Agencies! You better find Waldo and do it fast!

I recently had a great conversation with Justin Wohlstadter , founder of Waldo to learn more about how this company is innovating a unique and timely approach to agency research.

Let's dig in a bit more.

"Most tools treat research like a data problem," Justin explained. "But agencies don't need more data. They need better ways to turn that data into winning outcomes." strategies."

Justin's background makes the difference: "The last company I built is an on-demand research company called Wonder (askwonder). We spent a decade doing millions of hours of desk research for all the top agencies and consulting firms... We built software tools to make our researchers superhuman at research."

THE REAL AGENCY PROBLEMS:

Every agency leader knows the scene: Your strategist is buried in 47 open browser tabs, racing to pull insights for tomorrow's pitch. Down the hall, your research team cross-checks data from six platforms while fielding "urgent" client requests for real-time competitive intel.

Someone's questioning whether that killer stat from ChatGPT is actually real, and legal just flagged concerns about data privacy regulations - again. This is modern agency life - teams have more data than ever but less time to understand everything. They're juggling expensive subscriptions they barely use, while clients demand deeper insights faster than any human can reasonably deliver.

The real punch in the gut? Your best strategic minds spend most of their time not on breakthrough thinking but on mind-numbing data verification and source checking. It's a perfect storm where more information has somehow led to less insight, and agencies feel the squeeze from every direction.

• Research teams are drowning in data, starving for insights
• Quality control nightmares during pitch deadlines
• Clients demanding real-time market intelligence
• Rising privacy regulations making data access harder
• Hours wasted verifying AI-generated research

WHAT MAKES WALDO UNIQUE:

Most AI research tools scrape the surface web and call it a day. Waldo takes a radically different approach. Built by agency veterans like Justin who spent years doing deep research for global brands, they've created an intelligence platform that taps into an unprecedented range of data sources - from social media firehoses to premium research tools.

But it's not just about data access. Waldo combines these rich data streams with agency-built workflows and enterprise-grade security, turning what used to be weeks of research into powerful insights delivered in seconds.

Here's how they're reshaping agency research:

1. Unmatched Data Sources "There's only so much that a quick web search with five sources will get you," Justin emphasized. "The first thing we focus on at Waldo is how to get you the most amazing data."

Their approach includes:

• Native social platform integrations: "Even if you don't have a social listening tool, we can pull from Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok... for amazing social sentiment and brand context"
• Social ad library access: "We can pull a competitive analysis of all your competitors' ads, look at what's running... see if all the ads have pictures of small children in them, and identify space for you to work"
• Premium research integration: "If you subscribe to Marketer, Porcifactory, MRI, GWI... Waldo can effectively use them on your behalf."

1. Agency-Built Intelligence "We have multiple amazing ex-strategists on our team who have basically built their dream tool," Justin shared. This includes:

• 50+ strategic workflows: "Everything from the 4Cs, brand audits, culture trends scans, to category thought leadership"
• Parallel processing: "Each task runs independently but can pass information between each other"
• Custom templates: "With no code and no team, you can build your own brand audit or engagement metric dashboard"

1. Enterprise-Grade Security On data security: "We've passed security reviews at all the major holdcos... everything is totally firewalled into your own environment. We don't train our own models, so there's no fear of something you input being used to train something on the other side."

COMING SOON:

"We've mapped out the whole creative strategy process. Waldo will walk through clarifying a creative brief, identifying the consumer, creating a strategy, and validating the strategy... You can hop in, grab the wheel, and drive wherever you want."

PRICING:

The results speak for themselves:

• Cut pitch research time from 40 hours to 15
• Spotted major market opportunities others missed
• Increased pitch win rate by 30%
• Teams now spend 70% time on strategy vs. data gathering

As Justin said, "You can go to ChatGPT or Anthropic and ask for a four Cs of Nike - sure, but it will give you a paragraph. If you had an excellent strategist, it would be a multi-day, maybe multi-week process where they'll look at much different stuff from different data providers... We have automated those processes, and we can do them in seconds."

After seeing it in action, I can't imagine returning to traditional research methods. I'm happy to share specific examples of how we use it - DM me if interested.

#AgencyLife #MarketResearch #Innovation #Strategy