Advertising production with AI

AI radically lowers the bar for the capacity to produce advertising. How does this affect the challenge of producing communication efficiently? One aspect recently raised in an article by Erik Modig is that taste, the ability to judge what is good, is the critical factor.

The only question is whose taste should count. We see that the number of people involved in the decision-making process is increasing. The report MarknadsAvdelningen 26 , recently published by Brand Marketing Sweden, reveals some telling figures.

The number of review rounds is increasing: 40% of those interviewed now have more than 7 rounds. Two in three say the number of people involved has increased, and 71% have 4 or more people involved. Several different managers consider themselves responsible for campaign decisions. 38% of CEOs say they are the ones who approve campaigns, 69% of marketing directors that they make the decision and 50% of sales directors say they are responsible. 70% of marketing directors and 85% of advertising agency representatives say they have too many stakeholders whose buy-in they need. 31% of agencies say it takes at least twice as long to get buy-in for a campaign as to create it. 

The authors write: “All too often, the discussion about buy-in focuses on superficial issues such as colour, form and copy rather than the desired outcome.” So the question of taste is highly relevant indeed.  

In fact, there is someone who holds the trump card when it comes to taste. As we all know, all communication takes place on the recipient’s terms.  

AI cannot replace taste, but it can help you do your job better. It has never been easier to test, in good time and early in the process, how different communication ideas work with the actual recipients by using AI to visualise your strategies and ideas.  

In addition to using your expertise and experience, you can now get feedback on your taste from the head judge before the campaign is even launched. This gives you a clearer basis for decisions that is easier for the campaign group to rally around in discussions about colour, form and copy in the next campaign, and that can also help lift the conversation to where the group’s members have valuable input: what are the business challenges, and how can communication contribute?

This is more complex than seeing which ad gets the most likes from an imagined customer, real or synthetic. A consumer does not want the same things from advertising as you do.

A good pre-test helps you do a better job by explaining how the advertising works from the consumer’s perspective. At Novus, we work to understand and explain how different predictors of effective advertising perform, why, and what you can do to improve them.  

You could ask the horse itself for a racing tip, but a successful harness racing trainer tests the horse’s fitness and strength and designs a training programme for the horse’s unique abilities based on the races ahead.  

You are welcome to contact your advertising personal trainer at Novus.  

Jonas Blomqvist
Senior Adviser, Novus

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