AI x Marketing: Part 2
Last week, I shared a couple of rather stream-of-consciousness thoughts on AI x marketing. This Saturday, a couple more. We’re still trying to answer the question, “what does this AI hoopla mean for marketing?”
Prediction: Brand marketing will increase
Even before GPT, I’ve been thinking that more companies will start paying attention to brand building. The ease of getting started with Facebook / Google advertising means there are more ads than before, AND they’re sounding/looking/talking the same. Many commentators have spoken about how digital marketing has made the profession lazy. Add generative AI to the mix, and this ‘sameness’ will only increase as marketers will try to develop images from the same set of keywords. If you think about it, this is the logical next step up from SEO keywords.
The only way out is to go about differentiating the old-fashioned way - by standing for something distinct, being memorable, being different. Or as they used to say in the 80s - building a brand.
There are reasons to think this might happen. With GenAI doing the heavy lifting for performance ads, maybe brand building will finally have the resources it deserves. Airbnb’s much-publicised focus on branding will give more marketers confidence to pursue this route, especially since it’s resulted in strong earnings too. My personal feeling is that this will be a necessity - there are just TOO many brands of everything out there and we humans can remember only so many. Digital ads (and now generative creatives) are easy to do. The winners will ultimately be determined by things that are difficult - distribution and branding.
Of course, this prediction has an equal chance of not coming true. Efficient ads & AdTech might mean marketing as a function will be relegated. (I still think this is unlikely because humans still need stuff, and companies will need ways to stand out that are not always tech-driven). Time will tell. But for now, I’m sticking my neck out: The rest of the 2020s will see a brand building renaissance.
Of course marketing jobs will be affected
As with any technological change. An optimistic view would be that new jobs will be created - “social media manager” would have sounded ludicruous in 2005. I remember a report in 2019 that said ~80% of job titles in 2030 are not around right now. And this was before the pandemic, metaverse and GenAI boom (meaning now-obvious things like remote work manager, virtual world developer and prompt engineer would have sounded like nonsense).
Listen, I’m not going to lie. I don’t know if there are going to be cuts because of AI (it’s more likely there will be cuts because of a downturn). But extrapolating everything I’ve read and have observed from past tech trends, here is possibly what the marketing team of the future might look like:
AI will do a lot of the grunt work. The role of humans will be to provide quality input, and (more importantly) refine / judge the output. To give non-marketing examples: a recent short movie made with DALLE2-generated images required a human script and oversight. Similar for a daring series of AI-scripted podcasts for Planet Money. Another non-marketing example: Doctors in Indian slums use AI, but need specialists to gauge output.
Making low-code-no-code software. For example, a marketing idea for a campaign might emerge from pain points customers face, which can be found on negative reviews on competitor products on Amazon. What would take weeks could become a few minutes’ work. Brian Chesky said in a recent podcast interview (Masters of Scale) that this revolution we’re living through is the democratisation of software creation. That’s profound.
Moar experimentation: With tools like Midjourney, it’ll be super easy to visualise what a radical situation / idea might look like - without needing to spend a few hours developing a mockup. This adds to my point on brand building above.
And finally - there will be some element of psychology (like there always should have been). Human understanding will be absolutely key to stand out in a world where AI does a lot of the work.
These are all just preliminary thoughts - but I hope they satiate for now and answer some questions. This is a topic I will inevitably be revisiting. But for now, on to some updates.
Updates
NVidia! 1 trillion!
I should have sent this update last week itself - Microsoft is adding all kinds of AI to Windows. It all started with Clippy :’) This podcast interview The Verge’s Nilay Patel did with CTO Kevin Scott is worth the listen. Its new data analytics platform, Fabric, looks powerful. But most importantly, Windows looks interesting again.
Adobe adds more AI to Photoshop with Generative Fill. Which makes image generation stunningly easy… And increases the potential for more fakery.
OpenAI says it may not operate in the EU if regulations doesn’t go its way. AI law must be fascinating right now.
Speaking of which, the Biden administration has released a set of plans to take advantage of AI while tackling some of its risks. It’s good to see governments getting in on this early, before it’s too late. One good lesson social media taught us…
Americans trust tech companies that make physical products. Social media firms are at the bottom of the heap. I am not surprised about this trend at all, what a vibe shift.
Meta’s shareholders chose not to do an enquiry into political bias and hate speech in India.
Apple might release a VR headset next week. This will be interesting. It’s been a while since the company released a new form factor. And it releases products at the height of category hype, not during the decline stage. Perhaps an iHeadset might be the shot in the arm the metaverse needs?
Reads
Generative AI is also a revolution for computer interfaces.
How to wisely worry about AI.
An interesting AI use case: Helping ESG investing.
If you’re in the mood, E&Y’s media report. Quite informative.
What makes NVidia’s chips so well suited to AI?
The AI-disaster-waiting-to-happen is most likely to come from China - thanks to a unique set of factors (authoritarianism, higher ed in AI, ‘disaster amnesia’, competition with the US).
Worryingly, there’s zero chance for a global AI treaty.
What BGMI’s comeback means for esports in the country.
Where digital nomads come to die: Lisbon.
Researchers and children’s educators study what it means to ‘grow up digital’ in 21st century India.
Unexpected ‘campaign’
KTDC hosting skillcations at their various properties in Karnataka!
(But the whole ‘tweets are for real here’ bit is kinda overdone by now)
A free TV, but with an additional screen for ads
So, like a permanent banner ad. But on your wall. It’s certainly an interesting business model. Meet Telly.
Tweets ‘n’ threads (all clickable)
Bad volume sliders. Sorry. Especially to the OCD and designers.
How to date in a downturn.
Celebs throwing shade at each other on Twitter - normal
Companies throwing shade at each other on Twitter - unusual, but sure
Volcanoes…?
And for those wanting good ol’ companies throwing shade, here’s Amazon Prime Video reacting to Netflix’s password sharing crackdown (though if you read comments you’ll notice the social media team subtly worrying about what management might do in the future)
For fans of Succession
Love it when quick commerce firms tweet out data with fun context. This was during the IPL finals.
Have a terrific weekend, folks. And if you have any questions / thoughts around AI x marketing, hit reply. Let’s keep this conversation going in the way only humans can.
Chuck