Media Insights

Leveraging Generative AI in Marketing: A roadmap for brand marketers

by Leander Cohen |

Staying at the forefront of technological advancements is crucial to maintaining a competitive edge. One technological marvel that has been making waves in the industry is Generative AI, also known as GenAI. Generative AI is a subset of artificial intelligence (AI) that can create text or image-based outputs in response to user prompts. We dug into GenAI to understand its implications and how brand marketers can harness its power to drive success in their campaigns. 

What is Generative AI? The Basics and the Challenges

Most AI models, including GenAI, rely on machine learning. Through machine learning, algorithms are trained on vast datasets, enabling them to make predictions or generate responses without explicit programming. In the realm of marketing, two common types of AI are predictive algorithms and generative AI models.

Generative AI models, such as ChatGPT, Google Bard Dall-E, or Midjourney, are designed to create content in response to user inputs. These models can generate text, images, or even entire creative assets, making them versatile tools for marketers.¹ However, it’s important to note that the quality of their outputs is directly tied to the data they are trained on, which can result in inaccurate, biased, or outdated responses.

AI’s Untapped Potential for Marketers

The hype around AI is not unwarranted, and AI’s influence on business has been steadily growing for more than a decade. But while GenAI is a powerful tool, it’s also relatively new for most companies and users. As organizations consider whether to implement AI solutions, it’s crucial to stay on top of the technology’s capabilities and limitations.

Marketing is leading the charge in Generative AI adoption, with 37% of employees using AI to assist with work-related tasks, surpassing other industries like tech, consulting, and accounting.² This indicates the immense potential Generative AI holds for marketing professionals, both in improving internal operations and enhancing customer-facing activities.

AI Increases Marketing Efficiency 

AI tools can streamline internal processes, reducing costs and cutting down timelines. This enables marketing teams to scale their efforts efficiently. However, keep in mind that AI is often not a one-to-one substitute for human output. Human oversight is crucial for reviewing and optimizing AI-driven work to ensure quality and relevance.

Generative AI can improve the quality of marketing efforts, ultimately leading to better performance. As always, it’s important for teams to test new tech and assess the potential trade-offs of utilizing emerging AI marketing products and services.

Marketing Applications of Generative AI

Now that we’ve explored the implications and advantages of Generative AI in marketing, let’s look at specific applications in the creative, measurement, and tech domains.

AI for Expanded Creative Capabilities

Content Assembly: Increase the volume of creative assets through automation in the creative development process. By doing so, marketers can enable the creation of highly specific, tailored content while shortening creative development timelines. This requires a medium-level investment, as you will need to train potential tech integrations to scale as a net-new capability.

Dynamic Creative Optimization (DCO): Dynamically update and personalize creative using generative AI platform products or AI-supported third-party services. Optimization shortens creative activation timelines and allows for testing a greater volume of assets. This requires a medium-level investment, as you will need to enlist new platform products and third-party services.

AI in Measurement and Tech 

Insights Development: Integrate large language models like GPT with data to generate additional insights. This scales the volume of insights and enables measurement of new units, such as creative performance. This is a high-level investment, as it is a significant technical lift to activate at scale.

Internal Organization: Use language models like GPT in internal systems to automate tasks like project management, asset management, and document retrieval. This streamlines project management and internal fact-finding, enhancing efficiency. This is a medium-level investment, as it is enabled through an OpenAI integration which is not widely available yet.

For more information on using AI for your marketing measurement, read our article “AI Measurement for Marketers.”

Ready to Evaluate the Potential of AI for Your Brand?

GenAI is a game-changer for brand marketers, offering innovative solutions to streamline operations and enhance marketing efforts. While AI is not a one-size-fits-all solution, it’s imperative for organizations to explore emerging AI applications and assess the benefits and potential pitfalls to determine how best to leverage these powerful tools. As the marketing landscape continues to evolve, embracing GenAI can be the key to staying ahead of the competition and delivering exceptional results.

Whether you’ve already begun incorporating enterprise-level AI tools into your existing marketing program or you’re still researching technologies, Ovative is here to help. Our experts are ready to assess and identify potential applications for AI based on your marketing goals. Reach out to learn more about how we can help streamline and enhance your marketing program.

Sources:

¹ Mckinsey | What is generative AI?

² Statista | Rate of generative AI adoption in the workplace in the United States 2023, by industry