Artificial intelligence is changing almost every industry, and advertising is no exception.
Experts speaking during a recent panel at CES 2018 like Steven Wolfe Pereira said that if "if brands don't get religious about this … they're going to be left out in the cold." Pereira is the chief marketing officer of artificial intelligence-focused brand management company Quantcast Corp.
And some brands are getting serious about AI marketing. For example, representatives from Campbell Soup Co., Hulu LLC and International Business Machines Corp.'s Watson AI engine sat down during the program to discuss their ad initiatives powered by Watson. Both companies are using ads conversationally with potential customers, dynamically integrating customers' search history to recommend recipes and video content embedded in advertising. Campbell's recipe engine can scan whether consumers favor certain ingredients or have any dietary restrictions, and every food-related search only makes its AI marketing platform smarter for a given consumer.
"They’re almost creating a mini-website in their ad unit to have a conversation with their clients," said Carrie Seifer, chief revenue officer of Watson Content at the Weather Co.
In the case of Hulu, the ad unit itself becomes a recommendation engine, teasing potential customers on the range of targeted content on the platform. The Watson team was glutted with brands asking about AI applications in their marketing strategies, Seifer added.
But with the new advertising possibilities come a wide range of pitfalls. A moderator during the following panel discussion grilled experts on the line where hypertargeting becomes "creepy." For example, Ryan Deutsch, senior vice president of Persado Inc., said his company is beginning to record moods and emotions of consumers as they interact with brands on the internet so that the tone and timing of the advertising is correct. Persado specializes in AI-generated language used in ads to appeal to particular consumers.
A good AI platform will understand the mood of its target consumer, he continued. As advertising becomes more conversational and personalized, advertisers need to implement more social savvy to avoid turning off consumers.
"My wife goes nuts when I'm on the phone with an old friend," Deutsch said, because his voice changes, takes on a higher pitch. Should not advertisers using voice-activated platforms like Amazon.com Inc.'s Alexa be able to register the same emotional variations?
But that was pushing the "creepy line" for the moderator. "Your wife should be able to, but not necessarily your smart speakers," he argued.
For Campbell, it's important that marketing stays in its lane and respects the privacy of its potential customers.
"It's a tool," said a Campbell executive on the panel, to be applied with "as much targeting as economically necessary and no more."
