News/Marketing
Small business and generative AI, 2 years on
Generative AI's impact on small businesses two years on: After two years of widespread access to generative AI technology, the small business landscape has seen significant changes and adaptations. A panel of small business experts recently convened to discuss the evolving role of AI in small business operations and its broader implications. The discussion aimed to assess whether AI has truly transformed small business practices and to what extent. TikTok enhances advertising capabilities: TikTok has introduced new performance advertising solutions to help brands achieve better business results on its platform. The new tools focus on automation, improved measurement capabilities, and...
read Oct 20, 2024When it comes to CPU marketing, beware the snake oil salespitches
The AI marketing hype in CPU industry: The tech industry's increasing focus on artificial intelligence has led to a surge in AI-related marketing for CPUs and other hardware, despite limited practical benefits for most consumers. AI capabilities are being prominently featured in marketing campaigns for new CPUs and laptops, with manufacturers emphasizing the potential for on-device AI processing. Neural Processing Units (NPUs) are being integrated into chips, but their real-world value for average users remains questionable. Major chip manufacturers like AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm are highlighting AI performance improvements in their latest CPU offerings. Performance disparity between CPUs and GPUs:...
read Oct 19, 2024Pinterest boosts ad campaigns with new AI and automation tools
AI-driven advertising revolution on Pinterest: Pinterest has unveiled a suite of new AI and automation features aimed at enhancing advertiser campaigns and simplifying campaign management. The new features were introduced at Pinterest Presents, the company's global advertiser summit, focusing on improving lower-funnel performance advertising campaigns. The updates are part of the newly launched Pinterest Performance+ suite, which leverages AI and automation tools to optimize targeting, manage budgets, and adjust bids automatically. Key features of Pinterest Performance+ suite: The new suite offers a range of lower-funnel ad products designed to support Consideration, Conversions, and Catalog Sales objectives. Advertisers can reduce campaign...
read Oct 17, 2024How Moët Hennessy balances luxury expectations with AI hype
Luxury meets AI: Moët Hennessy's cautious embrace of generative technology: Moët Hennessy, a leader in the luxury alcohol industry, is carefully exploring the potential of generative AI to enhance its marketing strategies while maintaining the high standards expected of premium brands. Efficiency through innovation: Generative AI presents significant opportunities for Moët Hennessy to streamline operations and redirect resources towards more strategic initiatives. Tatyana Ilyin, director of digital for Moët Hennessy's champagne portfolio, estimates that teams currently dedicate 80% of their time to routine tasks that don't directly contribute to business growth. By leveraging AI, the company aims to automate these...
read Oct 17, 2024AI search tools are failing to impress marketers
AI-powered search tools face skepticism from marketers: The introduction of new AI-powered search tools has sparked interest in the industry, but many marketers remain cautious about their adoption and effectiveness. Recent launches like Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews have generated buzz, but marketers are hesitant to invest due to uncertainties surrounding reach and return on ad spend. The search advertising landscape is evolving, with new entrants like TikTok and potentially Reddit challenging Google's dominance, which has faced recent antitrust scrutiny. Despite the emergence of AI-powered alternatives, Google still holds approximately 80% of the search market share, according to Statista. Measurement...
read Oct 16, 2024Adobe’s new AI tools will change how ads are made
AI-Powered Video Creation Revolutionizes Advertising Industry: Adobe's latest AI tools are set to transform how advertisers and creators produce and modify video content, offering unprecedented speed and ease in content creation. Key Advancements in AI-Driven Video Production: Adobe has introduced AI tools that enable the creation and modification of videos from prompts and existing images. The new features include the ability to generate videos with text, a capability that many AI image generators have struggled with in the past. Users can now manipulate various aspects of video production, such as camera pans, movement intensity, angles, and shot sizes. Adobe has...
read Oct 15, 2024TikTok’s Smart+ promises AI gains for marketers — but it’s still a black box
AI-driven advertising tools reshape marketing landscape: TikTok's recent launch of Smart+ highlights the growing trend of AI-powered advertising solutions that promise improved performance but raise questions about transparency and control. TikTok's Smart+ joins a roster of AI-driven advertising tools offered by major platforms, including Google's Performance Max and Meta's Advantage+, reflecting a shift towards automated campaign management. These tools promise to simplify advertising processes and deliver superior results, attracting marketers despite concerns about reduced transparency and control over ad placements. The allure of AI-powered advertising: Marketers are increasingly embracing AI tools due to their potential for delivering impressive results and...
read Oct 15, 2024AI-powered Strella raises $4M for automated market research
AI-powered market research startup secures seed funding: Strella, a company leveraging artificial intelligence to automate and accelerate customer research, has raised $4 million in seed funding led by Decibel, with participation from Unusual Ventures. The startup's AI-powered platform aims to deliver human insights up to 10 times faster and at half the cost of traditional research methods. Strella was founded by Lydia Hylton and Priya Krishnan to address the long-standing challenge in market research: balancing speed with depth of customer insights. The company's AI moderator can conduct interviews, analyze responses, and synthesize findings in real-time, significantly reducing timelines for gathering...
read Oct 15, 2024Why marketers are spending less on social media in the AI era
Social media marketing decline: Recent data from a bi-annual poll of U.S. marketing leaders reveals that social media investments have hit their lowest point in seven years, marking a significant shift in marketing strategies. The June 2020 pandemic-induced surge in social media spending, which reached 23% of marketing budgets, has given way to a notable decline. By 2022, digital marketing accounted for 57% of overall marketing spending, reflecting a rapid digitization of marketing strategies. The adoption of marketing technology (Martech) and AI-generated content has further accelerated the integration of digital approaches into business models. Factors behind the decline: Several key...
read Oct 14, 2024Mattel is using Adobe’s AI tools to rethink Barbie packaging
AI-enhanced toy packaging: A new frontier for Mattel and Adobe: Mattel, in collaboration with Adobe, is leveraging generative AI technology to revolutionize the toy packaging design process, with a focus on expediting the time-to-market for their products. Mattel is utilizing Adobe's Firefly AI tools to create background images for toy packaging, particularly for dolls that are typically displayed in their original packaging. The collaboration aims to significantly reduce the time required to bring toys to store shelves by streamlining parts of the design process. AI-generated backgrounds, with human refinement, are expected to appear on Mattel toy packaging in stores in...
read Oct 14, 2024How not to expose confidential data when using AI for marketing
The rise of generative AI in corporate communications: A double-edged sword: Generative AI tools offer exciting possibilities for content creation in marketing, advertising, and communications, but they also introduce significant security risks that organizations must address. Marketing and communications professionals often have access to confidential information and insights that are crucial for their work in promoting their organizations. Generative AI tools like ChatGPT are being embraced for their ability to quickly produce content such as media releases, social posts, and campaign materials. However, the use of these tools raises concerns about the potential exposure of sensitive organizational information. Understanding the...
read Oct 14, 2024AI voice cloning is raising hairy legal and ethical questions for businesses
AI-generated influencer endorsements emerge: A gadget manufacturer has utilized artificial intelligence to create a voice resembling that of popular tech reviewer Marques Brownlee in an Instagram promotion, raising concerns about the ethical implications and potential misuse of AI-generated content in advertising. The AI-generated voice, while not perfect, was convincing enough to potentially mislead viewers into believing it was a genuine endorsement from Brownlee. This incident highlights the growing capability of AI to mimic human voices and its potential use in creating fake celebrity endorsements. The company behind the advertisement has not yet responded to inquiries about the use of the...
read Oct 14, 2024Adobe launches GenStudio for AI-powered performance marketing
Adobe unveils GenStudio for Performance Marketing: Adobe has launched a new generative AI-powered application designed to streamline the creation and delivery of global advertising and marketing campaigns for brands and agencies. Addressing content demand challenges: The new offering aims to solve a critical issue facing businesses today. Nearly two-thirds of marketers anticipate a fivefold increase in content demand by 2026, driven by consumers' expectations for personalized brand experiences. GenStudio for Performance Marketing provides a single, self-service platform for creating various marketing materials, including paid social ads, display ads, banners, and marketing emails. The application leverages pre-approved, on-brand content to ensure...
read Oct 13, 2024How AI is reshaping customer experience
AI's transformative impact on customer experience: Artificial intelligence is making a big impact on customer service by enabling businesses to shift from reactive to proactive customer care, driven by AI's ability to predict needs, automate tasks, and deliver personalized service in real-time. The limitations of traditional customer service: Traditional reactive customer service models often lead to customer frustration and inefficiencies. Long wait times, repetitive information requests, and multiple transfers between agents are common issues. These problems stem from a focus on addressing issues as they arise rather than preventing them proactively. AI's role in reshaping customer service: AI is enabling...
read Oct 12, 2024How to use ChatGPT in your marketing mix
ChatGPT's role in modern marketing: A game-changing tool with caveats: ChatGPT, the advanced language model developed by OpenAI, is revolutionizing various aspects of marketing, offering both opportunities and challenges for professionals in the field. Content generation and ideation: ChatGPT's capabilities extend far beyond simple text creation, encompassing a wide range of marketing-related tasks. The AI can identify trending topics, analyze competitor content, and generate relevant keywords, providing marketers with valuable insights for content strategy. It can draft various types of content, including blog posts, website copy, social media captions, ad headlines, and email newsletters, streamlining the content creation process. Marketers...
read Oct 11, 2024How marketers can tackle transparency challenges in AI-driven ads
The rise of AI in advertising: Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a significant force in the advertising and marketing industry, with generative AI (Gen AI) emerging as a top priority for many executives in the Asia-Pacific region. A survey reveals that Gen AI is among the top three business priorities for 83% of APAC C-suite executives, highlighting its growing importance in the industry. Consumers are becoming more discerning, with 50% reportedly able to identify AI-generated copy, indicating a need for transparency in AI-generated advertising. The transparency debate: Marketers are divided on whether the use of AI in advertising should be...
read Oct 11, 2024YouTuber Brandon B says agencies shouldn’t fear AI
YouTube's creator economy evolution: The rise of AI and social media has empowered creators to produce high-quality content for big brands, challenging the traditional agency model. Brandon Baum, known as Brandon B on YouTube, is Europe's largest visual effects artist on the platform with over 14 million subscribers and 10 billion video views. Baum's journey from self-taught YouTube viewer to successful creator and production company owner illustrates the changing landscape of content creation. The advent of AI tools has made it possible for creators to compete with traditional agencies, offering cost-effective solutions for budget-conscious marketers. The creator vs. agency debate:...
read Oct 10, 2024How Hershey is using AI to boost Halloween sales
AI-driven marketing revolutionizes Halloween candy sales: Hershey, the renowned confectionery giant, is harnessing artificial intelligence to refine its media strategy for the crucial Halloween season, focusing on underserved markets and optimizing its digital advertising efforts. Hershey has partnered with Chalice Custom Algorithms, an AI services provider, to manage programmatic advertising across various digital platforms. The company's AI-powered approach aims to navigate the challenging advertising landscape, particularly in light of increased political advertising preceding the November elections. Halloween represents a critical period for candy sales, with unsold inventory potentially impacting future retailer orders and overall business performance. Advanced AI tools enhance...
read Oct 10, 20245 critical advertising steps brands risk overlooking in the AI era
The evolving landscape of online advertising: The digital marketing realm is experiencing significant shifts, with rising costs and increased competition reshaping how brands approach their advertising strategies. The pandemic has accelerated the shift towards e-commerce, leading to a surge in online advertising demand. Popular platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads are seeing inflated costs due to increased competition for ad space. Changes in data tracking capabilities have made it more challenging and expensive for advertisers to target their ideal audience. Supply and demand dynamics: The increasing number of brands entering the online advertising space is driving up costs and...
read Oct 9, 2024Brands are cautious about using Meta and Google’s new AI marketing tools
Holiday advertising evolves with AI: Major platforms like Google and Meta are encouraging marketers to incorporate generative AI into their holiday ad campaigns, but many brands remain cautious about fully embracing this technology. Meta's holiday marketing guide promotes the use of its generative AI features within the Advantage+ ad platform, offering capabilities such as background changes, image resizing, and ad text variations. Google Ads is also recommending similar AI-powered tools for generating holiday imagery, creating image variations, and automatically adjusting headlines and descriptions. Industry reactions and adoption rates: Despite the push from major platforms, agencies report that clients are hesitant...
read Oct 8, 2024Takeaways from the Forrester APAC Summit on agentic AI
The rise of Agentic AI in marketing: The Forrester B2B APAC Summit 2024 in Singapore highlighted the growing importance of Agentic AI as the next frontier in generative AI technology, poised to transform business operations and marketing strategies. The summit brought together CMOs and marketing leaders from across the Asia Pacific region to discuss emerging trends and share experiences. A key focus was on breaking down silos within revenue processes and reimagining customer-centric approaches that align with the entire customer lifecycle. Rapid advancements in generative AI and Agentic AI are accelerating this transformation in three critical areas: changing the nature...
read Oct 8, 2024Meta to bring AI-edited video ads to Facebook and Instagram
AI-powered video ad editing comes to Facebook and Instagram: Meta is introducing new AI tools that will allow advertisers to enhance their video ads on the popular social media platforms. Meta is testing AI capabilities that can animate static images and expand video borders, offering advertisers more creative options for their campaigns. The AI animation tool can generate video content from a still image, such as making background elements move subtly within the frame. Another feature uses AI to increase the size of existing videos by generating additional pixels in each frame, similar to AI image editing tools that expand...
read Oct 8, 2024TikTok just launched an entire suite of AI-powered advertising tools
AI-driven advertising revolution: TikTok's Smart+ platform is the latest entrant in a growing trend of AI-powered advertising tools, joining similar offerings from tech giants Meta and Google. TikTok's Smart+ allows marketers to leverage AI for creating and delivering targeted ads aimed at driving conversions, leads, or app downloads. The platform promises to simplify and accelerate the ad creation process, potentially eliminating weeks of guesswork and A/B testing traditionally associated with ad campaigns. Adolfo Fernandez, TikTok's director and global head of product strategy and operations for commerce, emphasizes the simplicity and speed offered by Smart+. Industry landscape and competition: The introduction...
read Oct 7, 2024New report details massive surveillance network being built by streaming services
Streaming TV's surveillance surge: The Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) has released a comprehensive report detailing the extensive tracking and targeting practices employed by the connected TV (CTV) industry, raising significant privacy and consumer protection concerns. The 48-page report, titled "How TV Watches Us: Commercial Surveillance in the Streaming Era," argues that streaming services and hardware companies have developed an unprecedented "surveillance system" that undermines viewer privacy. The CDD claims that the CTV industry's practices pose severe risks to consumer privacy and protection, going beyond traditional data collection methods. The report highlights how streaming platforms and device manufacturers are leveraging...
read