Lickly's AI Aims to Level the Marketing Field for Mid-Market Brands

LOS ANGELES, CA – February 23, 2026 – In a move aimed at disrupting the marketing technology landscape, AI holding company RAD Intel today announced the beta launch of Lickly, a new SaaS platform designed to bring enterprise-level audience intelligence to mid-market companies. The platform enters a fiercely competitive arena with a promise to democratize the sophisticated, real-time analytics traditionally accessible only to corporations with the deepest pockets.

Global advertising spend has now surpassed $1 trillion annually, yet industry estimates suggest over 40% of this staggering sum fails to connect with its intended audience or produce measurable results. For mid-market brands, this inefficiency is a critical vulnerability. Lacking the multi-million dollar budgets required for dedicated data science teams and high-end analytics suites, these companies often find themselves outmaneuvered and outspent by larger rivals.

The Mid-Market's Marketing Dilemma

For years, mid-sized companies have been caught in a technological gap. While large enterprises leverage powerful platforms like Brandwatch, Meltwater, and CreatorIQ—tools that often carry annual price tags exceeding $25,000 to $36,000 and require extensive onboarding—mid-market teams have been left to rely on a patchwork of manual research, static spreadsheets, and more basic, often outdated, creator databases. This fragmented approach is not only time-consuming but ill-suited for the modern digital environment.

Today's consumer culture is not a monolith; it is a complex web of thousands of fast-moving, highly influential micro-communities spread across platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. In these digital spaces, attention is fleeting, and influence shifts rapidly. A marketing strategy built on last quarter's data is a strategy destined to lag behind. This is the core problem Lickly claims to solve. By offering a real-time, AI-powered solution, the company aims to provide boutique and mid-sized teams with the agility to compete in a landscape where speed and cultural relevance are paramount.

An Audience-First Approach

Lickly’s primary differentiator, according to its creators, is its “audience-first” methodology. Unlike traditional influencer platforms that begin with a pre-vetted, static list of creators and work backward, Lickly starts with the target consumer. The platform is designed to first understand the audience a brand needs to reach, then map the specific creators, micro-communities, and content that are actively shaping that audience's opinions and behaviors.

“Two quarters ago, someone ran a great deodorant campaign and everyone copied it,” said Jeremy Barnett, Lickly co-founder and CEO of RAD Intel, in the company's launch announcement. “That’s not strategy, that’s lag. Lickly shows you what the same shopper is into now, what they’re pairing with deodorant, what they’re complaining about, and what they’ll switch for, down to the micro-communities where taste forms. That level of detail is where real positioning comes from.”

This approach aims to eliminate the guesswork that plagues much of creator marketing. Instead of choosing influencers based on follower counts or broad category tags, Lickly promises a continuously refreshed view of which creators are genuinely aligned with a brand's target audience as conversations evolve in real time. This allows marketing teams to spot emerging demand, pressure-test messaging before committing significant budget, and pivot quickly when a cultural moment shifts.

Under the Hood: AI and Micro-Community Intelligence

Lickly is the latest product to emerge from RAD Intel, a Los Angeles-based AI marketing holding company with an ambitious strategy. Backed by multiple Fidelity funds and selected by the prestigious Adobe Design Fund, RAD Intel operates on what it calls an Artificial Intelligence Buyout (AIBO) model. The company acquires and builds technologies, with each new component adding to a single, unified go-to-market intelligence engine. This engine already powers RAD Amplify, the company’s managed services division for enterprise clients.

Lickly extends this same core technology to the mid-market in a self-serve format. The platform is built upon RAD Intel's proprietary “micro-community intelligence,” an AI system that ingests and analyzes billions of data points to identify cultural signals. This includes leveraging the “language intelligence” technology from its 2021 acquisition of Atomic Reach, which helps the system understand how audience behavior manifests in the words people use, share, and trust.

By analyzing these vast datasets, the platform claims to identify the nascent stages of trends and map the intricate social dynamics that determine what becomes popular, providing brands with a predictive edge rather than a reactive report card.

Navigating a Crowded Marketplace

Lickly is not entering an empty field. The marketing technology sector is crowded with platforms vying for marketer attention and budget. It will have to prove its value against a host of established players. On the high end, it competes conceptually with the deep analytics of enterprise suites. In its target mid-market, it faces a range of more accessible tools like Modash, GRIN, and Aspire, which have built strong followings by focusing on creator discovery, e-commerce integration, and campaign management.

Lickly's success will hinge on its ability to demonstrate that its “audience-first,” real-time cultural analysis provides a tangible advantage over these competitors. The challenge is to convince mid-market CMOs that this deeper layer of intelligence is not just a “nice-to-have” but a critical component for driving authentic engagement and measurable ROI. Early feedback from beta testers suggests a positive reception.

“Before Lickly, we relied on manual research to find and manage influencers,” noted Kellee Khalil, CMO of EnergyX, a Lickly beta customer. “Within minutes of onboarding, we had a ranked view of our top performers and a clear set of high-fit creators inside the communities that actually shape our reputation. The depth of real-time audience insight makes it easier to see where trust is strongest and where to lean in.”

Lickly is currently available in a limited beta to select brands and agency partners, with a broader public rollout anticipated for later this year. If the platform can deliver on its promise, it could significantly alter the competitive dynamics of the digital marketplace, providing smaller brands with the powerful intelligence they need to not only keep pace but to lead the conversation.