Listening beyond sentiment: AI, cultural signals and the power of owned authority

Most companies miss up to 60% of the available data on their own business - and even more when it comes to competitors and industry trends. But Ross Candido, Meltwater’s vice-president for ANZ and SEA, says that gap is finally closing.

In 2025, Candido says it’s not just about listening for sentiment, it’s about using AI to find the cultural shifts, emerging voices and competitive opportunities that can transform a brand’s strategy.

“If you’re only looking at what’s happening inside your immediate dashboard, you’re missing the view out the windscreen,” Candido told Marketing-Interactive from the agency’s Sydney office. “That’s where the opportunities live.”

SEE MORE: Meltwater launches GenAI Lens in Australia

Candido sees AI not as the bogeyman of marketing jobs, but as the collaborator that lets smaller, skilled teams work at the scale – and with the precision – of much larger ones.

“If you hired 10 great people and had technology working with them, you could grow your organisation without losing quality,” he said. “The skills and competency still matter, AI just lets you sharpen them and multiply the impact.”

This approach reframes AI from a threat to a multiplier. In his view, CMOs who adopt it early can increase output without diluting brand voice, particularly when AI tools are embedded into workflows rather than bolted on as novelty.

From haystack to sharpened needle

Historically, access to data hasn’t guaranteed insight. Without data science expertise, vast datasets were more overwhelming than enlightening.

“We’ve always had the most data in our space,” Candido said. “The challenge for a lot of buyers was, ‘How do I find the one thing that matters to me in all this?’”

Meltwater’s answer is Mira Studio – AI designed to let marketers ask questions in natural language and get structured, context-rich answers. That might mean surfacing the correlation between a TikTok trend and product sales, identifying niche journalists who write about sustainability in energy, or mapping out the cultural associations of a brand ingredient.

“You don’t need to be a Boolean expert anymore. You can just ask, ‘Find me where our competitors are being mentioned alongside emerging product trends in Asia,’ and the AI will do the heavy lifting,” he said.

Listening deeper than sentiment

Candido is clear: the listening brief in 2025 goes beyond tracking brand mentions and net sentiment scores.

“Sentiment is still useful, but it’s the start of the conversation, not the end,” he said. “What’s far more valuable is uncovering the cultural signals, community conversations, and competitive moves that others miss – and doing it fast enough to act.”

He points to sectors like beauty, where social chatter about ingredients often precedes mainstream adoption, and to FMCG brands adapting products for local markets based on subtle cultural cues.

“That’s deep listening – it’s about showing your audience you’re paying attention to what matters to them, not just what matters to you.”

To illustrate, Candido draws on Meltwater’s analysis of this year’s federal election. Data showed Anthony Albanese posting less frequently than Peter Dutton but achieving far higher engagement per post, while sticking consistently to healthcare and cost-of-living themes.

“Don’t let the tail wag the dog,” Candido said. “Dutton pivoted too often, and that erodes trust. It’s the same for brands – you can adapt tactically, but your core themes have to stay intact.”

Owned authority in a noisy world

Candido argues that in an era where misinformation travels four times faster than truth, marketers must think beyond campaigns and into personal credibility.

“If an influencer goes off the rails it can be highly damaging. Even if you have really good research, you've given this ambassador real power within your organisation. If they go off the rails, that can be very damaging for your brand – and if you're publicly listed, it could be materially and financially very damaging,” he said.

That risk is amplified by the plummeting cost of misinformation. “In the past if you wanted to do a cyber intrusion and attack another organisation, you would need highly skilled individuals that would be very expensive to acquire. Now that costs you $10 and there’s an AI bot on the dark web that can create a phishing scam for you,” he noted. “The cost of generating misinformation and creating false narratives is very, very cheap, so you need strong owned authority within your organisation, so that if something does happen – they can be the voice.”

For Candido, the benchmark example is AirAsia’s crisis response to the 2014 crash of Flight QZ8501. Then-CEO Tony Fernandes had already built strong personal authority and took control of communications.

“Instead of everything going through AirAsia’s official channels, all the up-to-date information to both families, the media and the public came directly from his social channels,” he said. “He didn’t hide anything. He was posting in real time, he was very active, and he came across as an individual who owned the situation – working as hard as he could to get information to everybody, while being empathetic and compassionate to the families of those affected.”

Candido contrasted that with the more measured – and, in hindsight, criticised – response of Malaysia Airlines during its own crisis, showing how leadership’s ability to speak with authority can shape brand perception long after the event.

Influencers and trust

Meltwater’s influence-discovery tools are also showing a shift in how brands work with creators. Instead of brief campaign bursts, more are building long-term ambassador relationships, backed by active-audience verification.

“Micro and nano influencers are incredibly effective at the bottom of the funnel,” Candido said. “They’re trusted, relatable and they convert. Celebrities still have their place, they’re great for top-of-funnel awareness, but if you want sales, the smaller voices often have more pull.”

But audience quality, he says, is non-negotiable. “If your influencer has a million followers but only 3% are active and authentic, you’re wasting your money.”

Workflow as a growth lever

For Candido, the real AI advantage is in re-engineering workflows. Meltwater’s tools can compress an earned-media process, from ideation and data mining to journalist targeting and tailored outreach, from eight hours to two.

If AI can take away the repetitive work, you can spend more time on strategy, creativity and leadership. That’s where the real growth happens.

Through Meltwater’s partnership with Microsoft, those capabilities are now available inside Teams, allowing marketers to pull sentiment reports or competitor insights without switching platforms.

“It’s about meeting marketers where they already are,” he said. “If you can combine Microsoft’s view of your internal world with our view of the external world, the quality of insight you can generate is extraordinary.”

Candido closes with a reminder that AI is only as valuable as the people using it.

“AI isn’t going to take your job, but someone using AI will,” he said. “Learn the tools, but don’t outsource your critical thinking. The best marketers will combine AI’s speed and reach with their own judgement, creativity and values.”