AUGUST 27, 2025
When Research
Becomes the Roadblock
Advertising teams today have no shortage of information. Competitor moves, customer behaviors, industry trends — it can be endless. The catch? Digging through all that data takes so much time that marketers struggle to actually get to the strategy part of the job.
The Domino Effect
The days disappear into deep dives
Campaigns slow
Opportunities are missed
Insights get stale
Teams will not be proactive
Strategy becomes an afterthought, not the main event.
The Question:
What if research didn’t drain time – but fueled strategy?
The Approach
That’s the challenge West Cary Group set out to solve. Mike Benjamin, our VP of Experience Design, knew from firsthand experience how much time secondary research can drain. So he built a custom GPT to:
Solve the workflow bottleneck
Take the legwork out of marketing
Keep it precise, not bloated
Make it a sidekick, not a replacement
Give marketers the time for higher-value thinking.
The Solution
Enter the Marketing Research and Competitive Analysis GPT — a tool built with a very specific purpose: to streamline the messy, repetitive parts of research. Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, it zeros in on competitor mapping, trend analysis, audience profiling, and go-to-market planning. And unlike generic GPTs, it’s human-centered — tuned for marketing workflows so it delivers usable insights.
The results spoke for themselves. The GPT:
• Shot up to the #2 spot in the ChatGPT Store’s research category
• Was featured by OpenAI twice
• Has been used 1M+ times
I ran the same project in Perplexity, Claude, and Grok. I’m still waiting on them. Done marvelously here. Better than I could have imagined on my own.
– Doug
Thank you so much for your help!!! The confidence and focus that you’ve provided to me has really given me a road map to use to focus my activities. I actually see a light at the end of my tunnel.
– Sheila
The Impact
Time Returned
What started as a productivity solution turned into a breakthrough tool. Teams suddenly had hours back in their day to do what really matters.
Strategy Unleashed
Now, marketers are free to focus on big moves while AI handles the heavy lifting.
A Milestone Moment
The tool was acquired by a global digital tech leader — a landmark moment for agency-built AI.
The Takeaway
AI doesn’t have to replace marketers; it sharpens their edge. When it’s built with precision, it becomes the ultimate sidekick — clearing the clutter so people can focus on the bold ideas.
Bring us your business challenge.
We’ll turn it into progress.