The use of AI in advertising is rapidly bringing about “a sea change, and there are not just examples here and there, but intrinsic parts of most large ad campaigns that we see right now,” says Laya Menon of IPG Mediabrands.
“Machine learning has been around for a fairly long time. It’s just become more sophisticated where AI is able to detect patterns and then it keeps learning. So, it’s able to optimise and make campaigns far more intelligent with each passing day,” Laya Menon, executive VP & business head, Lodestar UM (IPG MB), told participants at our Bangalore AI Forum last week.
This has been vital in the use of AI to transform the way campaigns are made and targeted, she added.
Menon noted a recent survey of 500 marketers in six APAC countries (India, China, Australia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore) that asked them about the use of AI in marketing and advertising and “found them to be optimistic and anxious at the same time.”
Within the APAC region, overall AI adoption has also “seen a real jump,” she said.
Where and how AI is making a difference in advertising
Menon noted there are three basic ways that many marketers view AI today:
- As a butler, for automating basic tasks. “I’m talking from a marketing and advertising standpoint. It helps automate all the routine and mundane tasks, so that will make life easier,” she said.
- As a partner, where it is helping marketers create better customer engagement. Or, for example, AI is used to help make sense of the chatter going around in the social environment. This can be beneficial in finding out how to make an advertising campaign more effective, Menon said.
- AI as the cyborg, “where AI will lead AI.” The tasks that are already fairly automated by AI will go to the next level in terms of how AI takes over. This is happening already in many ways in other areas, she said, for instance, with things such as AI-driven cars.
AI adding value as far as advertising strategising is concerned, “all starts with improved targeting and segmentation,” Menon said.
It’s no longer about an ad getting broadcast to almost everybody, she said, but rather more about what users are looking for. “Their interaction, their data, their understanding and serving them ads that are suitable to them,” she added.
Another important aspect relates to using AI in assessing consumer behaviour and marketing behaviour. This allows the advertiser to tweak what they want to do with their campaigns and investments.
Contextual targeting increasingly effective and popular
Contextual targeting is another space where web content and contextual ads come together. This is also increasing in popularity, Menon said.
She noted this is highly effective and a lot of advertisers are actively seeking to make use of it to avoid mass targeted campaigns.
“Most advertisers are embracing it with a lot of excitement,” Menon added. “At the end of the day, it’s all about what the returns are on the money spent.”
Better targeting of all kinds offers possibilities towards helping minimising some of the ad avoidance that advertisers are all going through, as well, she said.
‘A lot is going to become better and better’
When it comes to AI’s future, she said “I think a lot of it is just going to become better and better. And we’re going to go from the butler and the partner stage to the cyborg stage. That is how AI is going to be more integrated into our lives, and not just advertising.”
Where advertising is concerned, she said, “you will see a far greater degree of automation, which will bring about efficiencies across functions.”
Specifically, she noted:
- Personalisation will get far more personal than what it is currently
- Creativity will be enhanced because you will be able to identify the kind of communication that each cohort is most likely to respond to, and
- The overall marketing operation gets turned around because it’s all about data now. The data gets ingested into those tools that I was talking about and the overall marketing platforms, we just need to adjust the first party data from the brand platforms or the campaign platforms and it just keeps getting enriched and the metrics keep getting better and better.
“AI is the future: there is no two ways about it. But one needs to guard against mediocrity and ensure brands don’t get into a pool of sameness,” she said.
The larger issue, Menon noted, is not so much whether to use AI, but how to use it, and how marketers deal with AI. But more importantly, it is essential that human creativity remains an integral part of the process.
“I think that is the larger point, to not let go of human ingenuity,” she said.
Brian Veseling is a Senior Editor at WAN-IFRA and specialises in reporting about reader revenue, advertising and general management topics. The World Association of News Publishers, or WAN-IFRA, is the world’s largest international press organisation representing 3,000 news publishing companies and technology entrepreneurs, and 60 member publisher associations representing 18,000 publications in 120 countries. Our mission is to protect the rights of journalists and publishers worldwide to operate independent media. We provide our members with expertise and services to innovate and prosper in a digital world and perform their crucial role in society.
