AI and the Future of Advertising in the New Normal

Post-pandemic, marketers are pausing to rethink their marketing strategy. As consumers shifted from panic buying to hoarding, longstanding consumer habits and brand loyalty have taken a backseat. According to recent research by Mindshare, 69% of consumers have bought (or are likely to buy) new brands. This has made it even more important for marketers to understand rapid changes in consumer behavior and revamp their advertising strategies accordingly. In this environment, the role of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to glean insights into consumer behavior becomes even more relevant.

How Can Advertising Leverage AI?

AI covers technologies such as computer vision, machine learning, pattern recognition, deep learning and speech recognition. AI technology can help brands create a personalized customer experience at a low cost. With the increasing adoption of digital advertising, there are now massive amounts of data that require processing. AI-powered ad software can perform predictive analyses across advertising data to optimize campaigns against specific KPIs. AI would take seconds, while it might take a human, or even a team of humans, days or weeks to analyze, test and iterate across campaigns.

Since the pandemic, marketers have been trying to help disseminate valuable and correct messages to create the right brand image in the minds of consumers. AI provides data and key insights that can help brands to develop their marketing strategy by predicting what campaigns would work and how they should be served. This gives marketer a strong level of confidence that a certain message will be successful when served during a certain time. Though it is hard to predict the impact of events like the COVID -19 pandemic, AI can process volumes of data that would be helpful to track such situations and make real-time changes to the advertising strategy.

Advertising Post COVID-19

Over the past few years, advertising technology has improved dramatically and digital transformation in the ad industry has accelerated further since COVID-19. According to a survey by Gartner, despite tightening marketing budgets, marketers are still pushing forward with spending on AI and integrating it into their customer experience. The future of AI in advertising looks bright, as the technology’s ability to optimize ad spend and management makes it useful to procurement. AI and machine learning provide a software platform that helps channel money towards audiences that are more likely to convert into customers. AI allows marketers to bid different messages to different audiences at the right time to increase conversion rates. The pandemic has accelerated trends that were already emerging and has made evident the flaws in traditional advertising. Benefits like increased cost savings and improving personalization and relevance to consumers makes AI integration inevitable in the future of advertising.

Sources

• https://www.clickz.com/using-ai-and-advertising-technology-in-a-post-covid-19-world/261934/
• https://emerj.com/ai-sector-overviews/artificial-intelligence-in-marketing-and-advertising-5-examples-of-real-traction/
• https://econsultancy.com/a-brief-history-of-artificial-intelligence-in-advertising/
• https://www.knowledgenile.com/blogs/artificial-intelligence-advertising/
• https://www.business2community.com/consumer-marketing/the-impact-of-artificial-intelligence-in-advertising-02251462
• https://cmo.adobe.com/articles/2018/9/ai-in-marketing-and-advertising-.html#gs.9e1smh
• https://www.marketingaiinstitute.com/blog/ai-in-advertising