As the MarCom landscape evolves, the rise of generative AI brings both exhilarating opportunities for organization and significant challenges for their leadership. Businesses going through a catalyzed transformation process right now are MarCom Agencies as they are directly affected in the core value proposition and business model by the new technology. Therefore they offer a highly interesting case study to understand how the technology will impact communication in organizations. The key question in our discussions: How should you position your agency/MarCom department/Product distribution unit for the future in this age of generative AI? This blog post is based on extensive best practice analysis, including interviews with MarCom agency industry and AI thought leaders.
What can you gain from adopting Generative AI at scale in your organization?
Good news for comms people! Generative AI, combined with data, paves the way for strategic opportunities in the coming years. Here come four key opportunities that arise in all MarCom organizations, across all industries, NOW.
#1: Enhancing Conversions 📈 with Real-Time Marketing
Marketing is about delivering timely, relevant messages. By enabling the delivery of hyper-personalized content, matched with real-time behavioral analysis, marketers can significantly elevate real-time marketing tactics, leading to unprecedented boosts in conversions. Conversion grow with the relevance they have in the current context of the user: so with insights in client’s past interactions with the brand, preferences, geographic locations, current weather, or trending news topics conversions can be optimized significantly. Innovative platforms make these features accessible with minimal effort and enable you to grow with offerings aiming at conversion growth initiatives leveraging the new technologies.
Caution: Data privacy is paramount. Brands must ensure transparency, seek clear consent, and allow customers to control their data. Personalization can be increased over time. Also the selection of the tool requires a careful assessment : rather strive for a more complex tool that offers rich benefits in combination with your complementary strategic strengths.
#2: Bridge the 👩🏫 data skill gap in your organization: Enhanced analytics and insights due to new AI tools
Professional data analysis often requires navigating a convoluted process to obtain complex reports, which can even stump colleagues with a Ph.D. AI tools can simplify this process, making data quickly available to a broader audience. Automated insight tools can identify trends and patterns rapidly, enabling marketers to concentrate on implementing data-driven strategies promptly and for your organization to enter into new offerings like: Customized Marketing Strategies, Predictive Analysis, Enhanced Content Creation, where insights from data guide content creators to develop material that resonates better with target audiences, enhancing engagement and conversions, Customer Journey Mapping, so comprehensive data can provide detailed customer journey maps, identifying touchpoints and areas of improvement throughout the conversion funnel, Budget Optimization for clients advertisement budgets, using insights on what’s working and what’s not, agencies can advise clients on how to allocate their budgets more efficiently, and many more…
Caution: Before all, this means you also need to embrace a cultural change. Only by having data available, it is not naturally used. Especially Ensuring data quality and preventing algorithmic bias are vital. Additionally, sensitive data should be treated with care. Rule of thumb: use public tools for public data only. It pays off to make sure you have a Chief Data Officer in charge before starting into your first personalization project to make sure, you are aware on the pitfalls and opportunities.Building up your own data lakes might be feasible only for larger agencies with substantial resources and expertise in data science and engineering.
#3: Seize new 🪄personalized marketing opportunities
Previously, digital interactions were primarily linear, driven by semi-accurate target group models. Now, AI can facilitate more dynamic, intelligent interactions: Chat systems, powered by advanced language models for example, are experiencing a resurgence, allowing for rapid, high-quality brand interactions but also personalization and analytics tools offer completely new possibilities and hence commercial opportunities for agencies who have a convincing offering in this space. But the opportunities in personalized marketing are beyond that and are sheer endless: As generative AI can produce content based on patterns, preferences, and context derived from data, new opportunities and services emerge: Hyper-personalized Content Creation, delivering unique pieces of content tailored for individual users or narrow audience segments, from personalized emails to bespoke advertisements, based on user data and behavior. Dynamic Landing Pages, using generative AI to aid in the design of landing pages that adapt in real-time based on the user’s profile, browsing history, or even current world events, ensuring higher conversion rates. Personalized Video and Audio using AI, agencies can produce customized video or audio messages, advertisements, or content snippets that resonate with a user’s preferences and past interactions. Tailored Social Media Posts where generative AI can generate social media content optimized for specific audience segments, ensuring higher engagement rates. Behavior-driven Email Campaigns, Dynamic Ad Creation, Interactive Content, etc. illustrate the broad playing field that becomes open.
Caution: It’s vital that the automated interactions represent the brand and specific information correctly. Typical problems are the endorsement of competitors or the use of non-compliant or misleading information by mistake. Starting with clearly defined internal service functions first can be a wise approach to testing these new avenues. Once effectively deployed, AI can enhance customer relations with tailored support and real-time suggestions supporting sales and customer engagement. But: baby steps first!
#4: Achieve ⏱️ productivity improvements in critical areas
Productivity gains via AI is a hot topic right now. AI can streamline various functions across your operations. However, the human genius, encompassing creativity, the understanding of the right contextual know-how and empathy, remains indispensable. AI should supplement, not substitute your key skills and assets liberating resources to re-prioritize strategic and creative processes, allowing your team to explore new, value-adding tasks within existing budget limits. Remember to innovate not just in automation but in distinguishing your services and maximizing customer value where humans make a difference, which is still the majority of task.
Caution: Solely reducing costs won’t guarantee success, you also need to aggressively engage in service re-design and talent acquisition for the non-automated tasks. Also the issues of intellectual property concerns surround AI-generated assets is a topic that needs your attention. And to re-iterate the data confidentiality challenge form before: Using generative AI in the form of cloud services, poses potential data privacy risks that require managerial oversight and an active risk management in place.
The Future: The Hybrid MarCom Model
We’re at the dawn of a new era. While agencies experiment with transformation projects, a model is emerging: The Hybrid MarCom organization. It combines human creativity with AI efficiency, presenting a blueprint for future marketing agencies. In this new era, data-driven strategies are paramount.
It’s every organization’s task to find their unique balance in this hybrid model, adjusting as technology advances. With generative AI, tools like dynamic audience targeting and automated A/B testing are becoming commonplace, marking the start of a new chapter in marketing. Welcome to the age AI-supported, data-driven personalization and agencies that are leading the way for their clients.
Would you like to listen to our favorite podcasts when researching the topic? This is what we found and liked… we hope, you do too:
Harvard Business Review Podcast: How Generative AI Changes Creativity
Harvard Business Review Podcast: How Generative AI Changes Strategy
Harvard Business Review Podcast: How Generative AI Changes Productivity
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