DIGITAL MARKETING
How major brands use AI in digital marketing
Generative AI has experienced one of the fastest adoption curves in history, reaching nearly 40% of US adults within two years. It took the internet five years and personal computers almost 12 years to achieve the same. But as meteoric as the growth may be, marketers would be wise to remember that one of the biggest drivers of marketing profitability still remains the creative experience, which offers a multiplier of up to 12 times when it comes to the overall investment.
“In the age of AI, marketers must remember that there is room for both art and science in a modern marketing strategy, especially one that is primed for growth,” says Jaco Lintvelt, MD of Incubeta Africa. “Brand leaders must ensure that their teams have a solid technology offering to allow them to be more dynamic, more responsive and more in tune with their customers. There is no doubt that AI gives brands the gift of providing astonishing efficiencies. The real finesse, however, comes in getting all the value of AI without sacrificing the human touch.”
This lesson has landed especially well with two local financial brands. Looking to leverage the power of tech, and especially data insights, Santam took its time to lay the appropriate groundwork before making radical changes. The company has recently completed the implementation of its dynamic data-driven marketing capability across the full digital marketing funnel, including awareness and consideration.
Wesley Cloete, digital marketing manager at Santam, says: “Over the past few months we’ve laid the foundation for Santam’s dynamic data-driven capability. Our view is that it makes sense to use technology and AI to do the heavy lifting as it will enable brands to achieve significant scale and deliver on business outcomes.”
While the company is still in the early stages of AI adoption, particularly as part of its creative and design process, he is keen to start evaluating how it can adopt AI more broadly.
Humour may not be synonymous with the serious business of selling financial services, but Kelly Driscoll, head of demand generation at Sanlam, says she and her team have relied on South Africans’ innate love of humour to shake up their creative, while still relying on AI to help optimise their outreach.
“We are using humour to talk to people about finance in an entertaining, non-boring way, including our F-word campaign. It’s generally not something people enjoy talking about, so we’ve tried to find a fun and unique way to circumvent this,” she says, adding that it’s not just about getting heard. “When we invest a lot of time in the creative upfront, we get more longevity out of the campaign, so we have to refresh less often, which saves time and money.”
She says AI - particularly the rapid insights it generates - allows the team to make the most of their creative efforts.
“We’re using AI mostly in the media and data analytics space, ensuring we are spending where the data tells us it’s working. This is starting to improve our cost efficiency and lead effectiveness, which, tied to strong creative, give us all the levers for success,” she says.
This approach, once the team had consolidated data across their various platforms, combined with the use of Performance Max, has allowed the company to slash cost per lead by 72% year on year, making a significant difference to the bottom line.
Google, meanwhile, continues its massive investment in AI for digital marketing, advancing AI technologies like its Gemini models as well as integrating AI into core advertising products such as Performance Max, Demand Gen Ads and search capabilities. Artwell Nwaila, Africa head of creative and ecosystems at Google, cautions, however, against the misuse of the technology, saying it can lead to teams churning out bland and derivative advertising creative.
“AI’s true value lies not in replacing human ingenuity but in powerfully augmenting it. The problem is when AI is used as a shortcut, producing work that lacks genuine emotion and originality. Ideally, brands should leverage AI as a tool for deep consumer analysis, enabling personalised messaging, data-inspired concepts and campaign optimisation. Utilising AI to do the heavy lifting on the data side frees human creatives to focus on what they do best, developing groundbreaking concepts and forging authentic emotional connections,” he says.
The big take-out: There is no doubt that AI gives brands the gift of providing astonishing efficiencies. The real finesse, however, comes in getting all the value of AI without sacrificing the human touch.
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