Superheroes and superpowers
Someday our grandchildren will be surfing the web – or more likely?flying?through the metaverse – and will stumble upon the equivalent of a click-bait article titled “the most influential movies ever”. And they will find the first Iron Man movie topping the list.??If it wasn’t for the recent release of “Top Gun 2”, we wouldn’t even remember that once upon a time, people used to watch movies because of big stars like Mr. Cruise. After Iron Man, everything changed. With the superhero formula, the names behind the masks became almost irrelevant. Little-known actors can become stars overnight if they look good in a suit. People are captivated by the mythology of superpowers, and its transformation stories - struggling person becoming an extraordinary being.??
But there were many superhero movies before Iron Man, so why was it such a pivotal moment in pop culture? For one, the visual effects technology was finally so good that the shiny flying armor didn’t look like frying pans or CGI overkill. It looked real. But that was not enough. Something besides technology was needed: Human genius, in the form of all the charisma of a brilliant actor like Robert Downey Jr. Ironically, the combo of great tech + great man behind the suit transcended fiction: it was the sine qua non element to lower the guard of global audiences, making them accept the Marvel universe’s fantasy, paving the way for whatever the Disney money-printing machine would throw at us later. All of that wouldn’t be possible without the right performer working together with the right tech.??
We are living a similar moment in business tech, and marketing technology in particular. The AI is finally so good that it can automate many processes, such as campaign targeting and optimization. This is great news if you are a small business without the resources for fancy campaign management- it truly democratizes access to capabilities that few can afford. It’s leveling the playing field. However, if you represent a big,?well-resourced brand, you may feel anxious about this newly acquired power of entrant brands.??This is pushing marketing leaders to make decisions about their Martech strategy.?The problem is that some marketers are still betting on making black and white movies while others want to leapfrog to full Pixar mode, without considering what’s in between. And as any good history professor will tell you, more important than memorizing historical events, is understanding the transition between them.??
领英推荐
If I were Tony Stark, I could ask Jarvis for directions. But since I’m not, I found the best next thing: an excellent book about the practical implications of marketing automation and how to make the most of it: Unlevel the Playing Field: The Biggest Mindshift in PPC History, by Frederick Vallaeys. The book outlines where AI is unbeatable and where it still falls short. But more importantly, the book discusses what’s the human role to make the combo human + tech become 1+1=3. Modern marketers need to invoke the superpowers that we commonly find in these professions:??
Even though the book focuses on Google Ads and PCC in general, I find the same insights applicable to many MarTech discussions. Fighting AI and second-guessing the recommendations from Google won’t make anyone win performance awards or receive glowing reviews. People who want to shine in the leading role for years to come need to know how to play Teacher, Doctor, Pilot, and Strategist. It starts with a mindset of embracing innovation but also knowing that we can add a lot of creative value. It’s a muscle to exercise every day, as we are always learning, just like the machine. There might be a day when marketers become obsolete, but if we play smart, that day is still far away. But if we play like we were in a Sylvester Stallone movie from the 80s, that day is...yesterday. Let's find our Jarvis or Friday and leverage the machine, not play against it.??