Are We Human or Are We Dancer?
Forgive the gratuitous Killers lyric but it seems apposite for today’s generative AI-powered world where we appear faced with an existential binary choice: human or something that makes no sense at all.
For most brands, especially retail brands, it’s a false choice. Most are far more engaged in dealing with the cost-of-living crisis, the impact of soaring interest rates and the general wretched state of affairs than mastering AI and quantum data campaigns right now.
And with good reason. A recent study found 68% of UK consumers think the country is in decline, 56% say their standard of living is actively worsening and 47% feel less in control of their finances than five years ago. That’s a challenging retail landscape.
The goal then is to make the browsing and buying experience as painless and as pleasurable as possible for the customer. Marketers need to make the traditional purchase funnel as wide, welcoming and efficient as possible so that customers emerge satisfied and positive.
Consumers now explicitly or tacitly allow retailers to scrape data from every contact point and mine it to help make the shopping process more enjoyable. We expect Amazon to know what we’re looking for, sometimes even before we do. Yes, we may miss out on those wild-card gems that random browsing unearths – “Who knew I wanted Ken doll pyjamas, but I SO do!” – but it’s frequently easier to let the algorithm do the legwork and present us with curated options, despite grumbles over data privacy.
Still, whilst these right-place, right-time moments can draw in the customer, countless data-driven adverts go unnoticed as they simply fade into the background and become mere digital clutter; skipped, scrolled past, or even stopped altogether with online ad blockers.
With the introduction of generative AI, machine-learning and the demise of cookies, marketers can rely almost entirely on machines to deliver whole campaigns. The algorithm can boil the data ocean, trawl for insights, select the optimal media mix, produce the message/content, deliver it and monitor the results entirely untouched by human hands. The problem is that this can result in marketing every bit as sterile as that sounds.
Wall Street Journal columnist Andy Kessler despaired recently about an AI-generated email received by a Texan oil executive that read “Does your team have work struggles that’s as bad as the oil spill in the Gulf?” To paraphrase Obi Wan Kenobi, millions of copywriters cried out in terror. It’s hard to believe even the most inept agency would let that slip the net.
Clunky content like this should be a warning to marketers. These AI-powered, technically brilliant yet somehow-not-quite-right conversations feel fake and can damage customer relationships. If we allow the machines to run the show entirely, without human quality control, then consumers may ultimately lose trust in not only the clumsy communications but the brands behind them.
Whilst we’re living in an ever-evolving, technologically advancing petri-dish, there is something to be said about traditional advertising. A phrase about reinventing the wheel springs to mind. Broadcast, print, and out of home advertising may not be as targeted as their digital counterparts, but their broad-based appeal may just be the key to their comeback.
Traditional ads seen by millions give people something to talk about. Shared knowledge and familiarity is the sacrifice digital adverts make in their crusade to deliver hyper-personalised campaigns. It’s no surprise that there was a national outcry when Love Island sponsor Just Eat axed the two lovable talking parrots who provided cheesy (but quotable) quips from their TV ads - that kind of collective cultural moment. That human connection with a brand’s mascot would simply not be possible without the broad reach and wide targeting of traditional ad spend.
Which is not to say that the developments in AI and associated applications don’t have a valuable place in our modern marketing profession. They do. But we need to look at creating a synergy between the two.
The best results are always achieved when you marry the right skills to the right problem. Ask AI to write a creative brief and the results are woeful. Ask it to construct a Marketing Plan from relevant data sources and it is much more adroit. Just like us, there are things that it’s good at and things it’s less good at.
Using the power of sophisticated data mining and AI to identify the best prospects, timing, opportunities and most efficient channels are perfectly valid applications for technology. The quantum volume of data now available makes it almost impossible to do otherwise. View it as setting the context for the conversation: the who, what, where and when.
But the why and the how of the conversation is likely still better crafted, and I use that word deliberately, by human practitioners, skilled in honing persuasive, compelling arguments that resonate with the recipient. Gaining trust. Winning loyalty. Sharing values. Nurturing relationships.
This is the core role of marketing in building brands. As a profession we can - and should – use new technology’s unique abilities to improve efficiency and accuracy. But retain enough confidence in our own unique abilities to know where to step in.
Just because we have a high-tech hammer, not everything becomes a quotidian nail.
In 1954, the American author Robert Sheckley published 'Untouched by Human Hands', a collection of short stories depicting a dystopian future where machines had taken over with often horrifying results. Seventy years later, we appear to be on the threshold of living that reality. But it needn’t end badly. The key is the intelligent application of technology to produce a better end result, with the human being in ultimate control of what that result is.
If we want to continue to have fruitful one-to-one conversations with customers, we just need to ensure there’s a human on both ends when the call comes down the line.
So they don’t cut the cord.
Sources:
https://hbr.org/2022/04/why-marketers-are-returning-to-traditional-advertising
https://www.groupm.com/mid-year-advertising-forecast-2023/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/two-economies-unemployment-tech-layoffs-ai-gpus-nvidia-6df509ee
