AI Insiders with Jill Axline on Speed With Receipts: A Skeptic’s Guide to Synthetic Audiences in Marketing
Welcome to AI Insiders, the exclusive weekly virtual series hosted by the AI Marketers Guild. Designed to connect, inspire, and elevate professionals in the AI marketing landscape, our sessions feature thought-provoking discussions, unparalleled networking opportunities, and insights from guest speakers at the forefront of technology and marketing.
This week speaker:
Jill Axline, Co-Founder & CEO, Mavera
Topic: Speed With Receipts: A Skeptic’s Guide to Synthetic Audiences in Marketing
If you’ve played with AI “personas” and mostly gotten fluffy answers, this session is for you. Jill Axline, PhD, built a traditional market research team before she ever touched synthetic audiences — and she came to Mavera as a skeptic, not a founder. Now, as CEO, she uses synthetic audiences to help teams move faster with proof: pre‑testing creative, messaging, and UX so fewer bad ideas ever make it to paid media.
In this AI Marketers Guild conversation, Jill will share a practical, data-backed guide to synthetic audiences: what they actually are, how they differ from off-the-shelf ChatGPT personas, and where they do not replace real panels or live traffic. She’ll walk through evidence from Mavera’s Harvard/Illinois OASIS benchmark, which shows its personas matching human emotional responses far more closely than generic LLMs — especially on high‑stakes, distressing content — and how teams are using that calibration to cut research time and lift conversion.
You’ll leave with a clear framework for “speed with receipts”: how to use synthetic audiences to widen your hypothesis set, kill obvious losers, and design smarter first‑round tests, while keeping final decisions grounded in real‑world behavior and results.
Why You Should Attend:
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Who Should Attend
AI Marketing Professionals
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Marketing Executives
Entrepreneurs in Tech and Marketing
Join us every week to stay ahead of the curve, learn from the best in the industry, and build meaningful connections in the AI marketing community.
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Past speakers we've had include:
10/18/23: Gary Kibel of Davis+Gilbert discussing legal issues around AI ads
10/25/23: Matt Cross of Harvest Chocolates sharing ideas on incorporating AI into his business
11/1/23: Judy Shapiro, CEO, Topic Intelligence & engagesimply on The AI Trust Gap
11/8/23: Paul Greenberg on using AI for video creation
11/15/23: Dana Hork of Beers with Friends and MK Luff on AI tools and processes that help run agencies
11/29/23: Michelle Vincent, CEO, Mofilm
12/13/23: Tameka Kee, Ad Futurist on what marketers should expect from AI in 2024
1/24/24: Paul Chaney and Kristina Martin, AI Marketing Ethics on... AI Marketing Ethics
2/7/24: Donnovan Andrews, Global Consulting Principal - AI, Ogilvy Consulting
2/14/24: Ian Forrester and Stephanie Blair, DAIVID on Super Bowl ad rankings
2/28/24: Vanessa Camones, CMO, Helm.ai
4/3/24: Matt Britton, CEO, Suzy on using AI to unleash the power of research
4/10/24: Iain Thomas, Co-Founder, Sounds Fun on Culture & Technology: Storytelling Through Innovation
4/17/24: Lan Phan, CEO, Community of Seven on Learning in the Age of AI
5/22/24: Elaine Zelby, Co-Founder & CRO, Tofu on using AI in GTM workflows
5/29/24: Catharine Montgomery, Founder & CEO, Better Together on combatting bias in AI
6/12/24: Debra Aho Williamson, Chief Analyst, Sonata Insights on AI trends
6/26/24: Judah Phillips, CEO, SmartCurrent on AI analytics
8/14/24: Brooke Smarsh, Founder & Senior Counsel, Brass Law PLLC
8/21/24: Clive Henry, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Adobe, and Marc Maleh, Global CTO, Huge
9/4/24: Peter Kraus, Chief Executive Officer, Rellify
9/11/24: Lou Kerner, Founder, CryptoOracle Collective
9/18/24: Abtin Buergari, CEO, Blueprint on leveraging AI for ad campaigns
9/25/24: Josh Bowen, cofounder of BigCo, Chaz Flexman, cofounder of Starday, and Ethan Fassett, cofounder of Glystn
10/30/24: Francesca Tabor, AI Solutions Architect, on Enriching CDPs Ethically with Bidirectional Conversational AI
11/06/24: Jack Smyth of Jellyfish + Brandtech Group on why "Share of Model" is the new marketing metric we need
11/13/24: callmejz.ai on how and why to build your own AI
11/20/24: Andrew Mao on AI-personalized learning that makes leveling up at real life just like a game
12/4/24: Jeremiah Owyang, Venture Capital Investor at Blitzscaling Ventures
1/15/25: Pete Pachal, Founder of The Media Copilot
1/22/25: Tiffany Vasilchik and Estelle Shepherd, Co-Founders at Hot Cognition on Stand Out, Be Seen, Make Connections: The AI Edge in Modern Marketing
1/29/25: Kate O'Neill, Founder & Chief Tech Humanist, KO Insights will talk about How Marketers Can Make Human-Friendly Tech Decisions with AI.
2/5/25: Sree Sreenivasan, CEO of Digimentors, on emerging trends in Generative AI and actionable strategies for leveraging its transformative potential.
2/12/25: Shiv Singh, Author of Marketing with AI for Dummies
2/26/25: Jen Wirt, Founder & CEO of Coral Care, and Brett Martin, General Partner at Charge Ventures and Co-founder of Fonzi AI, for an insightful discussion on leveraging AI in the hiring process.
3/5/25: Alisha Rappaport, Global Head of Credit Solutions at S&P Global
3/12/25: Kevin Wassong, Founder & CEO at mktg.ai on Using AI to Measure Creative Success
3/19/25: Jack Myers, Executive Coach, on Harmonizing Innovation and Human Creativity in the AI Era
3/26/25: David Passiak, Founder at CreatorPro on AI Readiness for Marketers: Preparing for the Next Wave
4/2/25: Rishad Tobaccowala, Author, Rethinking Work & Former Chief Strategist and Growth Officer Publicis Groupe on "Rethinking Work" in the Age of AI
4/16/25: Céline Udriot, Chief Operating Officer at Largo.AI on Simulated Audiences & the Future of AI-Powered Insights
4/23/25: Erin Reilly, Texas Immersive Institute on LLM Control Room: Mastering Prompts, Parameters & Personalization
4/30/25: Matt Britton, Author of Generation AI and Founder of Suzy is giving exclusive access to his latest book!
5/7/25: Adam Kleinberg, CEO, Traction. How Traction’s Futureproof Project and Futureproof Films use AI to streamline brand content creation
5/14/25: Dr. Karen Sutherland, Director of Dharana Digital. From AI Agents to Artificial Superintelligence: What's Next for Strategic Communication?
5/21/25: AIMG Town Hall & Ad Tech AMA w/Ari Paparo CEO of Marketecture Media
5/28/25: Earle Richards, Founder & CEO, Earle & Co. Consulting on "How to Hire AI". You're not building a tool. You're building your team.
6/4/25: Chris Heuer, Managing Director, Team Flow Institute on Personal Intelligence and Artificial Employees
6/11/25: Max Cammarota, Director at Beeby Clark + Meyler on The VENTAS AI creative workflow model for agencies.
6/18/25: Jeremy Kagan & Portfolio, Managing Partner at Textbook Ventures on Textbook Ventures Demo Day
6/25/25: Drew Moffitt, Head Marketing Human at Fonzi.AI on How to Optimize Content for GEO
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7/16: Jordan Elkind, Managing Director at Blue Seedling on- Why most B2B AI startups fail at positioning – and how to beat the odds
7/23: Cheryl Ingle, Social & Email Marketing Lead at Ruby Digital
7/30: Bill Lederer, CEO at MADTECH.AI, on AI's Role in Marketing Decision Intelligence
8/6: Nir Eisikovits, Professor of Philosophy and Director, Applied Ethics Center at UMass Boston on Your Chatbot is a Flunky: The Trouble with AI Sycophancy
8/13: Catharine Montgomery, Founder & CEO at Better Together Agency on Generative AI: Bias, Trust, and Brand Advantage
8/27: James Lamberti, Head of Go-to-Market at Georgian
9/10: Thomas Peham, CEO & Co-Founder at Otterly.ai on AI Search 2025: How to Get Found in a Bot-First World
9/24: Alexander Liss, VP, Data Science & AI at Huge Todd Sawicki, CEO/Co-Founder at Gumshoe AI on The Future of Websites in the Age of AI
10/01: Dr. Cecilia Dones - Founder, Chief Data Officer at 3 Standard Deviations on What's Real in AI Marketing?
10/8: Idil Cakim, Founder at Iris Flex on The AI Time Trade: Deep Work or LOL?
10/15: Michael Kingston, CEO at Seeda
10/22: Ian Forrester, CEO at DAIVID on AI-Powered Creative Data: The Rosetta Stone to Unlock Strategy & Media Performance
10/29: Melinda Han Williams, Chief Data Scientist, Dstillery on Build Your Own AI Agent: A Hands-On Workshop
11/5: Jeff Sundheim, AI Business Strategist & Creative Solutions Lead at Google on AI as your Business Multiplier: Demystifying AI tools and strategies for real-world marketing success
11/12: Colin Jeavons, Founder & CEO at Shopnomix