Welcome back to your essential weekly Briefing on what’s happening in brand content and why it matters.
Moving beyond experimentation
Generative AI has been stuck firmly in the “experimentation” stage when it comes to brand content. While many companies have expressed excitement about using gen AI tools to help with content production and creation, few appear to be deploying the technology at scale for real-life uses. Gary Marcus, a scientist who last year wrote a piece called ‘What if Generative AI turned out to be a dud?’ said last week that companies aren’t quite finding that gen AI tools are ready for primetime. “Almost everybody seemed to come back with a report like, ‘This is super cool, but I can’t actually get it to work reliably enough to roll out to our customers,'” Marcus told Axios. As a result, marketers say they’re finding that the promised efficiency isn’t panning out: Instead, AI-generated content has to be checked over multiple times by human editors and legal departments – making the entire process slower, rather than faster.
One reason on the marketing and communications side specifically is brand safety: Many companies report that while they’re excited by the possibility of using gen AI to create personalized content, they’re scared it’ll hurt their brand reputation if things go awry, particularly in the age of the screenshot industrial complex. This fear is showing up in marketing departments in a variety of ways, including in contracts with service providers like ad agencies. AdAge, for example, reported that brands are now demanding stronger AI-related guardrails within contracts with agencies, to ensure they know exactly how and where AI is being used in advertising. In some cases, brands are even asking for no AI to be used at all.
Recognizing this, gen AI tools themselves are getting ahead of the safety conversation. At Adobe’s annual Summit conference, the company announced “GenStudio,” a new application that will use gen AI to help brands create content and measure performance – all with the promise of “brand safety” as the focus. Noting that brands are equally excited by and trepidatious about gen AI, the company is trying to assuage fears, and move AI out of the trough of disillusionment it appears to be in currently. “I think the opportunity for Adobe is: how do we bring that more directly with the right security safeguards and with all the right compliance into the tools that these people are using,” a company rep told TechCrunch.
Ad agencies make AI moves
Meanwhile, some ad agencies are making the case for themselves in an era of generative AI, getting ahead of brand fears by announcing partnerships of their own. Accenture Song, the consulting giant’s agency arm, debuted a collaboration with Nvidia to help brands with content production, conversational intelligence and interactive personalization. The new capabilities were demonstrated through work the company is doing with Jaguar Land Rover’s Defender vehicles. Parent company Accenture has already made a $3 billion investment in AI to help its clients. The company also invested in AI platform Writer. Meanwhile, agency holding company IPG has partnered with Adobe’s GenStudio. The partnership will combine IPG-owned Acxiom’s data and identity products with Adobe’s AI content offerings. And The BrandTech Group, which has developed a generative AI AI platform that predicts campaign performance and generates videos and images for brands, announced it has raised $115 million, bringing its valuation to $4 billion.
On the latest episode of the Toolkits Show
In each episode we explore how publishers are monetizing digital content, how content is transforming modern brands and companies, and hear from the people and personalities at the industry’s cutting edge.
This week, we dove deeper into why generative AI is stuck in the experimentation phase for brands, why content leaders think they shouldn’t report to CMOs and what it really means to “avoid the news.”
Listen now on Spotify, Apple or Web.
Technology leaders find podcasters to be good listeners
Tech CEOs are finding podcasters are a preferred avenue for them to get their message, thinking and points of view to the public, reports Bloomberg. As the tech industry thinks of ways to “go direct,” can be the ideal interlocutors.
New publication from Attain
Sales data company Attain launched The Outcome, a new publication and newsletter that will publish stories and trends about commerce, retail and digital advertising. It’s led by former Trade Desk and Ad Age editor George Slefo. Notably, it has a section called In Plain English, that will explain concepts simply and clearly – a popular tactic for B2B brands in complicated industries.
Why communications officers should be CEOs
Should chief communications officers be CEOs? Comms and PR veteran Alysha Light argues yes: Instead of looking to obvious targets like CFOs or CTOs, companies should look for people who understand stakeholder engagement and good storytelling to step up and take CEO roles. “In a world where a company’s reputation can be its biggest asset or its biggest liability, you’d think corporate leadership would hold this role in higher esteem,” Light writes.