Inside Marketing Mondays: How AI Is Changing the Way We Do Competitor and Audience Research

If you’ve ever stared at your campaign dashboard wondering why your CPL is climbing despite great creatives, welcome to the club. At our latest Marketing Mondays session—"AI-Driven Competitor and Audience Research for Smarter Digital Strategies"—we unpacked exactly that dilemma.

And no, the solution isn’t “just spend more.”

Hosted by Prof. Aleks Farseev (CEO of SoMin.ai) and Sufyan Sulaiman (Solutions Partner at GWI), the session took a deep dive into how AI tools are transforming the way we plan, measure, and optimise marketing campaigns. The mission? To show how marketers can use AI tools to understand what their competitors are doing and, more importantly, what their audience actually values.

Held at JustCo’s buzzing coworking space, the event drew marketers, strategists, and founders keen to sharpen their competitive edge using the one thing that levels the playing field: data.

Case in Point: Miraflora Wagyu

Held at JustCo’s buzzing coworking space, the event drew marketers, strategists, and founders keen to sharpen their competitive edge using the one thing that levels the playing field: data.

Miraflora Wagyu, a Colorado-based premium beef company, was grappling with high customer acquisition costs. At first glance, the team assumed the issue was pricing. After all, Wagyu isn’t cheap. But a deeper dive using SoMin.ai and GWI revealed a more nuanced truth:

The audience wasn’t truly price-sensitive—they were deal-sensitive.

Consumers wanted to feel they were getting value, not necessarily paying less. The question is how to push the customer down the funnel by assuring them they are getting the best deal. The conversation shifted from discounting to improving the purchase journey, messaging clarity, and perceived value. After all, providing relevant information makes it easier for customers to understand what they are buying. 

Leveraging AI-powered Tools 

The duo demonstrated how combining SOMIN’s competitor analysis with GWI’s psychographic insights unlocked a 360º view of the target market:

SOMONITOR (SoMin.ai) showed how Miraflora’s competitors were advertising across Meta platforms—what messages they led with, which formats they used, and how they positioned their products at different funnel stages.

GWI provided audience breakdowns that went beyond demographics—showing beliefs, behaviours, income tiers, and even lifestyle attitudes in Colorado.

Together, the tools removed the guesswork and helped craft messaging that was more aligned with how real people make decisions.

From Data to Story: How AI Helped Reshape Messaging

One of the most actionable parts of the session was a simple, repeatable framework for crafting smarter marketing content using AI insights. Here's the process that was demonstrated:

1. Create a GWI Persona

   Start by building a data-backed audience persona through GWI—focused on demographics and behaviours like online purchase drivers, loyalty programme usage, and price sensitivity.

2. Generate a Character

   Turn that persona into a relatable, humanised profile. For example, "Sophie Chen"—a joyful culinary enthusiast who values flavour exploration and community connection.

3. Choose a Pain Point

   Identify real-world tensions based on audience data. One example: "Challenges with accessing affordable and convenient food options"—a relatable frustration for busy, health-conscious shoppers

4. Choose an Angle

   Frame your story around a meaningful theme. Depending on the persona, it could be health awareness or time constraints—whichever angle best matches their motivations and lifestyle

5. Blend in Your Product

   Seamlessly integrate your product into the story, making it a natural solution rather than a hard sell. For Miraflora Wagyu, the emphasis wasn’t just on the steak—it was about health, convenience, and values.

6. Generate a Story, Gain Insights, Create Content

   Finally, using all these insights, create ad copy, headlines, and visuals that speak directly to what matters most to your audience.

Here are some examples: 

Angle: "The Joy of Real Food, Shared Together – Now With Real Rewards"

➔ Focused on emotional connection and added a reward incentive based on GWI data showing 59% of the audience uses loyalty programs.

Angle: "A Better Meal Starts with a Better Life – And Free Delivery"

➔ Leveraged top online purchase drivers like free delivery to directly address conversion motivators for deal-seeking but health-focused shoppers.

Build Stories, Not Just Product Pitches

This approach wasn’t just about tweaking a few lines of copy–it reframed the messaging:

From: “Buy this premium product.”

To: “Here’s how this product fits your values, solves your problems, and makes life better.”

The campaigns become more authentic, relatable, and effective by starting with audience truth instead of marketing assumptions.

In the end, the goal isn’t to hand over your campaigns to machines—it’s to make better, faster decisions with AI as your assistant. The session is a reminder that insight is the real edge in today’s crowded market, from shaping strategy to optimising creatives.

Marketing Mondays is a series built around practical learning, real-life application, and staying current in a fast-moving space. Don't stop here if this session sparked ideas or gave you a new way to think about your campaign challenges.

Book a call for a FREE DEMO on how you can use SOMONITOR with GWI to supercharge your marketing campaigns.