Artificial Intelligence may be the coming thing but for creatives there’s no replacement for genuinely knowing your audience

By Miles Bredin, Senior Partner, Well Made Strategy

Artificial Intelligence may be the coming thing but for creatives there’s no replacement for genuinely knowing your audience.

Successful people know that if they want to stay ahead, they must innovate and that means meeting new people, sparking new ideas and learning new things. Last month that meant learning how to use Artificial Intelligence as an asset. Businesses that are embracing AI – companies like Unlearn which uses AI in medical trials – are leaving their competitors standing.

Thankfully, this transfers to creative work and it all come back to the basics: Objectives, Strategy, Tactics. If you have those clear, you can ask the right questions of new technology and see how it can lead you to new audiences and support your artistic endeavours. David Hockney, the 85-year-old British artist, has devoted his entire life to capturing light but he has never stood still. He was one of the first artists to start working in acrylics, then with cameras and lighting - and for the last ten years he has drawn on an iPad. He always has a plan for his work.

Hockney’s new exhibition in London embraces all the very latest audio-visual technology, combined with creative partnerships “to draw light”. He teamed up with 59 Productions to make his vision a reality. Asked if his new immersive exhibition was doing anything differently from the other current mega-shows, he told wallpaper:

‘They are just using Van Gogh and Monet, and they’re dead. They can’t add anything to it. Well, I’m still alive, so I can make things work better.’

Strategic communications supports Hockney’s artistry and is evermore a vital aspect of the creative industry. It involves developing and executing a comprehensive plan to effectively communicate a message or brand to a specific audience. By using communications effectively Amsterdam’s current Vermeer exhibition sold out long before it started. In the creative industry, communications can include advertising campaigns, public relations efforts and social media strategies. The same applies to individuals – just on a smaller scale.

First set your objectives. What are you trying to persuade someone to do: read your words, listen to your views, buy your work or some complicated mash up of the three?

Effective strategic communications can make or break a creative project or a creative career. It can be the difference between a successful campaign and a flop.

One of the most important aspects of strategic communications is understanding your target audience. This means identifying who your message is meant for and tailoring it to them. In the creative industry, this could mean targeting specific demographics or psychographics. By understanding your audience, you can create a message that resonates specifically with them and ultimately drives results.

As we at WMS have been engaging in a strategic collaboration to bring together creatives and sexual and reproductive health rights experts to create new stories and campaigns around contentious SRHR issues, this audience identification and analysis becomes ever more important. We launched the collaboration in early March through an event called “Love, Life and Data”. It was an exciting day, where we learned about everything from how to game Facebook algorithms to push pro-SRHR content to how comedians can use humour to shift their audience’s attitude towards controversial social justice issues. We also worked in groups (with people we had never met!) to produce content that encourages parents to have “The Talk” with their children.

One of the most important conversations we had during that event was focused on our audiences. Often, creatives and social justice practitioners alike speak to themselves or a version of their audience that doesn’t really exist. So we asked our participants to put themselves in their audience’s shoes – a critical practice for speaking to any audience about anything. What do they enjoy doing for fun? What are their beliefs and values? What and who do they care about?

Once you understand your audience, you can then develop a comprehensive communication plan, one that creates messages directly targeted at your potential customers. This plan should include a mix of different tactics, such as advertising, public relations, and social media. Each of these tactics has its own strengths and weaknesses, so it's important to choose the right ones for your message and audience. Advertising in The Economist is not going to sell TikToks to teens.

Nuseir Yassin of the Nas Daily has 5.5 million followers on TikTok, another 10.7 million on YouTube but you won’t see him in my feed. I’m not his market so he doesn’t bother with me. My 14-year-old daughter, on the other hand, cannot get away from him.

Social media can be a powerful tool for engaging with your audience and building a community around your brand but only if you target your audiences and use the right channels. It can also be a colossal waste of time. Check where your target audience plays, learns or explores and take your message to them.

In the creative industry, it's also important to stay on top of industry trends and changes – and right now, that means AI. The world of advertising and media is constantly evolving, and it's essential to be aware.  This means keeping an eye on new technologies and platforms, as well as changes in consumer behaviour. By staying informed, you can ensure that your communications strategies are always relevant and effective. If you’re not following what’s going on in the Artificial Intelligence world you will soon be bitten by a robot or find ChatGPT rewriting your songs. Open AI’s ChatGPT is what everyone is talking about this quarter, but it will be something completely different by the time you read this. Things are moving fast: Microsoft’s Satya Nadella has just invested $10 billion into ChatGPT, but the rest of Microsoft is yet to catch up – its Word programme can spell Myspace, but it can’t spell ChatGPT.

Strategic communications plays a crucial role in building and maintaining a strong brand. In the creative industry, just as in any other, a strong brand can set you apart from the competition and help you stand out in a crowded marketplace. A strong brand also helps build trust and credibility with your audience – essential for driving results if you are an academic institution, for example. And the same applies in the social justice world where impact takes effort.

Strategic communications involves understanding your audience and developing a comprehensive plan to effectively communicate your message. That message could be a social justice message, a credibility message or a simple sales pitch. Effective strategic communications can make or break your career and help you to stay relevant in the fast-paced world of the creative industry. And as Hockney says: “You must plan to be spontaneous.”