Julian Highley, EVP of Global Data Science & Product at MarketCast, recently sat down with MarTech Series to talk about the future of advertising intelligence, and what it really takes for brands to stand out in a noisy, data-saturated world.
The message is clear: speed, clarity, and consumer connection are now non-negotiable. But too many “fast” AI tools are missing the mark by sacrificing depth for speed.
“AI shouldn’t replace the voice of the consumer; it should amplify it,” Julian told MarTech Series. “Our goal is to deliver human-accurate insights at the speed of business.”
The State of Advertising Today
Marketers are under immense pressure to prove the ROI of their campaigns faster than ever before. With advertising budgets scrutinized and creative flying across CTV, digital, and social platforms, the need for a unified, trustworthy view of performance has never been greater.
MarketCast’s recent research mirrors this challenge that CMOs want one source of truth, and they need results within 24–72 hours.
Julian’s response to this growing demand: Brand Effect Pro, MarketCast’s next-generation advertising intelligence platform designed to provide next-day, cross-channel insights built on real audience exposure, not proxies or vanity metrics.
Introducing Brand Effect Pro: Faster, Smarter, More Human
Built on MarketCast’s natural exposure methodology and powered by 20,000+ daily audience responses, Brand Effect Pro allows marketers to see what’s really working, and why, across channels.
Within the platform’s Intelligence Hub, data-driven insights are automatically generated to reveal which creatives resonate, where they perform best, and how they stack up against competitors.
It’s not just about measuring awareness; it’s about decoding resonance which is the emotional and cultural connection that drives fandom, loyalty, and ultimately, business growth.
AI That Listens to People
Julian emphasizes that MarketCast’s advantage lies in the fusion of AI, data science, and human feedback.
“Fast AI is great, but not if it loses sight of the real people behind the data,” he says. “We use AI to scale authentic human reactions — not to replace them.”
By training machine learning models on next-day consumer reactions, MarketCast ensures that AI outputs reflect real-world sentiment. This balance between automation and empathy gives marketers the confidence to act decisively without losing what makes their brands human.
Measuring Beyond the Click
As Julian points out, the most successful brands aren’t measuring clicks instead they’re measuring connection.
Competitive benchmarking within Brand Effect Pro helps brands understand whether their ads are outperforming or lagging behind category norms, pinpointing whether creative or channel strategy is the difference-maker.
This shift from “Did it run?” to “Did it resonate?” reflects a deeper evolution happening across the industry: advertising is no longer just about exposure, it’s about emotional engagement.
Why It Matters
At MarketCast, we believe Fandom Comes First™ because understanding how consumers feel about your brand is the ultimate driver of advocacy, loyalty, and sales.
Our AI-powered, human-informed solutions are built to meet today’s marketing demands:
- Speed: Next-day insights to match real-world decision cycles.
- Scale: 20K+ daily survey responses across platforms.
- Clarity: Decades of benchmarks and trusted methodologies.
When speed meets substance, marketers don’t just optimize ads, they build fandom.
Read Julian Highley’s full interview at https://martechseries.com/mts-insights/interviews/martech-interview-with-julian-highley-evp-global-data-science-product-marketcast/
To learn more about how Brand Effect Pro helps marketers understand campaign impact and resonance, contact us: