Using AI to optimise content creation and distribution

New Delhi: As Google puts it, “There are 8.8 billion people on this planet. And there is no way you can personalise content until you use technologies like Gen AI.” While Gen-Z attention spans could be compared to the likes of a goldfish, it becomes a necessity to optimise content creation and dissemination strategies using AI. 

With AI stepping into every step of marketing, be it ideation or execution, it is important to note that the core idea behind the campaign should resonate with people. In the words of Sukesh Nayak, Chief Creative Officer of Ogilvy, “You cannot take a substandard idea and turn it into amazing content using technology. You need to have the most cutting-edge concept and idea, and then technology could be leveraged as a phenomenal tool to make the impossible happen. If you integrate a bad idea with great technology, it is not going to work. Because that would just look like a brochure or a leaflet came from somewhere.”

The true potential of AI in marketing can only be unlocked through persistent exploration of the technology's capabilities. Advising marketers to increase their risk appetite, Nayak said, “Be brave, work around concepts that you feel are worrying, or don't let you sleep at night, and then execute them with the best craft possible. A great concept, a great technology, and a great craft. When you add all these three together, you see multiple things happening that you thought could possibly never happen.”

Resounding the same bugle as Nayak, Anurag Sachdeva, Founder and CEO of Xtendr, said, “My perspective about consumer engagement is that it is a function of marketers doing the right thing. Therefore, content creators and marketers need to start thinking about that. That's where the engagements are starting. 

It could be something as simple as a virtual tour of a bookstore. Like people being taken to a book studio, sitting in their house, walking through it, and experiencing the book studio, what matters is how you deliver that experience. Having a consumer-first strategy is the key to driving engagement.”

According to the World Economic Forum, more than 500 million tweets are shared on Twitter (now X) and 720,000 hours of new content are uploaded daily on YouTube. With such a large stream of data flowing through people’s smartphones every day, the secret to catching consumer attention is the contextual targeting of ads. Session moderator Mukti Kumaran, Vice-President - Client Leadership at mSix, mentioned that in terms of contextual targeting, on a scale of 1 to 10, an average marketer sits on 2.

Embracing the importance of contextualised marketing, Milva Povo, Director of Sales - India at Seedtag, gave an example of how AI can be employed to reach your target audience. “Just like Amazon knows what people buy, Seedtag knows what people read. Using data around what people read, the company recently did a campaign for a popular footwear brand utilising contextual targeting. We analysed the data around sports readership and then employed algorithms to position the brand in front of anyone reading anything related to football or the Olympics. You can not target effectively if you do not make your targeting contextualised.”

Using artificial authenticity to make content look natural may come across as an oxymoron but it is the reality of the world we live in. The line between real and fake is becoming blurry day by day and hence authenticity has emerged as a major challenge for marketers, inciting the need for authenticity in content. 

Sharing his thoughts on the use of technology to drive authenticity, Mandar Natekar, Co-Founder and CEO of Neuralgarage, said, “Today, advertising films can be dubbed in multiple languages. But for the audiences in those markets, it still lacks authenticity. To make dubbed content look authentic, marketers can use technology to give it a human touch. In the absence of technology, the production crew would have to shoot in multiple languages and bear additional production costs. Despite what AI brings to the table, a great idea is one that can be bent to tell a story to multiple people in the language of their choice.”

Circling back to the point of exploration, Shakun Batra, Fimmaker, quoted the opportunity of using ads for experimentation and exploring new horizons of marketing. Adding to the bandwagon of thoughts concerning experimentation, Batra said, “Advertising is a great place to test innovation because it is a shorter format.”

“Technology can aid marketers even in doing intimate stuff. For instance, to do a scene that just includes a conversation between two people, I don't have to dub it physically in each regional language, software can do it for me. If an ad copy can sound like Shah Rukh Khan in every language, I can reach out to Shah Rukh’s fans in every part of the country without bringing in the disconnect that dubbing brings in for regional languages. Using AI, brands have an opportunity to be more intimate with their customers.”