Insights from AI + Marketing Training

I recently led a half-day AI + Marketing corporate training session for a 30 person in-house marketing team. The majority of the participants worked in creative and production roles. I was curious how they would perceive the AI use cases and tools that I was presenting; would they see them as a threat? During the session, participants were assigned to work in groups to develop a new campaign concept and supporting marketing asset using artificial intelligence. The response and outcomes were quite positive, with some important considerations and caveats that I believe marketers should consider before rushing to adopt these tools:

• Domain expertise is extremely important. Designers who used AI to create marketing visuals produced assets that were ten times better than non-designers, as did copywriters who used AI to create scripts.
• AI performs best with templated work. AI was most useful in creating traditional marketing assets, such as a press release, especially if an example is provided.
• Helpful at the start, more helpful at the end. AI was useful as a brainstorming tool, but it was more useful for documenting and describing the idea after it had been largely developed by the team.
• Great work still requires time. Everyone understands the potential for AI tools to save time on specific tasks; however, marketing teams must exercise caution before reducing timelines and expectations unreasonably.
• Concerns about losing skills. Creative professionals have acquired skills and experience, and they enjoy being creative in their work. One copywriter put it best: "I don't want to lose the creative part of my brain, or the creative part of my work."

AI & Advertising

Speaking of AI in advertising work, I find this whole AI-shaming narrative in the marketing space to be ridiculous. We can’t have CMO’s being lauded for embracing AI, while then shitting on those brands that use AI in their work. If AI is used to bring iconic print ads to life, it’s magical; but if there are any imperfections it is a mockery. The offending marketing director must then do an industry perp walk on LinkedIn apologizing for using the technology. Just stupid. It’s a new tool, people are learning how to use it. Those who start now will have a valuable head start. ?

And how is AI impacting marketing agencies? According to Forrester, 91% of US ad agencies currently use AI primarily for content creation. Large agencies and networks are adopting AI tools at a larger scale, including WPP, which followed up their NVIDIA keynote with another presentation at Cannes to showcase its AI Production Studio. New GenAI ads can now tailor ads to peoples “complex psychological profiles”, making them more persuasive than non-targeted messages. This deck from Springboards.ai makes the case for AI as a driver of increased creativity in advertising work.

Fresh Reports

• AI & Universities (Bond): Mary Meeker is back, this time with a focus on how AI will impact higher education at a larger scale and faster rate than the Internet. Watching my kids use ChatGPT to explain math problems has been an eye opener.
• Social Media Benchmarks 2024 (Dash Hudson): A handy report for those looking for updated performance benchmarks for different platforms and verticals.
• AI Survey (Bain): Illustrates how business adoption has changed over the last 12 months since the previous survey – Sales, Coding, Marketing, and Customer Service are the areas adopting AI the most.
• What do People Think of Generative AI (BBC): Research on how BBC audiences perceive AI in relation to media they consume – some interesting findings and framing around what constitutes lower vs. higher stakes for AI.

Smart Reads

• Apple Intelligence and AI Maximalism (Benedict Evans): Insightful explanation how Apple is zagging with its AI strategy, which focuses on embedding AI into its products and what those products and your phone know about you.
• Gradually, then Suddenly (Ethan Mollick): Makes an interesting parallel between the advancements of AI and digital cameras; digital cameras were a niche product until their resolution (gradually) reached the level of a Polaroid camera, at which point they became a mass product (suddenly).
• AI Strategic Vision Toolkit (Nobl): A super-smart and useful resource from NOBL on different prompts and frameworks you can use to start having more clear and productive conversations about AI with your teams.

Cool Beans

• AR & Snapchat: New research on the impact of AR (i.e., Snapchat Lenses) on attention rates, with some fun case studies and examples.
• AI & Checkouts: McDonald's is ending its AI drive-through pilot, so we’ll all still have to scream our orders leaning out of car windows at a half-wall.
• Cannes Highlights: For those of us that didn’t attend Cannes, here is gallery of past award winners and a great piece that highlights the best work from 2024. The WoMen’s Football campaign is a great example of AI being used as a tool for creativity. ?