To Share or Not to Share: The AI and Marketing Dilemma

To make use of AI or to not use AI, that’s the query.

Let’s hope issues work out higher for you than they did for Shakespeare’s mad Danish prince with daddy points.

However let’s add a twist to that existential query.

Do you have to not use AI and be pleased with not utilizing it? Dove Beauty did that just lately.

Do you have to use it however preserve it a secret? Sports Illustrated did that final yr.

Do you have to use AI and be vocal about utilizing it? Company big Brandtech Group picked up the all-in vibe.

Do you have to not use it however inform everyone you might be? The brand new time period “AI washing” is hitting all over the place.

What’s the best choice? Let’s discover.

Dove tells all it received’t use AI

Just lately, Dove, the wonder model celebrating 20 years of its Campaign for Actual Magnificence, pledged it would NEVER use AI in visible communication to painting actual folks.

Within the announcement, they mentioned they’ll create “Actual Magnificence Immediate Tips” that individuals can use to create photos representing all kinds of bodily magnificence by means of well-liked generative AI packages. The immediate they picked for the launch video? “Probably the most lovely girl on the earth, in response to Dove.”

I applaud them for the highly effective advert. However I’m perplexed by Dove issuing an announcement saying it received’t use AI for photos of actual magnificence after which sharing a branded immediate for doing precisely that. Isn’t it like me saying, “Don’t consider a parrot consuming pizza. Don’t take into consideration a parrot consuming pizza,” and you’ll’t assist however take into consideration a parrot consuming pizza proper now?

Brandtech Group says it’s all in on AI

Now, Brandtech Group, a conglomerate advert company, goes the opposite manner. It’s going all-in on AI and telling everyone.

This week, Advert Age featured a press launch — oops, I imply an article (subscription required) — with the main points of how Brandtech is leaning into the takeaway from OpenAI’s Sam Altman, who says 95% of selling work in the present day will be performed by AI.

A Brandtech consultant talked about how they pitch huge manufacturers with two folks as an alternative of 20. They boast about how proud they’re that its lean 7,000 staffers compete with 100,000-person groups. (To be clear, exhibiting as much as a pitch with 20 folks has by no means been a very good factor, however I digress.)

OK, that’s a differentiated strategy. They’re all in. Advert Age actually appeared to love it sufficient to put it on the market. Oops, I imply report about it.

False claims of utilizing AI and never utilizing AI

Offshoots of the all-in and never-will approaches additionally exist.

The time period “AI washing” is de rigueur to explain corporations claiming to make use of AI for one thing that actually isn’t AI.  The US Securities and Trade Fee simply fined two companies for utilizing deceptive statements about their use of AI of their enterprise mannequin. I do know one startup know-how group confronted a lot strain from their board and traders to “do one thing with AI” that they put a easy chatbot on their web site — a glorified search engine — whereas they discovered what they needed to do.

Lastly and maybe most apparently, corporations have and can use AI for a lot of what they create however stay quiet about it or want to maintain it a secret. A latest notable instance is the deepfake ad of a lady in a automobile professing the necessity for folks to make use of a specific physique wipe to do away with physique odor. It was presupposed to be actual, however sharp-eyed viewers suspected the pretend and referred to as out the corporate, which then admitted it. Or was that the model’s intent all alongside — the AI-use outrage would carry extra consideration?

That is an AI generated influencer video.

Appears to be like 100% actual. Even the inside automobile detailing.

UGC content material in your model is about to get actually low-cost. pic.twitter.com/2m10RqoOW3

— Jon Elder | Amazon Development | Non-public Label (@BlackLabelAdvsr) March 26, 2024

To yell or to not yell about your model’s AI choice

Ought to a model yell from a mountaintop that they use AI to distinguish themselves a la Brandtech? Or ought to a model yell they’re by no means going to make use of AI to distinguish themselves a la Dove? Or ought to a model use it and never yell something? (I feel it’s clear {that a} model shouldn’t use AI and lie and say it’s. That’s the worst of all decisions.)

I lean far into not-yelling-from-mountaintop camp.

Once I see a CEO proudly exclaim that they laid off 90% of their help workforce due to AI, I’m not shocked a bit of later when the worth of their service is decreased, and the enterprise is failing.

I’m not shocked after I hear “AI made us do it” to rationalize the newest huge tech firm newest rounds of layoffs. Or when an enormous consulting agency broadcasts it’s going all-in on utilizing AI to replace its creative and strategic assets.

I see all these issues as determined makes an attempt for short-term consideration or a distraction from the actual problem. They might get responses like, “After all, you needed to lay all these folks off; AI is so disruptive,” or “Superb. You’re so out in entrance of the remainder of the pack by leveraging AI to create effectivity, let me cowl your story.” Maybe they get this response, “Your organization deserves a bump in inventory value since you’re already utilizing this fancy new know-how.”

However what occurs if the AI doesn’t ship as promoted? What occurs the following time you have to lay off folks? What occurs the following time you have to show your technologically forward-leaning?

Yelling out that you just’re all in on a disruptive innovation, particularly one the general public doesn’t but belief so much is (at greatest) a enterprise sugar excessive. That short-term burst of consideration might or might not foul your long-term model worth.

Curiously, the identical situations can manifest when your model proclaims loudly it’s all out of AI, as Dove did. The sugar excessive might not final and now Dove has itself right into a messaging field. One slip may trigger mistrust amongst its clients. And what if AI will get good at demonstrating range in magnificence?

I attempted Dove’s directions and prompted ChatGPT for an image of “probably the most lovely girl on the earth in response to the Dove Actual Magnificence advert.”

It gave me this. Then this. And this. And at last, this.

She’s completely lovely, however she doesn’t seize the various sides of range Dove has demonstrated in its Actual Magnificence campaigns. To be clear, Dove doesn’t have any management over producing the picture. Perhaps the immediate labored properly for Dove, however it didn’t for me. Neither Dove nor you possibly can know the way the AI device will behave.

To make use of AI or to not use AI?

When manufacturers seize a microphone to reply that query, they work from an existential worry concerning the disruption’s that means. They don’t exhibit the arrogance of their actions to take care of it.

Let’s return to Hamlet’s soliloquy:

Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all;

And thus the native hue of decision

Is sicklied o’er with the pale solid of thought,

And enterprises of nice pith and second

With this regard their currents flip awry

And lose the identify of motion.

In different phrases, Hamlet says everyone is afraid to take actual motion as a result of they worry the unknown final result. You might act to mitigate or remedy some challenges, however you don’t since you don’t belief your self.

If I’m a model marketer for any enterprise (and I’m), I’m going to take motion on AI for my enterprise. However till I see how I’m going to generate worth with AI, I’m going to be circumspect about yelling or proselytizing how my enterprise’ future is healthier.