All Articles

Intro to AI: Why It Affects Marketers Today

By Adwright, 31 March 2023

“AI is not just heading for our industry, it will radically change the machinery we use in marketing.”

– Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web

Making its way into our daily lives 

Over the past few months, advances in AI technologies have brought the future even closer to us. Most significant of late, one name that may have appeared frequently on our news feeds is generative AI model ChatGPT. Within a blitz of 2 months, the chatbot by OpenAI gained 100 million monthly active users flocking to try out the platform’s features. In contrast to other well-known social media platforms Instagram and TikTok, this is a big deal – Instagram took 2.5 years to reach 100 million users, while TikTok took 9 months.

However, it may not just be manual tasks that are being replaced by automation in the near future. AI is predicted to change the future of work across 3 broad categories: generating content in different formats such as video and image, improving efficiency by automating manual tasks, and personalising experiences for consumers. In school, students are using AI to complete their essays and some developers are finding it helpful to code projects. You might also already be using AI to some extent, even if you are not aware of it – writing enhancement software Grammarly strengthens written pieces with the help of AI technologies such as machine learning and deep learning.

Growing Uses of AI Across Sectors

Consumers aren’t the only ones having fun with AI. With generative AI being able to quickly create content based on data, businesses are putting its intelligent capabilities to good use. Industries such as healthcare and finance have long incorporated AI into their business functions, whether pulling from large amounts of data and documents, or automating task executions for greater efficiency. However, marketing and communications teams are harnessing the power of AI in more creative ways recently.

One reason may be due to the increased consumer concerns around data privacy in recent years, resulting in tighter regulations on the collection of advertising data. In a study commissioned by IBM, 63% of brand marketers are turning to AI solutions to address the effects of data deprecation on advertising efforts. 44% of those in an Influencer Marketing Hub survey are maximising the power of AI in content production, for example in creating video and images for social media content, writing reports and articles, or even deriving insights from customer data. In the same survey, 12.2% are improving their marketing by employing AI for predictive analytics and even chatbots.

Successful Case Study: Harley Davidson Retailer

In one case, predictive analytics helped a Harley-Davidson retail distributor to increase his leads by 2,930%. The company onboarded an AI-driven marketing platform named Albert to measure its digital channels on Facebook and Google, and autonomously optimise the results of marketing campaigns. The AI platform first analysed existing data from the company’s customer management system (CRM) in order to define specific behavioural characteristics of previous high-value customers. It then created small audience groups to trial its campaigns on to determine which headlines and visuals would increase likelihood of conversion, before expanding its efforts more widely. This approach meant that resources were more effectively allocated to variables that were proven to work, increasing digital marketing ROI. Generalising and incorrect assumptions made in marketing activities are reduced, and insights more accurately leveraged for maximum performance.

Why Marketing Remains Human-Dependent

Despite the extensive applications and benefits of AI across various industries, human decision-making skills remain indispensable even as robot capabilities progress at tremendous rates. At times, AI technology produces errors known as “hallucinations”, delivering factually incorrect arguments that are highly convincing. Beside gathering information from databases which may comprise biases, AI’s ability to produce content brings forth intellectual property issues from ownership of works generated by user prompts to plagiarising sources as it draws information from training data. Think of AI as a tool, rather than a substitute for human intelligence. While mass AI adoption is still in its relatively early stage, It is imperative that its results be taken with a pinch of salt. Its suggestions can be useful to adopt, however proceed with caution for the time being at least.

AI may have its limitations, however it may be time to consider adding value to your current marketing efforts with AI, if you have not already adopted it. Out of all a company’s functions, Harvard Business Review suggests that marketing will benefit the most from AI. Underpinning any marketing strategy is understanding the customer’s needs and curating products or services to accurately address those needs in order to convince purchases. These are key functions that can be drastically improved through the use of AI technologies, whether as stand-alone apps or integrated into broader platforms.

Explore ways to integrate AI into brand marketing

In view of this, here are some ways branding marketers can utilise AI to enhance existing marketing activities.

1. Make use of AI’s speedy response times. Able to respond within a couple of seconds, AI makes quick work of analysing data and providing recommendations, at a faster rate than human capabilities. In addition, it can continue processing data work around the clock and on weekends, whereas humans need to take breaks.
2. Understand your audiences better. Predict the impact of marketing measures with the help of AI, such as knowing what and how a target group responds to certain words and images. Garnering such data helps marketers to better manage their brands a nd improve marketing strategies.
3. Take customer experiences up a notch further. Creating hyper-personalised shopping experiences enabled by AI can increase engagement and interaction with consumers in fresh, relevant ways. Better customer experiences leads to higher customer satisfaction, after all.

As you keep up with the latest features and uses of this emerging technology, familiarising yourself with the pros and cons of AI will leave you empowered to explore countless creative ways of adopting its capabilities into your marketing strategy.

Create your most effective brand identity today

We would love to share with you on how we can complement your brand journey. At Adwright, we understand the paramount importance of having a reputable brand image. With our finesse and experience in curating strategic brand messages, we create the brand equity needed for marketing to succeed. While we are experts at building brand assets, it is our clients who play the biggest role in building trust with their customer base. After all, where there is trust, there is loyalty – the key factors that determine a brand’s reputation.

Adwright is an award-winning integrated branding agency in Singapore with over 25 years of experience in the industry and counting. We have collaborated with clients ranging from local SMEs to global corporations, spanning across many industries. We provide integrated solutions in branding, design, communications and beyond to help you bring your brand’s presence to market. Embark on your unique brand journey by emailing enquiry@adwright.com today.