Podcast: Amy Wright Discussed Supercharging Ad Campaigns with AI on the Life in Digital Podcast
Automated Creative’s Global Head of Strategy, Amy Wright, was recently a guest on the Life in Digital podcast, where she covered the blend of disciplines that define what AC do, as well as what’s good and bad about AI in advertising.
Amy’s been “doing AI before it was cool” and working within the remit of Automated Creative has allowed her to see how exciting it can be that “smart tech, in such a short space of time, has gone from being a novelty play to a central part of [...] day-to-day work.”
Should we embrace AI or be wary of it?
Reticence is understandable when it comes to the rapid surge in the use of artificial intelligence, says Amy. Layoffs have become a very potential impact but, more importantly, creators have seen their work stolen or being programmed into AI content without their permission. However, it’s important to remember that AI is a neutral technology - it’s not the tech causing this, it’s just an instrument that amplifies human behaviour.
So, what’s the answer to the dilemma of ethical AI? Those using it should consider the system they’re embedding it into - from how diverse the teams are that are feeding data into a model, to what type of data it is to begin with. It’s crucial to prevent the biases that we’ve already seen creeping into AI models if those using them don’t pay attention to them.
On the other hand, AI is also capable of empowering communities that have been traditionally disenfranchised. It’s got the ability to liberate and provide access to technology, but also to oppress. Our focus as a marketing industry should therefore be to use AI to build a better system - rewrite and rebuild what’s not been working for us.
Creative - the forgotten optimisation
Specifically looking at using AI and tech in marketing, Amy drew attention to the importance of creative - i.e. the types of language, the specific copy, the visuals that bring to life a campaign.
While we notice a lot of optimisation on the media side, creative can be considered a missing link in this space. No one’s really using the technology to address optimising it, despite studies by Google and Meta suggesting that it’s responsible for up to 60 or 70 percent of the effectiveness of a campaign.
There’s too much temptation for marketers to see creative as a “commodity” when it’s really a driver of commercial success and a huge differentiator. So, why wouldn’t you put money into improving it?
Seizing the Benefits of Creative Optimisation
AC move clients from seeing which ads are working to understanding why they’re working. Once that’s clear, it can influence briefs and help creative teams pinpoint the DNA of high performance. Our recent White Paper, Compounding Creative, drew on a wealth of insights looking at boosting creative effectiveness. And, while it’s been focused on getting Q4 results for brands, the substance of it can be applied long-term, especially as you build your 2024 plans and beyond.
There are two areas to focus on:
Time to decision
Once live with their campaigns, most marketers don’t feel they have the tools they need to make new decisions, as shown by our research. They’ll turn to agencies, but the agencies aren’t set up with the right infrastructure to answer those questions. Clients want to act but they don’t have the data and insight they need.
Time to action
Of those who have the information they need on live campaigns, many feel they cannot act in time. ⅔ of marketers don’t think their agencies or teams can act in an agile enough manner to improve live campaigns. This can be linked to insufficient communication levels - exactly the sort of thing that can be amplified with fatigue in the last quarter of the year.
Misconceptions around Christmas campaigns
Amy shared that a big misconception about Christmas marketing is that online campaigns cannot drive offline sales. But AC have seen this to be wrong for one of our clients. Running digital ads drove sales regionally in stores, obtaining an important sales uplift of 40%.
Another surprising belief many marketers have is that running a few ads is enough to “tide you over.” In fact, you need to refresh your content to stay relevant in the market: make an ad and invest in making it better over time.
Finally, focusing narrowly on tentpole moments like Black Friday / Cyber Monday can miss broader opportunity. Due to a multitude of factors from tighter budgeting to more excitement for marking big occasions post-pandemic, we’re seeing the holiday buying period stretch out a lot more. And that gives brands more opportunities to run multiple ad sprints.
The bottom line
⅓ of marketers don’t optimise in-flight at all. That is a huge missing piece of the puzzle - one that can lead to missing out on c. 17% more media value from creative optimisation, and an average reduction of 53% on CPA. Agencies want to do this for their clients, and clients are asking them to do it, but either they don’t have the technology or it’s not their place to do that properly. That’s where using a creative ad tech platform like AC fills the gap.
As Amy concludes:
Optimisation really opens up the world of brands… As soon as you’re not making that one safe bet, you can be so much more nuanced in your creative, you can show much more diversity, try an edgier tone of voice… running ads at scale lets you experience the breadth of diversity so much more.
AC is not just solving ad problems, it’s a new way of working and we’re unlocking business growth.
Listen to the full episode here.
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