Decoding AI for Marketing

What does the Empire Strikes Back and the Flux Capacitor have in common? They are both analogies that Tom Chavez uses when he talks about just how exciting and challenging this moment is in AI and marketing right now. Chavez previously sold two startups - one to Microsoft and one to Salesforce - but today is doubling down on AI as the technology to push marketing forward. He explains his work at super{set}, dealing with the deprecation of cookies, experimenting across channels, and the roles startups can play in the ecosystem. 

For Further Reading: 

https://www.fastcompany.com/90713221/im-getting-invited-to-fewer-parties-says-a-tech-insider-turned-critic

https://www.superset.com/portfolio

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2022/02/02/metaverse-tech-could-exacerbate-todays-privacy-problems-says-supersets-tom-chavez.html

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If everyone has access to the same powerful tools, where can marketers stand out? It comes from the inputs, and the thoughtful creative behind the assets. Alex Collmer is the founder and CEO at VidMob, a creative performance platform for marketing. In this episode, he chats with Greg and Rex about the ways they are using AI to better analyze data and adapt content to audiences. He shares insights on how his team gets the best inputs for AI, and how they can continue differentiating themselves in an infinite content market. 

For Further Reading: 

https://www.mmaglobal.com/datt/consortium-for-ai-personalization

https://www.vidmob.com/blog

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It’s not enough to just be testing out AI on various teams and seeing what might stick. The best organizations are pulling together an AI strategy, designing careful tests across all parts of the company, and gathering data on the results to implement at scale where it makes sense. At Ally, Chief Information, Data and Digital Officer, Sathish Muthukrishnan, works closely with the company’s CMO to ensure that the right tests are being built, tracked, and scaled up - all in a tightly regulated industry.

For Further Reading:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/randybean/2023/11/27/how-ally-financial-is-delivering-business-value-from-generative-ai/?sh=30efad099a86

https://media.ally.com/2023-11-16-Do-It-Right-with-AI-Ally-creators-experiment-with-generative-AI-in-marketing-test-case

Listen on your favorite podcast app: https://pod.link/1715735755

AI is already being used by marketers in campaigns they create, but today’s guest, Carlo Maria Ferrari, Global Content & Creators Lead at Sanofi, says the best creative will still be made by humans. Hear why he sees GenAI as a way to check your brainstorms and make sure your ideas are truly original: in a sense, making AI the new bar that great creative needs to clear. Ferrari leads the Global Content team at within a heavily regulated industry, but he’s still aiming to push the boundaries of how AI can be leveraged.

For Further Reading:

https://hbr.org/2023/07/how-generative-ai-can-augment-human-creativity

https://www.ibm.com/watson/advantage-reports/future-of-artificial-intelligence/ai-creativity.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2023/03/27/the-intersection-of-ai-and-human-creativity-can-machines-really-be-creative/?sh=4c1e5cc83dbc

Listen on your favorite podcast app: https://pod.link/1715735755

Artificial intelligence has been used in both marketing and in the travel and hotel industry for years, but gen AI is a game changer in a number of ways. In this episode, we speak with Michael Menis, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing at IHG Hotels & Resorts, about two trends he foresees will change the game in his industry: the ability to localize content at scale in a way never before seen, and the restructuring of the marketing function at global organizations in the travel industry and beyond. 

For Further Reading: 

https://time.com/6290940/ai-travel-industry/

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/travel-logistics-and-infrastructure/our-insights/what-ai-means-for-travel-now-and-in-the-future

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It’s been a whirlwind week for Sam Altman at OpenAI - where he was removed by the board and has now been reinstated. It’s the biggest news in artificial intelligence this week, and hosts Greg Stuart and Rex Briggs give their takes and share their past experiences with boards making decisions like this.

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What can marketers learn from digital transformations in the retail space?

Ratnakar Lavu became the first ever Global Chief Digital Information Officer at Nike - a job that he took on during the height of the pandemic. Today, he advises startups and brings in his years of experience including his time as CTO at Kohl’s to help think about the future of business - and how AI is a part of that. He shares how to think about your AI ecosystem and remain focused on the needs of customers, even in the midst of transformation. 

For Further Reading: 

https://www.mmaglobal.com/speakers/ratnakar-lavu

https://www.sfweekly.com/marketplace/ratnakar-lavu-on-the-evolution-of-retail-and-e-commerce-post-covid/article_07f2a4a8-6941-11ee-943f-17c92fa9c126.html

Listen on your favorite podcast app: https://pod.link/1715735755

Been hearing a lot about AI but think it’s more something for the CTO to worry about? Think again.

Janet Balis is the marketing practice leader at EY Consulting. Hear why marketers, and especially marketing leaders,  are poised to play a pivotal role when it comes to how organizations integrate AI into their businesses to gain a competitive edge. It starts, she says, with clean and organized data as the foundation.

“Imagine you've got the best recipe in the world and your ingredients are stale in your refrigerator or you got them from a bad grocery store. You're not going to get the right result,” Balis says. She explains that analogy and more of what she’s seeing as she consults with some of the world’s best companies and marketing departments.

For Further Reading:

MMA Study: https://www.mmaglobal.com/documents/data-maturity-20-2023-vs-2021

MMA Study: https://www.mmaglobal.com/documents/state-ai-marketing

Generative AI’s Act Two from Sequoia Capital: https://www.sequoiacap.com/article/generative-ai-act-two/

Listen on your favorite podcast app: https://pod.link/1715735755

AI is moving fast, and one of the places it’s most quickly becoming a necessity is in the marketing space. But a lack of basic AI understanding and a lack of the necessary technical acumen is holding many marketers and organizations back. On this show, marketing and AI experts Greg Stuart and Rex Briggs help demystify the intricacies of AI, through conversations with marketing industry leaders and foremost AI experts. Tune in to learn about AI’s potential to amplify marketing’s significance and influence, and risks to watch out for.  

Decoding AI for Marketing is brought to you by MMA Global, the non-profit industry body architecting a new future of marketing for the world’s smartest CMOs. New episodes drop Tuesdays. 

Listen on your favorite podcast app: https://pod.link/1715735755