AI: The next generation of Brand Management

Did you miss yesterday’s Econsultancy Webinar, Artificial Intelligence: The next generation of Brand Management?

Nadim Sadek, Founder & CEO of ProQuo AI, Michel Guidi, International Managing Director of Dynata, and Michael Wall, Global CEO of Mother, gave their perspectives on the topic of AI and Brand Management. They delved into the issues surrounding AI, explaining how, when harnessed correctly, it can be used to enable brands, so they can operate on a more intelligent level. Here’s a quick-fire roundup of the key takeaways...

Is AI the future of Brand Management?

There’s a huge opportunity for AI within marketing. It goes back to the origination of brands and what makes up a brand. Brands are commercial assets, after all, that can generate a premium for businesses, when used in the right way.

Yet, marketing is still so difficult to measure and there’s a huge amount of uncertainty around it, with Brand Managers facing a multitude of choices they can take, every year, to grow their brands.

But with AI at a Brand Manager’s disposal, decisions can be made much faster and more efficiently. This leaves humans free to do other tasks, like injecting creativity into their brands. More importantly, it will provide marketers with much-needed certainty, that their actions will lead to positive outcomes. Without this insecurity and with all this free time, there’s no telling what a Brand Manager will be capable of doing.

What challenges emerge when interpreting data streams?

Until now, brands have been drowning in a sea of low-quality data. There's often too much data to make sense of. Now that good quality data exists and AI can help to interpret these data streams, the challenge facing us is leveraging the power of this data in a way that’s consumable and useful to Brand Managers.

The Dynata and ProQuo partnership does just this. Dynata collects 4 billion data points every year, and at ProQuo we use our AI engine to absorb these data points, cutting through the noise, and only extracting the most valuable information.

How will AI affect creativity?

“AI will help us to break down the old maxim, ‘Half of my money spent on advertising is wasted. The trouble is I don’t know which half’. With AI, you’ll know for certain that if you do X and Y, you’ll get a certain result. And that’s because it’s proven through so much data and forensic analysis”. – Nadim Sadek, ProQuo AI.

Currently, brands, agencies and stakeholders are frustrated by how unpredictable Brand Management is. If AI is developed and trained, with its inputs honed, this will undoubtedly influence creativity. It will enable humans to spend more time on innovative pursuits, and less on the mundane.

It will also affect our working relationships, as with AI, there's proof of marketing impact. Say you created communications; you’d be able to track (through AI) how it was performing over the course of a month to see if the efforts were working. This would stop Brand Managers going down faulty cul-de-sacks, ensuring efforts were right on the first try.

Is AI invigorating or intimidating?

A lot of people consider AI an intimidating concept, that requires a lot of time and money to run. But in fact, AI can actually be simple and easy to run. Looking at ProQuo AI, you can see how AI can be productized: we have built a bespoke system that allows Brand Managers to easily see what they’re doing right or where they’re going wrong, and its AI-powered guidance engine tells brands what move to make next to grow. The platform works instantly, giving real-time analysis and custom action-plans for brands 24/7. Simple.

Will AI eventually take the place of humans?

"The two are not mutually exclusive. Technology empowers what we do, refining our thinking, eradicating obvious mistakes, and adding a dynamic, exciting element to marketing." – Michael Wall, Mother.

The global pandemic accelerated the rate of technological advancement, with digital businesses and digital marketing surging. Everything became more immediate.

The purity of AI and the way in which ProQuo supplies it is on point. It will empower brands to do their jobs more efficiently, removing the need for mundane tasks and providing more time to spend on creative pursuits. With ProQuo, you get an accurate diagnosis of where a brand is and the decisions a brand needs to take to get from Point A to point B. What could be more empowering than that?

Google Maps gives you the right coordinates, so you know exactly where to go. ProQuo is doing the same, providing a map to follow to get your brand to its final destination.

Are there any watch-outs for AI and Brand Management?

“With so much data, comes responsibility. There’s a need to watch out for GDPR to ensure you’re handling that data carefully. And with harsh penalties inflicted on companies that don’t follow these rules, it’s more important than ever.”

– Michel Guidi, Dynata.

The management of data and the use of data is going to come under greater scrutiny. Our job is to make sure AI can work alongside it and with it. That’s a watch-out for data within any category, not just marketing.

But by employing data responsibly, we can bring greater certainty of positive outcomes, as well as proof of marketing effectiveness. And this will bring out the best in brands and the best in Brand Managers.

Watch the full webinar on demand.