Generative AI is only as good as the data itâs trained on. And in todayâs privacy-centric world, the most valuable data lies within the first-party insights brands collect directly from their customers, industry executives emphasized at ADWEEK House at Cannes today.
âNo matter how incredible Sora, Dall-E or Adobe Firefly is, if every single marketer is using it, it canât possibly be an advantage,â said Alex Collmer, chief executive officer and founder of VidMob.
The panel, which included executives from Autodesk and Ulta Beauty, discussed the evolving role of human input alongside technological advancements in traditional marketing tasks and whatâs next for AI in the industry.
Here are the three main takeaways.
Creative data to maximize AI
For some time now, marketers have focused on building comprehensive customer and audience data profiles instrumental across marketing activities.
According to Collmer, the next imperative for marketers is to understand the creative decisions behind ads.
âThat drives all the behaviors you care about,â Collmer addressed the audience. âMedia behaviors, the attention, brand, sales, carbon, impact, all of those can be quantified and aligned against the creative decisions youâve made. Thatâs creative data.â
This is one of the most important assets that every marketer has to own, he said.
âIf you donât own and control your creative data, you will not be able to use AI better than others,â Collmer added.
Asking the right questions and evaluating AI
Maximal output from gen AI tools, like ChatGPT, lies in how good youâre at asking it the right questions or prompt engineeringâan emerging creative skill in the industry,
Knowing what questions to ask and how to phrase those questions is going to be the next iteration of using gen AI models, according to Dara Treseder, chief marketing officer at Autodesk.
âYouâre going to start to see people develop careers in âhow I ask the right questionsâ,â she said.
Looking ahead, brands are also expected to emphasize real-life use cases from gen AI tools, evaluating productivity and quality of insights.
âCFOs writing those checks for the infrastructureâtheyâre going to come to cash those checks,â said Treseder.
More human intervention amid AI surge
Ultimately, the success of sophisticated gen AI tools hinges on creating ads that resonate with consumers.
This authenticity is seen as crucial to overcoming the barriers posed by millions of ad blockers and engaging audiences effectively, according to an industry executive speaking in the audience.
âThe reality is we live in a world of âmore is moreâ, and we all think about the first-party data, which [marketers] do not capture but outsource to other platforms,â the executive spoke candidly. âThat perceived data modeling is rubbish.â
In a final sobering remark, the executive called for a cultural shift within companies. They emphasized the need to invest more in a brandâs first-party data requires integrating solutions into corporate cultures as effectively as technological tools are.
Failure to do so, the executive said, could lead to broader cultural deficiencies within the industry.
See all of ADWEEKâs Cannes Lions coverage here.
