Will AI Kill the Marketing Star?
Some call it transformational; others say that the human tendency to slowly adopt major change will inhibit its full impact for quite a while. Regardless of which side you’re on, artificial intelligence is undoubtedly one of the most promising technologies of our era with its capacity to enhance automation and streamline processes across various sectors.
But just how good is it? Are marketing teams and external agencies no longer needed if an algorithm can provide insights and answers like never before? And how can IPAs utilize AI to increase ROI and enjoy more R&R at the EOD?
We’re biased on this topic, of course, but we’re also early adopters of the technology and trying to work with it rather than against it. Based on what we’ve seen so far, here’s our view.
Are marketing agencies obsolete?
Let’s start with this question, which has varying views in the place marketing space. Some IPAs use agencies often; others prefer to stick in-house.
In either case, agencies bring specialized expertise, fresh ideas, and a diverse skill set. They offer flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and unbiased perspectives, avoiding the need to recruit and train an in-house team. This maximizes the organization's return on investment (ROI) while benefiting from the agency's industry knowledge and innovation.
For the record, that paragraph came directly from ChatGPT. While we’d largely agree, our non-generative AI response for why to hire an agency would be to access its…
· Expertise: Specialized agencies see patterns and pull insights from working with like-minded clientele at a larger scale.
· Systems: From tech tools and talent to tracking trends and teaming with process, successful agencies have them all. Not that in-house teams do not; some very much do, but the costs of obtaining that across an entire in-house marketing department can be exorbitant.
· Perspective: The right agency can offer unfiltered perspective because we are the ones on the outside looking in. Having a partner you can trust to provide candid feedback is invaluable.
· Nimbleness: All of the above allows agencies to bring scale to marketing efforts, but also change direction quickly as needed.
That’s something not easily replicated or replaced by technology. Marketing still relies (and perhaps always will) on human instinct, especially in niche industries like economic development. It’s often a iterative process as well, as this humorous meme suggests.
AI is only as good as the prompts that generate an answer and, while those prompts can indeed be fine-tuned, nothing beats a collaborative human partner in real time.
What can (and can’t) AI be used for?
AI systems excel in handling repetitive tasks, data analysis, and automating some processes, freeing up human experts to focus on creativity, strategy, and relationship-building. That’s our favourite part – it has increased our ability to work on value and eliminate waste.
And while AI can provide insights based on data, it's the marketer’s expertise that translates these insights into actionable strategies and campaigns that resonate with real people and audiences. The ideal approach combines AI-powered tools for data analysis and automation with the human touch of specialists, fostering a symbiotic relationship that maximizes efficiency and results.
Content creation is another marketing speciality that has been threatened by AI. But so far, quality is an ongoing concern with copy lacking personality and tone, often outputting choppy sentences lacking creativity.
Wunderman Thompson in Australia highlighted this exact pitfall with a recent campaign they ran for Nestlé’s Kit Kat, using text and image generators to create intentionally awkward ads with the tagline “AI made this ad so we could have a break.” We guarantee AI couldn’t come up with a smart campaign like that.
In fact, AI is best when there are massive amounts of historical data about a wide audience, which can be distilled down into genuine insights. This is the exact thing IPAs do not have access to. Audiences are smaller, with niche needs and the historical data of relevance often doesn’t exist because of the confidentiality rules of the industry.
That’s not to say we shouldn’t try and that there aren’t ways to access great intel via AI, but we’re confident in saying that this is not the so-called “magic bullet” just yet.
Beware the tales told in media about the latest and greatest advances with AI. Have you ever noticed that almost all examples of great marketing start with phrases like, “Netflix did this…”, “Amazon tried that…”, and “Google increased its users by…”
The theme is that they are massive global companies with more data in a week than most IPAs will transact in a lifespan. Large companies like that play by different rules than most, so their relevancy has limitations for the broader market.
Where do we go from here?
As mentioned above, we’re fierce adopters of AI. ChatGPT has become a part of our workflows, Fireflies Notetaker has become one of our favorite apps and SEMRush’s writing assistant has improved the quality of initial drafts we’re able to send our clients.
For those who haven’t started yet, try following resources online for beginner cheat sheets to help improve your “prompt game” and start practicing. Use what you can and experiment, because like email and internet, this will become the way work is done.
Beyond that, we’d relate where we are now to when the iPad first came out. Everyone who wanted to be cool had one (you know who you were 😉), but for the majority of people, that’s where the benefit stopped.
It was not an easier way to work compared to a laptop until years later when the ecosystem adapted for it. And what happened then? Most people still used laptops (which were influenced by iPad innovations, thankfully) and the overall change was better, but not light years ahead.
In other words, just like video never killed the radio star, we don’t see AI replacing marketing teams or agencies any time soon.
For more information on place marketing, sign up for our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn.
