Does AI Sound the Death Knell for Marketing?

I was at an event last week where I was told, in no uncertain terms, that my job as a marketer was about to be made obsolete by AI.

This guy ran a health supplement company in LA, and proudly boasted that he was about to sign with an agency that would run all his marketing through ‘AI’.

It piqued my interest, and I went away and did some research into the agency he was talking about, and the impact of AI in marketing overall.

I’d just been told I was about to be made redundant by robots. I really needed to know more…

Corporate Hype

In December 2017, a little-known drinks company based in New York made one single change to their business that saw their stock shoot up by more than 200% in one day.

They didn’t merge, land an incredible new contract, or even launch the next Coca Cola.

They just changed their name.

Overnight, the Long Island Iced Tea Corp. became the Long Blockchain Corp., and in the madness that surrounded blockchain at the time, their shares settled 183% up on the day when the stock market closed.

Whilst the company had also announced its intentions to diversify into blockchain (whilst continuing to make alcoholic drinks), they had not made any major market moves, or changed their business model.

Instead, they had taken advantage of ‘name-grabbing’ – a process by which companies associate themselves with popular or trending technologies to up their share price. It’s hype for corporations.

Now let’s fast forward to January 2019. What has replaced blockchain and BitCoin as this year’s buzzword? Artificial Intelligence: AI.

The Threat

Going back to this agency that this guy talked about, I checked them out.

Their web page, social and all their own marketing they painted themselves as the first-ever AI-powered marketing agency. Apparently, they used it to segment audiences, classifying assets, crafting copy, and testing campaigns.

Sounds pretty cool.

But dig a little deeper, and even they admit that AI is a tool: a tool used by their consultants to deliver campaigns. In other words, to this agency, AI is a tool to supplement the people who actually deliver campaigns.

All of this matches with current predictions in the industry: the 2019 IBM Watson Trend Report suggests that whilst AI will play a key role in marketing, it will only be in assisting the humans who actually deliver it.

In Davos, in 2018, one of the prevailing sentiments was that governments have to reimagine educational priorities to avoid preparing students for jobs that will no longer exist. What’s one of the industries they considered future-proof? Creative industries: including marketing.

Basically: AI won’t replace humans, humans will use AI to their benefit.

How We Use AI

Here’s where things get really funny.

If I wanted to, I could paint my marketing agency as AI-driven and say that everything we do is dictated by ‘bots’.

Because in a lot of ways, it’s true. From our own funnels, to the ones we create for clients: there’s AI at every stage of them.

Every tool, every platform we use for our clients has an aspect of AI in it. Facebook. YouTube. Instagram. Google.

I could literally change the business name to IAG AI Media.

But I don’t.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a bit of hype. It’s necessary to get ahead in any industry. But too much just destroys trust in your business.

Take the Long Island Iced Tea Corp.: in April 2018, Nasdaq delisted them from the exchange.

Their credibility is shot, and their business is in tatters.

Our claim at IAG Media is much simpler.

In our free case study (https://go.iag-media.com/case-study), I keep it simple and don't pretend to be something we’re not.

I make it clear: we focus more on service, we focus more on our product, and we care about customers more than other agencies.

That is, until we try blockchain…