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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

Industry leaders predict that 2026 marketing will be transformed by multi-modal content, coordinated narrative intelligence, AI-based reputation monitoring, authenticity-driven video, and the rise of generative engine optimization (GEO). In this article, industry experts from Haleon, Cyabra, NCBA, the Orange County Fire Authority, Havas Red, and Converseon highlight the shift from traditional search and static campaigns to AI-shaped storytelling and high-fidelity data infrastructure. 

Marketers must prepare for a landscape where AI engines influence consumer perception, misinformation spreads faster, and human-centered stories carry more weight than polished creative.

1. Multi-Modal Social Content Will Surpass Text

2. Detecting Coordinated Disinformation Will Be a Competitive Advantage

3. AI Monitoring Becomes a Core Comms Discipline

4. The Rise of Authentic, Human-Centered Short-Form Video Storytelling

5. GEO: Generative Engine Optimization Becomes a Must-Have Strategy

6. Data Quality Becomes the Foundation of AI-Driven Marketing

Summary: The Five Marketing Truths of 2026

Marketing in 2026 will be defined by AI-shaped reputation, multi-modal content dominance, narrative intelligence, and authentic short-form video. As generative engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews become primary gateways for consumer discovery, brands must rethink how stories are told, monitored, and safeguarded.

Industry leaders from Haleon, Cyabra, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the Orange County Fire Authority, Havas Red, and Converseon shared their predictions. Across perspectives, one theme is clear: 2026 is the year marketing shifts from reactive storytelling to proactive, AI-informed narrative management.

This blog summarizes their insights to help marketing, communications, and PR teams prepare for the year ahead.

1. Multi-Modal Social Content Will Surpass Text 

Prediction from Danny Gardner, Social Intelligence Lead, Haleon

Brands have already seen a surge in video-led engagement—but in 2026, that evolution accelerates dramatically.

“I believe we'll see this in both UGC, and organic owned social, from brands who intentionally lean into multi-modal content, for example, Instagram carousels or the TikTok equivalent. Maybe three times as many consumers and users are driven by social apps to express their creativity through multi-modal content creation.”

Multi-format content (IG carousels, TikTok multi-clips, sonic branding, mixed-media UGC) becomes essential, not optional.

Marketers must treat multi-modal listening as a core analytic discipline.

Brands should prepare for richness: visuals, audio, text overlays, and socially-native editing trends.

GenAI systems increasingly surface video-derived insights, especially when tied to trending entities or emotionally rich moments. Brands with multi-modal presence are more likely to appear in AI-summaries of what consumers are saying.

Learn how Haleon gains valuable customer insights using Meltwater. 

Prediction from Dan Brahmy, CEO & Co-Founder, Cyabra

AI-scaled misinformation will shape 2026 more dramatically than any previous year.

“By 2026, monitoring narratives alone won’t protect brands…AI has made it effortless to generate deepfakes, synthetic visuals, and convincing text at scale. Combined with bot networks, this means anyone can orchestrate sophisticated disinformation campaigns capable of undermining a brand’s reputation within hours.”

“The real challenge…is understanding the whole ecosystem: who is behind it, how it spreads, and where text, visuals, identities, and networks intersect.”

Basic monitoring is no longer enough; narrative + network + coordination intelligence is the new standard.

Reputation protection moves from observation to early threat detection and pattern analysis.

Marketers must build partnerships with cybersecurity, risk, and intelligence teams.

LLMs increasingly pick up on synthetic narratives. If brands don’t monitor coordinated manipulation, those narratives may surface in AI summaries before teams even detect them.

3. AI Monitoring is Now a Core Comms Discipline

Prediction from Will Swope, Associate Director, Issues Management & Monitoring, NCBA

Swope notes a major shift in where conversations happen, and who’s generating them:

“Billions of conversations are taking place each day with chatbots…Organizations will need to learn to spot and react to information from AI sources the same way they had to learn new ways of dealing with issues on social media platforms.”

“The speed at which AI adaptation is taking place will force this to become a priority in 2026, and Meltwater’s GenAI Lens will be one of the tools necessary to monitor this new technology.”

AI conversations now matter as much as human ones.

“What AI is saying about you” becomes a board-level KPI.

AI-source monitoring should be integrated into media intelligence workflows.

AI engines are now content creators and distributors, so monitoring them is no longer optional.

Discover how AI sees your brand, by using one of the best LLM tracking tools. 

Prediction from Greg Barta, Public Information Officer, Orange County Fire Authority

Audiences are burned out on overproduced brand content. In 2026, authenticity wins.

“Audiences are tuning out polished, overly produced content and responding instead to genuine, relatable moments…Organizations that empower their teams and spokespeople to tell human-centered stories…will see stronger engagement and trust.”

Behind-the-scenes content becomes a trust engine.

Authentic voices outperform perfect visuals.

Short-form video is now the primary storytelling format across TikTok, Reels, and YouTube Shorts.

LLMs tend to elevate content featuring clear storytelling, human language, and emotional cues, making authentic content more likely to appear in AI summaries.

5. GEO: Generative Engine Optimization is a Must-Have Strategy

Prediction from Melanie Klausner, EVP Consumer, Havas Red

“In 2026, brand reputation will be increasingly shaped not by what people search for, but by what AI answers. As generative engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and SearchGPT become the default gateways to information, PR and earned media will evolve into strategic inputs for AI training data.”

Every press release, blog post, interview, and dataset becomes AI-indexed reputation infrastructure.

Teams must tailor narratives for the generative ecosystem, not just search.

Media outlets must become “algorithmically credible” or risk omission.

This aligns with how Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and ChatGPT retrieve information: structured, factual, authoritative content wins.

6. Data Quality is Foundational for AI-Driven Marketing

Prediction from Rob Key, Founder & CEO, Converseon

As brands rush to adopt agentic AI, the overlooked risk is data quality.

“‘Is your data AI and research ready?’ is going to be a common refrain in 2026…The quality of insights and responsible use of agentic AI is directly related to underlying data quality issues.”

“New model governance systems…new NLP models like attitudes that go beyond basic sentiment…ways to measure ‘trust’…and predictive reputation and brand intelligence.”

Organizations must invest in data governance now.

Richer metadata, cleaner classification, and advanced modeling become competitive advantages.

AI hallucinations can be avoided with enterprise-grade data pipelines.

LLMs surface the cleanest, most coherent data they can find. If a brand’s data is noisy or inaccurate, AI engines may misrepresent it at scale.

Across these expert predictions, five themes stand out:

Multi-modal content dominates - video 2–3x more prevalent than text.

Coordinated deception grows - brands must detect networked misinformation.

AI monitoring becomes essential - AI is now a top-tier conversation source.

Authenticity beats polish - human, relatable storytelling drives trust.

GEO replaces SEO - AI citations, not search queries, shape brand reputation.

Audit “what AI says about you” across major LLMs.

Shift content strategy toward multi-modal, human-centered storytelling.

Strengthen narrative intelligence and early threat detection.

Prioritize authoritative, structured content designed for machine citation.

Marketing Trends 2026: What Industry Leaders Predict

When it comes to brand building, many food and beverage companies face the unique challenges in selling consumable products. Unlike reusable or multi-use products, wrappers get trashed, cups get recycled, and food gets eaten, reducing the amount of time available to create emotional connections and build exposure. That’s one reason some F&B brands start offering something with a bit more staying power: branded merchandise.
Merch is a way for food and beverage brands to nurture loyalty between moments of consumption. And while the concept of F&B swag isn’t new, Starbucks and Trader Joe’s achieved notable virality with each of theirs in 2025. Together, the tale of two merch lines — the Starbucks Bearista Cold Cups and the Trader Joe’s Canvas Tote Bags — can offer lessons for marketers about building excitement around brands. 

So, what can these viral merch moments of 2025 teach us about building brand affinity in the years ahead? We used Explore+ — Meltwater’s enterprise-grade media, social, and consumer intelligence solution — to find out.

Trader Joe’s Tote vs. Starbucks Bearista Cold Cup: How food and beverage merch goes viral

Our analysis of mentions across more than a dozen sources shows that the Trader Joe’s Tote bag and the Starbucks Bear Cup make up two sides of the same viral merch coin.

On one side, the Trader Joe’s Tote entered 2025 with existing buzz after having already gone viral with the release of mini versions of the bag in February 2024. The drop brought a surge of new attention to the US grocery chain’s canvas bags, first introduced in 1977. Media outlets like The New York Times, Business Insider, Vogue and BBC chronicled the tote’s rise to status symbol, particularly outside the US where there are no Trader Joe’s locations. It’s safe to say 2024 was the TJ’s tote’s big year, but interestingly the buzz around it has continued. 

In April 2025, there were about 7.3x more mentions of the bag than in the previous month, thanks to the drop of a limited-edition, pastel collection. Mentions spiked again, though to a lesser magnitude, in October with the release of another limited-edition collection, this time for Halloween. The food retailer’s ability to capitalize on virality — and meet its audience’s established love for limited-edition items — kept it in the wider cultural conversation longer than other affordable viral products, like, say, the Wirkin.

This New York Times Style Instagram post featuring a Trader Joe’s tote bag generated over $200,000 in Estimated Media Value according to Klear, Meltwater’s influencer intelligence solution.

On the flipside, the Starbucks Bearista Cold Cup emerged with a bang when it was released in early November. Mentions surpassed 12,000 by the end of the month as consumers discussed both the cup and the hype surrounding its release. 

Overall, the Trader Joe’s tote bag still had slightly more buzz, generating about 14,100 mentions from January to November 2025, compared to the Bearista’s 13,500. Not bad for a company with a much smaller footprint. (Note: The Bearista cup launched in the US and Canada this year, while Trader Joe’s is only located in the US.) However, in just over three weeks, the bear-shaped cup generated as much conversation as the canvas tote did all year, making it the king of F&B merch for 2025.

In the end, both Starbucks and Trader Joe’s are winning big in terms of visibility thanks to their affordable, collectible, culturally expressive, and coveted merch lines. And for Trader Joe’s in particular, viral merch has been key to propelling the American grocery store to global prominence. Other smaller or local F&B brands take note. 

Though instant virality is something many brands aspire to, it can come with controversy. That risk begs the question of which is better for brand affinity: the slow burn or the flash fire? We used Explore+ to analyze the sentiment of the Trader Joe’s Tote and Starbucks Bearista Cold Cup conversations to learn more. 

Our analysis found that nearly a third of all mentions of the Trader Joe’s bag were positive from January 1 to November 30, 2025. Top keywords included those focused on the bag itself, such as “new colors” and “long strap”. 

The conversation around Starbucks’s viral drinking vessel wasn’t quite as rosy. About a third of mentions of the bear cup were negative from January 1 to November 30, 2025. Top keywords like “chaos,” “fights,” and “crowd rush” highlight how much of the conversation focused on the frenzy around the merch drop. Complaints about limited stock, long lines, and even fights among customers largely overshadowed discussion about the item at the center of it all.

At least in the case of the chic tote vs. the cute cup, the slow burn seems to have resulted in more favorable sentiment for Trader Joe’s, a signal of strong brand affinity. For marketers, the lesson here is that discussion volume is only the tip of the iceberg. Digging into the emotional contours of the conversation via sentiment and keyword analyses can help brands deepen their understanding of consumer preferences and demands.

What marketers can learn from the buzz around viral food and beverage merch

For F&B marketers—and any brand looking to build loyalty—viral merch offers a powerful way to extend brand awareness and emotional connection beyond the product itself. The Trader Joe’s tote demonstrates that the right item meeting the cultural moment at just the right time can spark valuable conversations, even in markets you don’t physically serve. On the other hand, the Starbucks cup was overshadowed by the frenzy around the launch. Stronger social intelligence could have identified those early warning signals and adapted the rollout with preventive mechanisms.

At the end of the day, knowing your audience and anticipating how they might react to a campaign is key. It’s important to tailor a campaign to the audience and actively monitor how it performs so adjustments can be made in real time. When all goes well, fans will drive favorable brand storytelling on social media — leveraging and building on that value in the long term calls for diving deeper into the data for insights that can drive future brand strategies.

FAQ: Viral Food & Beverage Merch and Brand Building

Why is branded merchandise important for food and beverage companies?
Branded merchandise lets F&B companies extend brand awareness and emotional connection beyond moments of consumption. Unlike consumable products, merch like Trader Joe’s Canvas Tote or Starbucks Bearista Cold Cup last longer, offering fans a tangible connection to your brand and boosting loyalty even in markets where your stores aren’t present.

How can F&B merch go viral?
Virality occurs when a product meets the cultural moment and resonates visually and emotionally with fans. Limited-edition drops, collectible designs, and social-shareable items can drive conversations across social media and earned media. For example, the Starbucks Bearista Cold Cup generated massive buzz in just a few weeks, while Trader Joe’s tote leveraged sustained interest over months.

What’s the difference between short-term and long-term virality?
Short-term, “flash fire” virality creates instant attention but can lead to polarized sentiment or operational challenges. Long-term, “slow burn” virality builds consistent positive sentiment, strengthens brand affinity, and allows smaller brands to punch above their weight. Trader Joe’s tote demonstrates the value of measured, repeatable drops, whereas Starbucks’ bear cup shows the excitement—and risks—of explosive launches.

How does merch impact brand affinity across different geographic markets?
Viral merch can extend brand reach globally, even in regions without physical stores. Fans become storytellers, sharing experiences online and generating buzz that transcends geographic limitations. Trader Joe’s tote, for example, saw significant mentions internationally despite the chain’s US-only presence.

How can brands measure the success of viral merch?
Success should be measured beyond volume of mentions. Tools like Meltwater’s Explore+ allow brands to track sentiment, keywords, and conversation context, helping marketers understand how buzz affects brand perception, customer sentiment, and loyalty over time.

Can viral merch be used by smaller or local F&B brands?
Yes. Even brands with limited footprints can leverage merch to spark conversations and build cultural relevance. Strategic drops, attention to design, and social amplification can create outsized impact, as Trader Joe’s demonstrates.

Ready to gain a deeper understanding of what gets your audience buzzing? Fill out the form below to test drive Meltwater's suite of social, media, and consumer intelligence solutions. 

Viral Food & Beverage Merch: Lessons from Trader Joe’s & Starbucks

Maintaining a strong public image takes a lot of work. Public relations experts need to capitalize on every opportunity to make their case. Knowing where these opportunities are at all times can help PR pros send the right messages at the right times.

Let’s explore the role of AI in PR and the best AI tools for PR that can help you spread the word.

Top Use Cases of AI Tools for Public Relations Professionals

Choosing the Right Al Tools for Your PR Needs

Public relations has many moving parts, from crafting narratives to analyzing data to engaging with audiences. AI can play a role in all of these. 

AI-driven analytics can also offer deeper insights into how audiences think and act. Technology is bringing us closer to laser-precision messaging. Companies need straightforward ways to tell people what they need to hear at key times, making their PR efforts more effective. 

When you create relevant messages that your audience cares about, you stand to build stronger connections and trust — two cornerstones of an effective PR strategy. With resources increasingly tight and no shortage of competition, AI content creation tools can provide a strategic advantage.

AI tools can make it a lot easier, and more cost effective, to translate various assets, add captions to video, and more. This simple accessibility step brings your company closer to more audiences, allowing interest to grow.

Machine learning algorithms can help PRs sift through large amounts of data quickly, and AI can provide summaries of the data, providing context to help you strategize your next PR move. AI can also be used to summarize internal pieces of content for PR promotion — extracting key points for highlighting to journalists.

Emerging trends and changes in sentiment are often buried in data, so having a real-time way to find these insights and be alerted when changes occur can help PRs stay proactive rather than reactive. 

AI can help streamline your media outreach process by making it easier to personalize and customizing pitches based on a journalists' particular beat, curating media lists, and helping optimize pitch timing. 

TIP: Download our Data-Driven PR Playbook to learn more about AI tools and strategies to help your PR team work smarter.

The best AI tools for PR are subjective, based on your needs and how you prefer to work. This shortlist of tools for PR can give you a jumping-off point as you explore new ways to add AI to your public relations strategy.

Meltwater gives you an all-in-one AI-driven PR platform. It caters to all aspects of the PR machine, from finding journalists, tracking brand awareness, to developing a PR strategy based on sentiment, share of voice, and other data.

Real-time alerts: Be alerted to mentions spikes and get immediate AI-powered analysis and overviews

Sentiment analysis: Get the deeper meaning behind what's driving consumer sentiment

AI-driven summaries: Understand conversation origins, commonalities, and anomalies

GenAI Lens: Gain visibility into how your organization is represented in LLM models

Get in touch to watch a product demo and find out more!

Teams looking for an all-in-one solution that increases efficiency, provides deeper insights and analysis, and the ability to easily share results with stakeholders in newsletters and real-time updated dashboards.

The Meltwater media relations platform lets you be everywhere your audience is, online and offline. Users can access the largest media database of podcasts, publications, reporters, bloggers, and other contacts to help you get the word out. 

Social listening lets you be part of more conversations online, discover trending topics before they blow up, find relevant hashtags, identify potential influencer partners, and even see your status in LLM results.

Released in 2025, Meltwater's GenAI Lens helps you better manage your reputation by allowing you to quickly spot and address inaccuracies in how major LLM models represent your brand or products. It also helps you track sentiment, narrative trend, and competitive positioning over time to inform more targeted PR, media outreach, and content strategies grounded in AI-world intelligence.

GenAI Lens - Your brand, shown through the lens of AI

But none of this data matters if you can’t make quick sense of it. That’s where AI shines brightest, boiling down insights into easy-to-read, easy-to-understand statements. It analyzes the data in human terms, so even if you’re not a data analyst, you’ll know what the data says, why it matters, and what to do next. Mira, the Meltwater AI assistant for PR teams can provide instant PR insights by surfacing trends, monitor brand impact, and respond to media shifts in real time.

Want to see Meltwater's AI-powered PR solutions in action? Click here and fill out the form below to schedule a personalized demo!

"What we value most about Meltwater is its ability to give us a comprehensive, real-time view of our media presence. Their platform allows us to easily track earned media mentions, monitor key conversations through customized keyword searches and social listening, and distribute press releases directly to targeted journalists. The ability to export clear, usable data for campaign, event, and reporting purposes is a major asset for our communications work." (Source)

"There are frequent updates which in one way is good but it also makes you have to relearn where things are." (Source)

Otter.ai is an AI-powered transcription service that can quickly turn any recording into a transcript. PRs can use Otter.ai to transcribe webinars, Zoom meetings, executive calls, and recordings of press conferences or interviews into written text. 

Learns custom vocabulary: save time by training Otter.ai on specific terminology

Calendar connect: schedule meetings for easier collaboration

Real-time transcription: differentiate between different speakers and get useful timestamps for easier reading

Otter.ai offers four different plans that can be billed monthly or annually: Basic (Free), Pro ($16.99/mo), Business ($30/mo), and Enterprise (Custom pricing)

Otter.ai is a powerful tool for PR pros who need to optimize and streamline their daily workflow, saving time during the content development stage means you can publish more content faster and with greater accuracy.  

The Meltwater Blog

Marketing Trends 2026: What Industry Leaders Predict

Viral Food & Beverage Merch: Lessons from Trader Joe’s & Starbucks

Best AI Tools for Public Relations: Complete 2026 Guide

Future of PR Series: Joanna Price (Heineken)

Top Benefits of Influencer Marketing for Brands

The 10 Best Brand Monitoring Tools 2026

AI Press Release Optimization: How To Optimize Press Releases for GEO

The Importance of Earned Media for GEO

How Meltwater Is Transforming Influencer Management for Enterprises and SMBs

How to Measure Press Coverage: Metrics & Tools Guide for 2026

How to Get Media Coverage: Proven PR Strategies

Future of PR Series: Julia Völzke (Rhenus Logistics)