Is your marketing falling behind? How Generative AI can help brands create compelling content the Washington Post way

Content marketing has become an essential part of any brand’s marketing strategy, but we all know that at a certain point creating high-quality content that resonates with your audience can be a challenge - either creatively or resource wise. That’s where one of the applications for generative AI comes in. By using technologies like ChatGPT and other generative AI tools, brands can automate content creation and generate personalised creative at scale in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost.

Generative AI is an emerging technology that uses machine learning algorithms to create content automatically. Brands can create assets across multiple formats; text, images, and videos, and merge them into engaging content. One of the most popular examples of generative AI is ChatGPT, a large language model trained by OpenAI. ChatGPT can be used to create text-based content, such as blog posts, social media posts, product descriptions, or prompts for other AI.

Diffusion Models and GANs (Generative Adversarial Networks), machine learning algorithms that can generate images and videos of people, objects, and landscapes, can take these prompts and create visuals for a whole product range before it’s even manufactured. Brands can then use tools to create unique visuals for their website, social media, and other marketing materials.

Generative AI not only helps brands create content quickly and easily, but it also allows them to generate personalised content that resonates with their audience. By using generative AI, brands can create content that’s tailored to their audience’s interests, preferences, and needs. This can help improve engagement rates and build stronger connections with customers.

But does generative AI actually drive brand or sales growth? The answer is yes. According to a recent report by MarketWatch, companies that use AI in their content marketing strategy are seeing an average revenue increase of 34%. In addition, a study by Forbes found that personalised content drives a 20% increase in sales compared to non-personalised content.

One company that has seen success with generative AI is The Washington Post. The publication uses a tool called Heliograf, which is powered by AI, to automatically generate news stories. Heliograf has helped The Washington Post increase its coverage of high school sports from 150 schools to over 800 schools, leading to an increase in web traffic and engagement.

If your content marketing strategy is falling behind, particularly your creative asset creation, it’s time to explore the possibilities of generative AI. By using technologies like ChatGPT and StyleGAN, brands can create compelling and personalised content at scale. As generative AI continues to evolve, we can expect to see even more innovative uses of the technology in not only content marketing, but also product development and strategy, but that’s an article for another day...