Brave new world - AI and the impact on marketing and media

Intelligence is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is defined as ‘the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence’ (Oxford Dictionary). It can do things that we consider "smart". It can process large amounts of data, very quickly, in ways that humans often can’t and the ultimate goal for AI is to recognize patterns, make decisions, and judge like humans. So will it replace us?

That is a question, and growing fear, for many. In a recent piece of research we conducted in GroupM, we saw that in Ireland very few over 55’s see AI as a positive force, and overall, sentiment is mixed with around half of all people seeing it as a negative force.?

However, all industries and most brands are now actively leaning into the potential power of AI. AI can be used to personalise product recommendations and marketing campaigns, identify production irregularities, automate processes, identify fraud and data breaches, and ultimately save time and money.

So what impact will it have on the marketing and media industries?

Well, at EssenceMediacom we see it as a huge opportunity and we’re excited to leverage AI to improve what we can offer to clients…

AI will help generate efficiencies in operations, which will mean more time and resource reallocated to focus on marketing strategy. Predictions vary, with some estimating up to 20% efficiency gains for marketing teams in 2024.

It will allow for efficiency in creative development and production, notably the ability to iterate and transcreate at scale. Nearly half of marketers expect to use AI for copywriting in 2024, whilst a third expect to use it for creative versioning and asset creation (WARC).?

Earlier in the year, EssenceMediacom UK predicted this would lead to an increased share of working media budget due to production cost efficiencies; if production costs drop by a quarter, advertisers could reallocate that budget to generate up to a 5% increase in advertising-driven revenue. Another source cited that by 2025 around 30% of outbound comms will be AI generated vs 2% in 2022 (WARC).

There are four key areas that we see AI impacting the marketing industry in 2024 and beyond:

• Operations: resource efficiencies will be made and productivity will increase. The real extent of this is somewhat unknown in the short term, but we believe it will free up time spent on more manual tasks to allow greater focus on areas like strategy and creativity?
• Data & insights: AI and Machine Learning allows for vast analysis of data and allows us to leverage insights in a quicker way. One area that is impacting this is the use of synthetic data on research. Mark Ritson covered an interesting example of this recently
• Creative: since the inception of AI generated image creation, estimates show that more images have been created per year than in centuries before that. Midjourney has around 16 million users and Adobe Creative Cloud has around 30 million users, to name just two, each generating millions of images daily. On top of this, AI continues to help with things like translation, versioning and other areas of production like copywriting, and as stated above, about a third of marketers expect to use it for asset versioning in 2024
• Media: We’re already seeing the impact AI has on media buying, via AI powered advertising tech, lead by the big tech companies like Meta, Google and TikTok. All of this represents significant opportunity for advertisers in 2024 to improve effectiveness through message placement. It’s also changing the way people think about discovery

We recently talked about the shifting landscape of Search. In 2024, we’ll see the development and deployment of more AI based solutions for discovery, including Google's own Search Generative Experience (SGE). SGE is a more interactive way to search and instead of just providing links to websites, it can generate dynamic summaries, offer interactive visualizations and facilitate deeper exploration. It will also aim to reduce the need to visit multiple websites, which is a challenge for business monetising traffic. The roadmap for rolling this out in Ireland is not clear yet, but in November 2023 Google announced a significant expansion of SGE that was planned.

Further in the future, this will represent both an opportunity and a threat. In a world where a chatbot could potentially recommend a single brand or experience, in place of several hundred search results, how do you win? The key will be for brands to stay close to this, and other search trends, over the coming years As recently stated by chief strategy officers Geoff and Richard in EssenceMediacom UK: if you’re not paying attention to search right now – you should.

In summary, AI is no doubt a major force for change in the marketing industry and will prove to be both an exciting and disruptive one. Public opinion on AI remains mixed, largely because so few of us really know the extent of what it means in the future.?

Personally, I think AI represents an exciting opportunity for media and marketing teams. For many of us, it feels like the start of the journey.

Ben Hawley Head of Strategy