Marketing Next

Ai in Advertising 101

Written by Nick Jones | May 29, 2024 2:00:00 PM

If you work in marketing or advertising there's a very good chance you've run something through ChatGPT or tried to create a visual masterpiece in Midjourney.  They're free, they're relative straightforward, and somewhat addictive. But if you think that these two gateway apps represent the majority of Ai's abilities to help marketers, think again. There are already hundreds of thousands of Ai apps, and no small amount of these are in our world. So let's do an introductory audit of the main areas of marketing in which Ai has arrived, and some of the leading players.

Content development & distribution
This category runs the gamut from pure play content development help, to standalone distribution tools, to hybrids that cover this spectrum.

Jasper -- The market leader that provides on-brand, on-tone copy development across every imaginable content platform.
adcreative.ai -- Rapid Ai generation of ad units for testing and optimization.
Copy.ai -- Dedicate GPT for copywriting with built-in tone/voice.
Phrasee.ai -- Specializes in email marketing copy.
Designs.ai -- Logos, banners, social content, even video automation.
Cape -- The full spectrum across versioning, workflow, campaign management, collaboration tools, and distribution to all the platforms you'd want.

Note-takers
Long gone are the days when the entry-level account person is only in the meeting to take copious notes. Now standard-issue Ai notetakers not only video record virtual meetings, but they also screen capture, identify speakers, take the notes, summarize topics, and the meeting as a whole. How did we survive without them? And, miss a meeting? Wait until 30 seconds after the conclusion and you're sent a link. Here are a few of the top players:

Otter -- Top performer, especially for transcription; 30 minute limit on free accounts; $10/month premium.
Fireflies -- Solid and great for productivity/to-dos; Free transcription but not summaries; $10/Month Pro
Fathom -- Free and at that price is the recommended choice, unless you need multiple calendar functionality

Summarizers
We're all busy. Sometime clients or a department sends us a very lengthy document. Or perhaps we're doing part-time studies. Well, here's to taking some shortcuts.

Quillbot
-- The most widely used summarizer, and for good reason.
Wordtune -- A hybrid summarizer and general productivity tool that includes grammar and copy help too.
Adobe Acrobat Ai Assist -- Newly added functionality to summarize, identify insights, and even point you to the most relevant sections.

Research
As varied as the term "Research", there are many ways to tap into consumer views, sentiments, reaction to concepts, and more.

3M VAS -- The first of many eye-tracking replication systems; Upload your ad, display, or packaging and see where the Ai predicts the human eye will go.
Affectiva -- Facial coding and emotional recognition software with over 14 million faces analyzed. Allows rapid testing of response to concepts.
BoltChat -- Chat-based qualitative research at scale using standard chat platforms and an Ai moderator.
SurveyMonkey Genius -- Employs AI to analyze survey results and provide actionable insights.
Crimson Hexagon -- Specializes in social media analytics and consumer sentiment analysis.

Video Avatars & Voice Replication
Now made infamous by Scarlett Johansson's rejection of OpenAI overtures to be its human voice, voice and image-cloning are here for more benign purposes.

HeyGen -- Record 4 or 5 minutes of yourself speaking to camera and Ai will create an avatar to which you can give scripts to read for social content. Video is near perfect, voice not so much.
Synthesia -- Generic avatar spokespeople of varied genders, ages, accents and ethnicities.
Replica Studios -- One of many text to speech apps with many voice choices.

SEO
There are so many SEO tools it's difficult to narrow it down or make recommendations, and many copy, content and productivity tools offer SEO as a side functionality.

SEO.ai -- What it says on the tin, as they say. SEO word identification and optimization.
Neuron -- SEO Content writer and optimization.
Crowdo -- Keyword research and site audit tool.
Unbounce -- SEO copy writing.

Media Planning/Buying
Media was always a natural for Ai utilization.  Data-heavy, with real-time implications, but often with qualitative target descriptions, many tools have been born of its particular challenges.

PrimeAudience
-- find the articles your target will read across the open web, with a simple, chat-based customer description
The Trade Desk -- This DSP uses AI for programmatic ad buying and real-time bidding.
Adext AI -- Automates ad campaigns across multiple platforms, optimizing budget allocation.
Choozle -- Integrates AI for audience targeting and media buying optimization.


There are countless other categories of help and efficiency available across marketing and advertising. From presentation design to video editing, business intelligence/data analytics, to professional headshot creation. If in doubt, ask a GPT to help find the best Ai solution to your challenge!!

Agree or disagree with my categories, picks or exclusions? Post a comment.

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