On March 21, I attended the AdWeek Elevate AI in New York, a conference focused on the growing influence of Artificial Intelligence on the marketing ecosystem. As AI continues to infiltrate all facets of our lives, marketers are incorporating its capabilities within their various campaigns and using it to drive success never seen before.
IBM Watson + Lufthansa
German airline Lufthansa partnered with IBM for its ongoing global #SayYesToTheWorld brand campaign, resulting in Lufthansa becoming the first airline brand to launch an IBM Watson ad campaign. Focusing on exploring a world of new possibilities and “saying yes to the unknown”, the Watson-powered experience allows users to explore different cities across 15 European destinations, providing users local travel facts, tips, and tailored image galleries and videos.
Watson AI utilizes interactive ads providing consumers with the opportunity to interact with Lufthansa for all their airline questions; it was trained to enable a natural language dialogue that invited potential travelers to explore international local hotspots and familiarize themselves with Lufthansa’s services. AI-powered ads were also seen on weather.com, The Weather Channel app, and Lufthansa’s digital advertising ecosystem. The more users interact, the more AI is able to gather information to offer insights that can guide future business and marketing strategies.
BEN + Philo + Unstructured Data
Ricky Ray Butler, CEO of Branded Entertainment Network (BEN), shared how they are using deep learning algorithms to better target customers wherever they view content. BEN’s Artificial Intelligence uses a deep learning algorithm that has found success in using unstructured data to drive results for its clients. Unstructured data means forms of data that are not as easily searchable, including audio, video, and social media posts. Unstructured data represents 85% of the data we create and holds significant business value for those who are able to use it correctly.
Partnering with Philo, a TV streaming platform, BEN was able to use their deep learning AI to utilize unstructured data and develop an AI-led ad campaign. Artificial Intelligence was able to understand how certain social content drives certain consumer behavior. The AI was then able to give BEN various outlooks as to what type of content and which influencers would lead to more conversions for Philo. The results of this AI campaign were a 172 % clickthrough rate increase and a 10x increase in sales.
Three Keys to Successful Artificial Intelligence
From the various panels that took place at the Elevate AI conference, I was able to narrow down three key points marketers should focus on when using AI.
1. Focus on your main objective: Knowing what is needed from both your content and the consumer is crucial when venturing into Artificial Intelligence.
2. Develop the right skills for training your AI: The beauty of AI is it takes both the coder and the conversationalist. You need people who understand how AI works intuitively, but also marketers who are able to understand the client and consumer journey that needs to be implanted within your AI.
3. Safety, Security + Trust in AI: 2019 has been filled with data security scandals. An IBM study shows 60% of people are concerned about AI safety. As we move into a future powered by machine learning, we must maintain the trust of our consumers through proper data safety and security.