Why artificial intelligence is being used to write adverts and everything else!

The recent BBC article about modern marketers using AI got me thinking about how AI is shaping marketing and advertising. The article talks about an AI company called Phrasee, who is doing some very interesting stuff around machine learning models that look at past success to predict future variations of ad copy. You can hop to the article from the link. The idea that this is new to consumers is interesting, considering we've been doing this in various phases for over 10 years. MailChimp introduced an amazing subject line tool (link) that I thought was pure magic over 5 years ago that used predictive historical algorithms to judge the effectiveness of proposed subject lines. This was amazing for A/B testing and was always fun in the office to see which of these "machine outputted" suggestions would actually perform to the algorithmic model.

While MailChimp was a great tool, and I discovered the best performing subject line for B2B with amazing open and click through rates ("You're Invited" btw), it didn't replace the creative process of planning. It also didn't include context or understanding of the customer or pain point that we were trying to solve for. For someone to effectively weild these tools they need to have the big picture, little picture, and the middle picture. Without thought understanding they are trying to hear whispers in the dark with no follow-up.

Marketing is a combination of a low of things. Early in my University education I studied Psychology and Sociology and later majored in Marketing, many business people might be surprised how relevant that is to Marketing. The best marketers understand their customers well enough that they know and can relate to their pains, shape products to fit them, promote features and benefits that highlight how they solve for it, and then educate the potential customer till they eventually get mid funnel and handed off to sales.

Today we have AI that writes articles, subject lines, ad copy and maybe it even wrote this blog post (who knows for sure <!--- robots rule -->). I've used it create brand logo options, mission statements, company names, email subject lines, and more. What we don't have is AI that has a spark of creativity, of wonderment, of passion, and dare I say humor. We're a long way from that, but I'm still a big adopter of AI where it makes sense in Marketing, with limits on how I use. I certainly don't let it dictate my decisions nor do I take what it outputs without giving it a hard look. Many times the AI option will lead to a eureka moment in a completely different direction, but for the most part I test what I think will perform, refine, test, test, test, and test.

Add a comment on how you're using Marketing AI today and where you see it going! Are we going to see a robot AI Junior Marketer or Intern anytime soon? Any AI Ad Executives leading agencies in our lifetime. Too soon to say, but seems like a long way off from where I'm sitting.