Should an AI Be Your Next Intern?: Optimising AI in Digital Marketing Agencies

While we might be less than a month into 2023, it seems like the word of the year — at least in digital marketing — will be ‘AI’.?

Codeword, an agency in New York, announced earlier this month that they’re trialling AI as interns in both their design and editorial departments. In Melbourne too, there have been many impromptu discussions at Blank Theory about how to optimise existing AI technology to deliver more for our clients.?

Like Codeword, we’re interested in seeing the data and results for ourselves, rather than speculating on what AI may hold for the digital marketing industry. Like other automation tools, it has the potential to enhance productivity through removing low-value, time-consuming tasks from our team, creating space for deeper thinking and action across a range of high-value creative endeavours. The ideal AI will streamline processes and help fasttrack outputs, even accounting for the required human oversight. It will ultimately be a valuable team member that allows us to do more without compromising on quality.

What Does AI Look Like at Blank Theory?

Blank Theory has grown so swiftly because we are a passionate and ambitious team. However, utilising tools like AI is key to maintaining and further developing this growth and avoiding stagnation. In 2023, we intend to rigorously trial a range of AIs, and record our observations and real-time savings so we can say where modern AI technology really makes a difference.

For instance, AI tools can provide a starting point for creative brainstorming, expression and experimentation. Our design team regularly puts together examples of potential branding and imagery styles based on desired tones and feel. But, with visual AI tools, this task can be reduced from hours to a matter of minutes. These images will not be the final product, but the jumping off point for something unique and wholly your brand.

Similarly, our copy team can leverage AI tools for research assimilation on complex topics, using AI like ChatGPT, to provide a comprehensive overview of a topic or product. Our writers can then research the topic in greater depth more confidently and effectively. Additionally, it can be a tool to help overcome the dreaded writer’s block, sparking ideas and removing the intimidation of the blank page.

Outside of our creative teams, AI can also be of great use. Primarily, it can assist in greater communication with all stakeholders, like helping our team find the right word or effortlessly construct a clear and coherent email. At the same time, AIs can be used to quickly demonstrate an idea without needing to pass materials through different creative teams. For instance, AI can be used to quickly remove elements from images or create a rough approximation of a visual idea. It can even write short, effective copy to emphasise certain selling points or give tonal examples.

The Essential Human Ingredient

But the Blank Theory office isn’t going to be vacant anytime soon. In fact, the success of AI at Blank Theory relies on our team’s skills.?

Firstly, AI needs prompting — it cannot begin without some stimulus or input. Therefore, effective use of AI lies in the care and thought behind the creative direction it is given. Through years of experience and with a broader comprehension of the situation and elements at play that the AI is not capable of, our team can provide the tool with the perfect prompt.

Similarly, our team is there to give the AI guidance throughout, tweaking and adjusting the inputs for more effective outputs. This is achieved through a deep understanding of the creative process, whether it is designing or writing. While AI can ‘learn’ from scouring the internet and absorbing millions of datapoints, it does not have lived experience and the inherent problem solving skills required for real-life projects.?

Additionally, as AI tools are ultimately creating a conglomerate of the most commonplace materials that match our prompts, they are not an effective tool for wholesale branding. Great branding relies on standing out from the crowd and imparting a unique message or story. Branding created by AI will look and feel too much like the industry standard and, therefore, wouldn’t fit the ambitious brands we work with. This is why our team will continue to work with our clients, connecting with them and their brand to understand what sets them apart and how best to portray this in creative materials.

Further, AI lacks the true spontaneity and ‘lightning strike’ of inspiration that humans are inherently capable of. For instance, as AI copy becomes more commonplace, tools have been designed to detect it. They do so by looking for repetition and analysing the ‘likelihood’ of consecutive words. Essentially, AI will take the route well-travelled, whereas a person will surprise you or take an unexpected turn, resulting in a more satisfying and memorable piece.?

As professional creatives, we have learned to harness our creative spark and to create conditions to foster these ‘lightning strikes’ of inspiration to regularly provide our clients with creative materials that are unique and powerful. So, while AI may create the bare bones of any given piece, it is the human element that we bring that makes it truly something special.

So Will You Be Meeting a Blank Theory Intern That’s a Machine?

While we won’t quite be classing AI as a Blank Theory intern, it’s definitely a tool we look forward to using more of in 2023 and beyond. It is a great opportunity to help us to communicate or collaborate more effectively and efficiently than ever. As a team, we’ll explore how this innovative technology can maximise our time for key creative decisions to deliver bigger and bolder materials across the board. Working together, we’ll find how to best use these new tools to our (and your) advantage, and we’re excited to see what’s possible.