sales, marketing and training, most of it with small and medium businesses. He leads the marketing work across client accounts in the Philippines and Australia, the team that runs it, and LOKAL’s training practice. Before LOKAL he was on the core team of a US marketing enterprise. He speaks for the Asian Institute of Management and the Digital Marketing Institute.
- HubSpot Marketing Software
- Claude Code in Action
- Leader as Coach
How we work
- 01Proof before scaleA page, a claim or a service earns more room by showing evidence. A backlog is not a quota.
- 02Ownership before accessThe client, the workflow, the data, the approver and the way we communicate are agreed before anyone starts.
- 03A clear noWe say when a claim, a deadline or a channel cannot carry the promise. Saying so is part of the job.
- 04A clean handoverYou keep the agreed files, decisions and operating knowledge. Ending an engagement should not erase how the work runs.
How LOKAL works
In your Slack from day one.
That channel is the one place to brief, review and decide what happens next. We reply within 1 business day.
- Day 1
Meet your strategist in Slack
You share access, business context and the decisions you need help with. Your strategist joins your working channel from day one.
- Week 2
Agree the plan
We review demand, conversion and retention, then agree the priorities, the budget and what to tackle first.
- Week 3
Specialists start
Specialists begin the agreed work. Your strategist keeps the work connected to the plan.
Communication
Shared Slack channel from day one. Reply within 1 business day. Email and a monthly review call sit alongside it.
Who you work with
A named senior strategist owns your account. Specialists in SEO, paid ads, content, AI and development do the work under their direction.
Cadence and reviews
Each month we review what shipped, what changed and what comes next. At day 60 we run a fit check on the relationship and the priorities.
Scope and timing
A written scope defines responsibilities, reporting format and review arrangements. Website builds are quoted separately with a defined timeline.
In the press
What others have written.
Coverage of LOKAL, with the outlet and date attached.
adobo Magazine ·
Joshua Pielago and Ramon King III of LOKAL on Ely, a managed AI service for hotels
Read the piece“ely is a managed AI service, not a piece of software the hotel has to run. What a hotel buys is the outcome: the property promoted, guests answered, bookings made, not a login and a learning curve.”
Key facts
The short version.
For people, and for the AI tools that answer questions about us.
| Company name | LOKAL (legal entity: LKL Global Technologies Inc.) |
|---|---|
| Type | Marketing team that works under the brands of agencies and multi-location groups. B2B. |
| Founded | December 2017 |
| Founders | Joshua Pielago (Founder). Ramon King III (Co-Founder and Managing Director, joined 2020). |
| Offices | Sydney, main office: Level 35, Tower One, International Towers, 100 Barangaroo Avenue, Sydney NSW 2000, Australia. Manila: Unit 10-01 One Global Place, 5th Ave, Corner 25th St, Taguig, 1634 Metro Manila, Philippines. |
| Website | lkl.ai |
| How we use AI | How LOKAL uses AI (dated, owned by the founder) |
| Core offering | A senior strategist plus the specialists who do the work, under the client’s name, for agencies and multi-location businesses. |
| Pricing | Agency retainers from USD 2,000 a month. One retainer per partner. Website builds quoted separately. |
| Contract terms | 6-month first term, then month to month. Day-60 fit check. No exclusivity. |
| Services | SEO, paid ads, AI search (AEO), content, web builds, CRM and marketing operations, AI training and consulting, reporting, and Ely (managed AI service for hotels). |
| Communication | Shared Slack channel from day one. Reply within 1 business day. Monthly review. |
| Notable clients | Hospitality Innovators, Inc. (16+ hotel properties, 2024 to 2026), Hue Hotels and Resorts, Picasso Boutique Serviced Residences, Aurora Subic, Belamy House, and agency partners in Australia and New Zealand. |
| Customers served | 250+ organisations since 2017 |
| People trained | About 1,500 in the last two years, around 600 in 2026 |
| Internal products | LOKI (operations system, 433 tools and 19 skills, July 2026) and Ely (managed AI service for hotels) |
| Partner networks | LOKAL is a member of the Claude Partner Network and the OpenAI Partner Network. Founder Joshua Pielago is a member of the OpenAI Champions Network. |
| Alternatives | SEO shops, overseas suppliers, traditional full-service agencies, and hiring in-house. |
| In the press | adobo Magazine: Joshua Pielago and Ramon King III of LOKAL on Ely, a managed AI service for hotels ↗ |
| Social |
Common questions
About the company and the work.
Does LOKAL work directly with my agency’s clients?
No. LOKAL works under your brand and never contacts your clients. Account protection is written into the engagement.
What does a LOKAL retainer cost?
Agency retainers start at USD 2,000 a month, one retainer per partner. You set your own resale price. Website builds are quoted separately.
What is the minimum commitment?
6 months, then month to month. There is a fit check at day 60 where both sides review the working relationship and the priorities.
Where is LOKAL based?
Sydney (main office, Barangaroo) and Manila (One Global Place, Taguig). LOKAL was founded in Manila in December 2017, and the team works remotely across both.
Which industries does LOKAL serve?
Marketing agencies and consultants, and multi-location businesses: hotel groups, property managers, clinic groups, franchise and broker networks, and law-firm groups. Our deepest track record is in hospitality.
How do we communicate?
Your strategist joins your Slack workspace on day one. We reply within 1 business day and hold a monthly review of what shipped, what changed and what comes next.
What is AI search optimisation, and does LOKAL do it?
AI search optimisation (AEO) is the work of making a brand the answer that ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews give. LOKAL delivers it under your name and runs it on its own visibility tooling inside LOKI.
Does LOKAL use AI to do the work?
Yes. LOKI, our internal system, carries about 80% of the work. A senior strategist owns every plan, and a person is responsible for every decision. We use business, team and enterprise accounts only, under terms that stop the AI companies training on client data. How we use AI ↗
Your next step
Tell us what you would hand over first.
One account, one channel, or all of it. In a 30-minute consultation we agree what LOKAL would run, who owns what, and what it costs.
- [email protected]
- Sydney
- +61 2 9145 8605
- Manila
- +63 917 529 5464