Digiday Research: Less than 50 percent of brands are using AI for marketing
Digiday’s “Research in brief” is our newest research installment designed to give you quick, easy and digestible facts to make better decisions and win arguments around the office. They are based on Digiday’s proprietary surveys of industry leaders, executives and doers. See our earlier research on the state of the agency world here.
Globalization coupled with the rise of e-commerce has increasingly pitted brands against one another. Due to this increased competition, brands are scouring for the latest technology or strategy that can provide a competitive edge. One such area they have explored is incorporating artificial intelligence into their marketing strategies. At the Digiday Marketing Summit in the Bahamas, we surveyed 30 marketing executives to better understand their approach to artificial intelligence.
Only 15 percent of brands have applied AI to their marketing strategies to date, but those brands are benefiting. Retailer Adore Me boosted revenues by 15 percent when AI was used to strengthen their audience segmentation efforts and shift customer messaging from mainly email to texts, in-app messages and Facebook ads. Dole and Gallery Furniture each used artificial intelligence marketing platform Albert to optimize marketing campaigns in real time and saw significant lifts. Unilever, Toyota and Campbell’s Soup are just a few brands that count on IBM’s Watson to create personalized advertising experiences for their consumers.
Over half of all brands haven’t incorporated any AI into their marketing efforts. Eric Brassard, founder of AI recommendation company Propulse Analytics and a former Saks Fifth Avenue executive, said brands’ hesitation to share their proprietary data could be a factor.
Forty-six percent of brands wish their companies had an AI strategy. But those not using AI should remind themselves that simply implementing AI doesn’t guarantee success. Jeremy Waite, global leader of CMO Programs at IBM, cautioned brands against rushing prematurely into AI because the technology faces major operational hurdles.
-
Digiday+ Research deep dive: YouTube holds strong as a reliable marketing channel for agencies and brands
YouTube might not be considered the most exciting marketing channel out there, but brands and agencies see the platform as a reliable marketing channel that delivers consistent success.
-
Pringles goes all in on social to put college athletes front-and-center for ‘March Mustache’ campaign
Pringles is turning to social media — particularly Instagram — to leverage some of the college athletes playing in the March Madness basketball tournament, with the goal of reaching college basketball fans on second screens.
-
Short-form video needs better monetization, creator funds aren’t the way to do it
Creator funds have almost been like a stepping stone before a more permanent solution is either considered or put into place.
-
SponsoredHow advertisers are leveraging omnichannel attribution and measurement to power CTV
Sponsored by MNTN Connected TV advertising has joined and expanded the larger ecosystem of campaigns that advertisers deploy. As such, omnichannel marketing strategies now encompass television and mobile devices, tablets and other screens such as out-of-home. And as customers engage across these different touchpoints, brands are seeking and moving their measurement and analytics efforts to […]
-
L’Oreal uses social listening, in-house teams to tap into beauty trends ‘at the speed of culture’
The beauty behemoth is turning to in-house teams to accelerate content production that taps into trends within days, rather than the weeks or months of traditional marketing and advertising timelines.
-
With Canva and Adobe’s new updates, the generative AI race enters the brand design space
Canva and Adobe are just two of several major design and visual platforms that are rapidly introducing new generative AI capabilities in the service of brands.
