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Marketing and sales are two of the areas that are likely to be most impacted by generative AI (McKinsey & Company, 2023). Within marketing, generative AI can help generate content, improve personalization, leverage data to recommend strategies and scale A/B testing. Throughout this article, a few examples of of generative AI in advertising will be examined.

Jasper

Jasper.ai is a generative AI software that can adapt to the preferred tone of voice of a brand based on its communication up to the present date, company information and desired audience. Then, it can generate communication in that tone across all types of media, from SEO content to ads to emails. Therefore, marketers only need to then consider what content to deliver and through what medium but the execution of it can then be handled by Jasper.

Persado

Persado takes content generation one step further. Once content has been generated across a brand’s website, ads and emails, Persado leverages analytics data in order to adjust text to improve the conversion rate. The objective of the optimization can be specified by the user and can range from reducing cart abandonment to improving customer retention.

Manychat

Manychat is a generative AI software that is focused on messaging apps. It is available for Instagram DMs, Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger. It enables users to automate points of contact with their customers by using generative AI-based chatbots to guide users through the customer journey. Furthermore, it can create click-to-message ads that can then lead to an automated conversation through Manychat and guide the user further along the purchase funnel.

Adobe Journey Optimizer

Adobe Journey Optimizer allows users to manage campaigns across channels and optimize the customer journey through Generative AI. Adobe Journey Optimizer can generate customer journeys and fit them to the company’s industry, objectives and customer profiles. Furthermore, by pairing with Adobe CDP, analytics data can be used to generate customer profiles and audiences that can be then targeted across channels.

AdCreative.ai

AdCreative is an ad generation software that adapts to a brand’s identity and generates ad creatives that are aligned with it. These creatives are also generated based on the target platform for the ads, with the software making a distinction between Google Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads and many others. Furthermore, the format is also something that can be specified. What is most interesting is that the software is learning from the performance of the creatives that it is creating and then can optimize for conversion rate.

Bringing it all together

By creating a workflow that is designed with generative AI in mind, an advertising department can plan their customer journey with Adobe Journey Optimizer for customer profiles created with Adobe CDP, then create content across multiple channels with Jasper.ai from a text perspective and AdCreative.ai for the creative assets, optimize the text based on performance with Persado and automate contact with customers at key touchpoints with Manychat. This would then enable advertisers to do what they do best and focus on making a brand stand out by providing the human element through innovative marketing ideas. Hopefully, the onset of generative AI can lead to a future where advertising is more creative, more reflective of the brand’s purpose and where more emphasis is placed on genuine connection with a brand’s customers.

References:

Deveau, R., Griffin, S. J., & Reis, S. (2023). AI-powered marketing and sales reach new heights with generative AI. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/ai-powered-marketing-and-sales-reach-new-heights-with-generative-ai

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Information delivery facilitation

Generative AI has a huge potential when it comes to automating the delivery of information. Let’s take for example the Information Strategy course from the Business Information Management master’s degree at the Rotterdam School of Management. This course is divided into 8 chapters, each of which has accompanying videos and recommended readings. In a given chapter, there are certain key concepts that a student must understand. The student must understand both the theoretical underpinning of a concept as well as how to apply that concept to the real world. Although applying a theoretical concept to a real life example can be a complex process that is best guided through by a knowledgeable and experienced teacher, the theory itself can be facilitated through AI-generated videos.

AI Script Generation Software – Maekersuite

For example, take disruptive innovation as a specific concept. A script for a 3-minute video explaining the concept could be created by the professor or a teaching assistant with the aid of ChatGPT. Maekersuite, a generative AI powered script writing software, only requires a prompt such as “Explain disruptive innovation as based on Clayton Christensen’s HBR article” and specifying a video length and target audience to create an engaging and scientifically accurate script. A script outline is first generated which already contains all the information and can be edited before generating the script itself.

Input

Part of script outline

Script output

AI Video Generation Software – Pictory & HourOne

This text input, the script from Maekersuite, can then be sent to AI video creation software such as Pictory. Pictory can then generate a video where it assigns random backgrounds relevant to the topic and applies an AI voice to read the text input. However, the separation in scenes cannot be precisely specified by the user, which results in imprecise spacing of the content throughout the video. Furthermore, the backgrounds can often be irrelevant. Most likely, Pictory is better to be used for artistic videos rather than videos focused on explaining concepts.

Images from resulting Pictory video

HourOne was much better in that regard, since it is an AI video generator specialised in presentations. If the ChatGPT-generated text is simply posted as an input then an automated presenter video can be generated with a presenter that can be chosen by the user out of an available selection. Furthermore, HourOne offers a mobile app through which the user can record themselves standing still for 5 seconds and then a virtual version of the user is generated that can then be used for the videos. However, this feature is currently limited and not as versatile as the built-in presenter options since it is not compatible with as many templates, and even when it is compatible, the visibility of the virtual avatar is limited. That being said, the option to add a familiar face to the viewers can make a video seem friendlier.

Presenters available

Myself as a virtual presenter, including fitting into templates

Conclusion

If coupled with specialised human input, script generation and video creation software can go quite far, but it is still very far from reaching a level that is comparable from a quality standpoint to the current videos that are delivered by professors as course support in an online educational platform. In my view, a perfect product would be a mix of improved versions of Pictory and HourOne, generating relevant background images to illustrate concepts, while maintaining a virtual presenter that is based on the actual content creator rather than preset options.