From Hype to Reality: How Top Brands Use AI

This Week

This week, I’m showcasing how top brands are using AI to streamline their marketing and drive growth. Google and TikTok launch new AI features, and Marketing AI Institute wants to show you how to scale your AI efforts. You can also listen to my podcast on using AI to create better content.

Read on.

From Hype to Reality: How Top Brands Use AI

With the initial excitement of AI behind us, marketing teams have begun to integrate it into their operations in innovative and efficient ways. Mailchimp, Klarna, JPMorgan Chase, and Mars are fully embracing AI, weaving it throughout their marketing workflows—from brainstorming and content creation to analytics and optimization.

Here are the four AI use cases driving their growth:

1. For Mailchimp’s “Clustomers” campaign, the marketing team used AI image generation tools (like DALL-3 and Midjourney) to create visual concepts on the fly. This allowed the team to visualize ideas and make real-time adjustments. The results: the ad ranked in the top 5% of Ipsos ads, a success that CMO Michelle Taite attributes to the team's willingness to experiment with AI.

2. Klarna's proprietary "AI Copy Assistant" manages 80% of marketing copy tasks. This ensures a consistent brand voice and messaging while reducing costs compared to traditional methods.

3. JPMorgan teamed up with AI firm Persado to develop language models designed to analyze datasets of tagged words and phrases and then craft high-performing marketing copy. The AI-generated ad copy achieved 450% higher CTRs than those written by humans.

4. Mars created a proprietary tool called Agile Creative Expertise (ACE) to evaluate the sales potential of advertisements. ACE employs AI to analyze a wide range of consumer data, including eye tracking, facial expressions, and traditional metrics, examining over 1,000 ads from 30 Mars brands across 20 global markets. Using this data, ACE can predict with 85% accuracy whether an ad will result in a purchase or be ignored.

You can read the full write-up at MarTech.

Google’s Gemini Comes to Gmail

Are you a Google Workspace user? If you are, good news!

Google just launched Gemini in the Gmail side panel. Gemini for Gmail helps you view, understand, and respond to email content, and also connects to Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive. 

You can ask Gemini to search your inbox and documents for things like "What was the PO number for my agency?" "How much did the company spend on the last marketing event?" or "When is the next team meeting?"

Here’s a quick summary of the ways you can use Gemini for Gmail:

• Summarize an email thread 

• Suggest responses to an email thread 

• Get help drafting an email 

• Ask questions and find specific information from emails within your inbox or from your Google Drive files 

Gemini is available in the Gmail mobile app on Android, iOS, and on the web.

Microsoft Outlook users already have access to Copilot’s AI features, including catch up, summarize and compose.

Visit the Google blog for the full update. 

TikTok Launches AI Avatars for Advertisers

TikTok launched Symphony last week, a new set of generative AI advertising tools for creating content. 

TikTok says the new tools break down language barriers and allow you to “add a human touch to your content” when you don’t have the resources to hire real models or presenters.

Symphony Digital Avatars are available in two varieties: stock or custom. Stock avatars are based on paid actors, while custom avatars are designed to resemble you or your brand spokesperson. Both types are marked with an “AI-generated” label.

AI Dubbing automatically identifies the language in a video, transcribes it, translates it, and creates a dubbed version in the viewer's language.

You can read more at The Verge.

Unlocking AI’s Potential for Content Creation

Want all my secrets to creating great content with AI? Listen in on my podcast with Ken Roden and Erin Mills. We chat about the accessibility of AI tools for marketers, the benefits of using AI in content creation and distribution, and the importance of maintaining a human touch in marketing. 

If you’re just after the key takeaways, here they are:

• AI tools, such as ChatGPT and Gemini, are becoming more accessible and affordable, allowing marketers to experiment and integrate AI into their workflows.

• Custom GPTs can be created to refine messaging and generate personalized content based on audience insights and brand guidelines.

• AI can help marketers brainstorm ideas, synthesize customer data, and create targeted content that resonates with their audience.

• Collaboration and human input are essential for maintaining a human touch in marketing while leveraging AI tools for efficiency and productivity.

• Marketers should assess their existing tools and resources before investing in new AI technologies, considering integration capabilities and long-term viability.

You can find the podcast at FutureCraft Marketing. 

How to Scale With AI [Free Webinar]

You can build a smarter version of any business with AI. 

For many marketers and business leaders, ChatGPT’s release in November 2022 and the rise of Generative AI technologies since then were a wake-up call. But ChatGPT and large language models (LLMs) are just the tip of the iceberg for what is to come in AI. 

Leaders are scrambling to adapt and devise AI roadmaps while facing complex challenges, including legacy tech stacks, a lack of AI-savvy talent, fear of change from staff, industry regulations, privacy and security concerns, and mounting competitive pressure. 

So, what do you do next?

Register for 5 Essential Steps to Scaling AI in Your Organization to learn the framework. Paul Roetzer, Marketing AI Institute's founder and CEO, will explore: 

• Key trends in AI impacting businesses today.

• Obstacles to AI adoption and how to overcome them.

• Effects of AI on the economy, industries, and career paths.

• Processes to build an AI-savvy workforce.

• How to take a human-centered approach to AI.

Thursday, June 27 at 12 pm ET. 

Register at AI Marketing Institute.