Industry marketing body MMA Global launched the AI Leadership Coalition (ALC) earlier this year, and now it’s arrived in South Africa.
The ALC initiative – the largest of its kind with over 300 marketers from around 160 companies – is, according to the MMA, among the most important marketing coalitions universally available.
It was formed due to the rapid pace of AI developments which is directly affecting business’s performance and their sector’s competitiveness.
“By driving strategic AI utilisation in marketing, the MMA’s ALC is intended as a forum for marketers to come together to explore, experiment, and execute groundbreaking AI initiatives that push the boundaries of what marketing can achieve,” explained Sarah Utermark, country director for MMA South Africa.
“It will also enable the MMA to create ethical and impactful marketing strategies and innovative industry advancements that then can be shared as a means of constantly upskilling the South African marketing industry,” she said.
Working groups
ALC members choose one of four working groups to join: content and creative, measurement and attribution, audience development and media buying as well as responsible AI.
Then they collaborate to apply AI to marketing responsibly and effectively, to drive improved business growth, deliver personalised experiences and enhance operational efficiency through strategic AI utilisation in marketing.
The ALC provides members with access to learning and skills development and comprehensive proprietary new knowledge building.
Knowledge building
In the latter, for instance, members are exposed to AI personalisation of ads, AI in market research, the incorporation of GenAI into organisations, a framework to determine if the AI is real or not, as well as the decoding of AI for marketers. It will also place great attention on responsible AI and its usage.
This includes risk evaluation, AI governance, policy templates and audit guidelines as a start.
“AI is gaining traction at pace and it’s in every marketers’ interest to get to grips with what AI is and how it will, without doubt, impact their organisations, even themselves as individuals. It’s a brave new world out there and the MMA is leading the charge of making AI accessible and available, while new research is continued to be undertaken by those in the MMA global community,” said Utermark.
“This is not a static sector; AI is always changing and adapting to new circumstances and thus marketers must be attuned to AI and learn and adopt it as one would learn a new language.”
MMA Global’s commitment to AI in marketing was manifested through several pioneering endeavours in 2023 such as:
-
AI Benchmark Survey Reports, including comprehensive studies like:
- State of AI in Marketing & Customer Experience
- State of Generative AI in Marketing
- State of AI in Digital Transformation.
-
MMA’s AI webinars and presentations:
- AI Research: Value of Personalizing Ads w/ AI (+195% on avg)
- Revolutionizing Advertising: CAP – Consortium for AI Personalization – Part 2 (coming)
- MMA’s CMO & CEO Summit presentation: The AI Conundrum
- MMA’s CMO & CEO Summit presentation: Boosting Ad Effectiveness Using AI-Driven Personalization
- State of AI in Marketing & Customer Experience benchmarking study
- State of Generative AI and its Application to Marketing benchmarking study
- State of AI in Digital Transformation (coming)
- Unlocking Growth: Data Strategies for Gen AI (coming)
“The MMA is also actively reaching out to marketers, agencies, academia, technology companies and others seeking guides/new processes/frameworks on AI to develop, for marketers, AI use cases to assess, AI technology and applications to research, training and education programs for marketers, and more,” said Utermark.
“To get onboard with all things AI we encourage marketers, from those new to the industry to its leaders, to take a serious look at their adoption of AI and if there is room to improve it, it would be in their interest to do so.”
The MMA Academy, which launched in August, offers an array of AI training courses for marketers as part of the ALC education initiative due to start from January 2025.
A list of courses is now available and can be accessed by contacting Sarah.utermark@mmaglobal.com.
For more on the MMA ALC click HERE.
