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Generative AI is everywhere now. You see it in content, campaigns, customer experiences, and even internal workflows. It promises speed, scale, and efficiency, but there’s a harder question sitting underneath all that progress; Do your audiences actually trust it?

Trust in the Age of AI: What Consumers Really Think About AI Generated Content

Today, PR teams aren’t just tracking media coverage and share of voice. They’re also measuring how their brand shows up in AI-generated answers, search summaries, and large language models (LLMs). This new LLM visibility layer is quickly becoming a critical part of PR performance.

15 Must-Have PR KPIs and How to Track Them

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIN to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.
Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?
The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

What Is Data Analytics? [Beginner’s Guide 2023]
How can I grow my business? 
How do customers interact with my newly launched product?
How do I increase the productivity of my employees?
How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?
We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.
So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.
But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!
But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.
We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.
Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

On our social media management category page, you find blogs about social media management topics. Build and manage your online community.

Social Media Management Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

Generative search has changed what visibility means. When people ask questions in AI tools, they’re not fed a page of links. They see an answer. If your brand is not part of that answer, you are invisible in the precise moment that matters most. This is where PR for GEO becomes critical. 

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), is about increasing the likelihood that your brand, expertise, and point of view are mentioned, summarized, or cited directly in AI-generated responses. This shift puts earned media earned media, authority, and narrative clarity at the center of modern PR strategy.

In traditional SEO, the goal is traffic. Pages are optimized to rank, earn clicks, and bring people to your site. In GEO, the goal is inclusion. You are optimizing to show up inside the answer itself. That difference may sound subtle, but it changes everything about how PR, content, and communications teams should operate. 

AI systems do not simply crawl your website and rank it. They synthesize information from across the web, weighing trust, consistency, and credibility. That makes PR one of the most powerful levers for visibility in AI search.

This post breaks down what GEO really means for PR teams, how generative engines decide what to mention, and what practical steps you can take to improve your chances of being cited. It also explains how to measure impact in a world where impressions and clicks are no longer the main signal of success, and how Meltwater can help you manage and improve your brand’s presence across AI-driven discovery.

How Generative Engines Choose What to Mention

How Meltwater Helps You Step Up Your PR Game for Better LLM Visibility

For PR teams, GEO reframes the core objective. Your job is no longer just to earn coverage for awareness or backlinks. Your job is to make sure your brand becomes a reliable source that AI engines trust enough to include when they answer questions in your category. 

In simple terms, GEO means showing up when someone asks an AI system a question your brand should own.

This is why GEO and SEO are related but not the same. SEO is still largely about discoverability through links and rankings. GEO is about authority and representation. When an AI model answers a question like “What is the best platform for media intelligence?” it is not choosing a single page. It summarizes what it has learned from many sources. If your brand is consistently described as a category leader in credible publications, that description is more likely to be repeated by the model.

You may also hear terms like LLM optimization, answer engine optimization, or AI search optimization. These all point to the same underlying shift. The surface area for discovery has moved from search results to synthesized answers. PR teams are uniquely positioned to influence those answers because they shape how brands are talked about in trusted environments.

How Do Generative Engines Choose What to Mention?

Generative engines are not random. While the exact mechanics are proprietary, patterns are clear. AI systems favor sources that demonstrate authority, consistency, and clarity. They look for corroboration across multiple reputable outlets. They reward content that states facts plainly, uses consistent naming, and explains concepts in a way that is easy to summarize.

Authority is the strongest GEO signal for PR

Consistency is equally important for PR GEO strategy

Structure and extractability also play a role

Coverage from respected publications, industry analysts, and well-known experts carries more weight than self-published content. When multiple trusted sources describe your brand in similar terms, AI systems gain confidence in that narrative. This is why one-off coverage rarely moves the needle. Repetition across credible sources matters more.

If your brand is described differently across articles, press releases, and bios, AI models struggle to resolve those differences. Inconsistent naming, shifting category definitions, or vague positioning make it harder for models to confidently include you. Clear, repeated associations help AI systems understand who you are and what you do.

AI models pull information more easily from content that is direct and specific. Statements like “Company X is a media intelligence platform that helps brands monitor news, social, and AI-driven narratives” are easier to reuse than vague marketing language. Facts, definitions, and concrete descriptions travel further in generative answers.

Encourage your PR team to follow these recommendations for how to succeed in GEO

Build “AI-readable” earned media (not just coverage)

To succeed in GEO, PR teams need to rethink how they approach earned media. The goal is not just coverage, but coverage that is useful to AI systems. That starts with prioritizing the right outlets. High-authority publications and niche trade media that define categories are especially valuable. These sources often act as reference points for AI models when they explain industries and tools.

Coverage should clearly state what your brand is and how it fits into a category. When a journalist writes that your company “is a media intelligence solution used by global brands to monitor news, social, and AI-driven narratives,” that explicit association matters. Comparisons, benchmarks, and data points make coverage even more valuable because they give AI systems concrete information to work with.

Tip: Learn more in our Earned Media for GEO guide

Large language models are entity-driven, so entity clarity is non-negotiable. They need to understand that your brand name, your products, and your executives all refer to the same organization. This means standardizing how your brand is described everywhere it appears. The same company name, the same product names, the same executive titles, and the same category descriptors should show up in press releases, bylines, and coverage.

Many teams benefit from creating an internal brand entity reference that PR, content, and executives all use. This ensures that every external mention reinforces the same core narrative. Over time, this consistency helps AI models lock in on a clear representation of your brand.

Publish supporting “source pages” on owned media

Owned media still matters in GEO, but it plays a supporting role. AI systems often triangulate between earned media and authoritative owned pages. Clear "About" pages, executive bios, product definitions, and research hubs give AI models a stable reference point. These pages should focus on clarity, not marketing hype. Definitions, FAQs, and verifiable claims are more useful than slogans.

Engineer message consistency across the web

Message consistency across channels reinforces everything. Press releases, newsroom updates, executive LinkedIn posts, and contributed articles should all align around the same narrative pillars. When AI systems see the same themes repeated across different formats and sources, confidence increases.

Target “unbranded prompts,” not just branded search

Finally, GEO success depends on targeting unbranded prompts. Many AI answers are triggered by generic questions, not brand searches. Questions like “What tools do PR teams use to monitor AI narratives?” or “How do companies track their brand in AI search?” are opportunities to appear even when the user does not know your name yet. PR that positions your brand as an answer to these category-level questions has outsized impact.

PR measurement needs to evolve with the channel. Traditional PR metrics still have value, but they are not enough on their own. In GEO, the most important question is how AI systems describe your brand. Are you mentioned at all? Are you cited as a leader or an example? Is the description accurate?

One useful metric is AI-mention share of voice. This looks at how often your brand appears in AI-generated answers compared to competitors when users ask category-level questions. Another is citation presence, which tracks whether AI systems explicitly reference sources that include your brand.

Narrative accuracy is just as important. Being mentioned with the wrong description can be worse than not being mentioned at all. PR teams should track whether AI answers reflect the positioning they are trying to establish. Competitive displacement also matters. If AI systems consistently recommend a competitor instead of you, that is a signal that their narrative is stronger or clearer.

Over time, patterns emerge around which publications and domains are most frequently cited by AI systems. This source footprint can help PR teams refine media targeting, focusing on outlets that actually influence generative answers.

One common mistake is treating GEO like a keyword exercise. Keywords still matter, but without authority and validation, they do very little in generative search. Another mistake is relying on vague claims. AI systems struggle to reuse statements that are not backed by specifics. Clear definitions and evidence travel further.

Inconsistent naming is another frequent issue. Small differences in how a brand or product is referenced can fragment your entity in AI systems. Finally, many teams stop after a single piece of coverage. GEO rewards reinforcement. 

Consistent coverage over time is what shapes AI understanding.

This checklist translates GEO strategy into practical PR actions. Use it to pressure-test whether your programs are built to earn visibility and citations in AI-generated answers, not just traditional coverage.

Define and document your core brand entity. Use the same brand name, product names, category description, and executive titles everywhere PR shows up.

Build a prioritized media list that includes both top-tier outlets and niche publications that actively shape how your category is defined.

Audit press materials to ensure they include clear facts, definitions, comparisons, and proof points that AI systems can easily extract and reuse.

Align owned content with earned coverage so your About pages, product pages, executive bios, and FAQs reinforce the same narrative seen in the media.

Track both branded and unbranded prompts to understand how AI answers category-level questions, not just searches that include your company name.

Review GEO performance on a monthly cadence, focusing on AI mentions, citations, and narrative accuracy, because generative search narratives change fast.

Tip: Learn more about PR Pitch GEO optimization.

GEO in PR refers to optimizing your earned media and narratives so that AI systems include your brand in generated answers. It focuses on authority, consistency, and clarity rather than rankings and clicks.

PR matters so much for GEO because generative engines rely heavily on trusted third-party sources. Earned media provides validation that owned content alone cannot.

What types of media placements influence AI answers the most?

The most influential media placements tend to come from reputable national outlets, respected trade publications, and analyst or expert-driven sources that define categories and standards.

How long does it take to see the GEO impact from PR?

The time it takes to see GEO impact depends on how frequently you earn coverage, the authority of those sources, and how consistent your messaging is. Strong, repeated coverage can influence AI representation within months, while sporadic efforts take longer.

How can smaller brands compete in PR GEO?

Smaller brands can compete in GEO by focusing on niche authority. Clear positioning, consistent narratives, and strong proof points in relevant trade media can outweigh sheer brand size.

Managing PR for GEO requires visibility into how your brand actually shows up in AI systems. This is where Meltwater plays a critical role. Meltwater’s media intelligence capabilities help teams earn, track, and analyze the coverage that shapes AI understanding. More importantly, Meltwater’s GenAI Lens gives you direct insight into how your brand is represented across major AI assistants, including which narratives appear, which sources are cited, and how you compare to competitors.

With GenAI Lens, you can move beyond guesswork. You can see whether your PR efforts are influencing AI answers, identify inaccuracies before they scale, and spot competitive gaps you can exploit. Because GenAI Lens is integrated with Meltwater’s broader media intelligence platform, you can connect AI representation back to earned coverage, executive thought leadership, and narrative strategy.

Meltwater customers are already using these insights to protect and strengthen their brand narratives. Global brands like Heineken rely on Meltwater to understand how their stories travel across media ecosystems and to ensure consistency across markets. In the GEO era, that same discipline applies to AI-driven discovery.

PR is no longer just about telling your story to journalists. It is about shaping how machines summarize that story for millions of people. GEO makes that responsibility explicit. With the right strategy, clear narratives, and the right tools, you can ensure your brand shows up where it counts: inside the answers that define modern discovery.

Fill out the form below to request a demo with one of our product experts and start your PR GEO strategy.

PR + GEO: How to Win Visibility in AI Search & LLM Answers

On Christmas Day 2025, Marty Supreme — starring Timothée Chalamet as shoe salesman-turned-table tennis phenom Marty Mauser — hit theaters, earning critical acclaim and beating box office records. 

In the process, its campaign became a standout example of the strength of culture-first marketing, in which promotion and messaging is rooted in current cultural conversations and trends rather than solely in the product or service advertised. For film studio A24 and Marty Supreme, this strategy came in the form of strategic celebrity influencer activations, surprise moments, and fan-focused content. 

We used Explore+, Meltwater’s enterprise-grade intelligence platform, to analyze the global Marty Supreme conversation and uncover lessons for marketers and brands looking to create their own highly engaged, cross-platform cultural moments. 

How big was the cultural conversation around Marty Supreme?

Our Explore+ analysis found that Marty Supreme’s end-of-2025 promotional campaign helped the film generate 743,000 mentions and 61M engagements across social, digital, and traditional media from October 1 to December 31, 2025. 

Some of the campaign’s most talked about moments drove visibility by engaging with the cultural conversation already swirling around the film’s star. 

For example, one of the most successful pieces of Marty Supreme content ahead of the film’s theatrical release addressed a fan rumor that Chalemet is actually British rapper EsDeeKid. On December 19, a music video featuring the film star rapping alongside EsDeeKid put those rumors to rest. Chalemet’s corresponding Instagram Reel, featuring him rapping the words “Marty Supreme”, has generated over 3.2 million likes and counting. Even though it is only tangentially related to the film, it was the most engaged social media post about Marty Supreme in the lead up to its premiere. 

Similarly, the film’s merchandise — windbreakers by luxury streetwear brand Nahmias — leaned on Chalemet’s celebrity network to make it a coveted item. As covered by major fashion outlets like Vogue, a slew of Chalemet’s famous friends, including Kid Cudi, Tom Brady, and even Susan Boyle, wore the jackets in social posts and out in public. The Hollywood in-group positioning paid off. About 7% of Marty Supreme mentions and 6% of overall engagement were just about the jackets. 

In the end, both the EsDeeKid and windbreaker activations boosted the film’s visibility beyond just cinema lovers (or ping pong enthusiasts) to Gen-Z fans of hip-hop, luxury fashion, and pop culture. But how well did it work?

How well did Marty Supreme’s marketing campaign do? 

For marketers, the buzz around the Marty Supreme campaign begs the question of whether or not its tailored approach was a success. To learn more, we sized it up against another buzzy film of 2025: F1: The Movie.

Focusing solely on the three days following each film’s domestic release date, our analysis found that Marty Supreme generated about 5 times the conversation that F1: The Movie did, but only about two-thirds of the engagement. 

<div style="overflow-x:auto;">
  <table style="width:100%; border-collapse:collapse; font-family:Arial, sans-serif;">
    <thead>
      <tr style="background-color:#f4f6f8;">
        <th style="padding:12px; text-align:left; border-bottom:2px solid #ddd;">Film</th>
        <th style="padding:12px; text-align:right; border-bottom:2px solid #ddd;">
          Mentions<br><span style="font-weight:400; font-size:12px;">(first 3 days in theaters)</span>
        </th>
        <th style="padding:12px; text-align:right; border-bottom:2px solid #ddd;">Engagements</th>
        <th style="padding:12px; text-align:right; border-bottom:2px solid #ddd;">Engagements per Mention</th>
      </tr>
    </thead>
    <tbody>
      <tr>
        <td style="padding:12px; border-bottom:1px solid #eee;">Marty Supreme</td>
        <td style="padding:12px; text-align:right; border-bottom:1px solid #eee;">155,000</td>
        <td style="padding:12px; text-align:right; border-bottom:1px solid #eee;">3,700,000</td>
        <td style="padding:12px; text-align:right; border-bottom:1px solid #eee;">23.9</td>
      </tr>
      <tr>
        <td style="padding:12px;">F1: The Movie</td>
        <td style="padding:12px; text-align:right;">31,000</td>
        <td style="padding:12px; text-align:right;">6,000,000</td>
        <td style="padding:12px; text-align:right;">193.5</td>
      </tr>
    </tbody>
  </table>
</div>

For F1: The Movie, official and high-profile brand partnerships, including those with Mercedes-Benz and Scuderia Ferrari, drove engagement across social media. As touched on above, Marty Supreme’s marketing relied more heavily on a pop-culture-first approach, with limited-edition partnerships with Nahmias and Wheaties. 

In the end, F1: The Movie’s auto-focused brand partnership strategy came out ahead of Marty Supreme in terms of engagement. 

The biggest Marty Supreme moments ahead of its premiere

Beyond Chalamet’s EsDeeKid feature and designer merchandise, a few key moments helped build buzz for Marty Supreme. First, the film’s surprise global premiere at the New York Film Festival on  October 6, 2025, resulted in a nearly 3,000% increase in mentions according to our analysis. 

The previous mystery surrounding the film, as well as its dramatic reveal at the festival, helped drive the buzz around the moment and build anticipation among wider audiences. As with the December EsDeeKid reveal, Marty Supreme marketers used secrecy, starpower, and cultural relevance to build and capitalize on hype. 

Another screening on December 9 drove the movie’s second-largest conversation spike, thanks in part to Chalamet’s red carpet appearance with partner Kylie Jenner in matching, orange custom Chrome Hearts outfits. Harkening back to Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears’ infamous, matching denim outfits at the 2001 American Music Awards, Chalamet and Jenner’s striking ensembles solidified their status as Hollywood’s latest “It couple”. 

Along with fueling audiences’ fascination with celebrities and their personal lives, it gave fashion publications and commentators a new hook for discussion of Marty Supreme. For example, the above post from Vogue’s Instagram account featuring the looks has generated over 862,000 in just one month. Previously, fashion-focused discussion of the film centered on the exclusive merch that Chalamet gifted to stars both in and around the movie, including Jenner, Tom Brady, Frank Ocean, and, most surprisingly, British singer Susan Boyle. 

Finally, and unsurprisingly, the biggest boost for Marty Supreme mentions was its December 25 theatrical release in the US. That day, discussion reached its highest volume at nearly 47,000 mentions, fueled by both promotional content and audience reactions. 

Overall, across 90 days’ worth of Marty Supreme discussion, sentiment skewed positive (27%), reflecting the film’s favorable critical reception. And while celebrity endorsements and high-profile premiere moments didn’t make for record-breaking engagement, they helped make Marty Supreme one of the most anticipated and well-received movies heading into 2026. 

What marketers can learn from Marty Supreme

Our analysis uncovered three key takeaways from the buzz leading up to the premiere of Marty Supreme: 

High conversation volume doesn’t always equal big engagement.
Marty Supreme generated about five times more mentions than F1: The Movie during its domestic release window, yet F1 achieved nearly eight times higher engagement per mention. This highlights just how critical high-profile brand deals are to amplifying promotional content online.

Mystery and surprise can fuel buzz.
Surprise premieres and creative tie-ins like the EsDeeKid remix helped drive both curiosity and conversation. When paired with cultural relevance, mystery and suspense can drive audience interest.

Celebrity star power drives visibility and widens appeal.
Timothée Chalamet’s personal social media, along with his collaborations and appearances with other high-profile figures like Kylie Jenner, made him the film’s promotional anchor. His celebrity connections across sports, fashion, music, and movies expanded the film’s relevance beyond just its ping pong subject matter. As a result, the film’s marketing campaign successfully drew in audiences that may not have paid attention otherwise.

With AI-powered platforms like Meltwater’s Explore+, marketers can track and measure campaign resonance across channels and optimize in real time and at scale. This is crucial for campaigns like those leading up to the Marty Supreme premiere, in which pop cultural intelligence is a key differentiator. 

Learn more about how your brand can use data-driven insights to build campaigns that make a splash — use the form below to request a free test drive of Explore+.

FAQ: Marketing Lessons from Marty Supreme

Marty Supreme’s end-of-2025 promotional campaign helped the film generate 743,000 mentions and 61M engagements across social, digital, and traditional media according to Meltwater Explore+ data. Leveraging Timothée Chalamet’s star power, premiere surprises, fashion moments, and music tie-ins, the campaign shows how culture-first marketing and celebrity influence can transform a film release into a buzzy pop culture moment.

How did Marty Supreme perform compared to F1: The Movie?

Meltwater data shows that, in the three days following its domestic release, Marty Supreme generated 155,000 mentions and 3.7M engagements. Marty Supreme generated roughly five times more mentions than F1. However, F1 achieved higher engagement per mention (193.5 vs. 23.9), driven largely by official brand partnerships with Mercedes-Benz and Scuderia Ferrari.

Which moments drove the most conversation for Marty Supreme?
Meltwater data shows that key conversation drivers included:

The New York Film Festival premiere (October 6, 2025) – 3,000% spike in mentions

Chalamet and Kylie Jenner’s matching orange outfits at the December 9 screening

The EsDeeKid remix tied to the film, shared via Chalamet’s personal social channels

Celebrity sightings in Marty Supreme merchandise, including Jenner, Tom Brady, and Susan Boyle

What can marketers learn from Marty Supreme’s campaign?

High conversation volume doesn’t always equal high engagement

Celebrity influence and cultural relevance can extend reach across platforms and online communities

Data-driven insights from platforms like Meltwater Explore+ help marketers track, measure, and optimize campaigns in real time

Buzz vs. Engagement: What the Marty Supreme Campaign Teaches Us About Cultural Marketing

Ever feel like your competitors know something you don’t? That’s not paranoia; that’s the power of competitive intelligence. Successful companies constantly watch other successful companies to see how they approach the market. But because looks can be deceiving, they’re also using tools and software to see just how well their efforts connect with their audiences (and translate into paying customers). 

The best competitive intelligence tools typically incorporate AI for even deeper insights — helping companies look beneath the surface to understand strategy and the reasons and results behind them.

Here’s how you can use competitive intelligence to gain an edge — whoever gets the best intel wins. 

Why Competitive Intelligence Tools Matter

Key Features of Competitive Intelligence Tools

Top Competitive Intelligence Tools in 2026

How to Choose the Right Competitive Intelligence Tool

How Real Brands Are Using Competitive Intelligence Tools

Using Meltwater for Competitive Intelligence

To gain a complete picture of your competitors, AI competitive intelligence tools collect and analyze data and turn it into useful insights. Data gathering is arguably the biggest challenge of gaining competitive intelligence, and these tools do most of the work for you.

These insights can help you learn what your competitors doing, anticipate what they might do next, and see how people respond to their actions. They can also identify what your competitors are doing well and where they might have gaps you can fill.

Tools for competitive intelligence vary in terms of use cases, and features. Below, we break down six of the top competitive intelligence tools worth exploring and what makes each one stand out.

Meltwater offers comprehensive competitive analysis by combining social listening, sentiment analysis, media monitoring, and consumer intelligence in one platform. It tracks millions of online and offline sources, including blogs, news sites, forums, podcasts, and social platforms, to give you a real-time pulse on what others are saying.

Unlimited keyword monitoring (e.g., products, competitor names, brand mentions)

What sets Meltwater apart is how it turns these details into strategic insights. It delivers context, not just headlines or summaries. You’ll learn how people are talking about specific topics or products and gain a better understanding of what’s driving conversations.

Want to see Meltwater's competitive intelligence capabilities in action? Click here and fill out the form below for a personalized demo!

Meltwater customer success story: Western Union

Western Union uses Meltwater’s competitive intelligence to manage its massive global presence. With over 80,000 monthly media and social mentions, Western Union needed a way to track its reputation and understand how it stacked up against competitors in real time. 

Meltwater monitors sentiment, key topics, and competitor share of voice to help the company stay agile and aligned with business goals.

Apify is a data extraction and automation platform that gives brands real-time access to competitor intelligence directly from the web. It pulls live data from sources like Google Maps, social profiles, ecommerce listings, and review platforms, helping businesses analyze sentiment, pricing levels, service offerings, and digital presence with far greater depth than traditional analytics tools.

Its Competitive Intelligence Agent produces structured reports, comparative insights, and interactive map views that show where competitors outperform or fall short. Apify’s ability to collect raw listings, reviews, categories, and contact data at scale makes it especially valuable for industries where customer sentiment, local rankings, and service differentiation strongly influence market positioning.

Similarweb is a digital intelligence platform that helps organizations understand their competitive landscape by providing visibility into the online performance of companies, industries, and markets. 

Pricing: Plans start at $125/mo (billed annually)

Best for: Gaining insight into how competitors attract, retain, and engage users, offering a clear picture of relative market position and digital strength.

Similarweb supports competitive intelligence by allowing businesses to benchmark performance, track shifts in competitor strategy, and identify emerging trends across channels such as search, paid media, referrals, and social. This intelligence helps teams anticipate competitive moves, uncover opportunities for differentiation, and make more confident, data-driven decisions in fast-moving digital markets.

Reputation manages and compares the public perception of your brand. It’s most widely used for review management, but it can also be useful as a competitive intelligence analysis tool.

Best for: Review generation and benchmarking consumer sentiment scores

You can track ratings, reviews, feedback trends, and sentiment scores for your entire industry, giving you a clear view of how you stack up.

Competitive dashboards show you where your rivals excel or are slipping, whether it’s customer service, product satisfaction, or something else. That kind of insight helps you focus improvements in the right places and even adjust your positioning to highlight your edge.

Simple but powerful, Visualping monitors changes on any competitor’s website. If they drop a new product, publish a new blog or press release, shift their message, or update pricing, you’ll be among the first to know about it. You can see exactly what changed and when, without the manual effort.

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