The rise of Generative AI (GenAI) has been a game-changer for marketers, enhancing their ability to generate captivating marketing assets. ChatGPT has paved the way for GenAI, with other image and graphic tools catapulting its transformative potential for marketing. A report by McKinsey published in August 2023 reveals that marketing and sales are leading the chart among business functions leveraging GenAI the most, with 14% of respondents stating that their organization uses GenAI regularly for these functions.
Indeed, the potential of GenAI to create customized text and visuals at lightning speed has fascinated various industries. However, it’s essential to recognize GenAI’s broader impact. Companies are employing GenAI to serve customers AI-generated content.
Take, for instance, Coca-Cola’s “Masterpiece” ad campaign launched in 2023. The ad features a scene where a student is on the brink of dozing off during an art exam. Suddenly, the iconic art pieces surrounding him come to life, animated and energetic, as they try to offer him a refreshing Coca-Cola to keep him awake and alert. The company utilized GenAI to create this captivating and innovative advertisement.
Virgin Voyages launched a cleverly titled ad called “Jen AI,” where an AI-generated Jennifer Lopez invites customers to sail with the cruise line. The campaign also allowed customers to create their custom invite and share it with friends and family.
A Fusion of Technology and Creativity
Although GenAI’s abilities seem impressive, they’ve also sparked concerns about job stability among junior copywriters. However, the examples mentioned above suggest that GenAI isn’t meant to supplant the creative thinking process but to enhance it. GenAI represents a fusion of technology and creativity. When employed alongside human input rather than solely relying on AI, the resulting ideas often improve.
Research cited by Harvard Business Review reveals a fascinating shift: When AI augments the creative process instead of replacing it, the quality and originality of ideas soar by 18%. Furthermore, another study by the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) showed that using AI helps the least creative thinkers the most, with a 26% improvement.
A Valuable Business Resource
Amidst the buzz surrounding AI-generated content lies a deeper narrative where GenAI gains relevance as a valuable resource for businesses to generate data-driven insights and enhance customer engagement. Marketers today are inundated with data and information—from keywords to engagement metrics—yet struggle to extract meaningful insights. GenAI equips marketers with intuitive querying tools to navigate this data labyrinth.
Consider the analogy of ChatGPT’s prowess in answering complex questions. Just as it distills vast web content into succinct responses, GenAI can unravel the mysteries of marketing analytics with equal finesse. No longer constrained by technical complexities, marketers can articulate their queries directly, unlocking actionable insights in seconds.
For instance, querying the best return on ad spend across various platforms and campaigns no longer demands technical expertise but simple articulation. This democratization of data empowers marketers to make informed decisions swiftly, freeing up time for strategic endeavors.
Gathering Consumer Insights
Furthermore, GenAI extends its transformative reach beyond traditional analytics, helping businesses gain a better understanding of their customers. Leveraging proprietary bots trained on internal data, marketers can glean insights from customer interactions, product reviews, and social media feedback with unprecedented ease.
Let’s say a company is into selling skincare products. With GenAI-powered bots, the company can efficiently gather and analyze customer interactions across multiple channels, including online chats, email inquiries and social media comments. The bots can identify recurring issues among customers, such as a particular product causing skin irritation. They can also determine the marketing campaigns that the customers respond to most frequently and do a comparative analysis of the results.
This allows marketers to advise the product team, tailor their marketing strategies effectively, and demonstrate that the business is responsive to the needs of its customers. OpenAI’s Vision AI further amplifies these capabilities, enabling brand monitoring and competitor analysis at scale.
Beyond Content Creation
These functionalities represent just a glimpse of GenAI’s multifaceted potential beyond content creation. This seismic shift heralds a new era where marketers harness the power of AI not merely to engage customers but to understand them deeply. While crafting compelling content remains pivotal, it’s the strategic utilization of data driving the content that marks a paradigm shift in marketing dynamics. For aspiring marketers, it opens the doors to an ecosystem where data fluency and strategic acumen reign supreme.
While the potential of GenAI is vast, it’s crucial to address ethical considerations and ensure responsible use. As a technology provider, it’s incumbent upon us to prioritize transparency, fairness and accountability in our AI-driven initiatives. By implementing robust governance frameworks and ethical guidelines, we can mitigate potential risks and safeguard against unintended consequences, ensuring that GenAI remains a force for positive change in the business landscape.
Runki Goswami is CMO at Newgen Software.
