There can be no more interesting marketing topic than artificial intelligence. From segmentation to consumer insights to new product development, the potential for AI to change the nature of information and decision-making is enormous. To learn more about how AI will impact marketing and advertising, I spoke with Ryan Quinn, CEO of digital marketing and advertising firm Starboard, who has a very rich understanding of politics and marketing for politicians.
Since people describe AI differently, I wanted a general description of Quinn. His answer was that "The last major technological change for humanity was probably the cell phone." "It is a technology that can collect and integrate global knowledge for an individual or organization, and its applications are almost limitless across all industries and cultures."
AI has been used in marketing for a long time, with more basic versions being implemented. Quinn gave the example of Facebook's ad targeting system "and how it can improve conversions by identifying people who convert and then automatically targeting similar people in the future." Quinn notes that there is a growing popularity of newer, more advanced tools that "can do copywriting and even graphic design in seconds."
As an example of how AI is advancing marketing, Quinn cited an example from the field of political advertising. Suppose a candidate is running for the Senate. This candidate's team will send a mass email to a specific target rather than a specific individual. Traditionally, you couldn't write 10,000,000 posts to 10,000,000 consumers, so you segment them among those you expect to have a certain political allegiance (eg for or against gun control). In the future, data organized by individuals will go beyond identifying political parties and include information about an individual's specific beliefs on specific issues. Basically, let's say a voter talks about X's pro-gun control beliefs. This information will be entered into their data file and can be used to communicate a specific gun control message to that person. Their data file will be updated with the topics they cover online. As Quinn suggests, "Instead of a town hall where a candidate speaks the same message to hundreds or thousands of people, it's more like a one-on-one conversation that focuses on the issues that matter most to each voter."
