One trend that continues to dominate discussions in the marketing world is Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Augmented Reality (AR). As we look forward to 2024, AI and AR is poised to play a pivotal role in shaping marketing strategies, brand identity, and customer engagement. Here we explore the significance of these tools in marketing and media and look at how they are set to continue to change the industry.
Richard Hale, Managing Director of Media at dentsu NZ, says 2024 will be defined by our response to rapid changes, driven by AI, and intensified by other factors.
“While the past few years have seen disruption at a global level from a pandemic and economic uncertainty, 2024 will be shaped by how we respond to the rapid changes we are seeing; driven by AI, increasing competition from the tech giants, the need for brands to act more in line with their customers’ values, and in turn understanding how those customers respond. While we can’t predict the future, identifying key trends, and preparing for them, is critical for success.”
One aspect of AI that has recently garnered significant attention in the marketing world is generative AI, with ChatGPT being a prime example. Generative AI has added a fresh perspective to the technology, sparking many questions, doubts and ethical implications from marketers and brands.
Senior Lecturer in Marketing at University of Auckland Business School, Drew Franklin, says the level of updates happening with AI tools is leaving some marketers “feeling a level of AI fatigue and not knowing how best to keep up with these developments”.
“Increasingly, however, there are key commentators emerging informing how best to enjoy the utility of these tools, whilst maintaining a human-centric mindset when it comes to certain types of consumer interaction that demand a more empathetic or understanding audience.”
He says as the impact that AI technology is having on the world is becoming clearer, the conversations around AI have graduated to being more about how AI can be used as a collaborator and co-exist in the workplace as a tool rather than the early rhetoric of fear around AI taking jobs.
“There have been huge developments in conversational marketing and AI-driven interactions that will continue to develop at a rapid rate, so consumer expectations on speed of interaction are becoming more demanding. Immediate gratification and instant solutions that AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants offer represent powerful tools in the pursuit of personalisation.”
AR also presents a whole new world of opportunities in marketing and media. Newshub introduced new AR and VR (Virtual Reality) tools in September and they are already proving to be a game-changer for news productions.
Those paying attention to Newshub on election night will be familiar with ‘Linda’ the AR laser Kiwi.
“‘Linda’ our AR laser Kiwi became a real hit with election night audiences, on TV and digital, as she welcomed new MPs and farewelled those who lost their seats. Linda was intended as a little bit of fun and the feedback tells us she was a highlight for viewers who were hanging out through the evening to see when she might appear next,” says Todd Symons, Director of Content at Newshub.
“We also had live election results displayed in AR graphics in studio which proved effective tools for explaining what the numbers really meant. In our new dedicated green screen studio next door, Paddy Gower was fully immersed in a virtual reality parliament where he could build coalitions in real-time to give Kiwis the full picture of which party had a path to power and who they would need to do deals with to get there.”
Newshub Live at 6pm also now has virtual set extensions to combine the real studio space with virtual spaces, which Todd says allows the studio to bring to life stories that previously would not have translated as well on the television screen.
“I think we will also see more storytelling in the fully immersive virtual space in the years to come. More broadly, this technology allows us to transform the entire look of a space in seconds. The new VR studio gives us amazing versatility when it comes to studios and presentation and will open up some great opportunities for working with brand partners on boutique premium video content too.”
Senior Lecturer in Marketing at University of Auckland, Drew Franklin, advises that marketers considering how to incorporate AI into marketing practices should ask themselves the following questions:
- Is your market ready for AI-based interactions?
The notion of “algorithm aversion” is well documented in the research literature and can be stronger for certain tasks than others. For example, algorithm aversion is stronger for tasks that are more subjective, emotionally complex, and more unique. How might your consumers or clients react when automating interactions or activities that may otherwise have been exclusively human-centric? Similarly, recent work has shown consumers appreciate less the work of AI or automated technologies in certain contexts, such as in creative enterprise, that relies on satisfying a need for uniqueness. - Is your work ready for AI-based interactions?
A big part of the AI adoption conversation is the debate around automation or augmentation. Many tasks that require speed and accuracy may be appropriate for AI tools to perform, whereas other tasks that require empathy, creativity, or judgement (moral or otherwise) may align more appropriately with human workers. At present, automated technologies such as AI tend to be very good at distilling down information, but not so good at discernment within that information. Are there some tasks that can feature the joint performance of human and AI tools? Transparency is key in this type of human-technology interaction, as is attribution of efforts (or outputs) and role specificity. Additionally, the performance enhancing utility of these types of technology in partnership with human workers is best realised when the human workers do not fear being replaced by the technology. - Is the context appropriate for AI-based interactions?
Many marketing interactions require a unique, human-centric intervention. One such intervention is that of service recovery after a critical incident, or service failure. Understanding the unique dispositional characteristics of your consumers or clients is critical to designing and deploying an appropriate response to such events; AI or otherwise. As consumers tend to appreciate more human-centric service recovery efforts, this could be a key strategy to strengthening consumer or client relationships. However, it is important to account for differences between consumers and clients as some may prefer deeper social interactions, whilst others may prefer speed and efficiency.
This article was first published in our December/January 2024 issue.
