MMC’s new AI-based cultural intelligence initiative analyzes how major language models interpret consumer conversation around the moments that move culture

For years, brands have relied on market research tools to understand culture and audience taste. Surveys, focus groups, social listening, and earned media audits are still vital, but recent advancements in AI provide a whole new way to understand cultural trends. LLMs like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and others are now shaping how people search, ask, compare, decide, and understand the world around them. For better or worse, “Hey Claude, can you explain this?” is the new normal.

MMC’s WEATHERVaiNE, a new AI-based cultural intelligence initiative, is designed to arm our agency with a new way to identify signals about shifting consumer behavior. We can now analyze hundreds of thousands of LLM responses around major cultural moments to reveal insights about the direction the winds of consumer taste are blowing.

How WEATHERVaiNE Works

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By now, most people know that AI systems don’t just retrieve information but rather synthesize and distill it down to help us figure out patterns we may not be able to see on our own. We believe understanding how AI interprets culture is now essential to understanding the heart, minds, and gut instincts that drive everyday consumer behavior of Americans.

WEATHERVaiNE uses a proprietary method that combines expert human insight and strategically directed AI prompting across the most prominent LLMs at scale. Our human-led, AI-enabled team analyzes answers to key questions across hundreds of thousands of prompts around tentpole cultural moments. Instead of looking at individual posts, survey responses, headlines, or search trends, WEATHERVaiNE instead studies how AI platforms themselves understand the broader conversation.

Turning Tentpole Moments into Cultural Signals

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Major cultural moments spark reactions and conversation across everyday American’s social feeds, news coverage, influencer content, and group chats. From World Cup matches to awards show performances, Thanksgiving traditions to Met Gala arrivals, every resonant cultural moment now sparks a tsunami of commentary and hot takes. MMC’s WEATHERVaiNE uses these moments as, well, a weathervane directing us to cultural signals and patterns that emerge from these moments. The insights that emerge can help keep brands in the hearts and minds of consumers.

A World Cup Launch and Looking Ahead

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As a global sports event with enormous emotional resonance, the World Cup offers a rich testing ground for understanding how AI systems interpret large-scale consumer attention, fandom, identity, allegiance, entertainment, sponsorship, and shared experiences. We built WEATHERVaiNE to answer a critical question for brands:

What do major cultural moments reveal about where consumers are moving next?

‍Our goal is to help our clients see where culture is moving before the shifts become mainstream.

We’re kicking off with the World Cup to go big and learn big.  Throughout the tournament we’ll share WEATHERVaiNE’s predictions, updates on what trends and moments are resonating throughout the tournament, culminating in a final wrap report translating the findings into a broader cultural intelligence narrative that brands can use to inform their PR and content strategy.

From there, WEATHERVaiNE can extend into other high-attention moments across sports, entertainment, shopping, technology, and Americana, from the Oscars and the 100th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade to holiday shopping, the next breakout binge watch, the Super Bowl, SXSW, awards season, and beyond.

This is just the beginning of what we believe will provide a new way to harness AI as the ultimate tool for surfacing patterns in consumer taste.