We didn't reinvent marketing. We fixed what broke.
Sooth closes the gap between how people choose and how marketing works
The way people make decisions has evolved fast—and the speed of change is only accelerating.
But most marketing strategies are still built on what people did last year or last quarter, not what they're about to do. They track behaviors and demographics that influence just 1 in 14 decisions—while ignoring the emotional, practical, and situational needs that actually drive action.
That disconnect has created a performance crisis. Global marketing effectiveness is down more than 70% since 2020.
But for brands paying attention, this is the window to pull ahead—fast.
That's where Sooth comes in —showing you what to do next, before anyone else sees it coming.
Sooth doesn't measure what already happened. It reveals what's about to—by decoding the emotional momentum behind decisions in progress.
If you're waiting for clicks, dashboards, or research panels to tell you what to do, you're already behind.
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Our Mission
"Across categories, across business models, and all around the world I saw the same problem. Talented teams delivering subpar results. And I knew it wasn't their fault. They were too far inside to see what was broken. And so I had to step outside to fix it."
—Ian Baer
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Ian Baer has spent over three decades delivering strategy and creative that consistently outperformed—for brands like Verizon, Samsung, American Express, Adobe, and JPMorgan Chase. He led teams at agencies including TBWA, RAPP, Publicis, and Deutsch, working across finance, tech, healthcare, entertainment, and beyond.
As the industry’s results declined, his clients kept seeing outsized gains.
Not because of bigger budgets or trendier tactics — but because the work was rooted in something different: emotional connection.
The teams that won weren’t relying on personas or post-campaign insights. They were building strategy around what people actually felt, needed, and were about to do next.
In 2022, that difference became a method.
The Sooth Method was invented to close that gap at scale —turning emotional, practical, and situational signal into strategy brand teams can act on before opportunity disappears.
Not theory. Not storytelling. Performance, powered by connection.
Performance didn’t crash overnight.
It slipped—quarter after quarter. Year after year. Until “good enough” became the goal.
Instead of fixing what wasn’t working, the industry recalibrated around cost.
If the results are going to disappoint, they might as well be cheap.
And if no one’s paying attention, why not automate it, offshore it, and get it out the door?
That’s how marketing—once built on ideas, insight, and connection—became a volume game.
One more asset. One more audience. One more sprint to nowhere.
What got lost in the process was the signal: the real, human intelligence behind why people act, buy, switch, or stay.
Sooth was built to bring it back—and give brands a reason to expect more.
Most brands have an “audience strategy.”
It lives in a deck — somewhere between a funnel sketch and three personas with names, playlists, and personality types.
They’re not insights. They’re stereotypes — dressed up for PowerPoint.
Add a dashboard. A recap report. A heatmap labeled “emotional.”
And that’s what passes for understanding.
But what’s actually being measured?
Clicks. Reach. Awareness.
Content that maybe worked last year — or didn’t, because no one tracked the right things.
Meanwhile, the real drivers of 93% of buyer decisions go untouched:
Emotional needs. Situational pressure. Practical context.
That’s why good creative misfires.
Why strategy gets reworked.
Why loyal customers walk.
Why performance keeps underdelivering — even when everything looks “optimized.”
Most brands are drowning in data and starving for answers.
Sooth doesn’t add more noise. It gives you a better lens.
You don’t need more insight.
You need direction. Clear answers. What to do, what to scrap, where to invest — and why.
The Sooth Method was built to deliver exactly that.
It applies data, science, and AI to decode the real drivers of action: emotional, situational, and practical. Then it turns that signal into direction for your team — who to reach, what to say, and where to move first.
It doesn’t give you possibilities. It gives you priorities.
Sooth processes live data from more than 300 million people across 20 countries — updated weekly and mapped against over 100,000 behavioral signals per individual. Not to analyze the past — but to predict what happens next, with shocking 91% accuracy.
That’s how brands using the Sooth Method have:
Cut wasted spend by as much as 80%
Improved in-market performance by 5x to 12x
Leapfrogged competitors and held challengers at bay
This isn’t optimization. It’s advantage.
Our Mission
"Across categories, across business models, and all around the world I saw the same problem. Talented teams delivering subpar results. And I knew it wasn't their fault. They were too far inside to see what was broken. And so I had to step outside to fix it." —Ian Baer
Why Sooth Exists
Ian Baer has spent over three decades delivering strategy and creative that consistently outperformed — for brands like Verizon, Samsung, American Express, Adobe, and JPMorgan Chase. He led teams at agencies including TBWA, RAPP, Publicis, and Deutsch, working across finance, tech, healthcare, entertainment, and beyond.
As the industry's results declined, his clients kept seeing outsized gains.
Not because of bigger budgets or trendier tactics — but because the work was rooted in something different: emotional connection.
The teams that won weren’t relying on personas or post-campaign insights. They were building strategy around what people actually felt, needed, and were about to do next.
In 2022, that difference became a method.
The Sooth Method was invented to close that gap at scale — turning emotional, practical, and situational signal into strategy brand teams can act on before opportunity disappears.
Not theory. Not storytelling. Performance, powered by connection.
The Great Drift: How Marketing Lost Its Way
Performance didn’t crash overnight.
It slipped — quarter after quarter. Year after year. Until “good enough” became the goal.
Instead of fixing what wasn’t working, the industry recalibrated around cost.
If the results are going to disappoint, they might as well be cheap.
And if no one’s paying attention, why not automate it, offshore it, and get it out the door?
That’s how marketing — once built on ideas, insight, and connection — became a volume game.
One more asset. One more audience. One more sprint to nowhere.
What got lost in the process was the signal: the real, human intelligence behind why people act, buy, switch, or stay.
Sooth was built to bring it back—and give brands a reason to expect more.
What Most Brands Miss
Most brands have an “audience strategy.”
It lives in a deck — somewhere between a funnel sketch and three personas with names, playlists, and personality types.
They’re not insights. They’re stereotypes — dressed up for PowerPoint.
Add a dashboard. A recap report. A heatmap labeled “emotional.”
And that’s what passes for understanding.
But what’s actually being measured?
Clicks. Reach. Awareness.
Content that maybe worked last year — or didn’t, because no one tracked the right things.
Meanwhile, the real drivers of 93% of buyer decisions go untouched:
Emotional needs. Situational pressure. Practical context.
That’s why good creative misfires.
Why strategy gets reworked.
Why loyal customers walk.
Why performance keeps underdelivering — even when everything looks “optimized.”
Most brands are drowning in data and starving for answers.
Sooth doesn't add more noise. It gives you a better lens.
How the Sooth Method Fixes What's Broken
You don’t need more insight.
You need direction. Clear answers. What to do, what to scrap, where to invest — and why.
The Sooth Method was built to deliver exactly that.
It applies data, science, and AI to decode the real drivers of action: emotional, situational, and practical. Then it turns that signal into direction for your team — who to reach, what to say, and where to move first.
It doesn’t give you possibilities. It gives you priorities.
Sooth processes live data from more than 300 million people across 20 countries — updated weekly and mapped against over 100,000 behavioral signals per individual. Not to analyze the past — but to predict what happens next, with shocking 91% accuracy.
That's how brands using the Sooth Method have:
Cut wasted spend by as much as 80%
Improved in-market performance by 5x to 12x
Leapfrogged competitors and held challengers at bay
This isn't optimization. It's advantage.
Want to stop guessing—and start knowing what really drives your audience?
We'll build a customized Signal Snapshot that reveals what drives your audience—and what your competitors are missing.
We'll bring you:
A live, private walk-through of real-time insights
Three strategic takeaways you can use immediately
A preview of how Sooth turns signal into performance
No dashboards. No demos. No AI theater.
Just a glimpse of the intelligence your brand could be using within weeks.
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